7

Scott just stared at her. Part of him wanted to ask her how her brain actually functioned, but he already knew the answer to that. 

Elizabeth didn't care about anything or anyone. She only listened to herself and whatever she thought was true, she took as fact. Nothing anyone said mattered to her. Did she really think that he'd slept with the waitress? 

"I do not have the time for this, Elizabeth," he said, as he opened his briefcase, hoping that she'd just go away. His wish didn't come true. 

"Of course you don't, but you had enough time for her" Elizabeth fired back. Her voice was getting louder and Scott knew that he had to put a stop to it. 

"For God's sake," he drawled. "Do you really think so little of me that you'd believe that I would just sleep with a waitress who snuck into my room? What the hell do you take me for, Elizabeth? A man who has so little control over his body? Is that really how you see me?" 

Elizabeth folded her hands around her body as she glared at him. From her expression, it was clear that wasn't going to listen to his explanation." Well, you gave me no choice,"She flushed angrily." No woman would be okay with what you did."

He made an exaggerated expression of surprise, slamming his briefcase shut. "Shocking" he said, "But at least some women would at least grant me the opportunity to explain. And since you haven't asked, I'd give it anyway. The waitress… all she wanted was a job… not me." 

Elizabeth's eyes widened. "A job?" she repeated, and once again, Scott fought the urge to hiss and roll his eyes at her. 

"Yes, damn it" he replied. "A job… and yes, sneaking into my room was wrong, but that was all that she asked for. She wasn't there to have sex with me." 

"I don't believe that." 

"Of course you don't" Scott retorted, "But that's not the point because it doesn't matter any more. Look, Elizabeth. These two weeks we spent apart only proved something I've always suspected. This relationship between us… is not working. We are very different people and I don't see it going anywhere. I suggest we end it now and go our separate ways…. It's always better to end things amicably and still be on speaking terms rather than turn into enemies"

If his statement had any effect on her, he wasn't sure because the expression on her face remained the same.

"I'm not surprised," said Elizabeth. "I suspected that you'd say something like this soon enough. But I won't blame myself at all because it's not my fault." 

She walked closer to his desk, while Scott just sat there and watched her. "The problem is not with me… it's you, so I won't beat myself up. You have a serious fear of commitment, Scott McCall, and you will do anything to end every relationship you get into because you simply can't handle the responsibilities that come with being in one. Good bye." 

With that she grabbed her bag from the sofa and stalked out of his office, leaving Scott to shake his head as he watched her leave. 

Maybe she was right, he thought. Maybe he did have a fear of commitment, but it wasn't his fault that people couldn't really be trusted, and he if relationship were filled with so much troubles such as this one, then why would he want to commit his entire life to one?

Whatever the answer was, at least he was sure of one thing. He and Elizabeth didn't belong together, and he had done the right thing by ending things. 

He unlocked his laptop and went straight to his email. Staring at the number of emails that had been unattended to, he groaned in frustration. There was no way in hell that he was going to have time for all that, he thought. 

There were so many unread messages and he even had some messages from Ruth reminding him of some of the work he missed while he was away the previous week. He never had to worry about stuff like this when Ruth was around. The woman was so organized and always seemed to be on top of everything. She even ended up reminding him of most of his tasks. He frowned when he saw that his calendar was also full. Except for one forty-five-minute window for lunch.

 Now that Ruth was away, he had no idea how he would function without her. The worst part was that he wasn't even sure when she would be back. 

He had to find someone to replace her…. Even if it was only going to be temporary. 

Someone… someone…. Someone… 

His eyes widened as his mind immediately went to the waitress. What was her name, Vivian… how could he forget? He had kept her number, but hadn't called her. He didn't see the point since he had no job opening for her but now he did. He reached into his pants pocket and withdrew his wallet. The neatly folded paper was still in there and he took it out. 

He stared at the number for a while, before he grabbed his phone. He'd known that he'd would see her again, he thought and now it was time. 

"Well, Vivian Sanchez," he said to himself as the phone began to ring, "Let's see how quickly you can get used to being my personal assistant." 

__________

The cheesecake shop wasn't filled up that afternoon, Vivian thought as she cleared the table vacated by some customers minutes earlier, but that was because a lot of people were still at work. She knew that soon people would come in for lunch and the shop would be busy once again. 

She sighed. Her attempt to get a job at Scott McCall's company had failed…. As expected. Even now, she could not believe she had done something as crazy as sneaking into his hotel room. The look on Scott's face and worse, his date's face still haunted her and she couldn't believe that had made a complete fool of herself. 

Maybe she was just meant to be a waitress her entire life, she thought. Maybe she should stop looking for other things and just focus on the job she had. It wasn't paying her a lot of money, but it paid for her little apartment and her feeding. 

Lost in thought, she was a bit startled when her phone vibrated in her apron. She looked at the caller ID and realized that it was an unknown number. With a frown on her face, she picked the call and put the phone to her ear.