Black Coffee (Tara's Dream)|Dearest Diary, - Book 1 (unedited)

XV

“Hallo?” I spoke into my phone receiver, rising up from my seat to walk towards the study window.

“Attara!”

“Hi Davis.” I replied, smiling at the source of the very excited voice. He couldn’t see me, but I could. The huge windows and the black grilled gates, gave me an unobstructed view of his black Mercedes Benz parked in my driveway right outside the front gate.

“Guess what?” he joked.

“What?” I chuckled back, pressing the remote key to open the front gates.

“I’m back!” It was such a corny joke, but I laughed anyway. Davis’ impersonation of Anorld Swarzenegger in Expendables 2 was spot on. I watched him drive the Mercedes into the empty slot that was right next to Bridget before closing the gates at the touch of another remote button. I then put the remote controller back into my desk drawer, before heading out to meet him at the front door. Once again, he was carrying a bouquet of fresh roses, this time red and they were accompanied by a box of very expensive looking Swiss chocolate. “I hope you like it dark?” he said as gave me the box of chocolate, the flowers and a hug for a greeting.

“I love it.” I answered truthfully as I unconsciously flipped my long brown hair behind my ear.

“I am glad.” He said as he took in my appearance appreciatively and it sent a series of shivers down my spine.

“This way.” I showed him into the house and he walked past me into the threshold. I closed the door behind us and led him down the hallway and to my study.

“Linda said that she’ll be running late so we may have to start this without her.” he placed a black leather binder on the desk and I almost let out a silent groan. Sure, I was glad to see Davis and after the very weird morning I had just had, his presence was very welcome. However, I couldn’t say the same about Linda’s matchmaking efforts that were never welcome. In fact, I would not have been surprised if she didn’t show up at all. She hadn’t bother texting or calling to inform me of this new development and I found it very suspicious especially after she practically begged me to have that meeting that day.

“Okay, let me put this away and we can start.” I left him and turned towards the kitchen hoping to find a vase for my flowers there.

Dearest diary,

Surprise! Surprise! I am no longer one for love triangles! Sure, I once thought it extremely exhilirating and entertaining, but that has changed now. It no longer does it for me. It's extremely tiresome and tricky and creeps up on you like a predator. It entangles you in its web of maliciousness and before you know it, you're pulled in so deep, you can hardly breathe. Therefore, for all these good reasons, I'm aiming at avoiding such distracting situations in future. Not just because it is unhealthy for my heart, but also because it undermines my sense of independence and the budding enterpreuneur within me.

***

"Who is that?" a curiously malicious Shea voiced her thoughts after I entered the dining room bearing my flowers in a clear transparent vase.

"A colleague." I replied as I set the vase in the middle of the dining table.

"A colleague who gets you flowers and chocolate?"

I did not respond. Instead, I turned around and walked back to my study and to Davis, not ready to hear what my mother or Troy had to say on the matter. In fact, I made sure not to look at any of them since I did not want their faces to haunt me throughout my meeting.

"I hope you're hungry." I told Davis as I settled back in my seat and across from him. "I asked for some snacks to be brought to us."

"Sure," he said putting a sheaf of papers before me. "I hardly had any breakfast when Linda called."