Heal my heart.

13

Gracie
I briskly walked into the office, straight to my cabin.

"Clara, send a cup of coffee please." I say into the phone. I hated coffee uptil my late eighteen years. But then it became a necessity, for studying upto late nights, and I developed a habit. It doesn't mean that I like it now. It's just something I developed over time. Like a lot of other things. It's funny how everything in my life was going in a particular direction until the age of eighteen, and it then took a sudden turn. We all have a turning point in our lives, when we change. And no matter what we do, we can't go back to the person we were. Eighteen was my sixteen. My life changed so hard that it took a 360 degree turn. And it wouldn't be the same again. A storm had entered. I clear my head and there's a knock on the door.

"Come in."
Clara walks inside in her timid style clutching the cup of coffee. "Ma'am there's a note for you."
"From?" I ask confused.
"Anonymous. It was left on my desk with another note to give it to you. So I just brought it in here."
Oh. "Did you read it?"
"Uh no."
"Good. You may go back to work."

I open the blank, white paper. Inside it is a familiar messy handwriting:
Coffee tomorrow? ;)

I smiled. Ofcourse I knew who sent this. I keep the note in my topmost drawer and continue my work.
Two hours later, I walk outside to have a drink and chat up with my employees. I'm standing near the printout machine taking some blank papers, when a sheet zaps out.
Coffee tomorrow? ;)

I look at the printed words and have a hard time stifling my giggles. He is persistent still, just like before. I look around, trying to see if he's there, I can't see him. I take that sheet too and head to my cabin.

In the evening, I am tidying up my stuff when he opens the door and leans against it. So handsome.

"I do expect people to knock before they come in." I say, feigning bossiness.
"And I do expect people to reply when I've asked upto five times." He says, crossing his arms over his chest, muscles bulging out through full sleeves as he does so. So he hasn't left working out. Good for him.
"Five times? You asked just twice!" I say.

"Well, I asked you three times yesterday, or maybe more." He says, sitting down on the seat opposite to me.

"But why do you want to go for coffee with me?" I ask. I'm reminded of the time how we had our first 'outing' at a coffee shop. I smile as I remember how I was persistent on calling it as an outing, when it is so clear now, it was a date. Does he want me to walk down memory lane again?

Alastair
Good question. Now why do I want to go with her for coffee so badly?

Probably because I want to spend more time with her. Or maybe because we first bonded over coffee, in that little shack I loved. Obviously, that's the reason. Maybe like she fell in love with me on coffee seven years ago, she might fall for me again. That's not happening, but why can't a man try?
And I'm bitterly reminded by how she hates coffee. Fuck it. But I see a coffee mug sitting on the tabletop.

"You hated coffee right?" My thoughts come out as words.
"I grew habitual to it." She shrugs.
I want to probe more but I don't also want to behave like a gossip girl, considering how I'd been behaving like a girl since I met her again. Blushing, stuttering, getting lost for words, it's getting to my head now.

"You didn't answer my question?" She says.
"Oh, I just wanted to hang out with you, that's all. We're of the same age, the rest of the people are either elderly or too young." I blabber.
She stares at me blankly. "Okay, I'll come." She says.

I grin. "Tomorrow, after office hours, I'll pick you up from your house, if that's okay."
"Yeah it is. I will come for sure." She says. How sweet. She's the sweetest.
I leap down the stairs and reach home. Tomorrow she'll get the shock of her life. I wish we could get lost in the lanes of her area like before, where the breezes teased her hair. Where we could be strangers once again. Where we could meet one another once again. Where once again, the season of madness and love will bless us. One more chance, that was all I wanted.

Gracie
"Where is Mr. Kerr?" I ask a girl scurrying around in the office.

"Oh, sir?" She blushes. Heck, what's wrong with the female population of California? He's hot okay, but come on! He's mine... No, he was. Chuck that stuff.

"Yeah your sir." I tap my foot impatiently.
"He hasn't come to office today." She says, shrinking a bit under my stern gaze.
Crap. What does that mean? More than anger however, worry clouds my mind. Is he stuck somewhere? Or he maybe just feeling lazy. If he doesn't pick me up, I'll smack him on his head. Or I'm just feeling sad down under, that he ditched me. Again. I take my sullen face to the office and reach out for a book from my shelf. No cure better than a good read. Books had been my friends and love since he left. Before he came, they were there. And I was a reader since I was born. Some things, they're just embedded in you. I sat near my balcony and read the book. Hours ticked away. It was time to leave. It's good being the boss. You can just sit in your office and do whatever you want, the rest of the people will work for you. I had to struggle to reach this position also. I go home. Taking a bath, I wrap the bathrobe tighter around my waist and the intercom buzzes.

"Yes. Gracie Hyde here." I say in the intercom.
"Ma'am," the security personnel's voice buzzes. "Mr. Kerr is here to see you. He wants you to come down for your meeting."

Uh oh. He is actually here. The dead butterflies in my tummy flap their wings again. I go to my wardrobe.
Lady mode switched on.

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