Desire Me If You Can [Novel] - Chapter 19

It was a bright day like any other. Literally, a sky without a single cloud. A deep, vivid blue filled the view. After confirming this, Dane prepared for work early.
That bastard will probably come to work today too.
While checking his shave in the mirror, Dane recalled. If worst comes to worst, he could just knock him out and run. Though he felt sorry for his team members, he had no choice. He had to look out for himself first.
No one had ever discovered his trait until now. Because after using pheromones to knock out extreme Alphas, they usually couldn’t remember what had happened, and Dane would immediately leave.
But I used it twice on that bastard.
He indifferently acknowledged the fact that suddenly occurred to him. That bastard has good reason to want to kill me.
Preparing for any possible situation, Dane took out his trunk to pack. So he could throw in just the necessities and leave at any time.
“I’m off, Darling.”
After kissing the cat, he left home and drove to work as usual in his car that was well over 10 years old. With the thought that it would be somewhat regrettable to leave California.
***
After parking his car in the designated spot and heading to the fire station, Dane hesitated when he saw a group of colleagues glaring somewhere with very annoyed expressions. Following their gaze, he saw Greyson Miller leaning against a fire truck talking with someone.
“What’s that?”
When he approached his colleagues and casually asked, one ground out through his teeth.
“Just what it looks like. That bastard has the nerve to hit on Valentina.”
Valentina was the most popular female employee in the station. Being beautiful and having a good personality, many employees secretly liked her, and some had gathered their courage to ask her out only to be gently rejected. So it had become an unspoken rule to ‘wait for Valentina to choose someone,’ while maintaining good working relationships on the surface. Meanwhile, they continued making subtle advances to appeal their presence.
And now this troublemaker dared to approach such a Valentina.
Everyone was watching them with eyes burning with jealousy and anger. Reject him, Valentina. Turn him down firmly and cruelly like you did to us!
However, their desperate wishes didn’t reach her. The moment the watching colleagues saw Valentina smile and stroke Greyson’s arm, half of them collapsed. “We’ve lost, we’ve lost!”
“No, wait. Valentina is kind. She must be softening the blow before rejecting him. That must be it!”
“She didn’t even touch my finger when she rejected me?”
“Give up, touching the arm means it’s over!”
“Shut up! Giving up already over just an arm, not even a thigh, you weak bastards!”
Dane couldn’t help but sigh seeing these guys getting all worked up even though they had no chance themselves. As he shook his head and headed toward the locker room, gasps of shock, groans, and short screams erupted alternately from behind. He could tell what had happened just from the sounds without having to look.
“He touched it, he touched her thigh!”
“Wait, that bastard is incredibly tall. Look, that’s just where his hand naturally reaches. Calm down!”
“He’s caressing it, we’re done for!”
“No, no! My Valentina would never fall for such a troublemaker!”
“Whose Valentina? Don’t talk nonsense on the sly!”
Leaving the continuing outcry behind, Dane went inside. While other things weren’t his business, seeing him flirting like that made it clear that Greyson Miller had no interest in him at all.
So he doesn’t remember after all.
Dane shook off his slight worry and leisurely opened his cabinet. The bag he had packed in the morning wouldn’t be needed at all. It was quite fortunate since traveling would not be easy for a blind and deaf cat to endure.
Or maybe everyone’s assumptions had been wrong. Perhaps looking for who had knocked him out was just an excuse, and he had some other reason.
Not my business anyway.
When he came out with light steps, the employees were still in the same place. When he turned to look, Valentina and Greyson Miller had already disappeared. “They left together.”
Following someone’s blank mutter, another employee spoke.
“She left us behind… for Valentina to fall for someone like Greyson Miller…”
“Did you see that face earlier? I think I’ve never seen Valentina smile like that… she’s never smiled like that at anyone.”
“No, let’s all be rational. They just left together, right? Maybe they were just going in the same direction!”
Cold stares were all that greeted his words of final hope.
“You’re the most irrational one.”
“You’re the one who needs to face reality, just going in the same direction? As if!”
“No, this guy might be right. We’re being too pessimistic! It’s not impossible!”
“Yeah, I’ll bet they just happened to go in the same direction too. Valentina wouldn’t just fall for any man like that!”
“Right, none of us succeeded, so how could she fall for just Greyson Miller, and in less than an hour? That’s what’s unrealistic!”
Their arguments gradually gained strength. Dane watched the farce with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall. To him, the situation was crystal clear. The Madonna of the fire station, who had been like a flower on a cliff, had fallen for Greyson Miller’s face in less than an hour.
Idiots.
However, regardless of Dane’s cold eyes, those arguing the opposite side began to fall one by one as they heard the persuasive arguments that kindled their reluctant hope. “That… could be.”
As someone muttered while they exchanged glances, another guy immediately picked up the thread.
“I mean, we might not know what kind of trash Greyson Miller is, but we all know what kind of person Valentina is, right?”
Agreeing words followed from here and there as people nodded.
“Yeah, Valentina wouldn’t do that.”
“I believe in Valentina!”
“Me too, me too!”
Everyone united in hope. Though they raised their fists with shouts of agreement, they crumbled mercilessly the moment they saw Valentina’s dazed face as she returned fixing her disheveled hair a few hours later. Anyone with eyes could tell what they had been doing during those couple of hours they were gone. Moreover, as if delivering the killing blow, Valentina was the one who pulled Greyson in for a kiss first.
This news spread throughout the fire station through several employees who had been outside checking the fire trucks. The employees waiting in the situation room were shocked, and they finally had to give up their futile hope they had been holding onto until the end. Since there were quite a few who had seriously liked Valentina, the air in the situation room was so gloomy it could grow mold.
“Valentina was too far out of our reach anyway.”
When one person spoke up, agreeing words followed from here and there.
“Yeah, that’s right. Valentina never chose any of us.”
“Maybe Greyson Miller is better than we thought.”
“Anyway, as colleagues, we should support Valentina’s choice.”
“Of course. We’re all comrades who risk our lives together.”
Still, the atmosphere flowed fairly well. Thanks to the pride of macho firefighter men who, though rejected, didn’t want to become pathetic losers. Though their stomachs hurt and they were angry, and Greyson was infuriatingly unlikeable, what could they do now that things had turned out this way? Yeah, as someone said, maybe Greyson was just distasteful to them, but might treat Valentina incredibly well. The situation wasn’t too bad, even as they forcibly hid their hurt feelings and gave up their one-sided feelings to somehow wish for the other’s happiness.
Until a few hours later when they saw Greyson Miller disappearing in the same direction he had gone with Valentina, this time with his arm around their other colleague Liz’s waist.