When (he)arts Prevail

34

Kaylee kept checking her email insensately during the week. She was desperate to hear from UDesign and hopefully make some changes in her life — or not, but so far there was nothing. Even Glenn didn't know a thing.

Kaylee tried her best to keep up with her work and despite all odds and her lack of motivation, her managers still seemed pretty happy with her work, which Kaylee was not so sure it was a good thing.

In her spare time and evenings she would focus on the work she did with the guys at the studio, prepping the photographs and do one or two different designs with them. Hopefully by the end of the week she would have something to show them.

There was one particular photo of Brian that Kaylee really liked and since his birthday was coming up, she thought she could make something special with it.

She was in the middle of a meeting on Wednesday, when she received a text from an unfamiliar number. She disregard it at first, thinking it was probably publicity or something of the sort. It wasn't until later that day that she finally went to check her text to remove the notification and realized it wasn't actually a marketing campaign.

It was Alexander.

'Hey. I asked Mike for your number. I hope it's okay. How are you?'

Heat crept up her neck and Kaylee fumbled with an answer for at least 15 minutes. What was she supposed to say? Was it okay that he had asked Mike for her number? He surely wouldn't have asked Brian. He might have punched Alexander's face.

Kaylee decided to ignore the fact that someone else had given him her number and just went for it. Ignoring Alexander's text would probably be worse and make it awkward if they ever saw each other again.

She replied, 'Hi! I'm good. You?', and dropped the phone next to her on the couch, don't quite getting the rapid beating of her heart. He took forever to answer and despite pretending she didn't care about it, Kaylee kept checking her phone every other minute.

After a while, Kaylee had already given up on waiting and was heading for bed, her phone finally buzzed. Her heartbeat piked again and Alexander's name popped into her screen, now that his number had been added to her contacts.

'I'm so much better now!'
'You actually replied!'
'I sincerely thought I fucked up by asking for your number.'

His texts had come in rapid succession and Kaylee started smiling, which was probably a bad sign.

'It's okay if you make it worth my time :p'

As soon as Kaylee sent that text she regretted it immediately. What was she doing?! She had just told Brian the other day that guys were a distraction and here she was talking herself into another potential problem. One that was extremely handsome and had beautiful, blue eyes.

Kaylee shook those thoughts from her head and set the alarm for the next day on her phone while turning the living room's lights off and continuing on to her bedroom. It was getting late and she should be sleeping already. Yet, when the next text came, Kaylee cursed the heavens.

'Look, I'm not really a text kinda guy. Can I call?' she read.

Kaylee wanted to puke. Why was she so nervous?

With zero confidence and feeling her heart in her throat, Kaylee let Alexander know that it was okay for him to call, and those next minutes while she waited almost turned her stomach. She had time to get into bed and was hugging her spare pillow close to her chest, staring unblinking at her phone, when at last the screen flashed with an incoming call. Kaylee shuddered slightly. "Oh boy," she muttered to herself before clearing her throat and picking up the call. "Hey!" she greeted.

"Hi! Thanks for picking up! I hate texting! How are you?"

Kaylee had forgotten how smooth his voice sounded.

"It's all good. I'm good."

"Cool, cool."

"How about you?" Kaylee continued, dreading awkward silences. "How's that record coming?"

"Ah, you know. It's coming. It's been a journey, for sure."

"Yeah, I bet. It's never easy to follow our dreams, is it?"

"Damn, right. So have you looked at our photos? Do I look handsome?"

Kaylee let out a small laugh at that. "I think I managed a decent one or two"

"Wow, one or two. I think we need to redo them. Maybe solo... without distractions."

The suggestion made Kaylee blush and she was glad they were having this conversation over the phone and he couldn't see her. She masked her embarrassment with a chuckle.

"Everything comes with a price, Mr. Alexander."

"I'll pay whatever it takes."

She bit down on her lip to keep herself from giggling again and make a fool of herself. "I see..."

"Look, the reason I'm calling is I'm throwing a small party on Saturday. I thought you might want to come."

"Oh."

"You can think about it. Don't need to give me an answer right away. Just let me know until then."

Kaylee was a bit taken aback by his invite. "Is Brian or Mike coming, too?" Kaylee shook her head at her own reply. Why would she mention Brian?

"Uh—" Alexander stuttered, "sure, I'll hit them up. And you can totally bring a friend, too, if you want. So..."

"Yeah, I'll let you know until the end of the week," she ended up saying.

"Sure. Yeah."

Both were quiet for a moment, probably for no more than a few seconds, yet it felt like ages to Kaylee, and she panicked.

"I wake up early tomorrow," she blurted out. "I should probably go."

"No, yeah, of course. Goodnight, then, Kaylee."

Shit. She didn't mean to rush him but now it was too late to make amends.

"Goodnight, Alexander," she said with a tight voice.

Kaylee stayed still for another minute after they hung up, embarrassed and thinking what the hell she had gotten herself into.