I woke up with a start, bleary eyes blinking open to a tiny glimmer of sunshine escaping through the side of the curtain‘What the….’, I bolt upright in bed, reaching for my alarm and wondering as horror spread through my insides the reason why it had not rang‘What am I doing in bed when the sun is already up',I clammer to grab the alarm at my bed post bringing it to my half lidded eyes and peering at it.‘8:15’, ‘Shit’, my eyes blinks wide open, jolted from my half asleep state by the timeScrambling out of bed, my leg tangles with the sheets and I land smack on the floor bruising my pyjamas covered knees‘Oooww!!, damned blanket’, I curse, trying to free my leg from the twisted blanket,Turning and reaching upwards, I turn trying to grab hold of the blanket that held my leg in a vice like grioBlinking in pain, I see Ajax still curled up in bed, holding tightly to the blanket I was trying my hardest to get out ofI blink again, ‘strange’,‘Even on the days I slept thro
‘Repeat after me', I stare at her, incredulity crossing my face as she points two fingers in the air, beside her face, she grabs my arm and makes me do the same after few moments of staring,‘I solemnly swear', I repeat her words‘To put myself first, above assholes who refuse to make their intentions clear’, I couldn’t help it, a laugh bursts from my lips and she mock glares at me.I repeat after her stifling a giggle,‘He hates me, so I hate him all the more' The giggle burst forth, and I feel lighter‘This is a serious matter', Bella bumps her fist on my upper arm, pursing her lipsI nod enthusiastically raising my fingers higher.‘I don’t care if he's treated worse than dirt', she used my earlier words and I repeat after her again‘I matter more', after I repeat it, she drops her arm,‘Let that mantra keep playing in your head', she glares at me again and I nod‘Until he says otherwise, and proves his words with actions, he remains the cowardly asshole who condemned yo
‘You’re late', Simon says immediately I entered, his eyes on his computer, not even sparing me a glance,‘Just…’‘Again!!!', he interrupts my prepared excuse.‘It's just 10 sec….’, ‘What's on my schedule for the rest o the day', he interrupts me again, dismissing my excuse,‘Asshole', I curse in my mind as I look through my phone for the next appointment.‘Meeting with the PR department in 30 minutes and after that you’re free',‘Good', I hear the mirth in his slightly elevated voice, surprise filling me.It quickly turns to disappointment and the change in his tone,‘So you wouldn’t have remembered that if you didn’t look at your phone', his voice drawls out, eyes still glued to his computer screen,‘Wh…what…’, I splutter out.‘Do your job properly', I stand there, mouth slightly open at this new direction he's coming from.His tone of voice and the fact that he had not even looked at me since I entered had me minutes from cursing out loud,I raise a fist and shake it i
One could hear a pin drop from the silence that reigned in the room after the presentation,As Simon smiles, the presenter goes paper white, hand gripping the podium for dear life.‘Oops', the quiet sound drops from my lips in a whisper as a scoff passes through Simon's lips.Standing up suddenly, the pin drop silence is only interrupted by the sound of raucous clapping,A manic smile on his face, an icy glint in his eyes, his hands hitting each other in a mocking clap, the temperature in the room drop further.The sound stops suddenly, as quickly as it had started,‘No one goes home until you fix this nonsense', ‘Oops', the sound falls from my lips in that whisper again as Simon speaks in that bone chilling voice.He turns and walks towards the door and I stand up hurrying at his back, At the door, he turns back, eyes fixated on Miss Debra,‘Fix it', she visibly gulps at the stare and voice in her direction nodding her head like a broken doll.I hurry after him as he exi
‘Better',Simon eyes flit across the screen of his computer, going through the files submitted by the PR department,His mouth utters the word but his eyes betrays no emotion, sliding through the pages with no traces of being impressed,I quickly text them the good news, feeling a little relief for them,With the way Simon treated them the day before, even I felt a little pity for them, and seeing the various degrees of bone crushing tiredness plastered across their faces just few hour ago fortified the said feeling.I bumped into a few of them, while I was riding the elevator to Simon's office in the morning,The looked like zombies with black eyes and rumpled clothes, they didn’t look like they got much sleep, and my lip dropped into a pout in pity for them.I even cheered them on even though I got scathing looks from said workers, but no worries, it didn’t change his much I felt for them.‘Tell them to go through with it', I nod at Simon’s words, not bothering to tell him t
Despite the fact that his soft voice was messing with my head and that warm look in the endless depths of his eyes was chipping at my defenses, I couldn’t help the scoff passing through my mouth at his words,If he heard my snide comment he payed no attention to it and my scoff seemed to be soundless in his ears,Taking my eyes off the mirror, I grab his file of papers and step out, hearing the door open at his side as he steps out without waiting for me to pull the door open.Moving forward at a brisk pace, I walk into Trove without looking back at him, I wasn’t going to sit around waiting for my mind to get captivated by those eyes, for my brain to give meaning to that look.I hear his footsteps behind me, hear the receptionist welcome him, hear his muffled reply but I remain focused on getting into that elevator.Taking the elevator without him would have raised eyebrows, so I retreat into the back corner of the elevator, my eyes on his broad back stretched taut in front of
