FALLING SLOWLY

The following morning as Mira makes her way to leave for work, Mirabel reminds her to come home early as she'll be bringing her boyfriend home to introduce her to him. 

"We need to make a rule in this house that you mention your 'boyfriend' once a week because I think you are going to make my ears bleed soon" Mira teases.

"Oh, don't be jelly, Mira" Mirabel sticks out her tongue. "It's not my fault I'm hot"

"I see" Mira moves to the kitchen where she fixes herself a toast and warm milk. "Cheers to you being hot"

"Seriously, don't you want to date either. You've just been about work, work. At this rate, you might die single"

"I told you I already have someone I like, Mirabel"

"Then tell this person!" Mirabel grumbles. "He would never know how you feel unless you lay out your cards first"

Mira sips from her glass of milk. "That would be nice but he'd never noticed me before"

"Then that's perfect" Mirabel clicks her fingers. "Why don't you try seducing him? I can help you out"

Mira brings out her toasted bread from the machine as she chews on it, lightly. "That isn't going to work either"

"Why?"

Because now that he finally notices me, he thinks I'm you and hates my guts. Mira wanted to say but rather threw a 'I'm late for work' excuse. 

"Don't be late, tonight!" Mirabel calls out after Mira as she runs out the front door with her toast in her mouth. 

When Mira got to work, she smiles as she greets her teammates. "Goodmorning, everybody!"

"There's nothing good about this morning " Valentina drags out in a sleepy tone. "I feel like I'm going to die"

"Next time don't drink too much" Dwayne impeached. 

"Did you get home safe, last night?" Andrew asks Mira out of earshot. 

"Yes, thank you"

"Do you have your phone on you?"

Mira nods her head as she brings it out. "I do"

"Hand it to me, please " She obliges. 

"It must have been uncomfortable riding with the boss, right?" Andrews questions typing on her phone and handing it back to her. "Next time you need someone to bail you out, call me"

Mira grins. "Ooh, smart. I'll take you up on that"

Just then Kyle walked in as he calls everyone to the meeting room. 

The marketing team, fashion team, hair line team and others were gathered. 

"What's the latest on fashion" Kyle questioned Hazel. 

"Our latest design is all set and ready to be launched. We are trying to get some influencers like RJ and Jayden to wear our products"

RJ and Jayden were the hottest in the music industry. Brands sort for them in promoting their business as they were both good-looking and fit to be models. 

"Have you spoken with RJ and Jayden yet?"

"Yes, sir. I just got off the phone with RJ and he said he is all in" Jacinth from the fashion teamed impeached. 

"And what of Jayden?"

"His schedule is full at the moment so we haven't had the time to meet yet."

"Meet with him and get me back the report. Fashion team as usual, you have done well." Kyle says as he looks over to Mira's team. "Marketing team despite the fact that we changed the taste of enchanteur as earlier suggested, bad review still floods in. I'll be looking forward to hearing a solution from you soonest. Meeting dismissed"

As Kyle leaves the meeting board room, Valentina let's out a heavy sigh. "We got chewed on, again"

"Exactly. So why did you guys even decide to go throw a welcome party last night when you can't even do a proper job?" Hazel questioned with scorn. 

"Hey!" Mira shouted banging her hands on the desk, taking everyone by surprise. "I've had enough of your shitty attitude "

"A-Are you talking to me?" Hazel questioned taken aback. 

"Yes, I'm talking to you. We ate all working for the benefit of this company so why are you turning it to a competition? That's just a sad excuse to be a bully"

Hazel's eyes widened with horror. "Did you just call me a bully?"

"Yes, I did so stop with the emotional attack. It disgust me" Mira turned to face her teammates. "Let's go "

When they were back to the marketing department, Dwayne applauded Mira. "You were cool back there. I had no idea who you were for a second"

"That aside since they'd just turned this into a competition, we have to win. What is our product doing wrong? Any idea?" Mira questioned. 

"I have no idea what we're doing wrong" Valentina grumbled, all hope lost. 

"Whatever we do, it's the public opinion that matters" Andrew says as Mira's eyes widened. 

"I have an idea!" She says. "Why don't we go on a stakeout?"

"Stakeout? Like those detectives in the movies?" Inquired Valentina.

"Yes. Blend with the public, hear their opinion on what the product needs to be better and act on it"

"That makes sense. Should we do it as a team or individual?" Dwayne asked. 

"As a team. Tomorrow is weekend anyways"

"Cool. Should we go in pairs?" Andrew asked. 

"It's not slick as I can see that you just want to get paired Mira" Valentina says as Dwayne burst into laughter. 

"Well, it won't be that bad to go in pairs " Mira concludes despite their teasing. "So tomorrow it is then"

"Yes" They all agree, motivated. 

After work, Kyle offers to drop Mira home and this gesture starts to make her uncomfortable. 

