“Your life just keeps on getting more an more eventful, doesn’t it?” “Tell me about it,” Emily groaned and banged her head on the table. “I kid you not Tyler, my mind was barely in class the entire time. Everything the professor said sounded no different to gibberish to me.” “Christ, is it that bad?” “Yes it is,” she slammed her head against the table again. “It really is.” She could have cried as she pressed her head hard against the table, wishing she’d just evaporate into thin air. She was losing her mind and every single time she was reminded of the contract she had signed, she felt a fresh wave of frustration wash over her. She shouldn’t have signed it. She should have stood her ground till the end. But instead she had allowed her temper and impulsive thinking get the best of her and now had successfully roped herself into not only one or two but numerous dates with Giovanni. Numerous opportunities to see his face when she desperately just wanted to forget every single thi
Emily glanced at the mirror one last time, smiling proudly at her reflection. The stylist had kept to her word and ensured she dazzled in purple. She was dressed in a deep purple gown hugging her curves before flaring slightly above the knees. Delicate cap sleeves and a modest v-neck showed just the right amount of skin. She had taken extra time with her makeup, dusting lilac shadows onto her lids and blending a rosy flush onto cheekbones. Glittering purple lip gloss made her smile sparkle. Pulling her long dark hair over one shoulder in loose waves completed the look.Confident her appearance was going to make Giovanni turn his head in extreme annoyance at the among of purple when he had clearly declared his hatred for her favorite color, she stepped out into the restaurant August had escorted her to.Two valets opened gilded doors, nodding respectfully as Emily swept inside on a cloud of perfume. Her heels clicked purposefully as she walked in, floor-to-ceiling windows glowing warm
NAME: GIOVANNI RUEBEN NICHOLAS DATE OF BIRTH: 06/04/1989 OCCUPATION: CEO Rueben Corporations. 100 THINGS ABOUT GIOVANNI RUEBEN 1.) He is rich. Extremely 2.) He is handsome. (Been offered modeling gigs numerous times but rejected all) 3.) He is tall. 6ft1. 4.) He is successful. (Made it to Forbes list at 24) 5.) He speaks four different languages (English, French, German and Spanish.) 6.) He graduated from Harvard as the best graduating student of the year. 7.) He plays the guitar and piano. 8.) He can cook (But doesn’t cook for anyone other than himself) 9.)He can play sports (But doesn’t play it in public out of fear it’ll cause a sensation between teams as they all uselessly try to sigh him) 10.) He has been to more than 30 countries and counting. Emily flipped through the pages of the papers in her hand, irritation flowing through her veins as she did. Never did she think she’d come accross such a list as the one currently sitting her lap. A 100 things about him? Mo
It was just another date. Another formal, professional and boring date Emily had no interest in. But that didn’t stop her from pairing her black leather skirt with a bright purple blouse as her outfit for day. Paired with purple earrings that stood out well with her hair tied up in a bun, she was more than ready to pass time on another date with Giovanni. By her request, he didn’t send his personal assistant or anyone else to drive her to the location. All she needed was the address and she told him she was going to get there herself. It was another restaurant and Emily could only think about how boring he was. Were dinner at restaurants the only date ideas he could think of? Were they going to have to eat just dinner for as long as the date thingy lasted? Not like she cared anyways, she quickly brushed the thought away. It was up to him to have them sit awkwardly for an hour or even more. All that mattered to her was the fact that she was appearing at the table and fulfilling h
“I made a playlist of our favorite indie songs! Should I send it you?” Under normal circumstances, overheard conversations like that would never bother Emily. She was not the type to poke her nose into things like that especially since she generally wasn’t a fan of indie songs. But the moment she heard the keyword indie, she found herself immediately at alert, her mind immediately taking her back to her last date with Giovanni. Indie songs. Those were apparently the genre he listened to but for some reason unknown to her, he had stopped for a while. A reason she was able to quickly figure out herself. It must have been work. She had seen how much of a workaholic he could be so that must have been the reason. He allowed himself get caught up with so much work he was unable to get new music and in the process, fell out with the latest indie songs. But that was finally going to change. Excitedly, she rose to her feet and rushed towards the bunch of girls having the conversation s
Emily woke up to the loud sound of her alarm ringing, couple with the sun peeping through the open curtains hung around her windows. Rubbing her bleary eyes, she struggled to get up, her phone by her side ringing loudly making the entire process much easier. With a groaned, she turned off her alarm and checked the time, her eyes immediately widening in horror. It was past 8am already. Meaning she was undoubtedly going to be late for her morning class. “Shit,” she jumped out of her bed, pulling the sheets she barely used throughout the night away from her. Realizing she was still dressed in her outfit from the previous day and didn’t even cover herself the entire night, she stopped for a second to try to recollect what had happened, her memory quickly rushing back. “Right, the text.” Hurriedly, she reached her phone and swiped it unlock. Immediately, she hit the message icon and much to her disappointment, still had no new messages from Giovanni. But even more disappointingly, h
