Page 66 of Claim Me
"Life is all about consequences, Gabriel, as you correctly put it after the situation with the spitball," he says slowly, weighing each word. "Such a strong start, and you put in so much work… and then you ruined it."
He shakes his head slightly, as if in disbelief over what I did.
Ashamed, I fall silent, because what else is there to say? I feel like a foolish teenager around him again, but his eyes moving over me don’t hold what I feared. Not contempt, more like… a trace of disappointment, almost paternal, and for some reason that makes it hit even harder.
"Do you have anything else for me to do? I’ll go lie down, my back’s stiff," I ask gloomily.
Blue slowly shakes his head, so I get up with a deep frown and leave the room.
I was so glad at first that the conversation was about me, because I’ve been starving for attention for so long, for someone’s eyes on me, on my life for a change, but now I almost regret it.
By opening myself up, I’m also reminding him of my flaws and mistakes, and it’s simply not in Blue’s nature to pat me on the back and say, "Don’t worry, it’ll be all right." He expects a lot from himself, so naturally, he expects a lot from others too, which frankly isn’t surprising.
Am I just a spoiled kid, craving gentleness and forgiveness? Or do I need to toughen up?
For some reason, I keep thinking about the alpha with tears in his eyes after he spat on Blue. Maybe I need to lie in the bed I’ve made and accept that this is my life now.
No position as an engineer or system administrator for me. Just a muscle.
My ownchoicesled me here, period.
Blue lives with the consequences of his actions every single day too, hated for his controversial initiatives. Now I need to stop feeling sorry for myself. It’s a part of growing up, maturing.
I’m not sure why, but I go to bed with my head drowning in gray noise.
???
The next day starts with a rather unexpected situation.
Blue goes down to one of the lower floors of his tower because there’s a conference room equipped with a virtual reality system where each participant puts on special goggles, and they all take part in a shared ‘tour’ through Malden facilities and laboratories regardless of their physical location.
When the meeting ends, we discover, somewhat to our surprise, that the elevator Blue usually uses, the one marked B2, is out of service.
Blue immediately calls building security, whose office is located on the first floor. It turns out the elevator shaft inspection scheduled for five in the morning was delayed, and a maintenance crew is currently working there.
I notice that Blue becomes more alert, probably because in the past similar setups turned out to be ambushes, so he makes a quick decision to take the largest elevator, the one that’s always packed with people.
To me, that seems at least equally risky, but apparently Blue believes it’s safer in a large crowd.
So we step into the biggest elevator.
It’s already packed with people. I go in first, firmly pushing through and clearing a path for Blue so he can enter and take a position in one of the corners.
I stand right in front of him, effectively shielding him with my body from the rest.
The people inside don’t seem particularly interested in us. They probably don’t even know who Blue is, since most are turned with their backs to us. They’re talking among themselves, some bent over their phones or tablets.
But with each floor the elevator passes, it gets more and more cramped. More people squeeze in while not that many get off, and soon a mass of bodies is pressing against us.
So I turn to face Blue and position myself with my arms braced against both walls of the elevator, creating a protected space in the corner where he stands.
In this position, though, we end up in something oddly intimate. He’s against the corner looking at me, and I’m leaning over him, shielding him with my body, my arms raised above his head and braced against the wall behind him.
My eyes meet his.
The pressure from the crowd increases, and now I actually have to push back against the weight of a dozen people actively pressing into me.
I clench my jaw as the people trying to get in push harder, calling out, "Hey, move in the back, we’ve got a conference in five minutes, we need to get there!"
