His Captivating Love

Chapter 1 – A Café and a college crush

It was 4:30 in the afternoon when the bell of dismissal rang throughout the factory making the workers drop what they were doing. While everyone else was speed walking towards the doors to clock out of work and leave the factory, Adelina Burton made her way to the doors slowly. It’s not like she was in a rush to get home. It was sad that at the age of 22 she was stuck working at a factory that only paid minimum wage, which barely paid the bills every month.  But her mother depended on the money from her job in order to get by with life.

Ever since her father died in a fatal accident a year ago, her mother had fallen into depression. The death of Adelina’s father tore her mother up to the point that she ended up losing her job and will to live, leaving Adelina no choice but to leave college and find a job right away to pay for bills, food, and her mother’s therapy sessions. If it was Adelina’s choice she would still be in college studying to get her Bachelors’ in Business.  But she couldn’t leave her mother alone in the condition she was in. ‘You have to take care of her. She’s your mother. Stop being selfish. She took care of you all of these years now it's your turn’, she would tell herself whenever she got the urge to just quit her job and leave.

She hated working in a factory. She hated not being able to go out for a drink with her friends. She hated the fact that she couldn’t even pamper herself every now and then. She hated that things turned out this way, that her father died and her mother lost all purpose and was now a hollow walking body.

There were times where she tried looking for another job that didn’t involve her waking up at 5:30 in the morning and working in a dusty old clothing factory. But no one wanted to hire a college drop out. No one wanted to hire a 22 year old who has no degree. Her friends had advised her to get a job as a bartender, but she declined. She barely had time for herself with the job she had now and having to go home to take care of her mom, she probably wouldn’t even have time to glance in a mirror working a day and night job.

“But that’s life. Some get lucky and others don’t” she told herself as she stepped out of the factory building into the streets of New York. It was a chilly afternoon yet there were many people walking on the sidewalks. Chilly air swept passed Adelina, causing her to zip up her coat. She started walking in a quick pace trying to make her way to the subway train station that was a block away. As she walked, she noticed a group of teenage girls make their way into a café just a few steps in front of her. She smiled as she remembered how she and her friends used to go to a café after school and gossip. Even during college, they would all find time to meet up and have a drink of mocha’s and hot cocoa.

A sudden wave of sadness washed over her. Those times were simple. Those were the times that she was happy. She still had her father and her mother was okay, and her friends were there. When was the last time she actually enjoyed a hot drink and not stressed over everything that was happening in her life? ‘It’s going to be almost 2 years’ her conscious told her.

Adelina noticed that she had stopped walking and was just staring at the café. People walked around her while giving her weird looks. She looked at the watch on her wrist and debated whether she should just go home or go to the café for a bit and enjoy a cup of hot cocoa.

Oh what the hell she told herself. Her mother would be fine on her own for one more hour.  Smiling, she walked up to the café opening the door only to collide with someone who was walking out and banging the back of her head against the closing door.

“Shit” she heard the person say at the same time as her. The voice belonged to a man to be exact. She didn’t bother to look at his face though, out of anger and embarrassment. Instead she closed her eyes and rubbed her fingers against the back of her head. She was sure she was going to have a big swollen bruise on it.

She cursed again wondering why she didn’t pay attention to whether someone was coming out of the place or not. Well he was easily to blame as well. She opened her eyes to say sorry when she noticed that there was coffee all over his white button up shirt. Oh damn! She thought to herself.

“I’m really sorry!” she said as the same time as the man.

“It was my fault. I should’ve been paying attention”

She blushed knowing that she wasn’t paying attention either. She didn’t dare look up at him or around the café. She was sure that everyone was staring. She was glad no one was walking into the café behind her.

“ No, I should’ve been paying attention too ”. She finally looked up to look at his face and froze.

It couldn’t be, was the first thing she told herself. It couldn’t be that out of all the people in the world she bumped into her college crush, Dominic Maywood. The one who graduated three years ago during her freshman year in college with his Bachelor’s in business and moved to California to work at his uncle’s company, hoping to one day become CEO of said company. 

Adelina remembered seeing his name and picture spread all over newspaper headlines, TV, and internet articles. His uncle Maxwell Maywood never had any kids so when he announced that Dominic would be the next line to inherit the Maywood Company, she wasn’t at all surprised. She was heartbroken for the first four months that he left. He had told her that things between them would not work out because he had his mind set on becoming something better than just a typical person working at a company for someone else. No, he wanted to be at the top. Dating would only slow him down he had told her.

She respected his decision and even supported him whenever they were able to speak through the phone. But after a few months he stopped all communication with her. At first she didn’t understand but she then read rumors that he had been dating the daughter of some CEO who owned a chain of restaurants. She realized that she had to move on and make a life of her own. Though she never thought she would run into him ever again. Of course things never turn out the way she thinks they will.

He slowly looked up from his shirt to her face. His look went from apologetic to shock. Swallowing past a lump in her throat she quickly turned around hoping to get away from him before he reacted. She barely rounded the corner when someone grabbed her arm and turned her back  around.

She refused to look at him. She knew she was acting immature. She should’ve just offered to buy him another coffee and then be on her way.

“Adelina?”

She closed her eyes tightly at the sound of her name on his lips. It had been too long since she heard him say her name.

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Author's Note:

So this is a new story that I'm starting. I'm not sure whether I will be posting everything or whether I'm going to continue writing it. It all depends on how good readers think this will turn out to be.

Leave a comment and let me know how you liked this :)

P.S. Not edited.