Heal my heart.

10

Gracie
I'm sitting in my office when the electricity goes out in the office. Groaning, I get up and head towards the meter. There is a lot of hustle going on outside.

"Quiet people, maintain silence. The problem will be soon taken care of." I say loudly and all of the shouts turn to silent whispers.

I go to the meter room. There is pitch darkness over here due to lack of windows and I suddenly collide with someone. That person has tall build and taut muscles. I jerk backwards when that wall like man holds my back.
"Careful." He says. It's Alastair. I should have known when he held me. No other man has ever held me with so much care, like I'm a fragile and precious thing to hold onto. I wriggle out of his arms, ignoring the disappointment of letting him go coursing through me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.
He chuckles. "This office is now my responsibility too. I'm just here to fix the bugs."

I can't see his face, but his chiseled facial features reflect his amusement.
"Oh, you're a mechanic too?" I ask sarcastically.
He laughs. No matter what, his voice still heals my heart.

"Babydoll I know everything." He smirks.
My heart thumps louder. The old nickname. "Yeah right. There's nothing you don't know, you're so great after all."
He chuckles again. "You still amaze me Grace."

Despite everything, I blush. Oh, I wasn't supposed to be talking to him. I wipe the silly grin right off my face.
"I can't believe I'm alone in the room with you." He says. Oh, is he flirting?
"Really, what will you do if you find yourself alone in a room with a girl?" I ask, trying to comprehend whether he was actually flirting with me or just making conversation.
"I'll do her."

Dang, I laughed out loud at that one. Really loud. And then it hit me, that I was the girl in question. I flushed so furiously that I was sure I'm looking like a tomato.

All of a sudden, the lights came on. Blinking, I looked up. He had fixed the electric board. He looked at me in fondness. My eyes were still adjusting to the light. He cocked his head so that it no longer attacked my eyes.
I just smiled. He smiled too.

He got down from the stool and we walked out of the meter room. "I haven't seen the whole of California yet." He says.
"Oh it's a lovely place. You wouldn't be able to explore the whole of it even if you roam around the whole day." I gush.

"I don't think if I even want to see the whole of it. The local areas you know? I want to check it out."
"Shall I show you around?"

Now why did I say that? I almost keep a hand on my mouth, as if the words which came out will go inside again.
He looks at me in awe. "That would be great. Are you sure?"
I nod my head. "Okay so, Saturday? I hope it's a holiday for the office."
"On Saturdays and Sundays, we work for half a day. So the next half, we can go around."

"Saturday, 12:00 pm okay?"
"Yes."

That Saturday, I walked into the office wearing casuals for the first time. I wore black jeans, a plain pink top with a scarf wound around my neck. The staff members murmured around about it. Murmurs grew more when Alastair also came in wearing his jacket and casual jeans and t-shirt. When work got over, I went to the parking lot. I have to admit that I am excited. All these years, I have gone out to roam about only with Ivy or at times with Ben. So going out with new people is giving me butterflies. Okay not new people, old people who still matter a lot. I wore my shades and drove out my car from the parking lot. He was standing near the gate, giving the keys to the security guard. He was joking around with that man too. He is still that humble, down to earth guy who can strike up a conversation with anyone. I stop my car near him and he climbs in. He's wearing shades too. I love wearing shades. I'm staring at your face, I'm staring at your ass, you never know.

I press the acceleration.
"Grace I hope you don't crash into a tree and run away leaving the car behind." He says.
"Kerr I'm an excellent driver."
"Oh babydoll you were always an achiever. You won everything you got into."
No. I couldn't win you.

"Genes man genes." I say smugly.
"Yeah right. The car is well maintained."
"A lady's car is always well maintained Mr. Kerr."
"Does a lady's car have a music player?"
"Yes, but there's no CD, switch on the radio." I say, trying hard to focus on the road and not his face.

He settles on one radio station. Here's to never growing up blasts through the speakers. I bob my head around with the music and he taps his feet. It reminds me of our young days. Who doesn't miss their school days?

The song stops. The next song starts playing. I gulp. It's Breathless. The song he sang for me on my eighteenth birthday. There's heavy tension in the car. From under my glasses, I check out on him from the corner of my eye. He too has stiffened and is looking everywhere except for me. Surprisingly however, none of us make any effort to change the song. We sit quietly, waiting for the moment to pass. The air is so thick that it can be cut with a knife.
Finally the song gets over. I calm down. I've stopped near an amusement park. We get down.

"What happened to the acrophobia?" He chuckles.
It goes away when I'm with you.
"Oh, we aren't sitting on any of the big, scary rides. Just a few small and fun ones. But hey, if you do wanna go in them, feel free to go alone."
"Aah no. I don't want to vomit all the cucumber sandwiches I had for brunch."
"Yuck Alastair."
And holding my breathe, I enter the park with him.

___________________________

So hey, what is your favourite part uptil now? In this book? Vote and comment :)