Giovanni listened to Emily hang up the call, a wave of guilt immediately washing towards him. He sighed and tossed his phone away, returning his undivided attention to the laptop in front of him. He couldn’t remain as focused as he wanted to be though, Emily suddenly interrupting his thoughts over and over again. With a groan, he reached for his phone again and opened the message he had read from her hours ago. He stared the link for an unusual amount of time contemplating clicking on it and finally listening to the playlist. Almost immediately, he shook his head to himself and dropped his phone again. It was all her fault for putting herself in such a position. He had only talked about the music he once used to listen to so why did she have to go as far as creating a playlist for him? Suddenly able to neither work nor clink on the link in front of him, he folded his arms and remained silent for a while. Until he heard the door to his office open, August walking in. “It’s past w
Giovanni was never one to wake up late. His average day started as 6am with him hitting the gym first before anything else. Then he returned home to drink a cup of coffee, watch the news, check his schedule for the day and ensure even a single minute didn’t go into waste and when he was finally done, get freshened up and leave the house by 7:30am. That morning was no different but alongside the news he watched at 7am, he found himself glancing at his phone, wondering if just maybe, Emily had dropped a message for him. He knew it was comical to expect her to send him a message especially after he was so cold in telling her to keep her distance but for some reason, he couldn’t help but dare to dream. Realizing receiving a text from her was going to be nothing but an illusion, he gave up and continued his activities for the morning- focusing on his news and then getting freshened up to leave the house and head to work. At exactly, 8:15 am, he got to work. He was surprisingly fifteen
Several months later… “And that’s a wrap for today.” August raised his head over his macbook to take a glance at Giovanni, genuinely amused as those words escaped his lips. Months ago, he was the boss that didn’t care about things like a stated closing hour. He worked till whenever he pleased and only left the office when it was beginning to feel too late to be in the office. But now, he was a completely different person- he never spent a minute past 4pm working. “Alright sir.” “Yes, sir.” “Thank you for today, sir.” The sounds of papers shuffling filled the air, followed by the scraping of chairs as staffs rose to their feet, hitting the floor with their heels as they rushed out of the meeting room. In no time, the room was left empty to no one but August and Giovanni, preparing to do the same. Except Giovanni was more nervous than August could ever be. “You leaving work by exactly 4pm would never cease to amaze me,” August had to comment. “I guess love really does change
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Giovanni watched August loosen his tie as he nodded, seeming convinced on the decision he was about to take. After what seemed like an eternity, they were both done with work for the day and naturally, were supposed to head home. But August had decided he wanted to visit a bar and of course, drag Giovanni with him. A sigh escaped Giovanni’s lips as he watched his best friend finally free himself from the clutches of his tie, dancing a little as he shoved the little piece of clothing down his pocket. Though he wasn’t sure what exactly he was expecting when he called Tyler several hours, he was sure that wasn’t it. “Yes,” August nodded, flinging his arm across Giovanni’s shoulders, earning a shudder from him. “I’m just going to drink a little then head home.” “A little?” it was hard to believe he wasn’t drunk already the way his words drawled. “August, you intended to drink just a little yesterday?” “That was yesterday,” he waved his fingers in
August woke up with a headache, serving as a dreadful reminder of how the previous night went. Dozens of bottles of wine, hundreds of honesty laced words. And of all the audience to have accompanying his foolishness, it just had to be Giovanni. “Fuck,” he groaned, reaching for his phone. He could remember Giovanni driving him home after he drank himself to stupor but that was all. He couldn’t remember anything else- like how he had gotten into his bed or how he had gotten his phone next to him. “Shit, what’s the time?” He swiped his phone unlock to check the time but literally immediately, his eyes caught something else. It was his call log. And sitting prettily at the top was a missed call from Tyler. It was more than enough to cure his hangover, his eyes immediately widening. A missed call from Tyler? How did that happen? When did that happen? Why did that happen? For the hundredth time, he let out a groan, realizing he still had no memory of what happened the previous night
