Weddings, Kisses and Tears (Lesbian)

MARRY ME 3: "Unsolicited Thoughts"

Gabrielle was standing, brooding in front of the floor to ceiling window of her office; her tired grey eyes took in the vast skyline stretching against the bleeding afternoon sky, outside the 30-storey building of the Windfield Industries Corp.

She had been in such a stormy mood since yesterday after Zuri set her up on a date without her permission. While she knew that her friend meant well, she did not like it when someone destroyed the routinal cycle that she had been used to. She was a very organized and pragmatic person who hated impulsive deviations especially unnecessary ones. By unnecessary ones, she meant things that were not part of her schedule and could not bring her any monetary or emotional value.

She took a deep breath to calm herself and contemplated further. The last time she had allowed her friend's machination, it turned out to be disastrous.

Two years ago, Gabrielle's company expressed its desire to the Gakt Petrochemicals for a company merger with the Windfield Petrochemicals Division. In the midst of the merger talk, Zuri did the unthinkable to what she thought would smoothen the sail of the merger deal. Gabrielle's friend decided to set her up on a date with the Gakt's CEO's beautiful yet spoiled daughter Carol Dianne Gakt, who she'd known earlier in a charity event last year. Zuri's unsolicited help made Gabrielle furious but it was already too late to back out when she received a personal text from Carol, confirming the date. Besides, if she would tell Carol that she did not ask her on a date, she would offend the Gakt heiress and it would jeopardize the overall weather of the merger talks.

All throughout her date with Carol, she had remained civil, almost apathetic, so as not to lead the latter on. But instead of dulling her date's interest, it made Carol more aggressive in pursuing her. It did not help that Zuri had been feeding Carol wrong information about her feelings -- that meddling bitch!

The worst thing happened when Carol invited her to a supposedly business meeting in the Gakt-family owned high end club. Gabrielle expected that the meeting would only be between her and Carol but when she went inside Carol's exclusive room, the Gakt heiress' friends were there too. To Gabrielle's shock, Carol announced to her friends that they were in a relationship. Swept into a very compromising situation, she did not bother to deny Carol's announcement so as not to embarrass the Gakt heiress in front of her friends. She discreetly left the room but then Carol noticed her absence and hounded after her outside of the club. Everything became more complicated when the intoxicated Gakt heiress suddenly kissed Gabrielle while she was about to get inside of her car. Before she could reprimand the spoiled heiress, Carol fainted in her arms due drunkenness which left Gabrielle no choice but to bring the heiress to her condominium.

When Carol woke up the next day, Gabrielle had a serious talk with the heiress to clarify the status of their relationship. She told Carol to retract everything that was announced in the exclusive room of her family's club. Her words enraged Carol that she stormed out of Gabrielle's condominium. Gabrielle immediately called and instructed her driver to bring the heiress to her address.

Just when Gabrielle thought that everything would be over, pictures of her and Carol kissing outside of the club circulated in the tabloids. Gabrielle, who was previously unscathed by any form of scandals, immediately called her PR team to clean up the mess but it was too late because the news reached Francis Wilhelm Gakt, Carol's father. He immediately scheduled an informal meeting with Gabrielle to inquire whether she had a relationship with his daughter or not. She denied it but then her answer made Francis furious because his daughter told him otherwise. As a doting father to his only child, he demanded Gabrielle to announce to their circles that she was in a relationship with his daughter so that his princess would not be branded a liar. Gabrielle firmly refused, hating the idea of being forced to do something that she did not want to do. Her refusal created a huge strain in the ongoing talks about the Gakt and Windfield Petrochemicals merger which, in the end, did not materialize. To add an even deeper injury to the damage, the Gakt Petrochemicals Inc. decided to accept the offer of a rival company for a merger.

The outcome irked Gabrielle that she called and warned Zuri to not dip the latter's hands into her personal affairs or she would completely cut her friend out of her life. Zuri did as she was told but somehow Gabrielle's jester friend decided to involve herself once again when she dropped a bomb yesterday after a two-year reprieve.

Now, Gabrielle was saddled with a headache from overthinking. She massaged her head before peering through her watch. It was already 4:30 PM and, instead of spending her time planning for the restructuring of a newly acquired software company, she spent it unproductively thinking about nonsensical things. She strode back and forth in a restless manner on the expansive semi-reflective wooden floor.

Her office was humongous, designed with a combination of modern and indigenous themes; expensive paintings decorated the walls; it even had a password-secured backdoor elevator at the far right end which traveled to and from the basement parking, it was discreetly hidden by the large sliding wooden and glass cabinets; there were several assortment of books filled her shelves -- as many as they were, she had managed to read all of them; there was a door that connected to a bed room and bathroom where she could sleep and bathe whenever she worked beyond the company's working hours; it also had a cozy feel in it as it had a sofa set at the far left side sitting atop a Persian carpet; there was a mini bar for wine collections which existed since her grandfather's corporate years; the office was well-lit but not necessarily from the huge crystal chandeliers that hung ostentatiously above the ceiling; and the entire room's temperature was remotely controlled, adjusted to the comfort of Gabrielle.

To sum everything up, the entire office was luxurious but it had been as it was when her late father became the CEO. Probably, the major changes that she made was the integration of East Asian design and, centralized control of the CEO's office temperature and lighting.

She released a deep breath and headed to her desk. She sank into the deep leather cushion of her big chair and continued to think.

While she had not been dating after the scandal with the Gakt heiress, she had dated frequently in the pass although everything was arranged by Zuri. Nothing good came out of the previous dates that she had. All of the women that she dated where beautiful, rich and sophisticated but none of them elicited any emotion from her. Some of them she found attractive and even interesting but not someone that she would bother having a serious relationship with. It was not in her nature to lead anyone on, so rather politely yet clearly, she would reject them without saying anything outright.

It was not that she was completely closed to the idea of having a relationship with another person... It was just loving someone was the reason why her heart right now was beating aimlessly in limbo. She thought of falling in love again but the idea brought nothing but self-loathing. It was... She sighed heavily. It was just hard to fall in love again.

She was kneading her temples when her cellphone's message tone rang. She swiped through it's screen and saw Zuri's message popped up.

/Gabby, please think about it. Just for the last time and I will not bother you with this kind of thing again, please show up on your date./

Gabrielle frowned at what she read and immediately deleted it.

She allowed herself to drift into an aimless contemplation when something crossed her mind. She promptly dialed a number and said to the other line, "A bouquet of Sunflowers. My driver will pick it up at 5 PM."

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Author's Note:

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Rough Draft