CUFFED

Chapter 1

Kate’s eyes fluttered open as the rays of the bright sun hit her from the small window in the corner of her bedroom. ‘Oh shit !’ She muttered before scrambling off her bed and ran for her life. It was her first day at the Chicago Times as the junior reporter. She was already 15 minutes late , now she had to shower , get dressed decently and grab some caffeine to keep herself awake. Today was going to be her first step to becoming a world famous reporter. It was her dream from the day she started writing, to play with words. As soon as she graduated from Berkeley as a topper of her class, she was offered a job in Chicago Times . Chicago was her favorite city after California. A considerable part of her childhood was spent in Chicago with her paternal grandfather who took her fishing to the great Mississippi river. She missed him dearly now . She wished she could live those days again with her grandpops. Her father resided in San Diego .  She being a fiercely independent girl of 21 never depended on her lawyer dad , she wanted to make a name of her own and She had already set course to follow her dreams and aspirations .

Old Bernie, her rickety old 1998 model Volkswagon beetle took more than usual time to start. Cursing under her breath, She restarted her car one more time , hoping that she wouldn’t betray her on the day she wanted her the most. She had an annoying habit of naming inanimate things, while she called her old car Bernie, she called her hot water bag she used to ease her cramps as Tinky. She believed such old habits kept loneliness at bay.

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Stepping into the Small bakery some kilometers away from home , She decided to order for herself a strong espresso and a chocolate brownie. ‘A day without chocolate is a day wasted ‘was Kate’s theory . Grabbing her take away cup of coffee and nibbling on her chocolate brownie she proceeded towards the exit, ready to sprint to her car . The next minute she ran into a figure , her cup went flying soaking her sweater in coffee. wincing she looked at the person who caused this disaster . He stared back at her with a unique pair of baby blue eyes. He looked at her up and down, smirked and strode out without an apology. ‘The audacity of that man !’ she thought . She wanted to strangle him and make him apologize . Kate suddenly realized that she only had about ten minutes to get to the office and there was no doubt she was going to be late on her first day. She ran to the cramped  washroom in the bakery to fix herself . She let out a scream of frustration when she looked at herself in the mirror, she looked more like a great green witch from Witchville. Her dark green cardigan was covered in coffee and her hair was a frizzy mess. She strode out of the bathroom without giving a damn about how she looked .

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It was half past ten when she reached Trump towers, the office of Chicago Times was on the 8th floor of the posh building. Half an hour late on the first day of work. ‘ They might just fire me before they even hire me’ she thought to herself , feeling extremely irritated with the situation . Taking a deep breath she got inside the elevator, waiting to face everything that was going to come her way.

She entered the classy office of Chicago Times, she was asked to meet the chief editor before taking up her new job. He was supposed to assign her the task. Outside the door that read ‘ Chief Editor : Charles Hall’ , there was a large desk. Kate walked towards the desk. Buried under the large desk was a small woman . Kate assumed the small women to be the Chief’s personal assistant. She cleared her throat to catch the attention of the lady. “ Hi ! I am Kate Walker. I’ve been asked to meet Mr. Hall today for my appointment “, Kate told the lady with a nervous smile. “ Take a seat while I ask him”, the small lady replied in a professional tone. Nodding Kate sat on the plush leather sofa in the lounge. She nervously ran her eyes over the office. She spotted a few people looking her way, who she assumed would constitute her colleagues in some time. “You can go meet him “, She heard the little woman speak. she murmured a thank you and headed to the office.

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The first thing that caught her attention was a baseball cap and a formal suit.  Who pairs the both up ?  Kate thought to herself. She tried to muffle a laugh and clear her throat at the same time, the sound that she produced sounded like that of rabid dog in pain ! The man with no fashion sense ,turned and gave her a wide smile , displaying his pearly white teeth in the process. She couldn’t help but smile back at him. He did not once look at her with judgmental eyes. She inaudibly heaved a sigh of relief .

 “ You must be Miss . Kate Walker. Am I right ? “ Kate nodded at him. “I am Charles Hall “ , he again flashed a smile at her while saying that. 

“Good morning Mr.Hall , Pleasure to meet you , I am here with my appointment letter” , Kate made her tone business like and looked straight at the man.

 “ You have arrived at the right time Miss .Walker , I have the exact job for you . But you need to answer some questions before I assign you for that job .plus we have to wait for someone important to join us” Charles said  trying to figure out the girl in front of him. He always asked the human resource cell in the office to conduct a background check on all the employees ,especially the reporters . They brought in the news and He didn’t want to deal with biased Information and false reports . The background reports on The lady in front of him told him that she belonged to a rich family and had the blood of the famous criminal lawyer Travis Walker running in her.  He knew, she wasn’t in this for the money but it was her passion for writing and reporting that probably made her choose this career path.  “So , Kate, If you don’t mind me calling you that ?, Can  you tell me about your past experience in investigative journalism ? “. He asked her.

“ umm..you can call me Kate.”, She gave him a small smile. “  I did some investigative reporting while in university . Nothing notable . But I am hoping to start building my career from here, Mr. Hall.”, She looked at him curiously . She expected him to be angry at her for not having many achievements to list out . Instead she saw an encouraging smile blooming on his lips.

“ Aah !”, he sighed in amusement. “ I like it that you’re honest ,Kate. “ He said. “Do you mind taking risks ? or do you want to do a less risky reporting. Like reporting about some fair in some unheard town around Chicago ?” , He raised his eyebrows at her.

“No No ! I am willing to take risks ! I am willing to use a gun if you want me to!” She exclaimed . Charles nodded his head at her and pursed his lips.

“ If you are willing to take the risk , I have the exact task for you ,Kate. This will be the break you are waiting for . Moreover you will be working with  Mr. Scott Miller. I hope you have heard about him ? “ He asked her

“You are telling me ,that you are assigning me a task along with THE Scott Miller ?, the man who won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting twice in a row ? The man who wrote about ‘police brutality in Chicago police department’ and also proved the innocence of Reagan Mules . OH MY GOD “ , Kate couldn’t contain her excitement .

“Yes , That would be me “ came the reply .A silky, rich male tone said. The reply made Kate turn and look curiously at the door from where the voice came. One look at the person who gave the reply and Kate’s eyeballs almost bulged out !  

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Hello :)

First time writer here. So, show some mercy but do critize me and correct my mistakes . I am really nervous, hope you all will recieve me with open arms :). I might have made grammatical mistakes . Please do correct me , so I can learn during the whole process of writing this book. :)

I was thinking of Chris Pine from 'This Means War' for playing the role of Scott Miller , Anne Hathway as Kate Walker  and Jessy Fergusson (Modern Family ) as Charles Hall . What say ?? 

Comment & Vote and do everything else in between ;) 

XOXO 

Penwoman