CHAPTER ONE

“Sent!” I sighed.

“girl! You finally did it… after weeks of postponement.” Cynthia or Thea as she preferred, my roommate and best friend, was beaming at me. It was because of her I was able to apply for a product design role at 

Drestech.Co. “Now I just have to wait for them to call me… or not” I looked at her apprehensively. I had worked with Jaskey Technologies for five years before they stabbed me in the back and let me off. 

It was also there I met my ex-boyfriend who cheated on me with one of our coworkers. I could say with absolute confidence that Jaskey Technologies was the source of most of my sadness. 

“Toria, I’ve seen what you can do. There’s no way you aren’t landing this job.” 

Thea was a source of my comfort. She helped me through the pain and I’d forever be grateful for her. Despite being the owner of Moore and More, a high end fashion design company, she was the most down to earth person I knew and she spoiled me silly.

“Hey! Earth to Toria.” fingers snapped in front of my face. I had zoned out.

“Sorry! I just don’t know what I’d do without you” I smiled sadly.

“Absolutely nothing my dear.” she winked at me. I shook my head. 

“We have to celebrate though." I knew this was coming. Thea always looked for an excuse to go out or drink wine. Emphasis on the latter. I gave her a dirty look.

“Celebrate what? I only sent an application letter. Just admit you want an excuse to drink wine. I saw it in your bag”

“What bag?” faking absolute cluelessness was something she did with skill. I rolled my eyes.

“the bottle of chardonnay?” 

“you saw that?” I laughed.

“of course I did. You didn’t exactly hide it.” she looked sheepish. She knew I didn’t drink.

“Fine. I bought it. I believe you actually have something to celebrate. Well, some things. The f**kery  that is Michael and your exit from that bloodsucking company. You worked what? 5 years for them and they screw you over just like that? Nah. We’re drinking…” I cleared my throat at her obvious mistake. 

“I’M drinking tonight. I got you orange juice though.” She said mockingly.

“I’m fine with that." I flashed her a small smile. 

"You know what? On second thought, let’s actually go out tonight.” She looked at me wide-eyed. 

“I need to get this application thing off my mind or I’m going to lose it.” 

“Yas girl! Now that’s what I’m talking about!” She high-fived me.

“I’m still not drinking though.”

“Girl, I don’t care. I’ll drink for two.” She sauntered away as we both got changed.

***

The line was so long I was for once glad that I knew someone who frequented a club long enough to be considered VVIP.

“The view from up here is so crazy. You can see the whole club. Including things I don’t want to see” I yelled over the music.

“Yeah. I know right?” She lifted her hands to a waiter.

“A bottle of whiskey and one coke.” She smiled suggestively at the waiter.

“Thea…” I groaned, palming my face.

“What? We’re here for fun. Let’s have that.” She winked

The waiter had returned with our drink a while ago and we were now dancing to the music, drink in hand.

“He’s been staring at you the whole night.” She pointed over to the other side of the bar. Who? I looked over to see who she was talking about.

“I can’t see anything.” I squinted very hard. I don’t know who declared poor lighting in clubs but it was a very bad idea.

“He looks somewhat familiar though… I dunno, I’m pretty drunk. I’m probably seeing things.” She giggled.

I rolled my eyes. Of course she was. She had almost finished the entire bottle. How she wasn’t staggering yet, I had no clue.

She motioned for us to move closer so we could see him. Apparently, he was also a VVIP member. The closer we got, the clearer I could see him. I was short of words. The lights were so dim I could barely see his face but I saw enough to know he looked really good. No, he was magnificent. Sitting there in all his glory in a white shirt and black pants. So formal, even in the club. His shoulders were so wide I could almost not see anything directly behind him. 

“Kol, I don’t think he’s going to show.” A man beside him said to him. We were within earshot range now. 

“Give him 5 more minutes.” he replied. His voice was such a lovely baritone that I could feel it reverberated within my chest.

Thea hiccuped beside me and it reminded me of the fact that we were being very creepy.

