Chapter 4

 "Oh my god! I can't believe it!!" She laughed and danced around happily.

"Oh good for you, Iva, or whatever your name is...please leave." He looked scared and he wanted her out, it was final, she was a weirdo and he didn't want to have anything to do with her. 

"My name is not Iva... or maybe it is." She giggled. "Aaaaa!" She shouted excitedly.

Sound of something grumbling interrupted her happy dance, it grumbled again, her stomach, "Ah! I'm so hungry!" She sighed as she patted her grumbling stomach. She then slowly tugged a lock of hair behind her ear and looked at him with hopeful eyes. The guy sighed in defeat. 

***

"Thank you for the food!" She shouted as she spotted the hot noodles bowl placed in front of her. She took out the fork and dug in. "Ow, it's hot!" She fanned her burning mouth. 

"Slow down will you?" His face cringed.

"But I'm so hungry!" She tried to speak with the noodles in her mouth. "Tch, hot! Water!" She took the glass beside her. 

He shook his head as he clicked his tongue finding her hopeless.  

"I was so shocked by the fact that I'm inside my own novel, I forgot that I haven't had anything since the day I came into this world." She wiped the bowl clean and rubbed her tummy satisfied. "I was so hungry that I didn't even have a chance to complain about this food-" She smiled nodding. 

"Excuse me? You're complaining after gobbling it all up? Be glad I even offered you that, you should be thanking for the free food rather than complaining." He glared at her.

"First let me complete my sentence, nevertheless the food was yummy, I enjoyed it. Thank you very much for your kind deed." She joined her hands and bowed to him. "And about the free food, I'm the author so I'll return this favor by making you rich, I can promote your character from book store owner to an owner of a publishing house." She smiled widely. "But I don't remember creating you." She frowned. "But yes, I can make you rich."

"No thank you. You don't need to return anything instead just do one thing, get the hell out of here and never appear in front of me again, I don't want to have anything to do with you." He grabbed both her shoulders from behind, pushing her until she was out of his store, "It was so not nice meeting you, hope to never see you again. Bye." He shut the door right on her face. 

"Not again!" She glared at the closed door in front of her. "Fine, even I don't want to see you again." She shouted. "This mannerless jerk! You just don't deserve to be promoted, just stuck being a minor character. Idiot!" She rolled her eyes. 

"Leaving him aside, now my exciting life as Iva begins, Reece, here I come." She smiled to herself and returned home, dancing along the way.

Reaching home, she searched the entire house again, "Where's Iva's wallet? I mean my wallet?" She scanned every corner, "I must have hidden the cash somewhere." She checked, knocking on the floor for any hidden spaces, finally, she found a hidden drawer with hidden cash. 

"Finally, I don't have to sleep on an empty stomach." She sighed with relief. 

"Now what's next? Ah, yes, meeting Reece again in a car accident and getting a job in his company, hmm... let's see, I was kicked out of my office and I have to go job-hunting, hmm... the newspaper must be somewhere around....ah! gotcha!" She picked it up and scanned the page. "Here it is." She smiled to herself, "Now let' get the CV prepared and my computer," She searched, "there it is. Now mailing my CV. Should I only send it to RC or all other companies as well?" She thought for a minute. "Nah! Just send it to his company only." She then browsed the website but there was no vacancy announcement. "Heh?" She frowned. "Why not?" She scratched her head, "Is it not the time yet?" 

 "Okay fine then, let's not disturb the flow of the story, I'm Iva, let's just act as Iva, so I'll send it to all other companies... Wait I need to get my picture clicked too for my resume." She looked outside, it was still bright, "Great! Let's go for some photoshoot." She changed into formal clothes and headed out.   

***

Early morning, she donned on her formal wear, tied a pony, and went for the job interviews, she stopped at the red light twirling a candy in her mouth. Her legs tapped on the floor, she checked the time, she was running late. "Can't you go green already?" She narrowed her eyes at the red light. 

She then noticed a kid staring at her, she looked at him and raised her brows, the boy smiled at her and ran ahead, "Hey!" She shouted as the boy ran into the busy road. Cars honked as they passed by, "Where's his mother?" She looked around for his guardian but no one came forward. "Argh!" She dashed on the road when the vehicles were few, she grabbed the boy and picked him up, "You shouldn't run when the light's red." She pointed, she stood there as vehicles passed by and sighed when the lights finally went green. She was about to cross the road but a car just appeared out of nowhere almost crashing on to them. She ducked down grabbing the boy tightly, shielding him. She waited for the impact but nothing happened, she slowly opened her eyes and sighed with relief, "We're safe," she muttered smiling weakly at the boy who was now crying. "It's okay, shh." She wiped his tears. The guy got out of the car, "I'm so sorry." He rushed to them, she was about to shout at him for his reckless driving but got quiet when she saw his face, she recognized him right away, "Reece." She whispered and smiled, genuinely happy to see him.

