The Steps To Your Heart

Step 10: Credence

--- Nique ---

~~~~~~~~~~

If you want change, change it yourself

~~~~~~~~~~

I recently found out Shayne wasn't the one who set up that date with that pervert. It turns out, he had been waiting for me that night to show up but I never did. And to top it off I had my phone off since I was pissed at him.

I could still feel my irritation towards that "pervert". I may not know how he came across about the blind date thing – and I may never know how he did since I don't expect to see him anytime soon, but he sure as hell pissed me off. It's a good thing I never saw his face again after that night.

"Good morning. Did you wait long?" Kevin Wallace, one of the company's newest writers greeted and slowly sat down in front of me.

I work as an intern at a publishing company working as an editorial assistant. Basically, what I do is to review manuscripts and book proposals to decide whether such books should be published before discussing the story with Kate Tan, the senior editor of our department who then decides if we will indeed publish the book.

Once she agreed, it is then again our job to review and edit drafts and oversee the publication process, working closely with authors to perfect the manuscript, and finally make sure the manuscript gets finished before the deadline of the printing date. And as an intern, I was assigned to five budding literature writers.

"No, it's okay," I replied and motioned Chris to serve us the light snack I had ordered earlier. I mainly work with fresh authors and budding writers who are most of the time too arrogant for their sake. But Kevin is different. He is too pulled back, too introvert, and too conventional. When I point out a specific plot in his story, he'd do exactly just that which only makes it seem too unoriginal – when I read it.

"I heard from Ms. Tan you'd be taking a little break from your internship. Does that mean I will be assigned to a different editor?" he brought up.

"Not exactly," I answered him and I saw the relief flash across his face.

"I may be taking a break but Ms. Tan still told me to take care of you. But I will only be discussing about your character plot before passing it to Tom."

"Tom? Mr. Tom Jordan?" he asked, alarmed. When I nodded, he groaned.

"Don't worry," I reassured. Tom is known to be one of the ruthless editors in our department that is why most writers don't like him – especially the fresh ones like Kevin. But he is still one of the best editors in the company.

"I may only be discussing with you about your characters but you can always come to me for help when you're having trouble with your manuscript," I said and he smiled nervously.

"That would be a great help," he chirped and immediately brought out a bunch of papers which I could only guess as his draft for his next book.

As I flipped through the pages, I frowned. Most of the scenes he pictured were all overrated. Nothing was new, nothing made it interesting. And if I could guess, if Tom did read such plot, I could only imagine what would happen next – Kevin will be eaten alive. And Kevin was one those guys who didn't handle public embarrassment well.

I placed the papers down and looked at him. He had his shoulders crunched down, looking too nervous, too unconfident.

"Let's discuss first your character plot," I started. He looked up at me, looking grateful and nodded in agreement. When we started, I tried to make him do all the talking. But then I noticed something.

"Don't you think your characters also resemble Dave and Amy?" I interrupted him referring to the first couple of his book.

"There's just too much going on, and I think your readers will certainly pick on the similarities with your first book," I critiqued after a moment and he suddenly fell too silent. This is one of the things I don't like about him. Once I start questioning his story, he clamps up. I did offer to help but ...

Guess this will take a long time before we will be finished.

I turned to raise my hand again to check up on my order with Chris when my face soured.

He's here – heading towards our table, holding a tray of what looked like our order and is wearing an outfit similar to Chris'.

"Your order, ma'am," he said before laying the tray down on the table. I raised my eyebrow in question and though he stared back at me, he kept smiling in an annoying way.

I leaned back from my seat a little to look past him and glared at Chris, who by this time is having a great time laughing his ass off watching us.

"Don't tell me it was Chris," I mumbled to myself when I remembered what happened that night.

"Excuse me?" Kevin asked but I just shook my head. I intended to ignore this "pervert" but he didn't look like he'd leave anytime soon.

"Are you getting paid just standing there?" I retorted.

"Yes actually," he blurted and got a chair from a nearby table and sat – the chair was faced backwards near Kevin who nearly got knocked off his seat. He grinned at me as he rested his arms on top of the chair.

Confused, I also stared at him, my eyebrows creasing. I looked back at Chris but he just shrugged his shoulders and went ahead to wait on another table.

"What are you doing?" I asked annoyed. But he didn't answer and kept smiling.

"Shouldn't you be waiting –" I started, my irritation starting to show but he interrupted me.

"You know, you may be pretty attractive when you smile but ..." he trailed off.

"You're unexpectedly pretty cute when you're angry too." He finished before reaching out his hand across the table and placed two fingers on my chin as he stood. Before I could comprehend what was happening, he suddenly planted a quick but full kiss on my lips.

Stunned, all I could do was gape at his smirking face as he towered above me. My heart stopped; I thought I might get an attack at any moment. But I didn't; I could feel my throat drying up.

"Stop acting cute. I might get addicted to it," he murmured and made a gentle rub on my chin using his forefinger before letting go and left our table completely.

I'm pretty sure my mind went blank, but I think even the entire café went into a complete stop.

XXXXXXXXXX

A/N:

I know the past couple of chapters seemed like kind of a drag ...

But I think after this chapter, there may already be some movements on Alex and Nique's story ...

So I hope you'd stick with me ...

I may update until I'm already out of ideas ... but may later not be able to update that much ...

So let me just squeeze out all scenes from my head ...

Thanks again for reading !!! >_<

Please comment and like !!!