The door slammed close, the sound reverberating through my body, echoing through his office. Hot breaths brush against my ear, tickling it and my cheeks burn brighter. The warmth radiating from his body envelopes me and still I try to get away, turning the doorknob downwards repeatedly, trying to force it open. It was pointless as his hand remained firm on the door, inches above my head pushing the door closed. I felt him lean closer to me, hot breaths, on the back of my neck now and I knew his head was bent, leaning into me. My grip on the doorknob tightens, butterflies exploding in my stomach, going on a fluttering charade as his breath tickles my neck. I felt conflicted, my body itching to turn towards him, to just get lost in his eyes, get lost in the heady feeling that was staring into those depths But I didn’t, I couldn’t, my hand fists tighter on the door knob I was clutching for my sanity, I just tore myself away from his addicting presence after a lot of struggle and
I duck out of the enclosure of his hands, watching his arms, muscular in their lengths go weak as his head droops, Ignoring the hurt in his eyes, the pain in the slump of his shoulders was hard but I put a blank look on my face, put unconcern in the light steps of my feet as I make myself comfortable on the leather seats.My eyes linger on his slumped frame, on the deep sighs exiting his mouth as he propped one hand on the door that I had just walked away from,The other hand rests in his hair, running through it repeatedly, messing it up.Pulling out my phone, I start on making reservation for the members of the PR of the department,My eyes flicker between Simon form at the door, the deep breaths he took that shook his shoulders slightly and the phone in my hand,For all my bravado, I was obviously affected by Simon’s words, made all the more evident by the fact that for the past five minutes, I had been unable to find the phone number of the restaurant I was to make a reserv
Taking deep breaths, our eyes still rest on each other and my hands fumble for the phone in my pocket, not eager to break this tiny slip in time.That loud ringing again and my eyes flutter close as I try to ground myself in reality, my chest rising and falling as I take in calming breaths,Sliding my eyes open, I peer at my phone screen seeing an alarm for Simon’s first schedule of the day.I close my eyes again, taking another long breath, making sure my voice won’t crack when I try to speak,‘You have a meeting with the CEO in ten minutes’, my voice sounds a little above a whisper, despite all my calming breaths,I turn my eyes back to him, seeing him close his eyes and take a deep breath, running his hands through his hair again,He stands abruptly, not saying a word to me, slicking his hair back with his hands, aiming for that semi-perfect look from earlier.Walking towards his desk he grabs his suit from it, sliding it on, adjusting his collar.I stand up to, trying my b
‘Where were we’, Simon walks into his office the next morning, adjusting the cufflinks on his sleeve, suit in hand, dark orbs on me,The clipped, hurried sound of his footsteps as he walked towards his desk had my head in a spin.The morning sun shining through the window and beautiful morning weather did nothing to quell the storm brewing in my heart,I try to push it down remembering the day before.‘Mom!!’, Ajax had rewarded me with an excited squeal and a hug when I picked him up early,‘Let’s eat out, let’s eat out’, with that same excited voice, he bugged me till I found a small restaurant secluded enough for our dinner,Spending extra hours with my son helped to reduce the hollow building in my heart to something inconsiderable,But now, Simon is bringing everything up again, unearthing conflicting feelings best left buried.A deep sigh exhales my lips,‘Good morning to you too’, I eye him annoyed,‘Sir’, I add honorifics after second thought,‘Didn’t want to start t
I find myself at the rooftop again, after dumping the bag of overturned pasta in the trash.The breeze from the rooftop did little to quell the building hollow in my heart, the hollow that always found it’s way to me after heated conversations with Simon.A hollow that left me with a deep-seated cold after blood boiling conversations with him.Afternoon sun beating down on my head, light breeze blowing across my face, I try to focus on the birds in flight in the sky and not the cold in my heart.A strand from my hair comes loose and I brush it back, feeling a greasy stain on my forehead,I glance at my hands and see it stained brown from sauce, folding it together to avoid staining my clothes I make a mental note to remember to wash off my forehead.My stomach growls again at the slight sight of food, it grumbles loudly, protesting my blatant disrespect for food.‘Right, right, I got it, never throwing food away again, even if that ass got it for me’, I smile looking down at my
