“Not at all. The time is perfect,” I said before smiling at him. “Great. Let’s go. I’ll show you around. This hospital isn’t unique or anything and the work that I do might be boring for you…” Adrian said. I appreciated the effort he was putting in to manage my expectations. However, I was eager to learn more about him and I was sure that there would be many interesting new things for me to learn. “Don’t worry. I like learning new things and I’m sure that your day isn’t as boring as you make it sound,” I replied cheerfully. Adrian led me around the hospital, and I could tell by the way that the staff stopped to greet him that he was well respected and well-liked by everyone. Adrian attracted a lot of attention and because he seems so humble, he probably doesn’t even realize it. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman but I was more than conscious of the eyes of the other women on us as we walked side by side through the hospital. I wouldn’t say that the cold stares from the nurses and oth
“This is my office. Sorry if it’s a little messy…” Adrian said as he led me into his office. Although he mentioned that his office is messy, his office is anything but. It was clean and well organized. As I was looking around the large room, Adrian had shrugged off his doctor gown and placed it on a coat hanger. I turned around and saw him putting on a grey suit that matched his pants instead. “Switching modes?” I asked. “Yes. Maybe you’ve already figured but my main job here is managing the business. I do work as a doctor sometimes, but I rarely get to do that anymore…” Adrian said with slight regret in his voice. Adrian had a different vibe now that he was in a suit instead of the doctor uniform. It was a pleasant change. I wondered how he juggled between the two hats, and I had a feeling that I was about to find out. “I have a couple of meetings today with the management team and then late in the afternoon a VVIP patient is coming in,” Adrian explained his schedule for the day
“Wow, really…” I said in awe. “Yup. It’s not as big of a deal as you think but it does mean that I have to take care of his case along with the other doctors,” Adrian said. “I see…” I mumbled. Adrian flashed me a smile before he started taking off his suit and, in its place, he put on his white doctor coat again. ‘Welcome back, Doctor Adrian’ I said to myself in my mind as I smiled at him. One day I’ll get used to this transition of his, but not today. Soon, I found out that Adrian was right. I did recognize the politician immediately. He’s the minister of foreign affairs and is often seen on television during news segments. “Doctor Adrian, thank you helping me out today,” the man said with a friendly smile. “It always a pleasure to have you here at our hospital. How have you been feeling?” Adrian asked with a look of genuine concern. “Like usual. The treatment last time worked very well,” the minister replied. “Then let’s do the usual monitoring tests to follow up from last
His hands started applying some medicine on my sprained ankle before he started wrapping tape around my ankle. “Thank you, Adrian,” I thanked him after he was done. “If it swells up, I’m going to get you to take medicine for it,” he warned sternly as he got up. “I’m sure it’ll be fine soon,” I said as I smiled up at him.Adrian looked down at me from where he was standing right in front of me before he sighed loudly. It was my first day working for him and I’m already causing him so much trouble and concern. “You don’t need to tend to me next time, you know. I know you’re busy so it’s fine if you get the other doctors to do it. You should only treat VVIP patients, right?” I said half teasingly and half seriously. “Who says you’re not a VVIP patient?” he teased me back before he reached out a hand and placed it firmly on my shoulder. “Am I as important as a minister now?” I asked with a small laugh. “You’re way more important,” Adrian replied. The serious tone in his voice and
“Welcome!”“Nice to meet you,”“Welcome to the team!”The atmosphere was very friendly and super hyped. The team members consisted of both genders and were varying in age. However, everyone seemed very enthusiastic to work together. It must be because of the hard work of these people supporting him that EROS is as famous and successful as he is today. Today was my first day on the job as EROS’s assistant manager. As discussed prior to this, this was only a cover for my fake girlfriend relationship with EROS. The man in question was still nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, the manager would be with us as well. Mr. Mark Davis is a famous talent manager that had been working with EROS soon after he debuted with his band. The band’s first album was such a huge success that the top manager was put into further groom them and EROS in particular. “Hmm…where is EROS?” I asked the manager as I stood by his side. The other team members have scattered to work on their respective jobs, so the man
I smiled professional and the Mega-X brand team members introduced themselves to us. At that moment, EROS got out of the car and came to stand by my side. “I’m EROS. It’s an honor to work as the face of your brand for this season. I am looking forward to working with everyone,” EROS said kindly before beaming his superstar smile at everyone. The man standing next to me right now was clearly EROS in professional mode. He was friendly, humble, professional, and extremely charismatic. He was nothing like the taciturn man with the dark and depressing aura from before. It was like he had changed into a completely different person from the moment that he got out of the car. “Umm…W-We look forward to working with you too!” the head of the Mega-X team managed to say after stammering a couple of times. I guess EROS does have that impact on people. We were led inside the studio before EROS, Mark and I were led to EROS’s dressing room. “They’ll dress him up for the shoot. We don’t have to d
