Days later Eve spread a rumor about Crane Industries, and Julian lost a few of his most important accounts. That’s what he got for firing the best employee. Julian had no idea who leaked that horrible rumor, but when he saw Eve at one of the very many board meetings, he knew it was her.

“Dr. Russell, we meet again,” he said as he stood directly in front of her.

“Yes,” she attempted to move around him but stopped, “Oh, by the way, how’s business?” she smiled mischievously and then took her seat.

Julian stared after her. His eyes squinted as he tried to study her. What had she meant by that last sentence? It then clicked. Eve was the one that ruined the Crane name to the clients he had lost!

The meeting began, and Julian took his seat…right in front of her. He leaned back in his chair and never took his eyes off of Eve.

She could feel his stare, so she looked to him and met his eyes. His eyes never left her, even after she looked away from him. Eve could still feel his eyes on her, and began to feel uncomfortable. She had hated when people stared, and now Julian Crane was doing what she hated most. Eve began shifting uncomfortably in her chair, sweating. Julian enjoyed the discomfort he was causing Eve. That was his intention, but he wasn’t going to stop there. What Eve did to his company was uncalled for, and she had to pay! No one was going to mess with Crane Industries and get away with it!
---

A week and a half later Julian went to the papers. He smiled as he read the headline for the next day’s paper:

Harmony’s Doctor High on Narcotics While Performing Surgery

And the article was wrapped around Eve’s picture. The article also informed the patients that Dr. Eve Russell had stolen the drugs from the hospital pharmacy.

The next morning when Eve walked outside to get the morning paper, she almost had a heart attack right in her yard when she read the nasty and vicious headline. And right at that moment she received a call. The hospital informed her that she was suspended until further notice, or until they could find her innocent. Eve sat at her kitchen table as she looked down and read the paper. Her nostrils flared as she breathed hard…furious at the person who had told this awful lie. She flipped the page and it all made sense. Julian’s picture had been in another article about a charity event, but Eve did not care for the event. What she was looking at was the smug look upon his face. It was HE who had done this to her! And Julian Crane was going to pay BIG TIME! That she was sure of!

Eve got up, tossed the paper into the trash, ran upstairs and flung open her bedroom door. Tc was snoring away. She rolled her eyes at him. Now she was having to support them both. She made plenty of money, considering she was a doctor, but having to see Tc sit and kick back around the house irritated her! She walked to her closet, got dressed, and ran back downstairs and out the door in search of Mr. Julian Crane.
---

Eve pulled up to CI first, but Julian hadn’t arrived yet. She waited for him, and waited three hours, but still no Julian. Ann then received a call from him, informing her that he had traveled to Boston and wouldn’t be coming into the office today. Eve overheard the conversation and took off. She was going to meet Julian in Boston and give him a piece of her mind, but that got put aside when Tc called her and demanded that she come home. He had injured himself and didn’t want to go to the hospital due to the rumor about Eve. He was afraid that they would treat him like an outcast the way everyone did with her. The news about Eve’s drug addiction was all over the news by now, and that made her even angrier. How could Julian do this?!

Tc was all bandaged up and Eve left once more. By this time it was already six in the evening, and the drive from Harmony to Boston was approximately two hours, so she should arrive just in time for the end of his meeting. Well, what Eve didn’t know was that Julian was already on his way back. It had been an hour and the sun had gone down due to the gray clouds that covered the sky. Eve then noticed that it began lightning. Great, just what she needed; a damn storm! Rain then began to fall upon her windshield, so she flicked on the windshield wipers. What help they were doing. She could barely see into the night, and that’s when she saw a dog in the middle of the street, in the pouring rain. She became blinded by the approaching vehicle’s bright lights and swerved from hitting the dog, but in the wrong direction for she ran straight into the oncoming vehicle.

“DAMNIT! What the hell were you thinking?!” the man got out of his car and approached hers in the pouring rain.

Eve blinked and then focused on what had just happened. She remembered; she had just hit the car in front of her. Eve could hear the man screaming at her, so she opened her car door and immediately began apologizing until she realized who the man was. It was none other than Julian Crane.

He shook his head and scoffed when he saw her.

“You know, maybe they should suspend your driver’s license as well,” he remarked.

“You! YOU!” she walked up to him and shoved him back.

“‘You!’ ‘YOU!’ What?” he asked.

“You sabotaged me at the hospital you bastard!”

“Oh, and what you did to me was nothing, was it?” he raised a brow.

She paused, but then spoke again.

“It’s not the same thing! You don’t know how long it took for me to become a doctor,” she yelled over the thunder, “You don’t know how long it took for me to get the reputation that I had…”

“Yeah, well, that reputation is long gone,” he smiled as he crossed his arms.

“I hate you!” she slapped him and marched back to her car.

She turned the key in the ignition, but it refused to start. She tried once more, but it continued to sputter.

Julian walked over to her window and knocked on it. Eve refused to open it to him, so he screamed as loud as he could so she’d be able to hear him over the rain storm.

“Here, let me help you!” he said.

Eve opened her door and hit him.

“No, you’ve done enough, thank you very much!” she began to walk down the street.

“Where are you going?!” he yelled, but she ignored him, “You’re just going to leave your car here?” she never replied, nor did she turn around.

Julian opened the door to her car and then sat in the driver’s seat. He put the car into neutral. Julian got out of the car and steered it towards the side of the road as he pushed with all his might. He finally got it out of the road and was now onto his. Thank God his was working! He just parked it alongside the road and then got out and walked in the direction Eve had left in. Julian watched as Eve made her way into an abandoned barn and followed.

When Julian walked in, Eve was ringing her hair out. She just looked to him and then turned around.

“Fine, don’t look at me, I don’t care,” he sighed as he looked around the barn.

Eve turned around to look at him, just to spite him, but Julian didn’t care.

“Of all people to be stranded with,” he said in a drone voice.

“Likewise…” she replied and sat on a hay bale.

Eve was sitting, minding her own business as she looked at her nails, when she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She jumped up and ran over to Julian.

“Ju-l-i-a-n-n-n, there’s something over there!” her voice trembled as she whispered.

Julian looked down and saw a pile of hay move along the floor. He guessed it was a rat underneath the hay, but he wasn’t sure.

“Okay,” he said, “Eve stay back over here,” he pulled her behind him and then began walking towards the animal.

“Julian, please be careful,” she warned.

He turned back towards her and smiled.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing, just that you actually sounded concerned for me,” he laughed.

“Ugh, no I didn’t,” she rolled her eyes.

“Okay, whatever…” he said and grabbed a shovel.

Julian then walked slowly and watched as the hay moved. He then dug the shovel underneath it and flung whatever was under there towards the door. Eve screamed! It was a rat.

He threw the shovel down and ran over to Eve and pulled her into his arms.

“Shhh,” he laughed quietly, “It’s gone,” he said as his hand caressed her soaked back.

She pulled back from him and looked into his face. She saw something there that made her not want to let go of him.

“Thank you,” Eve whispered and pulled out of his arms.

At that moment when Julian held her, he saw her in a different light. He had always felt anger towards her, but as he looked into her eyes, her face…Eve was beautiful. She was soft and small.

Water was dripping from her hair as she and Julian stayed there staring back at each other.

“You know what I’ve began wondering?” he asked huskily.

Eve shook her head slowly.

“I’ve wondered how water tastes dripping from your body…your lips,” he pulled Eve to him and brought her into a kiss…
---*~*2