I saw him a few times in the hallways, and each time I would walk towards him and try to get his attention, but the security guards always kept me from getting too close.
“It’s our last night here, sweetheart.” Damien walked into the room and smiled at me. “I see that you’ve saved your best dress for the occasion.”
I hate being called “sweetheart.” Why haven’t I told him that?
“Do we have to stay at the banquet the entire time?” I asked. I knew Jonathan was set to receive an award, and even though I wanted him to acknowledge me, deep down I knew that he wouldn’t. I didn’t want to sit and suffer as everyone else fawned all over him.
“Of course not. We can leave right after the closing statements.”
Great...
He reached for my hand and we walked out of the room and towards the elevator like we had several times before.
“Did you have fun this week?” Damien pressed the down button.
“Yes.”
“Well, if you’re not still—” The loud ping of the elevators cut off his sentence.
“What were you saying?” I walked onto the elevator and noticed Jonathan and Stacy standing together on the other side.
Jonathan’s eyes went straight to my dress, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he swore under his breath.
“I was saying that if you wanted, you and I could go to another resort next weekend. I promise I’ll turn off my cell phone and focus all my attention on you.” Damien put his arm around my hips. “And you won’t be on your—you know...Would you be interested in that?”
“I...” I felt the heat of Jonathan’s glare on my back. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“Well, make sure you do that. It’s a wonderful resort, and there’s plenty of amazing water activities. It’s also extremely private.”
“Private things are definitely her specialty...” Jonathan muttered.
Damien must not have heard him because he continued. “There’s this beautiful mountain clearing that I’d love to take you to. We could spend the entire day there. There’s also a lover’s loft nearby.”
“Stop it, Jonathan...” Stacy whispered, and I wondered what she was talking about.
“It sounds very tempting,” I said as the elevator doors opened.
Damien motioned for me to step off first and looked back at Jonathan. “Congratulations, Jonathan. You actually deserve the ‘Innovator of the Year’ award. Now, freeze that compliment and remember it, because you know as soon as this conference is over, I’ll go back to hating everything about you.”
Jonathan smiled. “Thank you, Damien. That makes two of us.”
I sat at the dinner table and picked at my food, too hurt to eat much of anything. Jonathan was sitting directly across from me and he hadn’t looked over at me once.
Any time he touched something on the table—butter, bread basket, pepper, I asked if he could pass it to me. But, instead of doing that, Stacy answered for him. She would say, “Of course he can,” and send it my way.
I figured that since they were unable to switch their seats for this event, they’d planned a course of action for dealing with me.
I even texted him several messages, desperate to get him to look at me—just once: “Please look at me, Jonathan.” “You can’t avoid me forever...” “I said I was in love with you, doesn’t that mean anything?” “Are you really that upset with me?”
I saw him look through his phone, saw him read every single message, but he managed to keep his gaze elsewhere.
I even tried the more blatant text message approach: “I know you like the way I look in this dress.” “I bet you wish you could take it off of me...”
I watched as he read my last two messages, as he glanced at them without a single emotion crossing over his face.
“Would you like me to ask my assistant to bring you some food from elsewhere?” Damien looked at my plate. “You haven’t eaten much at all today...I don’t want you to get sick.”
“I’m fine. I guess my appetite is a little off today.” I sighed as Jonathan and Stacy whispered something to one another.
“At least try the potato dish,” he said. “It’s to die for.”
I picked up my fork and began eating some of it, nodding my head at how good it tasted.
“See?” Damien patted my thigh. “When do you want to leave?”
NOW. “How about right n—”
“Mr. Edwards?” A woman poked her head in between us. “We’re setting everything up and we’ll be ready for you in about twenty minutes. Are you ready to present?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I’ll be there shortly.”
The woman walked away and I grabbed his hand. “Ready to present what?”
“The Innovator of the Year Award. Jonathan presented me with my award the other day so it’s only fair that I present him with his. Even if we don’t see eye to eye, there’s no one else as big in technology as the two of us so—”
“So, we can’t leave right now?”
He furrowed his brow. “What exactly has been bothering you this week? And don’t say allergies because I don’t think you actually have any.”
“Nothing...It’s—”
“Are you ever going to tell me why you were crying the other night?”
I sighed. “Yes...But could we please go—”
“Mr. Edwards?” That woman came back over again. “We’re going to start things a little earlier. Could you come with me please?”
“We’ll leave right after I present the award. Okay, sweetheart?” He kissed my cheek and stood up, walking away from the table.
I turned back towards Jonathan, frowning because his eyes were still glued elsewhere. I thought about leaving, heading back to my suite and letting Damien find me there, but for some reason I sat and continued to watch Jonathan and Stacy laugh and whisper at something I couldn’t see.
“Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?” A beautiful brunette tapped the mic onstage. “Before we give away our most prestigious award, I just want to thank you all for making the 2013 Juniper Conference a major success! Because of you, we have raised over ten million dollars for over thirty different charities!”
The audience clapped and the speaker waited for the applause to die down. “We hope that the sessions you’ve attended this week have taught you something valuable and that the people you’ve met have instilled a new sense of camaraderie and competitiveness amongst your respective companies. We usually make the closing statements on tonight, the last night of the conference, but due to an immense interest in Chef Roer’s breakfast this week, we’ve decided to hold them off until tomorrow morning. Chef Roer has graciously agreed to cook an extra breakfast for us all!”
The crowd cheered loudly, and Chef Roer stood up from his seat and waved his hand around. Once he sat back down, the crowd gradually became quiet again.
“So, before we begin our final ball of the week, I’d like to bring someone we all know and respect to the stage.” She read off a notecard. “This man has singlehandedly changed the way technology influences our everyday lives. He’s a dominating pioneer in the field, and his company—Apple, Inc. is currently valued at one hundred and fifty four billion dollars. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the ‘Developer of the Year,’ Mr. Damien Edwards!”
The crowd stood to its feet, clapping and cheering wildly. I stood up too, trying to plot my escape.
“If this is the reception I get, I can only imagine what type of response the man I’m presenting will receive.” Damien laughed and motioned for the crowd to sit down. “About eleven years ago, my company was the number one software company in the world. As a young man, I was cocky and honestly didn’t think that reign would ever end. We were ahead of all our competitors by the billions and our workforce was quadruple of the next largest company at the time. One day, I happened to be giving a tour of my company to a select group of college kids who’d been sent from Harvard to complete a summer program. One of those students, who I’ve grown to hate—” He paused as the audience laughed.