One Wild Night

Lucy's brain went blank for a full minute, as she stared at him blankly. Tom waited for her to say something or react, but instead, she walked over to her refrigerator to get herself a bottle of water. She emptied it into a glass and gulped down every drop as though she was trying to calm the storm that was building inside of her. 

How had she missed the resemblance between them? Yes, she had thought the body build was similar, but how could she not have guessed that both the CEO and Tom were the same person? Probably because she hadn't been paying much attention to the CEO? Still, how did it make sense that he would drop her off at work, and then go into his office and act so cold? She should have guessed, seeing the way he had treated Anita that day at Ocean Airlines without good reason. 

Lucy replaced the glass on the table, before returning to the living room to face Tom once again, "You mean you are Thomas Hank? As in the CEO of I-Global?" She asked very calmly.

Tom looked at her helplessly, "Lucy..."

"It's a yes or no question," Lucy snapped at him, the first visible sign that she was pissed. 

"Yes," Tom said with a weary sigh. 

"You mean you're the same person I went out with the other day, and also earlier today? The same person who..." Lucy closed her eyes, trying to calm herself as the anger inside her threatened to bubble to the surface at the thought that he had been messing with her this whole time. 

"I did that because I..."

Lucy opened her gray eyes which were the color of a storm cloud now, "Get out!" Lucy said in a very quiet voice even though the blood in her veins was pumping really hard. 

She wanted to ask him so many questions, yet at the same time, she was too angry to even say anything to him. She wanted to yell and cuss at him. She wanted to throw something at him and hit him. She wanted to ask him who he thought he was to have toyed with her in that manner, but at the same time she wanted to be left alone. She just wanted to shut her door and crawl on her bed with her duvet over her head. She wanted to sleep and wake up to find that all of this had been a dream. 

"Lucy I wasn't trying to mess with you..."

Tom sighed as he stood up and took a step forward, but she shook her head to stop him, "You weren't trying to mess with me? Did you just say you weren't trying to mess with me? You knew from the very first night we met that I was your employee, am I right?" She asked in a calm voice that belied the anger she was feeling.

"Not immediately. I only called Harry after you slept off to confirm your identity," Tom confessed. 

"Harry? Oh, yeah! Mr. Harry. Of course, he was in on all of this. Oh, great! I must have looked like a joke to both of you. You both must have made bets, right? Care to tell me who else knows about this at the company?" Lucy asked in a slightly raised voice as she took a step from where she was to where Tom was standing with clenched fists.

"Just Harry, I promise," Tom said apologetically, wondering if she was going to hit him. It was probably going to be best if she hit him. He was willing to take her anger, but he wasn't sure he could deal with her silence. Explosive anger for him was better. At least that way he could know what she was thinking.

"The meeting was canceled that day because you knew I was lying drunk on your bed, wasn't it? How you both must have shared a good laugh at my expense over the silly lie I managed to come up with," Lucy continued as she took another step towards him while remembering all the time Mr. Harry had asked about her fiance and had even offered to fire her driver.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath when she remembered sharing a ride with both the CEO and Harry and how she had been exchanging texts with Tom without knowing he was in the car with her the whole time. 'The damned man had been toying with me? How did I miss that?' She asked herself angrily as she flashed back to all the first times she had met him. 

First, it was at the club as a stranger, the second first time he was standing by her apartment door as her neighbor, and then the third first time he was standing in front of the company as her driver... She should have known. Her instincts had told her from the onset that it wasn't all a coincidence, but she had allowed Sonia to convince her otherwise. She has allowed him to convince her with his lies about being interested in a strange woman. 

Maybe she wouldn't have been so angry had he not pulled that stunt he did earlier telling her how he wanted her, and asking her about her boyfriend. Or maybe she would have been equally mad, who knew?

Trusting people didn't come so easily to her, yet she had so easily given her trust to him. If she hadn't allowed Sonia to convince her that it was all coincidence, maybe her guards would have been up, and she would have easily spotted the similarities between Tom and the supposed CEO to know that they were the same person. Okay, this wasn't a time for maybes.

"I trusted you, but not even once did you trust me. Leave, Tom... Or should I call you Mr. Hank? Please leave, I want nothing to do with you anymore," she said, walking to her door and opening it for him to leave. 

"Lucy just give me a..."

"I have nothing to give to you. And even if I did, I'm not giving you anything! You know what? You really do deserve someone like Anita. I want you to leave now," Lucy said as she turned her gaze away from him. She was feeling pained and betrayed. 

Tom felt slightly hurt as he looked at Lucy who had her hands on the doorknob and was looking outside as she waited for him to exit her apartment. Although he could understand how she felt he also expected her to understand him better.

He walked towards her and once he got to the door he stopped, "All I wanted was to know you without my social status getting in the way. And all those times I appeared before you as Thomas Hank, were times when I missed you so much and could only spend time with you as the CEO and not your driver. Ask yourself if you would have ever given me a chance to know you had I told you from the first time we met that I was Thomas Hank," Tom said, and then walked away without waiting to hear if she had anything else to say.

Once he left, Lucy shut the door and collapsed on the ground. She felt cold and hot at the same time. Watching him walk away left a sort of void in her heart. Although she was mad at him, she felt like she had just lost a friend. She had gone from a cloud nine to zero. Now she felt empty.

His last words to her kept resounding in her head, but Lucy shut her ears to block them off. No matter what his reasons were, his deceit was inexcusable. She had trusted him, and he had deceived her. That wasn't something she could easily forgive. 

She cringed in embarrassment when she remembered all the times she had told him about the CEO in confidence not knowing he was the one. Her blood boiled in anger when she recalled how he had asked her what she thought about the CEO, and how he had asked her to show him the CEO's picture when she eventually sees his face.

She sat up when it suddenly dawned on her that if Tom was the CEO, that meant Bryan Hank was his brother! Was Bryan in on his brother's deception? Was Sonia aware? Did she possibly know that the same driver she had been telling her about this whole time was none other than her fiance's older brother? She stood up and walked over to the table to pick up her phone. She needed to speak with Sonia. 

Once Tom got outside, he let out a sigh and turned to look at Lucy's apartment. How could he make her feel better? He didn't exactly regret his actions, as he knew would do exactly the same thing all over again as long as it helped him get closer to her. He only wished she would understand that he hadn't done any of it merely for the sake of having fun. He had done this just so that he could know her and she would know him too. Was he supposed to give her space now to sort out her feelings, or was he to keep showing up around her until she had no other choice than to forgive him? 

He probably should have talked things through with his siblings before telling Lucy the truth. They would have come up with a better approach rather than the one he had just taken.. Perhaps this was the right time to speak with them, Tom reasoned as he took out his phone to dial his brother's line.