[Simonas Pham as the qt Quan Nguyen]
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." - Charles Dickens
"Knighted? Oh Queen Elizabeth you don't have to..."
"Don't be thick Ivan it would be my honor, and please, call me Lizzy."
"Ivan?" He heard a voice yell.
"Yes Queen? Or sorry, yes Lizzy? Do you have a cold? You sound like my assistant Amaka, she can be a real grouchy-pants if you know what I mean..."
"IVAN." Somehow, through the ferocity of the statement, Ivan jolted up, a paper sticking to his face by the adhesive properties of his drool.
"Whaa..." He whispered to himself, deep in thought.
"Ivan!" His attention snapped to one very angry Amaka whose eyebrows were scrunched together, highlighting her frown. "Do you remember when you asked to me schedule an appointment with Mr. Nguyen? He replied back and said that he could do a meeting today, and went a step further and actually came here. I emailed you about this earlier!" Amaka huffed.
"Whaa..." Ivan suddenly thought back to last night reading all of his emails and then forgetting them in an instant. He really did not work well without sleep.
"Well Mr. Nguyen is here right now! And for godsakes Ivan take that paper off of your face!" Amaka walked up to his desk ripping the paper from his cheek. "Pull yourself together, we need this deal finalized."
"Yeah... yeah... I mean yes. The company." He willed himself to emerge from his dream state and reviewed the proposals.
Amaka walked out and he could faintly hear her say, "Mr. Nguyen? Yes, Mr. Guskov will see you now."
The wait for Quan to come into his office seemed like a long one. His palms started to feel sticky so he constantly ran them down his pants. He got tired of rereading the proposals quickly, because he had already known them by heart. He stared outside of his window, watching the tall buildings gently become covered with sprinkles of snow. He gazed at the dozens of people bundled up, walking towards their destinations. He took in a deep inhale and attempted to calm his nerves.
How would I act in front of Quan? He seemed to be a very casual person from our last meeting... but we also kissed! How do I act in front of someone I have kissed before? This is why dad settled down early. Its too hard to run a company if your worrying if a man likes you or not.
He resorted back to rereading the proposal, for it was the only thing that softened the harsh beating of his heart.
"Ivan?" He heard a smooth voice say. Ivan let out a breath and turned around facing Quan. He was in a purple dress shirt with a black vest and black slacks. As soon as their eyes met Quan's face brightened up into a wide grin and Ivan couldn't help but smile back. "Hey." Quan said.
"Hey." Ivan replied. He willed himself to keep things professional. "So, the proposal. We have to go over the terms to the deal and what we are both willing settle for and -" His sentence was cut short by Quan's laughing.
"We can talk about the proposal later, I want to do this now." Quan whispered, pecking Ivan on the lips while he stood frozen in shock. Quan backed away. "Ivan?"
"Quan, we can't do this right now, I need to finalize the paperwork." His eyes pleading, Quan reluctantly complied.
"Okay..." Quan slumped onto the chair beside him and pouted. Ivan straightened his tie and smoothed down his shirt as he seated himself taking a deep breath in. He mentally rehearsed his discussion points like he had been for the past couple of days.
"So -"
"Wait! Before you do that..." Quan said, diverting Ivan's attention from the stacks of papers of his desk to Quan's sparkling brown eyes. "I wanted to give you this." Quan pulled out a single rose from behind his back, one he had kept hidden for a while now, and had been very eager to impart. "For you." Quan handed the flower to a speechless Ivan as he stared at the blossom.
"You had these the whole time?" Ivan questioned.
"You didn't notice me holding my hand behind my back the entire time?" Quan retorted.
Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe it was his father. Maybe... just maybe, it was his fear. But in that split second, Ivan rashly bent the flower and threw it in the trash.
"Ivan?!" Quan stated with alarm.
"I am trying to finalize a deal with you, not play house. This is serious."
"I never said it wasn't."
"You aren't acting like you are serious."
"My feelings are serious." Ivan clenched his jaw.
"We can't have feelings. People like us, we have no time for feelings."
"People like us? You said something similar to that yesterday too. People like me, people like you... Why do you feel the need to stereotype people that way? The world isn't black and white. You can't organize people like files. We are people. All unique and different..." Quan glanced outside, "Just like snowflakes." He raised his hand to cup Ivans cheek. The action spread his warmth and affections and Ivan couldn't handle it.
Ivan grabbed Quan's arms and pushed it down to his side. "Snowflakes melt." Ivan walked away from his presence and opened the door without looking at Quan's face. "Amaka can see you to your departure."
And with those words, Quan left.