And she couldn't even have him drop her off tonight especially since Mirabel would be coming home with her new boyfriend. 

The minute Kyle meets Mirabel, Mira knew it would be game over for her completely because Kyle would hate her for not telling him the truth that she wasn't her sister the whole time. 

And Kyle had obviously proven that he wasn't over her sister after all these years so she couldn't have him crawling back to Mirabel's paws. Not. One. Bit. 

"W-Why?" She stutters. "I can just take a cab back home, sir"

"It's too late to be by yourself at night" Kyle responds as a matter of fact. "Let's go"

Knowing she was fighting a loosing battle, Mira accepts defeat as she lets Kyle drive her home all the way with her heart beating fast against her chest. 

On a normal note, she was supposed to be excited as hell, right? But she couldn't help but feel nervous that Kyle might meet Mira. 

"You can just drop me off by the intersection" Mira says breaking off the awkward silence that ensued between them. 

She was too nervous to be chatty anyways. 

"That's too risky, I'll take you straight home"

Mira grumbles. She had no idea why Kyle was being extremely stubborn. "I mean, why are you so keen on taking me home? I've been walking this road for the past 15years now"

Kyle stops his car as he turned to face Mira. He understood that Mira might be acting this way to stop him from meeting Mirabel but he just wanted to make sure she got home safe or else he was sure he wouldn't be able to sleep well tonight. 

"Miss Message, do you have a problem with your boss driving you home?" Kyle questioned.

"No, but..."

"Then that's all. End of discussion" Kyle restarts the car as he drives off. Ten minutes later, they were Infront of Mira's house. 

"Well then, thank you for the ride sir" Mira says in a hurry as she alights from Kyle's car, passing through her front lawn when she hears a car door open behind her. 

She stills as she turns around to see Kyle behind her. "Shouldn't you be heading back sir?"

"Yes, I should but I'm suddenly thirsty and craving a glass of water"

"Suddenly? Then how about I get you one from a nearby convenience store. If you can just wait here..."

"Miss Mira, have I in any way offended you?"

Mira stutters. "W-What do you mean?"

"I mean, I understand that we started off on the wrong foot but I'm your boss. Regardless of whatever misunderstanding that ensued between us, I believe I'm worth a glass of water in your house, am I not?"

Mira bows her head, "I apologize if I came off as rude" 

Kyle cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable by her change in attitude. "Apology accepted. May I now please come in for a glass of water?"

"Yes, sir. Please follow me" Kyle fought the urge to suppress as smile as he'd finally achieved his goal. He wanted to enter into her house today. 

Why? He really didn't know. Maybe it was because he wanted to see Mirabel and assure himself that he was over her? Or maybe he wanted to show her that he was doing so much better than how she'd last remembered him? 

Whatever the reason was though, was far from Kyle. On walking into Mira's house, Kyle gazed around at the familiar scenery as bits and pieces of his childhood memories started to resurface. 

"It's not as if your house is untidy. I wonder why you were so keen on getting rid of me" Kyle says. 

Mira let out a nervous chuckle."I know, right?" She moves over to the refrigerator, brought out a cold bottle of water and handing it to Kyle.

"Thank you" Kyle takes the bottle of water, his fingers lightly brushing hers. He gulped down the water in a single sip as he let out a refreshed sigh. "That hits the spot."

"Thank you for driving me home, sir. Now if you don't mind..." Mira was cut off by the sound of a happy laughter outside her front yard. 

She stilled before moving to look outside the window as she let out a loud gasp. "She's back"

"Who is back?" Kyle questioned innocently as he moved to Mira's side by the window but before he could reach her, Mira had grabbed Kyle by his hands and led him to her room. 

"What are you doi..."

"Shh" Mira says looking around for where to hide before finally spotting her closet. "Get in there"

"W-Why?"

"Just get in there" Mira pushes Kyle into her closet and gets inside with him. 

"This makes no sense. Why are we hiding in your home?" Kyle whispers. 

"Please, keep quiet" Mira pleads as she hears the front door open as her sister's voice fills the air. 

"Come on in, Brandon" Mirabel says all giddy. "Wait here, let me go check if my sister is home". 

"Mira! Mira! Are you home?!" The door to their room opens as Mira hears Mirabel's footstep walk in. "Is she not home? I clearly told her to come home early. Let me try calling her"

Mira gasps in the closet as she brings out her phone from her pocket just in time to silence it. She lets out a sigh of relief as she hears her sister's retreating footsteps. 

"She's gone, we're safe now. Boss, are you oka--" Mira pauses as she looks up to face Kyle and it was just did she realize how close they were as their lips were only metres apart. 

Kyle could swear he could feel his heart beating hard against his chest. He couldn't tell what the cause was. Could it be because he was congested in this small space devoid of air? 

Or could it be that slowly but surely, he found himself falling for this woman right Infront of him whom he'd never noticed before.