Shadows of the past

Chapter one- part I

    The lightening wasn't doing justice to the beauty and professionalism in the office. She was a woman of great taste and the office exposed that with its urban furnishings and white walls.
    She wasn't particularly ready to get up from the sofa which she had turned into a bed for the past few days so she relaxed much deeper exhaling loudly.
The sound of her phone ringing got her up finally; "I told you to stop sleeping in your office" the voice yelled.
She sharply reduced the proximity between the phone and her ears.
"It would be appreciated if you actually don't make pointed attempts at ruining my hearing, Max"
"Where are you?" He asked.
"Well where do you think?" She retorted.
"I've got news, be sure to get back to your apartment soon." He said before hanging up.
    Max was her assistant who for some reason felt he could boss her around. It was already weird that he reported for work at her apartment not in the office.
"He was the one who deserved a scolding" she thought.
She lazily packed her things and in fifteen minutes she was in her car hoping the engine which she had refused to fix three days ago wouldn't fail her.
It took her about thirty minutes to get into her apartment complex watching Max make his way to her.
"You really need to give me a key." He complained.
"You have no business in my home when I'm absent." She replied.
"Well, what's the news young man?"
"He is back in town." The color in her face was beginning to drain, it was as though she was silently hoping that she had heard wrongly.
"Not only him actually, Ella and Star too, seems like they got an invitation that kept them coming."
She dropped the tumbler in her hand, "We made a promise to never be found in the same environment again, why would they come unannounced?" She asked majorly to herself.
"As I said, they got an invitation, I believe they are guests to Mr and Mrs Smith's anniversary dinner."
"I also need to be there Max, I need to ask Mr Smith for a favor and being there will butter him up." She yelled.
"So you go. Don't always make things about yourself, you just go in there, say hi ti who greets you and you leave after your mission is accomplished. "
"Let's talk later."
With that she left for her bedroom. She didn't like the way it made her feel, she was anxious and whenever she's anxious bad things happen.
Burying herself inside her bed, she made muffled attempts to scream.
This was her world, they'd all separated they had no business striking her world with their presence especially now.
She opened her drawers to look at the invitation she got from the Smiths, the dinner was tomorrow evening. She had no time to meet up with old frenemies.
She phoned her office and told her secretary to cancel all her meetings for the day, there was this sudden need to prove to them that she'd been ok, that she's now a woman of class, it wasn't necessarily a competition but yes, she had to win and that's exactly what she was going to do.
Existing her house, she got into her car but this time around the engine didn't favor her.
"Darned engine." She cursed.
Her phone rang at the exact same moment she was about to call Max.
The name on the caller ID scared her so much, it had been a while she got a call from him.  "Dare devil" she whispered as she picked.
"Shane, Shane... you most definitely didn't think you could run away from me right?"  His deep voice  faltered out.