Just like the photoshoot, the magazine interview and the radio interview went by smoothly like a breeze. EROS received ample compliments from both clients, and they looked forward to working with him again. I was starting to see why EROS was so popular in the industry and why his schedule is always packed with jobs. “Finally, we’re heading back to the agency. Your music producer will be there to meet you when we get back. As I told you before, he wants to discuss your new single,” Mark said as he kept his eyes on the road ahead. EROS seemed lost in a daze as he stared out at the scenery that was passing by through the car window. From the looks of it, I doubt that he actually saw anything that was passing by. I wondered if he was tired and then I thought that it would be extremely disturbing if he wasn’t tired after all the things that he’s done today. One thing that I’ve learnt for sure is that EROS worked hard. His success wasn’t from natural-born talent alone, it also came from h
Finally, we arrived back at the agency and made our way up to EROS’s designated floor. Being the top star of the agency, EROS had his own floor and rarely uses any facility with the other celebrities in the agency. He had his own dressing room, dance studio, recording studio, meeting rooms, living quarters, fitness and the list goes on and on. Mark quickly led us to one of the meeting rooms on EROS’s floor where the producer was already waiting for us. EROS hasn’t said a word since we entered the building and his charismatic aura had been completely switched off. “Are you sure it’s ok to promise the fan about a new single when you haven’t even started working on it?” Mark asked with concern as we walked along. “It’s fine. I don’t like to disappoint my fans plus we’re supposed to launch a single soon anyways…” EROS replied passively. We entered the meeting room and a very thin man in baggy clothing was there waiting for us. He greeted everyone with a warm smile. So, this man is the
“What are you sorry about, Elena? Are you sorry for turning me down?” he asked.His cold and very calm tone made my body tremble, and I could feel myself sweating from my own nervousness. I wanted to answer him but then I realized that I didn’t know what I was sorry for. “Please let me go home. I’ll make it up to you another day,” I said to excuse myself for the day. I turned to reach for the car door and once again I felt his grip on my arm pulling me back. It was rare for Brandon to act persistent like this, and it just made me want to scream at him out of frustration. I whirled around to face him ready to do just that.“What is it that you really want?” I spat. “To have sex with you,” he replied smoothly.“You know well that that isn’t want I’m talking about…” I said through clenched teeth as my frustration quickly turned to anger. “What’s wrong, Elena? If you can do it with him in the hospital, surely, you can do it with me here in the car…” he said as he stared at me with a v
The lights turned green, and we were on our way again. Our brief yet intense conversation came to a pause. We were getting close to the intersection where Brandon would usually let me off so that I could walk back to my place. The night felt darker than normal, and I wasn’t sure if that was because of my mood or not. Not a lot of cars were on the road which thankfully made the traffic lighter than normal. “Should we go to your room? It’s supposed to be really close by, isn’t it?” he suggested seductively. I turned to give him a curious look. His sudden question came out of nowhere and it surprised me even more to find that he seemed quite serious about it. My lips curved into a smile before I automatically began laughing it off as a passing comment that didn’t mean anything. “Thanks for driving me back,” I said as I reached for the door. There was no point in delaying my departure any further. We had arrived at the spot where I was supposed to get off and so I should do exactly th
“Yes, and I like it that way as long as I’m the only one buying,” he replied without missing a heartbeat. I bit hard on my lower lip when I had to admit to myself that I had asked him the wrong question and had invited this misfortune upon myself. His hand around mine felt warm and his grip was firm as he pulled me after him toward his car. Something told me that he wasn’t kidding when he said that. I let out a sigh when I resigned myself to following him silently to his car. Fortunately, there weren’t many cars on the road and traffic was extremely light. That meant that it wouldn’t take too long for him to drop me off so that I could walk back to my place. It wasn’t like I was scared of him, but I did feel uncomfortable being in the enclosed space of the car with him alone. The revealing and brightly colored dress that I had on did not make me feel better and I wondered why I wasn’t smart enough to opt for a pair of pants and matching blazer instead. Everything might have been in
