Burning Desire (Completed)

chapter 51

By 10:15am, Jasmine walked into the gallery, dressed in a grey coat, purple top that was tucked into her black skirt with black sandals. She had applied enough make up to cover the sacks under her eyes.

As she walked to her desk, she saw Gloria walking towards her. Jasmine let out a sigh and placed a smile on her face when Gloria approached her.

"Good morning Gloria. I'm so sorry for coming late, I...."

"Hey, it's alright." Gloria cut her off with a warm smile on her face as she gave Jasmine a hug. "Boss called yesterday and told me that you caught the flu. Are you feeling better now?"
Gloria asked, placing a hand on Jasmine's shoulder.

Jasmine smiled with a nod. "Yeah, I'm better now."
She was grateful that Raymond had covered up for her absence yesterday by telling Gloria that she wasn't feeling well.

"Are you sure?" Gloria asked, searching Jasmine's face. "You don't have to be here if you haven't fully recovered. I can give you another day off."

Jasmine Chuckled softly. "No need for that Gloria. I appreciate your concern but I'm perfectly okay."
She assured Gloria with a smile.

Gloria let out a sigh, letting go of Jasmine's shoulder. "Well I'm glad you're okay now. Mrs Smith called this morning and said she has the flu. She was coughing and sneezing hard so I gave her two days off to get better. With the heavy rain these days, it's so easy for someone to catch the flu."

"Yeah you're right. I feel so bad for Mrs Smith, i hope she gets better,"
Jasmine said in a worried tone.

"Me too." Gloria agreed with a short nod. "Anyways, the buyer that wants the sylvander sister's painting is here. So I'm off to meet him." She informed Jasmine.

"Oh, that's great."

The sylvander sister's painting had been on display for seven months at the gallery. The sylvander sisters was a book set in the nineties that was written by a best selling author, Jacqueline Briskin and one of Raymond's artist decided to make a painting of the three sisters.

"Alright I'm off now, see you later." Gloria gave Jasmine's arm a soft pat on the back and left.

Jasmine turned and walked to her desk, placing her bag on the table as she sat down with a sigh.

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When the meeting with the investors was over, Raymond went back to his suite, grabbed his luggage and drove off to the airport to catch his flight to Gainesville.  After waking up from his nightmare earlier that morning, Raymond didn't want to stay in France for another day.

He needed to get back home, he needed to get back to Jasmine.
As crazy as the idea sounded in his head, he longed to see Jasmine. He longed to stare into her blue eyes and see a smile on her beautiful face and hear her laugh at his stories.
He needed the closure as he hoped he might find answers as to why he didn't have any nightmare when he slept with her in his bedroom and how it was possible that she came to him in his dreams when he thought it was over for him.

He chewed on his nails, a habit he'd stopped doing since he was young as he thought about Jasmine throughout his flight back home.

It was 12pm when Raymond got back to his house. Leaving his luggage in the living room, he walked to the bar and fixed himself a glass of scotch. Sitting down on the barstool with his glass in his hand, staring at his phone on the counter, he thought of who to call.
He thought of calling his mom but decided against it. Hearing him talk about a woman that was messing with his mind would give his mother joy as she would go on telling him that he was in love.