CHAPTER 1

Her sweet and small eyes fixed on the computer screen, her thin fingers and the keyword of her computer making the sound everyone in that company would recognize as a melody, the melody played on all companies, Amber didn’t seem to have the intention to stop for a while and give herself a break. The reports had to be prepared for the next meeting and there were no more than two hours left to meet the foreign ones.

Even if she knew she was going to be the one running that meeting with Damien, she couldn’t help but give more importance to her thoughts than to the meeting.

Finally, her fingers stopped, leading one of her hands to her head. Surely a headache.

“I can’t even concentrate,” she expressed, taking her bottle of water. “How come I’m going with Damien?”

“Aside from ugly, crazy?” Someone asked.

Amber looked at the person who had clouded her thoughts and her afternoon. Nancy, the best secretary according to her physique.

“May I help you?” Amber asked.

Nancy smiled before leading her look to her nails, all carefree. “Well, yes, you can. You will help me the day you disappear from this company. Don’t you understand your strange beauty is still strange to us?”

Amber just looked down. It wasn’t Amber was the ugliest girl in the world; it was she didn’t know how to dress. Maybe the real reason behind those comments was women were too good to know when there was a diamond in the rough.

“Okay, I think I have overreacted,” Nancy said, getting back to her obnoxious attitude.

“Where’s Damien?”

“Mr. Slimth is in his office.”

“Can I come in?”

“No, you ca-“

“Thank you!” Nancy cut her off.

Amber’s eyes widened in the mere instant she realized that the woman was acting like she had all the rights over Mr. Slimth. If Amber wasn’t allowed to do that even after they had grown up together, even when Amber and Damien ended up living under the same roof, why on earth would someone like Nancy do something like that?

“Nancy! Nancy!” Amber followed her.

The door of the office opened just for Nancy to find Damien flirting with another receptionist.

“Mr. Slimth, I couldn’t stop her,” Amber said.

By that moment, Damien seemed to be worried. Even though in the company Damien was well known for his extremely kind manners towards secretaries, it was still difficult for him to deal with two at once.

Even though Amber could have been made out of goodness and loyalty, every time she saw Damien with another person, selfishness blinded her heart. The reason? No one would know.

“It’s okay, Amber, you don’t have to say anything. Please, Miss. Nancy, did you bring the report? Oh! Miss. Mary, are we done with the documents?” Damien asked, leading his question to one to the other. “Miss Villanueva, you can go.”

“Yes, sir,” Amber said low.

“Wait, wait! Amber? I need your help.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Here,” Damien gave her his car keys, “do you think you can take my car to home?”

Amber, as always, nodded. Just two creatures in the world knew about loyalty; dogs and, of course, Amber Villanueva. Did it occur to him that she didn’t have a life? Did it occur to him she had been brought to him to serve him?

Finally, when the door closed, Amber could realize how vulnerable she was in front of Damien and his way of living his life. Moving her hear side to side, she tried to get rid of those thoughts. Damien was no more than her older brother. She couldn’t see him as a man when they had grown up together, when their dads were like brothers.

 6:00 p.m. her shift was over, in her hands the keys Damien had given him. Even if the hour said she had the rest of the day to do whatever she wanted, to pave her way to her dreams, the keys in her hands said another thing.

Exhausted, Amber got into the car and after starting it off, her beautiful eyes were able to see Damien getting out of the company with Nancy, the new secretary she had interviewed not long ago. She couldn’t help but feel that pain in her heart. At least Damien seemed to be having fun.

Speeding up, Amber couldn’t take that image from her head. She had lived with Damien for over 18 years. Amber knew him; she knew his darkest desires; he knew his strengths and his weaknesses; he knew everything about him.

A funny memory came to her mind while she was driving in the middle of the rain.

“Damien?! Damien?! Damien?!” Amber came into his room with one of the packs the deliverer had brought. “Damien, I’m talking to you!”

And all of a sudden what Amber saw was her brother coming out of the bathroom completely naked.

Suddenly, the pack jumped out of her hands to use them to cover her eyes.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He yelled at her.

“Hey, I didn’t see anything!”

“Get out of here!”

Laughing, she turned around to open the door again.

Amber smiled at the moment she came back to her reality. But that smile didn’t seem to last forever since the car started making a weird sound and then the same one stopped.

“Oh! What happened now?”

It couldn’t be possible the car had stopped in the middle of nowhere, where the rain poured like that. No matter how many times she tried to start it off, the car never moved a pair of centimeters. Just the lights of it lit up in front of.

“What do I do? What do I do?” She asked over and over.

Needless to say the car had broken down. Just something like that could happen to her.

She was sure pretty women or even handsome and powerful men had never gone through something like that.

Ten, eleven, twelve, one, two, three, four after midnight and she hadn’t achieved to move the car. How come? She could know many things. She could be the most intelligent person in the world, but for cars, she never thought she would need it.

Six hours had gone by, the battery of her cellphone had died and even if she had just the time and enough battery to call Damien, she wouldn’t do that. Amber knew when Damien was having fun, there was nothing on earth that could distract him.

Six in the morning, just four cars had passed by her side and none of them had stopped to see if she needed something until the one that was fated to find her pulled over.

Three knocks on the window made Amber raise her head, which was relying on the steering wheel. Amber seemed to be afraid. She was in the middle of nowhere and if that man tried to do something to her, surely she wouldn’t run so much.

“Hello, can you low the window?” He asked.

All frightened up, she opened. “Hello?”

“Miss. May I help you?”

 She just looked down, trying to think of her best answer.

“Can I help you with something?” He insisted.

“No, I mean, I called my… my… my-“

He smiled at the moment he realized how nervous she was.

“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to rob you,” he raised up his hands. “Listen, I’m a mechanic. Here you can see me,” he turned to let her see the car oil printed on his overall, “I can show you my toolbox. Really, I’m a mechanic.”

At that moment, Amber felt a little confident of his words. He was a young man, his smile could compete with the ray of the sun, his dark hair, his brown eyes and those thin lips. He was handsome, really handsome. If it wasn’t for his overall covered in oil, he could clearly pass as an employee of the company where she worked.

“Can I help you now?” He asked, giving her a smile.

“I think so,” and then, she got out of the car to give the man complete space.

What can we say of the time they shared? What can we say about the smiles they exchanged? Around thirty minutes had gone by for the car to be ready to continue its journey. Thirty minutes where she could see him as an honest man who didn’t try doing anything aside from helping a woman who was alone.

“And, it’s done!” He said, starting off the car. Once again, the machine roared just as a car like that could do.

“Oh! Oh, my goodness, I can’t believe it!” She jumped out of happiness.

“Well, it wasn’t something really hard to fix. We just have to connect this wire with this one.” He said, explaining to her.

The truth was Amber smiled as beautiful as he had never seen a woman smile.

“How much do I-“

“Shh! You don’t need to pay me anything.” He cut her off.

“So, should I believe you go here and there helping people and not receive any payment?”

“Well, it’s not like that, but I try to do this for women and please, don’t misunderstand me. I had liked to know my sister helped when I wasn’t for her.” The smile erased of his face.

“Your sister?” Amber continued.

“Yes. Anyway, you can drive now.”

“Thank you, thank you so much. You’re the best thing that has happened to me on this new day. Thank you.” She jumped, taking the keys from the hands of him.

“Drive safely.” He waved at her while a deep sigh came out of him.

He hoped to see her again.