The desire that I sensed in his intense gaze made my heartbeat quicken despite the many times that I told myself silently in my head to remain calm. My lips felt dry, and my tongue instinctively moved to lick my lower lip. “Thanks for the advice, I guess. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave so you can get back to whatever it was you were working on,” I muttered softly as I tried my best to excuse myself. “One more thing before you go,” he said to halt my departure.This time it was Brandon who got out of his seat. I turned my head around as he walked toward the worktable in the room. To my surprise, he returned with a box. Brandon came to stand right in front of me before shoving the box toward me. “What is this?” I asked with a hint of suspicion. “Open it and you’ll see,” he said without answering my question. “Ok…” I murmured while feeling slightly confused. It was so like Brandon to be mysterious about everything. With what had just happened between us, I didn’t think
Maybe, just maybe, things would have turned out differently if he hadn’t left me. If we never broke up, my life might have been better or more normal. I was very tempted to think that it was his fault that I ended up the way I was. If I had been younger and less experienced, I would have thought exactly that. That it was all because he dumped me that I was forced to marry George to save my family’s face. Back then, I was too heartbroken to think straight or resist my parent’s proposal. The man that I chose out of my own free will had betrayed me and suddenly left. I was too shocked to even face reality and the mistake that I made. It made me lose all self-confidence that I could make any correct decisions in my life and that perhaps, my parents were the ones who knew better. If I had been younger, I would have pinned everything on Brandon as his fault. However, I was no longer that young, fresh, and green. I looked up and I couldn’t hold in my giggle and ended up laughing softly at
There were many things that I needed to apologize for, and I was certain that he knew that already. It was unfortunate, but I wasn’t in a position with a whole lot of bargaining power, and he absolutely knew that as well. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he wanted to hear me say it, then I had no other choice but to say it. “That day at the hospital, I was unprofessional. Although I was supposed to be working for you, I ended up serving another client when we happened to run into each other…” I said before I pressed my lips tightly into a thin line. My throat and my lips felt dry, and I had to run my tongue along my lower lip. Brandon did not say anything, and he did not seem at all impressed at my attempt to do things his way. His eyes stared coldly at me, and I knew that he was waiting for me to go on. “This is all still kind of new for me, and yes, I know that it’s not a great excuse, but I didn’t know how to handle running into two of my clients at the same time. I panicked…” I
Just as I had expected, within the already very private space was another level of privacy when he led me to a private room. Once again, I began to wonder what exactly Brandon had planned. Although he appeared the way that he always did, I couldn’t deny that the atmosphere between us was unusually tense. I wondered if he also felt the way that I did or if I was the only one who felt unusually stiff while we were together. “Sit anywhere you like,” he instructed casually as he gestured to the large set of white sofas in the middle of the room. My eyes scanned the pristinely white and modern interior of the private room that we were in. Apart from the large sofa set that was in the middle of the room, there was a very large shiny white work desk with a matching white leather chair. Brandon must have been working in this room before my arrival because his laptop still had its lid open on the table. “I didn’t know that you liked working in shared working spaces nowadays…” I said to make
Brandon was definitely the heir to the largest chain of casinos on top of hotels for sure. Brandon never played any game unless he was the gamemaster. I have never seen him lose a bet before either in my life. George was seriously a fool to think that he could win against Brandon and at his own casino at that. So now, what game is he going to make me play?The only way to find out was to ask him. I thought that that was ironic in and of itself. If I had to pick, then I would say that I would prefer not to see Brandon. Although what happened was more my fault than his, my desire to hide away from him outweighed my rational sense and reason to want to meet him. Before I would chicken out and change my mind, I took out my phone and sent a simple text to Brandon. ‘Where and when do you want to meet me?’ I counted silently in my mind to around twenty as I stared at my phone screen. Just as I had anticipated, Brandon sent me back a reply within that timeframe. Had he been expecting for m
“About that trip to the orphanage that we were talking about…” he began before looking at me as if to gauge my reaction. “I’d still love to go if you still want me to,” I replied almost immediately. “Really?” Adrian asked with such an excited look on his face. Suddenly, he appeared much younger and a lot more innocent. Just like an excited little boy who had successfully invited his friend on a trip, he beamed a smile at me. With what had happened between us, maybe he thought that I would have changed my mind about going on a trip with him. If he was someone else, that might have turned out to be the case. However, if I was being honest, I really looked forward to going on that trip with him. It wasn’t just because it was a chance to spend more time with Adrian, but the idea of visiting orphanages felt like the right thing to do for me. Getting in contact with my past life might do me some good and help me figure out something about my sense of self and who I was. After being adop