Message In A Bottle

Chapter One

Chapter One

It was a windy and bright spring morning. Birds were chirping away as people began getting ready for work. Olivia Hannaway was an early riser. She got out of bed and washed up before changing into her grey sweatpants and black tank top for a nice morning jog.

After her jog around the neighbourhood park, she came home and had a quick warm shower to relax her muscles before changing into her work clothes; a white tank top beneath a light brown cardigan matched together with a pair of black pants and beige flats. After changing, she took her brown Louis Vuitton monogram bag and keys, left her house, entered her black chevrolet uplander and drove off to work. That was a daily routine for Olivia Hannaway.

"The regular please." Olivia said politely to the woman behind the counter, taking money out of her purse.

"One Cafe Mocha coming right up." the cashier confirmed cheerfully as she collected the payment from Olivia and keyed in her order in the machine.

After collecting her hot coffee at the 'Coffee House', Olivia walked across the busy street and into a tall metropolitan building.

Today is the day. Today is the day. Come on Olivia, you can do it. Boss will definitely give you a column of your own.

She arrived at the 8th story and walked into the office of 'Daily Times'. 'Daily Times' was a local newspaper in Clearwater, Florida.

She knocked onto the boss's, Arthur Reed's, door before entering.

His office was filled with the  frangrance of lavander. He had a full glass wall behind his desk, which was neatly packed with a computer, some files and framed photos of his wife and kids. There were 2 shelfs, packed with books and documents, neatly arranged in alphabetical order. Authur was a neat and tidy guy, with good hygine. With is a rarity nowadays. 

"Olivia!" Arthur said, clearly surprised by her sudden visit as he looked up from his paperwork. "I wasn't expecting you to be in the office till Wednesday."

"Yes I know. I just wanted to ask if you have given thoughts about giving me a column in the paper?" Olivia asked, smiling hopefully at him.

Arthur took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes with his thumbs and sat up straight.

Oh no, that's not a good sign.

"Olivia, we've talked about this before." Arthur sighed. "Yes, your reports and interviews are brilliant but I don't think you're ready for a column of your own. You need a good column and I don't think you have one yet."

"But don't you think I should be given a chance? I have been having new ideas for the column. I can show it to you, I have it here." Olivia explained quickly, while shuffling through her bags and took out a tan coloured file with the column ideas in it.

Arthur took the file and scanned through it. Sighing, he said, "These are good, but they're just not interesting enough. I'm really sorry Olivia. Next time, alright? Just focus on that interview report which is due on Wednesday, okay?"

"Alright.." Olivia replied, clearly disappointed.

Okay, so maybe today wasn't the day...

Olivia left the office with another hopeful heart, torn to pieces.

"Olivia!" A colleague, Michelle, waved to me cheerfully. She walked over towards me, outside of the boss's office. "So how did it go? Did he accept it?"

Olivia remained silent and just stared at her with disppointing eyes.

"I guess not." Michelle predicted, frowning.