Forbidden Love

Chapter 3

Sunday came and went, but he never showed. I was sitting at my small desk at work, the morning feeling even longer than any other Monday morning. I could kick myself for being delusional enough to thing that a guy like him would ever be interested in someone like me. I didn't want to be at work, I just wanted to stay in my bed for all eternity, hiding my face in shame.

"Rose, can we talk about your article for a minute?" Tim's voice caught me just as I was about to burst into tears. I was hoping to avoid him, but I should have known better.

"Sure, Tim." I was trying my best to summon even the smallest of smiles, but I always found this nearly impossible when talking to Tim. He was short and fat, his head completely bald and had lifeless tittle beady blue eyes hiding behind thick glasses. His teeth were almost gold as a result of being a chain smoker for the majority of his life and his nicotine addiction also caused his voice to be raspy and he could hardly get through one sentence without coughing.

"I can't find anything wrong with it. This is some of your best work to date." I was shocked. It was the first time Tim had ever complimented my work. He'd usually tell me that he expected better or something of that nature. "I already have a new project for you. There's a lawyer in the city and he's supposed to be absolutely brilliant. He's never lost a case and he owns multiple law firms all over San Francisco. What makes him interesting is the fact that he's so successful at the mere age of twenty-eight! His name is Eric Somerton and I want you to interview him, get as much information about him as you can and do a story on him. You have one week." He was gone before I could say anything. I was about to look this Eric guy up when my phone went off. There was another text from an unknown number and I hesitated for about half a minute before opening it.

'You clearly had a disastrous time on your date this past Saturday. But I assure you that you will not have to put up with him for much longer.'

Once again, I was left with questions that will most likely go unanswered. I wanted to know who this person was, I wanted to know how he or she knew that I was on a date, I wanted to know what all these text messages meant. This time, I decided not to ignore the message again. I sent a reply, demanding answers. I waited... And waited, but nothing happened. I knew that I was waiting for a response that will never come.

"Ready to go?" I was pulled back to reality by Carrol's voice. I hadn't realized that it was already lunch time. I grabbed my purse and Carrol and I walked the two blocks to the place where we get lunch every day. The little diner was cozy and served the best Caesar salad in the city, we've been going there for years and it turned into a bit of a tradition to go there every day.

"I've been receiving the strangest text messages," I say to Carrol after we give our orders to the waitress.

"Define strange," Carrol says before taking a sip of her diet coke.

"Well, Saturday someone sent me the lyrics to my favorite song and today someone sent a text saying that I clearly didn't have fun on my date. Look." I hand Carrol my phone and watch as she starts frowning at the screen.

"That is strange. Who do you think it is?"

"I have absolutely no idea." I sat there trying to figure out who it could've been. It felt like I couldn't make any sense of what was going on in my life as of late and things just kept getting more and more confusing. My salad was set in front of me and I was suddenly famished. "Thank you," I said without looking up and started eating straight away. It was only when I realized that Carrol was strangely quiet when I looked at her.

Carrol was looking at something or someone behind me, her jaw practically hanging on the floor and her green eyes wider than I've ever seen them before. I turned around hoping to get a glimpse of what caused her utterly shocked expression. When I finally saw what she was looking at I had to blink several times to be sure that my eyes were not deceiving me. Standing behind me, in all his beautiful glory, was the gorgeous man I've been fantasizing about all weekend. I could finally put more features to those eyes and as he smirked at me, it was completely impossible to deny his perfection.