Eternal Code: La'lliia's Fire

2

Christian sighed, the day was finally here. With this day drawing to an end he may just be able to take some time off and finally relax. More so than ever within the past few days, the feeling of being watched had begun to annoy him to no end. He was exhausted, and tired of looking over his shoulder every time he left his apartment complex. It was very early in the morning as he locked his apartment up for the day. He knew if everything went as planned this would be an extra-long day, but then he could finally take the extended weekend he had already discussed with Jenny. Dave had yet to sign off on it, but with Jenny's help he had no doubt it would come through. Deep within his thoughts he made his way to the apartment's car lot, still with a nagging feeling that he was being followed.

Christian made good time getting to work that morning, with little to no traffic at the crack of dawn, he thought more than once of how he may just have to make a career change. Retail was okay, but it strained him more and more every day. He was lucky to have a schedule that allowed him his weekends off, but with inventory he had felt worked like a horse. He parked his Toyota Camry in the designated employee parking and made his way to the front doors where he could see Dave letting people in.

"Good Morning Dave."

"Morning Christian. Today is going to be a good day, I can feel it." A shift in the atmosphere caused Christian to pause. He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. "Everything okay Christian?"

"Yea, sure Dave, just smells like it's going to rain."

"Smells? Well that's a first for me buddy, but anyways...come on in. We are going to have a brief meeting with the auditors and then we will get started."

"Jenny here this morning Dave?" Christian asked as he scanned the parking lot, not seeing her vehicle.

"She is supposed to be, but she was here really late last night, so I am going to give her an hour more to sleep. If she doesn't make it by then I will call her." Christian simply nodded and made his way to the office, preparing for the auditors.

The morning slipped by quickly, Dave was true to his word and called Jenny when she did not show within the hour. Still he got no response and Christian became concerned. "This isn't like Jenny, Dave. Something's wrong..."

Dave interrupted him "I don't have time to deal with finding her right now Christian. I have twenty auditors here and we are opening the store in thirty minutes. Maybe if one of us has time at our lunch break we can go find her. The last few weeks have been hard on all of us man. She is probably exhausted."

"Maybe so, but you know Jenny is better than this."

"I do, that's why I am going to cut her some slack after everything she has giving over the last few weeks. I'll just switch her to the closing schedule for tonight and it will be fine. Lunch break won't be until eleven o'clock. If you want to go check on her then, feel free, I'll hold down the fort until you get back."

Christian sighed and nodded his head. He knew Dave was being extremely fair, but he also needed his head into the business. Inventory was important and would help determine their profits for the year. Christian called her one more time, just in case she had overslept, but still received no answer. He resigned himself to checking in on her during his lunch break and made his way back to the auditors.

Once the store opened the customers began to flow in. Grateful for the opportunity to actually work on the floor, as opposed to his office stuck in the back, he let himself get distracted chatting and helping customers all morning long. It was approximately ten thirty in the morning when he saw her enter the building. He was mystified by her instantly, his gaze locked with hers and he couldn't look away. This is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, Christian thought as he took in everything about her. She had curly chestnut hair that was tied back into a pony tail at the nape of her neck, her blue gray eyes were striking and he felt as if she was reading his soul. She was dressed simply in a pair of jeans and a form fitting blue cotton T-shirt that set off her eyes, but it was the sexiest thing he had seen all day. She appeared to be in her late twenty's and she was walking straight towards him. He let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding.