Returning Red

#1[ii]: Isabella Cosmo.

right here, patiently waiting for you

Present

Austin

I button up my blazer as I step down from my car. My bodyguard shuts the car door behind me as we head inside the mighty New York skyscraper that reads SAFFORD with capital block letters. I take a deep breath as my skin begins to tingle under my grey suit. 

"Mr. Cooper," my guard Samuel says coming beside me. "Shall we?" 

I nod as I walk through the glass doors. Every step I take further reminds me of how much closer I am getting to her. After 8 years. I've waited 8 long years to see her face to face. Worked so much to establish myself enough to come in front of her like this. 

We enter the elevator and my eyes tear up. The last I saw her was when she looked up to the window of the hotel room before entering her car and driving off. Her last words to me were reassuring me that she loves me and that we'd be alright, moments before she just vanished from my life and destroyed everything. 

I've spent 8 years trying to overcome the betrayal. I've spent each minute trying to move past all the lies and promises she bluffed to me on my face, looking me in the eye and knowing very well that all those things she was promising, were never actually going to happen. I watch the elevator slowly raise through the floors. I was getting nervous and anxious with each passing floor. 

A part of me is completely mad at her, for being a traitor. But there is still a part of me that worries about her. My life for eight years has been the toughest phase of my life. My million attempts at trying to forget one person and continuously failing at it didn't seem that motivating after a while. You tend to give up on forgetting and focus on the other things in life. But as and when she's mentioned, the feelings and the memories tag along. 

I enter the conference room with a long table and plenty of gentlemen and ladies sitting across it. My eyes hunt for her, in every chair and every direction. When I don't see her, I wonder if she's having second thoughts about coming to the board meeting. But knowing very well that she's the youngest board member of Safford and having seen Safford use her as a youth icon, I'm pretty sure she won't be skipping this. She can't afford to skip it. 

"Austin Cooper, what a lovely pleasure it is to finally meet you," I'm greeted by one of the men in the suit as they stand up and stretch their hands. I immediately take it, smiling. "I'm Robert Marshall. I'm one of the board members and the head of the marketing division."

"Hello, Robert." I smile more now. "It's lovely being here." 

He gestured me to my chair that is opposite to him on the table. I make my way towards it and nod at Samuel to assure him that I can take it from here. Samuel nods back and leaves the board room, swiftly. 

"I hope New York is treating you well," Robert grinned as I unbuttoned my blazer. 

"Well, given that I landed just a couple of hours before, it might be too soon to tell." I formally laugh. 

He laughed along with me. This kind of laughter is what I'm used to hearing. Formal, postured, and graceful laughter that makes everyone think you're poised and capable of being a good leader. 

"I hope you get the best of what NYC has got to offer," he nodded, and that gesture was sweet, except my presence here was for another reason. 

"Right now, I'm just thinking about this meeting," I nod back. "Speaking of, do we begin?" 

Robert looks back to the door and his expression is tense. "Uh, yes, absolutely. Our magazine's editor-in-chief is on her way, so we can begin as soon as--oh, here she is." His tightened face relaxes and spreads into a smile.