Chapter 2

The coffee shop was a few blocks away from the office. She considered taking her laptop along to work while eating but on second thought, she decided not to. She was overworked already, all she needed was about thirty minutes to herself. “Where are you going?” Fiona turned her head sharply to the familiar voice. She gritted her teeth but quickly replaced it with a smile. “Alex, nice to see you too” she replied sarcastically, still wearing a fake smile. Alex was the acting manager and she didn’t waste any time to exercise her power by piling Fiona’s desk with files to work on. “Oh drop the act already” Alex snapped. “Have you worked on the files Mrs Pearson gave you?” “I can see someone is feisty today” Fiona snickered. “The new CEO is coming in on Friday so you’d be relieved of your position. How sad is that?” The blonde acting manager clicked her tongue and sucked in a sharp breath. Fiona was one to talk back and she hated it, she hated her guts and how she wasted no time to stand up for herself. “Let’s see if you’d have this same attitude when the ceo resumes on Friday and I tell him you’re the laziest worker” Fiona’s eyes darkened. “You know how hard I work so don’t even dare” Alex chuckled, flipped her hair and strutted off. She had won this round but she had to admit she was going to miss being in charge. Nothing was more fulfilling than ordering the workers around and threatening to fire them. Watching them scamper off and cower in fear gave her a sense of satisfaction. Fiona took a deep breath as she stepped out of the office and the humid September air hit her. Alex had a way of ruffling her feathers. She hated to admit that she was jealous that the former CEO, Mr DuPont had chosen Alex to be the acting manager. Alex didn’t put in half as much effort as she did, she wasn’t even consistent. Now that the new CEO was coming in, he’d have to listen to what Alex had to say, based on his uncle’s recommendation. Alex only ruined her mood but she didn’t stop the hunger in her tummy. The coffee shop was unusually packed that afternoon. It seemed like most people had chosen to eat at the same time she did. She stood at a corner of the cafe while trying to locate an empty table. “Excuse me ma’am” a waiter called out over the noise as he tried to balance a tray of drinks on his hands She moved back a little to give the waiter space so he could move to the table he wanted to go to. She frowned and wished she had gone to another coffee shop. She moved aside quickly as she saw another waiter coming, he had two trays balanced on both hands. She felt herself lose balance as she collided with someone. She groaned as strong hands helped to pull her to her feet. “You should watch where you’re going next time” The voice held no trace of concern or pity for her, it was purely authoritative and it surged a strange feeling in her. She pushed her hair away from her face to see the unapologetic man. “Have you lost your tongue?” He demanded She held her breath for a split second, she was too stunned to speak. His eyes were as dark as midnight, so cold and dangerous but intriguing. It was almost as he could see through her. She tried to find the right words but she couldn’t. Never in her life had she been rendered speechless by am. “You realize you have ruined my suit, don’t you?” “Uhhh” she managed to say Her eyes trailed down and stopped at the mat of hair on his chest, his buttons were slightly open. His coffee had spilled on his suit, ruining the expensive piece. The white button up shirt had a big brown patch, it was indeed ruined. “You should watch where you’re going too” her voice faltered in a way she didn’t like. He had an effect on her, she didn’t like it but it seemed exciting in a way, a bad way. He put the blame on her like he didn’t have any fault. If they were mindful of where they were going to, maybe the little accident could have been avoided. He scoffed. “You owe me an new suit and a cup of coffee” He looked down in disgust at his shirt and the spilled cup of coffee on the floor. Her frown deepened. She was having a bad day already and now this happened, how was she going to get enough money to replace a suit that was thrice her monthly payment. “I owe you nothing,” she pouted. “I have coffee spilled on me too” In reality, the coffee poured on the tiniest part of her dress, nothing that a little water and detergent couldn’t wash off. If she asked the man to replace her dress, he would do so in a blink of an eye, it was a cheap dress she had had for a while. “I have important meetings to attend, do you expect me to show up drenched in coffee?” He backfired, his tone even getting angrier “I didn’t do it on purpose” she clapped back She could see from the corner of her eye that some of the customers were looking at them, everyone loved drama. “Just forget it” The man hissed and walked away A part of her wanted to call him back, she didn’t expect him to walk away just like that. When he saw that he was attracting a little attention, he left immediately. She sighed, she had lost appetite. She had to deal with her disheveled hair and washed off the coffee from her dress. Having a bad day wasn’t something she was used to as she was usually a very organized person.