Forever vs. a Day

I.

-KATHERINE-

I couldn’t see the road ahead of me as my vision had been clouded by tears. It was a dark, silent night as I drove with neither aim nor direction. I just knew that I had to leave. I reached down for some tissues by the side of my door, and – SHIT!

I gasped as I jerked forward due to the inertia of the collision.

“What the...” I had my lips ready to pronounce the letter ‘f’ but I restrained and calmed myself down. It took me a second to realize what had happened and I face-palmed in exasperation. With a great sigh I pulled the handle and got down the car.

Of all cars, it had to be a Mercedes-Benz‘s S65 AMG.

“Really now?” I asked ‘The Big Man’ subconsciously, but as the man got down his car, my breath was taken away from me immediately.

Wow. The man was tall and brunette. He was dressed in a fitting black t-shirt and brown cargo pants, and damn was he muscular.

I dared myself to look at his face, and caught him staring back at me. He is so handsome I wouldn’t be surprised if I was drooling shamelessly. My face must be in a total mess right now. My inner drama queen kneels under a spotlight, screaming ‘WHYYYYYY’ with both arms raised.

“I am sooo sorry sir,” I looked to my feet as I spoke, and it seemed to wake him from his thoughts and reminded him to check his bumper. He squatted down with his left knee on the ground, and literally caressed the scratches and slight dent on his rear bumper. Those back muscles though… Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. This reminded me to check my own car. I took a quick glance towards the front bumper of my darling Audi TT.

“Sorry babe,” I whispered with a note of guilt to Andy – yes, I named my car. No, it isn’t weird. It’s simply a gesture of affection.

I turned back to the hot dude who got up to face me. I took a deep breath and reached for the wallet in my pocket.

“Hey, it’s alright,” I was startled by his deep, sexy voice.

“What?”

“You look like you could use a break,” he continued, with a gentle smile which brought blood rushing to my cheeks. I was speechless, but then I flipped my hair away from my face and a thought came over me which made a cheeky smile creep through my lips. It seemed he caught on the idea because his next words proved it.

“Or…you could pay me back over a cup of coffee,” he said with a smirk.

“Coffee sounds good.” I couldn’t help but grin. Instantly, his face went blank and I swore through my slightly impaired vision (from the tears) that his cheeks were flushed. He must have noticed my questioning look, for a moment later he composed himself and put on his ‘cool guy’ mask once more.

“I’m Adrian by the way. Adrian Ryder.” He held out his right hand to me and I returned his firm hand shake.

“Katherine. Katherine Nolan.” And that was how I met Adrian.

**

Mainstream enough, we headed over to Starbucks. When we parked our cars, I quickly flipped down the mirror to fix my hair, not forgetting the makeup that had been running down my face. At least I had some on, or some that is STILL where it was supposed to be. I was definitely disappointed. I stared at the reflection in the mirror. I looked pathetic.

As if my ego wasn’t battered enough already, I had to reminisce the reason that I had been crying in the first place. It was just one of those days that you find yourself tripping, and then later falling down the staircase – not literally though – and you have all this stress and emotions bottled up inside of you finally spilling over and the cork just couldn’t hold them in anymore when one more problem arises.