Amor Vincit Omnia

XI.

AVO || hate

"You want me to what?!"

A day after I passed my story to Ms. Coleman, Sam and I spent the whole day fixing our wedding. The preparations were almost done. We already decided the place for the wedding. It will be held on a church but the reception will be at a beautiful garden we found not far from the church. I was so excited about the whole thing to the point that I kept looking at my wedding dress. Finally, I got what I was looking for. I thought I had to spend another whole week jumping from store to store.

I never imagined that I would find myself standing in front of the desk of my boss, staring at her dumbfounded. She didn't throw me a look as she was busy typing something in her laptop and it took everything in me not to slam my hands in front of her.

"Relax. It's only for a couple of days. You just have to document a few things while the place is being built."

I let out a hopeless groan and paced back and forth in front of her. I ran a hand through my head and tried to think of a better way of explaining why I didn't want to take the offer. I could feel my heart pounding fast from the frustration growing inside me and I bit my lip to stop myself from screaming. Breathe in, breathe out. I stopped chanting mentally when I saw her looking at me now. I noticed that she already closed her laptop, meaning that she's ready to listen with what I'm going to say.

I let out a deep breath and sat down on the chair in front of her desk. Her eyes followed my every move calmly. It made me more agitated to see her relaxing in that chair of hers while I'm here sweating bullets. I clasped my hands in a tight grip.

"Ms. Coleman, I really appreciate that you keep on making me do stories after stories, I really do. It makes me feel, you know, deserving of the position I'm given. I also appreciate how you peacefully agreed to let Marcia fly to Miami instead of me. I know you know that for the past few years I've been working here, that's the first request I've asked of you," I cleared my throat and shifted closer to her desk, "But I really need you to hear me out one last time, I swear. I can't take this story you're giving me because of a lot of reasons, one of which is that my wedding is just a week a way. I'm sure you know how the bride should stay away from—" an image of Christian's smiling face flashed in my mind and I closed my eyes to push it away, "—stressful situations. It's just that, the person involved in this job, we're not in really good terms."

After what seemed like an eternity of her staring at me, she finally moved. She leaned on the table and raised a brow, "Is that so? Because I just got off the phone with Mr. Edwards a minute after you came in and he specifically asked me to let you, and only you, to cover the story. That was his condition before he accepted. Now, I don't know who to trust. One of my loyal employee or one of the most famous architect in the city. Care to explain the whole situation to me, Ms. Blythe?"

There were two things that faltered my breath in her statement. First one is why the heck did he made that condition? And second was his last name. Edwards? It made me dizzy to think that maybe he's related to Kris. I leaned back and let out a shaky breath. All of a sudden, I am torn between finding out if they were really related and just staying away from Christian.

"I... I don't know."

I watched as the look of victory spread like wildfire in Ms. Coleman's eyes. In my answer, she knew that with just one more push, I'll give in because I didn't have enough reason to refuse. And I knew that I had no other way out of this.

"How long should I be there?"

"Not long. You're just going to write about his effort in building the mansion, his passion in leading his workers. All the things that would make the people living in the most farthest country in the world hire him." The gesture she made with both hands made me roll my eyes.