“Let’s go.” I held her by the hand to drag her back to our corner. She must’ve thought that was an invitation to go join them because the next thing she said knocked my imaginary socks off.

“Hey fellas.” She walked up to them in what I assumed was a sexy catwalk.

‘Dammit Thea’ I thought to myself. This wasn’t my idea of fun.

Kol and his friend turned to us. 

“I thought we should introduce ourselves since you...” she pointed to Kol “have been staring at us all night. Well, her.”

Kol had a cool look on his face. His eyes so dark they seemed black. His friend though was the opposite. His eyes were full of emotions.

 He looked confused. I had to admit even he was very good-looking even with poor lightning. Not my taste though if at all I would give it a shot.

“I think you have the wrong person.” His friend said.

“No, Josh. She’s right. I was staring.” He smirked. “but not for the reasons you think.” The smirk fell off right after. ‘His friend’s name is Josh’ I noted. Not that it mattered to me.

“Right, because there are many reasons to stare at a girl dancing in a club.” Thea rolled her eyes.

“Thea, let’s go. This isn’t looking good.” I whispered in her ear trying to drag her away, again.

Kol turned his eyes on me and I could swear my heart stopped working. My throat felt dry all of a sudden. Unable to keep eye contact, I looked everywhere else but his eyes. They seemed to pull me in.

“She…” he paused, dragging his eyes from my head to my toe and back to my face “was dancing funny and that provided more entertainment than this bar ever could. That’s all.” Well, that was embarrassing.

“Well, you look funny.” Thea, in all her drunken glory replied.

 “Thea let’s just go.” His friend found their banter funny. I just gave a small and apologized.

“I’m sorry. She’s a little drunk. Don’t mind her at all. We’ll leave now.” He gave his full attention to me this time. 

“Your friend should be more careful around men she doesn’t know.” 

“SHE, is right here you know?” He didn’t still take his eyes off me making my nerves go wild. I was beginning to rethink all my life choices. 

“Got it.” I pulled her away. It was like pulling lead.

“What an a**hole!” 

All I could think about was the way he was staring at me. I hadn’t felt that way 

before. Not even with Michael.

“Right.” I said absentmindedly. I subtly glanced back to take one last look at him when we got back to our cubicle. He didn’t take his eyes off me, not until someone else drew his attention to them. “What was he thinking?” I thought to myself.

***

We got back at around 2am. I couldn’t sleep a wink throughout the night. I wasn’t this nervous when I applied for Jaskey. The man from the club, long forgotten because I had to face reality at some point. I knew I would probably never get to see him again but my application gnawed heavily at my mind.

“What is wrong with me?” I pondered as I rubbed my eyes for the fifth time that night. 

I rolled over to look at my alarm clock. It was 6am. I had thought through the entire night. I sighed, grabbed my phone and stood up. “Might as well just get the day started.” I muttered to myself.

I walked to the kitchen with bloodshot eyes. Thea was looking like she got dragged through a train 

track.

“Migraine?” I asked.

“Jesus! You scared me.” She grabbed her head and groaned. Being loud didn’t help with migraines.

“You look worse than I do and I was the one who drank. Couldn’t sleep?” she asked. I nodded in reply. 

“I sincerely have no idea what you’re worried about. You are one of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever met.” I smiled at that. At the fact that she had more faith in me than I did myself. 

“You have nothing to be scared of. Trust me. I’m a psychic remember?” No, she wasn’t. She was more wrong than right most of the time. I looked at her apprehensively.

“That’s not comforting, considering the number of times we got into trouble just because you 'thought' you were right.” I air quoted.

“But I’ve been right before, no? Just trust me on this one” she said.

“You’re so delusional but fine.” I chuckled.

“We should be getting a reply any day from now.”

“I don’t think so. They’d have so many applications to look through. Maybe a few days or …” my notification sound silenced me. Out of panic I looked at my phone in time to see the sender from the push notification before it disappeared.

“Was that…?” she asked with fully awake eyes now.

“Yeah.” I said not quite sounding like myself.

“Well… what does it say?” I opened my phone to read the contents.

My stomach twisted in knots. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all.