"We meet again." His eyes softened. "Sadly not a good one again." He shook his head. "I'm really sorry, I don't know what happened, my car went out of control and you guys were right ahead. Are you okay?" He asked with concern. Just then the kid's mom showed up, she hugged the boy as she cried. "Ah-huh talk about the timing." She shook her head. The mother apologized and thanked her repeatedly. After they went, Reece turned to her, "Are you hurt?" 

"I'm fine." She smiled at him but her arm was grazed and bruised. "Oh no!" He held her hand taking a closer look at her wound. "We must disinfect that." He offered to take her to the hospital. The guy was feeling so guilty that she felt bad about writing this scene, you couldn't help it, Reece, it's the plot, if only she could tell him that, she sighed.    

"It's okay, I'm perfectly fine." She tried to cheer him up. Just then her stomach rumbled, Oh-oh, that's so embarrassing. She closed her eyes shut, can I just disappear? "Let me treat you to lunch." He smiled at her, "No, that's totally fine." She let out a nervous smile and then there it went again, she hit her stomach. "please? as an apology?" He looked on. She bit her lips, "please?" He raised his brows. She finally nodded. 

 They entered a restaurant and she surfed the menu, as expected of 'The Reece Brown' damn expensive. But who cares? I made you 'The Reece Brown' I should enjoy the privilege. Plus I'm hurt, I need to recuperate my energy with these yummy foods here, she smiled to herself browsing the menu. Goodness, I haven't even heard the names of these foods here, she frowned.

 She then felt his gaze on her, when she looked up she found him smiling at her, she blinked and handed him the menu, "you should choose, honestly I don't even know what that means" she pouted pointing the names on the menu. 

"Sure, let me help you, this is their special menu. Let's try this?" He smiled.

"Sure." She shrugged.

After ordering the food, they met with an awkward silence, Ah not the typical awkward moment time with hmm.. umm... conversation, she rolled her eyes, 'you wrote it', her subconscious rolled her eyes,'yeah but writing and being in that situation is different' She argued. 'I'm finally having a lunch date with my Reece, I'm not wasting it on some awkward silence.'  

"Let's forget everything and pretend that we've just met, okay?" She smiled at him, "Hi, I'm Ivana." She extended her hand, "Reece." They shook hands. "And I'm sorry for-"

"For what? We've just met." She wrinkled her forehead. 

"Okay..." 

"I can't believe I'm here with you." She looked at him dreamily, her heart fluttered just at the sight of him and now she was here having lunch with him. But her love for him didn't beat her love for food, "Food!" She clapped her hands excitedly seeing the food coming their way. 

He looked at her amusingly. She breathes in the smell as the food is placed in front of her, her stomach lets out another grumble, Reece laughs, hearing him she narrows her eyes at him, "Let's forget everything and pretend that we've just met, okay?" 

"Okay." He nods. 

"Good. Thank you for the food." She then grins looking at the food and digs in. 

After having her fill, she pats her stomach, just then her phone rings, seeing it her eyes widen, "Oh God! My interviews!" She stood up. 'Crap! I totally forgot about them. But I don't wanna leave.' She looked at the man of her dreams sitting right in front of her. 'But I need to survive in this world first, for that, I need a job, money so that I don't starve and die.' She hung her head down. 'I'll get the chance to see him again if I get the job in his office until the vacancy's out, I need to search for other jobs to earn money and survive till then and for that, I need to go for the interview, cheer up, Elle, you'll see him again.' She pacified herself. She looked at the watch, she was late 'better run now to make up in time.' 

"Sorry, Reece gotta go. See you soon. Bye." She runs out, in a lightning-fast speed he sits on his seat dumbfounded 'huh?' a few seconds later she comes back panting, my file, she reaches out, "oh yeah, and thank you so much for the yummy food, now gotta run!" She rushes out again. 

"Okay, bye?"  She's out before he could even respond. His eyes then fall on something on the floor, he picks it up to see her photo which she had taken to put up on her resume. He smiles at the picture, "Weird but cute." smiling to himself he puts the picture inside his shirt's pocket.