“You think you have a crush on August?” Tyler took in a deep breath, sitting up as the words finally escaped from the clutches of his throat. After weeks and weeks of denial, he had finally decided to come clean to himself. And finally, his best friend too. “Yes,” he nodded, his heart racing in his chest. “I think I have a crush on him.” Emily’s expression was unreadable for a while, wavering between shock and confusion. She always knew there was something fishy going on between him and August. She knew there was more to their relationship than he was admitting but couldn’t frankly figure out Tyler having a crush on him. “Are you surprised?” Tyler swallowed as he asked. “Disappointed? Dis-” “No, no,” Emily quickly interrupted him. “It’s nothing like that. Shocked? Yes, I am, a little. But disappointed? I’m not ‘dis’ anything.” “Oh,” he broke into an awkward chuckle, his chest feeling a lot lighter. “Well, yeah. I know you’re probably wondering how it all happened but I guess,
Emily feet remained glued to the ground, shock flooding her veins. Not just shock though- she had a couple of other emotions running through her. Anger, deceit, betrayal- to a name a few. Her sister was fine? Stacy was fine all along? She was just hiding from her and making a total fool out of her with the consent of both her parents? All along, her disappearance was just an act put in place by her and her parents because she didn’t want to get married to Giovanni? She didn’t want to believe her ears but with every second that passed, the brutal truth was slapped onto her face all over again. It was slowly making sense and finally, the anger in her grew and overpowered every other emotion she felt. Without hesitating for even a second, she balled her fist and immediately pushed the door to her parents’ room open, revealing herself to them. “Alright dear. We’ll call you some other time to- Oh my God, Emily.” Her face grew cold as she stared at them, watching her mum immediately
Their ride to Giovanni’s had only lasted a couple of minutes when his phone vibrated by his side, signifying a text message. Busy with driving, he immediately asked Emily to check what it was on his behalf, the duo immediately realizing August needed Giovanni’s presence for something urgent. Needless to guess, something work related. “I could cancel,” Giovanni suggested, noticing the disappointed look on Emily’s face. “Tell him I’m busy or something. I don’t have to-” “No,” she shook her head, refusing his offer. “You don’t have to.” “But-” “It’s probably important,” she flashed him a weak smile. “And come on, you’ve been away from work for a while so it’s probably really urgent. You should go. I’ll be fine.” “Alright then,” he nodded in return. “But I’ll drive you home first. Do not even try to object to that. I’m driving you home.” Already disappointed at their time together getting cut short abruptly, Emily had no intention of wasting the few moments they could spend togethe
Giovanni: I'm outside.A text from Giovanni had never given Emily that much joy. And without wasting a single second, she grabbed her bag and dashed out of the classroom, heading to the parking lot to meet the man responsible for her bundle of joy.Her temporary goodbye to Tyler was quick. And thanks to her all sense of reasoning being overshadowed by her happiness, she couldn't notice how absentminded Tyler was as he mumbled out a reply.But that didn't matter. Not at the moment.In a flash, she found herself at the parking lot, her head shot up as her eyes roamed around excitedly. In barely a minute of searching, she found him waving at her and eagerly rushed towards him."Hi.""Hi."Awkwardness threatened to settle between them, Emily quickly fighting back by breaking into a light chuckle. Followed by a blush creeping towards her cheeks as he remembered everything that transpired between them twenty-four hours ago."Hev.""So how was your test?" Giovanni asked. "Did it go well?""
With head hung low, Tyler managed to drag himself back to class. Darn that test he needed to write. Scrap his grade that needed to be saved- all he just wanted to do was head back home and get busy with anything that was going to prevent him from thinking. But he had no choice, hence had to be in class whether he wanted to or not. “Tyler!” The second he stepped into class again, he heard Emily call out his name. “Here.” He looked around him and realizing the professor was still yet to arrive, he walked towards her with a sluggish nod and returned to his previous seat. “Who did you head out to meet?” She asked immediately without wasting a single second. “Who was it? What was so urgent?” “Nothing,” he looked away. “It was nothing.” “You went to meet someone,” she insisted. “Who was it?” “I didn’t meet anyone.” “Was it a girl? Ah, is it a girl? Is there a girl you’re hitting on?” “No, it’s wasn’t a girl!” “I thought you said you didn’t meet anyone,” a full smirk appeared on
Tyler got on his toes and as quietly as he could, he picked up his clothes from floor and threw them on. August was still asleep and he couldn’t be more glad for that. It was the perfect opportunity for him to sneak out of the house without waking him up and in the process, starting unnecessary drama. Just like he did the previous night, he had a lot of emotions running through his veins. Confusion, nervousness, anxiety- the list could go on. But at least, one thing he was glad he wasn’t feeling was regret. Regret for sleeping with August. He spared his sleepy self a quick glanced and sighed, immediately getting the last bits of his things. All ready to leave, he walked out of the room and in no time, was successfully out of the house. “Crap.” He had classes in the morning and a test in the afternoon. He didn’t feel particularly great about himself though, making him contemplate ditching both of them. But he immediately remembered he couldn’t. It was a major test and unless he wa