Memories of Dawn

Prologue

Blue is definitely his colour, Stephanie thought, with a sigh, as she subconsciously stared at her superior at work, Ray Woods, where he was explaining something to another subordinate. Almost all the girls in the office had a crush on him - be it single, taken or married. None of them can be blamed really. In the IT firm where she worked at, 28 year old Ray Woods had the most attractive face and physique with beautiful dark blue eyes and silky chocolate brown hair. Apart from his looks, he was polite, well-mannered and very intelligent too. He was practically the perfect man - a prince.

The platinum band on his finger glinted in the sunlight coming in through the windows, reminding her why she and the other girls shouldn't harbour such feelings of attraction for him.

"Staring at Mr. Woods again, Stephanie? You don't give up, do you?" her middle aged colleague asked teasingly, looking at her slightly dazed face. Stephanie composed herself and looked directly at her eyes. "Don't talk as if you are any better. You yourself were checking him out." She smirked at her guilty expression.

"Hey it can't be helped, right? I mean it's not my fault that he's so hot." She winked.

Stephanie chuckled. "Oh you are so shameless, Georgia! You are way older than him. On top of that, you are happily married for 15 years!"

"These and that have absolutely no connection." Georgia jokingly waved her off.

Right at that moment a group of ladies that also worked in the company came closer to them. "What are you guys talking about?" one of them asked.

"What else but the prince?" Georgia said, laughing. They all joined in. Then another of them asked, "Stephenie you are in his team this time too, right?"

"Yeah."

"You are so lucky! Man, I wish I was in your place!"

"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Stephenie asked with an amused expression on her face.

"So?" She said with an almost nonchalant look, "If the Ray Woods ever asks me out, I will definitely leave my boyfriend for him within a blink of an eye." They all laughed again.

"Ah but that's kind of impossible isn't it? Since he has a wife." They all sighed. "True."

"But do any of you know anything about his wife?" The rest shook their heads. "Stephenie should know something! She is the closest to him."

"Does she even let go of a single chance to talk to him?" They all laughed while Stephenie faintly blushed in embarrassment. She always looked for a way to talk to him and now it could be said that they had become quite good friends.

"Yeah but he never talks about his wife. Well I have never really asked him about it though." She pursed her lips.

"Then ask him when you get the chance. We all really want to know about the princess of our prince."

"I wonder what she looks like."

"I bet she is really beautiful."

"Maybe she is a famous model. Maybe that's why he doesn't talk about her."

"If she is a famous model, wouldn't Mr. Woods brag about her instead?"

"But it could be that his wife herself wants to keep it a secret. And Mr. Woods isn't the type to brag. He isn't called prince for nothing."

"She might be a detective or a secret agent."

"Maybe she is the only daughter of a rich and powerful person."

"Or maybe the daughter of a Mafia boss!"

"Perhaps she is in the Mafia herself."

And on they went with their wild speculations.

All these got Stephenie thinking too. What is she like? Its not that she never wondered that before but not as curiously as her colleagues. Her mind was usually filled with Mr.Woods to think beyond that handsome face. But she always stopped herself when her thoughts would start going out of control and too lascivious. Because she knew he was married and she didnt want to be like those whores who would ruin a marriage for their own selfish desires.

That day during lunch when she was at the cafeteria, she saw Ray there and his wallet fell out of his back pocket after he paid for his coffee. She picked it up and just as she was about to return it to him, she saw the photo inside.

On the picture, there was a beautiful girl with firey red hair and dark eyes - at first she thought her eyes were black but on closer look she understood it was a dark shade of forest green. She was cheerfully grinning at the camera and her eyes shone with mischief. On her pale face, those dark eyes were so piercing and seemed to see right through the photo and into the onlookers mind...

With an arm around her was a younger version of Ray - they both looked like they were just out of high school. Instead of looking at the camera, he was looking at the beautiful girl with a soft smile on his face and the love in his eyes could be detected even from photo. Stephanie had no doubt that the beautiful red head in the picture was his wife. Although she couldn't understand why Ray kept such an old photo instead of a more recent one.

Looking at the photo made her a bit sad and she felt a squeeze in her chest. But she decided to ignore it. She took a breath, composing herself and called out to him, "Mr. Woods!"

Ray turned around at her voice and walked to where she was and said, "Miller! What's up?"

"You dropped your wallet," she said, waving the wallet before him.

He looked back to his pocket and had just realized that his wallet was missing. "Oh! Thanks." He took the wallet from her hand and put it back.

She put the food tray in her hand on a table and sat down. Ray sat across her and took a sip from his coffee. "Not hungry?" Stephanie asked, motioning towards his coffee with her eyes.

He shook his head. "Nah. A bit tensed about the meeting later. I just hope the client likes the software we made."

"What do you have to worry about? You are the best we have! There's no way they are not going to like the software. And the meeting is like 2 hours from now, including the lunch break." She said, taking a bite from her chicken sandwich.

He shook his head again. "Weren't you there at the last meeting? Did you see how picky they were?" He chuckled. Stephanie laughed with him but her mind went back to the photo. Before she could stop herself, she asked, "Hey, I might seem nosy but can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Umm..." She suddenly felt awkward but forced herself to go on. Without meeting his gaze she asked, "Was that your wife in that photo in your wallet? Sorry I looked." She quickly added and sent him an apologetic smile.

He laughed at her expression but his face soon turned soft. "Yeah."

"How come you never talked about her?" She was now staring at his face intensely. She had never seen that expression on his face before.

His expression slightly changed. She wouldn't have noticed if she wasn't staring at it so intently. Although she couldn't decide whether it hardened or softened more. "The topic never came up, I guess," he said and shrugged his shoulders, looking down at the coffee in his hand.

"Will you tell me about her now? We have 2 hours." She was suddenly very curious about the mysterious wife of his.

"Do you really want to know?" He said and looked up. She nodded her head at that and asked, "Where did you first meet her?"

"Okay." He took a deep breath and started. "I met her when I was in High School, during my junior year. At a beautiful dawn, I was..."

SO?? What do you think? Has potential?
I know it's a bit confusing as it is supposed to be a story about a teenage boy and at the very first chapter the main character is already 28 year old! You all must be thinking "What the hell?!" But actually the real story starts from the next chapter. So please continue.
Leave some comments for me to know your thoughts about this story. And vote if u think its worth it!