‘Tina, stay, please, eat with me, don’t leave!’My eyes sweep in the direction of his voice, drawn to the magnetic pull of his voice,I find myself lost as my eyes lands on his.‘His eyes!’ my heart beats funny in my chest,They were whirlpools of sadness, longing etched unto the swirls of his magnetic gaze,I tried to utter an excuse, to spit out words rehearsed, words that always lay at the tip of my tongue, ready to be used in swift rejection, should Simon breach the terms of our contract.‘I…I’m not hungry’, I mentally face palm at the sorry excuse for rejection,My stomach rumbled, loudly, and I cringe at the resounding sound, my face heating from embarrassment,‘What the hell happened to ‘I’m not obligated to eat with you’ or, ‘an employer and his employee are not meant to eat together’’, I chide myself further, taking a few steps towards the door to flee Simon’s hypnotic gaze and my increasingly reddening face,My steps falter in their hurried movement when Simon stand
‘Not in this lifetime', I remembered Bella's words as I took the bus to work the next morning, refusing the advice adamantly even in my head, The imposing logo of Trove didn’t look as imposing to me as I walked through the glass doors inside, ‘It's magnificence wore out, probably because I was seeing it every time', this thought was on m mind as I walked into the elevator heading to Simon's floor. ‘Why then did this feeling not wear out', I look at myself in the reflective walls of the elevator through weary eyes. ‘Why did this feeling of impending doom, mixed together with that school girl excitement, splashes of tremor inducing anxiety and that lingering feeling of longing refuse to tire out', my face stares right at me, unmoved in it’s hard set, a total opposite from the raging furnace that was my mind, ‘Why did these feelings always put me in a chokehold whenever I was on my way to Simon's office' the elevator door slid open and my heels dug into the floor, trying to delay fac
She places a finger on her lips trying to look serious and failing miserably,‘Hmm, are you sure you’re coming from a work dinner or a personal dinner’, she stares at me, eyes wide, expectant.Her face morphs into confusion as she peers at my eyes, ‘You also look like you cried’, her hand goes up to swipe at my smudged mascara, her face quickly morphing into one of anger.‘It’s him isn’t it, Simon Valerie or whatever bullshit he calls himself’, her mouth spits fire, tone acidic as she calls his name,She takes hands of my arm rolling her sleeves up and placing her hands on her waist.She stares into my eyes, searching,‘What am I even waiting for, let’s go’, she grabs my hand, trying to pull me out the door.Despite my unstable state, I laughed, ‘go where’‘We have a body to bury’, she looks at me with surprise on her face, like I was the one making ridiculous statements.‘Why are we killing him exactly’, my lips turns up in a smile, folding my arms watching her incredulou
He looked at me strangely, eyebrows raised up in question, causing me to take a closer look at myself,I grab a mirror from my bag, seeing that my hair was properly disheveled, sticking out in different places, the end jutting out, I try and pat it down, my hand running through the curly fibers, trying to wrestle them into a knot.My eyes slide down to my crumpled dress, the hem of my shirt sticking out, I tuck them back in, smoothening down the front, adjusting my breasts that had lopsided from being squashed against something hard for so long.My eyes go back to the mirror in my hand, wiping lip gloss smudges at the corners of my mouth.My hand run across my lips again, savoring the tingling sensation.Taxi driver’s eyebrows meet his hairline, when a laugh drops from my mouth, My mouth drops open and a laugh startling and high pitched rang through the vehicle.I ignore the look on his face, laughing uncontrollably, clutching my chest as wheezes of laughter racked through m
Warm lips crashed onto mine, a thick arm enclosing around my waist pulling me closer and my mouth drops open in shock, He takes that chance to move in, hot mouth moving against my lips, Simon kissed me with fevered passion, plundering my lips like someone starved, I don’t respond, shock turning me frozen, alarm bells going off in my head ‘You hate…’, Bella’s mantra splutters into a stop when Simon whispers my name against my lips, into my opened mouth. ‘Tina’, my knees went weak, and I lean into him as butterflies danced wild in my stomach at that breathy sound of my name. My bag drops from my fingers onto the granite floor as my hand goes to his hair, holding on as I kissed him with as much fervor, Our mouths moved with rekindled vigor, hot breaths between us as I savored the lingering taste of meat on his lips, He dragged me closer, vice like grip at my waist, flush against him until no crack of space was left between our bodies. Our bodies fit perfectly against eac
We made our way into the Korean restaurant, behind the raucous lot that was our PR department.Getting comfortable around the large rectangular table that had been set up for our large group, I breathe in the scent of grilled beef savoring the smoky aroma.The waiters bring out the variety of meat and I take in the assorted combination, Meat, both plain and marinated, was arranged around our large table and my eyes went to the large grill, hanging from the ceiling as it gets turned on and the smell of cooking meat permeates the air.Simon said nothing as the meat started cooking and as drinks went round the table, he sipped from his glass of beer, ‘Before we start eating, this would be a nice opportunity to clink glasses to Mr. Simon Valero, the one who provided us with this premium beef’, Miss Debra raises her glass of beer and clinks it with employees around her and cheers went up, the clinking going round.Simon’s face remains a mask of indifference, only changing when Miss