Heart Me

1

Paris

Sitting on her chair, looking out at the window of her new office, Iris looked outside. The Eiffel Tower had its lights on, majesty of the city in its plain grandness. The night had fallen though it was still five o'clock in the afternoon of a cold December day. It had been raining all day and thicker darker clouds could be perceived in the sky as haunted shadows hovered over the city of lights. The red Christmas lights embellished the streets and despite the rain, people were going in and out of shops buying gifts for the season that approached. Bare foot over the white carpet of her luxurious office, Iris watched the commotion outside from her 7th floor. It was her first office in Europe though she already had offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and obviously, Seattle, the first one after she decided to work on her own. With many of her clients leaving the company with her, Iris created a small imperium of her own. A dream come true. Turning her chair around, she looked at the photograph of her four children on her desk and she smiled but at the same time, her eyes filled with tears. She missed them. She missed them the most especially with the Holidays approaching.

Zane was already 15 years old and bringing them problems with Olivia. Chris had been talking to Stone about his daughter. River was ten and looked so much like her father with his huge greenish eyes and his temper too. Harlow was eight and took after her grandfather James, even their smile was just identic and the youngest, Ula, was just four and was blond with blue eyes like Iris and like Zane. They built a big family and had wonderful kids with great values. Iris quickly cleaned her eyes carefully not to smudge her makeup, after all, she still had a dinner with one of her associates, and looked at the time - it was around 10 am at home. Her children should be up by then. As her phone rang, she almost jumped in her black leather seat and her heart sped expecting it to be one of her children, but it was Marc and she released a huge gasp. Iris took a deep breath and then pressed green to take the call.

"Hi, Marc." She greeted with a sad tone. "How are you?"

"I'm fine... look..." He breathed and she closed her eyes, resting her chin on her palm knowing something heavy was coming her way. "... I'm going to send you an email with all the files." Her eyes filled with water once more, but so much that tears ran down her face.

"Already?" She asked as she tried to clean her face with the tip of her fingers.

"He gave me everything yesterday." Marc informed her, but it was too late there so I didn't want to bother you."

"I see..." Iris closed her eyes and ran a hand over her forehead. Suddenly, her head was pounding and her heart palpitating in a very bad way.

"He didn't tell you?"

"No..." She breathed. "He didn't tell me anything."

"I just didn't want to catch you off guard. That's all." The lawyer told her.

"What do I have to do?"

"Sign it and send it back to me." There was a heavy silence on the other end. Even her breathing stopped. "Or we can wait until you come back... there's no rush."

"Yeah..." Iris frowned. Her head turned fuzzy, confused and the beep of a second call caught her attention. "Got another call..."

"Ok... send me an email or call me if you have any doubts."

"Fine..." That's all she said as she hung up the call, taking the other. "Hi..."

"Hi..." Austin greeted her on the other side. "Just wanted to check if our dinner is still up? I got us reservations at that restaurant you wanted to try..." He smiled.

"Uhmm..." Iris felt a pang in her heart. Her lungs were not expanding enough. She was on the verge of crying, sobbing even. "I'm sorry... I don't think I'm in the mood...I got a terrible headache, had a tough day..."