October

Chapter Three

Ramsey woke up bright and early Monday morning; she had spent the entire weekend perfecting her design sample and couldn't wait to share her ideas with Rome. After she finished her coffee, she made her way down the fast paced sidewalk, trying to keep up her pace with the rest of Manhattan. Halloween was tomorrow but of course the upcoming holiday was the last thing on her mind. All she wanted to do was get to her office and wait for Rome to fall in love with her. In her hands she carried a million and one papers as well as her new planner and the portfolio. The cool, strong October wind wasted no time trying to blow all her documents away. In the mist of trying to prevent everything from falling, she stepped off the curb and landed in the arms of a who she thought was a stranger, but once she looked up, she knew exactly who it was. Maddox. Completely caught off guard, she looked up at him blinking intently. She stared at him thinking it feels like she's known him for mouths, but they've never said one word to each other, and now he was saving her life. The blow of a cab horn brought her back to reality. "Watch where you're going next time! You're going to get yourself killed!" The man from the cab yelled.

"Th- thank you." She mouthed out.
"You're welcome." He replied, before Ramsey could even blink.

For a second it seemed like time stopped and they were the only two in the world. She looked into his icy blue eyes for what felt like a lifetime, and then she remembered she was awkwardly standing half on the curb and half in his arms. His arms. Ramsey shook her head and pushed herself off of him. What in the world was she thinking? How could she even risk getting hit by a car when she has a date with Rome. Oh my God, Rome." She was going to be late for work and that just cannot happen. Once she got her footing back, she looked down and saw her planner lying at her feet, right in a puddle. "My planner! No, no, no not today!" She bent down to grab it, and then walked off without saying another word to Maddox. He watched her walk away, just like he'd watched his girlfriends cab drive away just a few days prior.

Ramsey stormed into her office and slammed the paperwork on her desk. She reached for the planner and without even looking at it, made her way to the bathroom to try and dry the pages with the hand dryer. She had 10 minutes before she needed to be in the conference room and ready to talk to Rome. As she stood there, drying each page one by one, she suddenly got immensely overwhelmed and thought she was about to have a panic attack. "Breathe, Rams." She told herself, she never let anyone call her 'Rams', her dad has been calling her that since she was little and ever since then, anyone else referred to her as 'Ramsey' or 'Ms. Buchanan'. Thinking of her dad made her remember that she had completely forgotten to call him back since he called right before the charity event. "All you have to do is get through this and everything is going to be okay, and then you have to call your dad." She calmed herself down and caught a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror, and then suddenly she wished this Skype call was going to be a speaker phone call instead. Her straight blonde hair was now windblown and wavy. Her blue eyes looked sad and heavy, like she hadn't slept in weeks. "Why do you look so sad?" Her boss asked, coming into the bathroom. Then taking a look at the soaked planner in her hands, "Oh no, please tell me that isn't the portfolio?!" Her boss suddenly looked as sad as Ramsey felt. "Oh no, it isn't! I dropped my planner in a rain puddle, right after I almost got hit by a car." Now she was thinking about Maddox. She replayed the incident in her head, "did I thank him?" she thought, "did I say bye?" For the life of her, she couldn't remember anything that was said, she couldn't even recall if she'd said anything at all. The color of his eyes popped into her mind, the calming blue color that reminded her of – "you were almost hit by a car?!" Her boss's question interrupted her train of thought. "Yes, can you believe it? If it wasn't for Madd-", she cut herself off. "A guy caught me right before both of my feet left the curb; if it wasn't for him I probably would've gotten hit." For some reason she didn't feel comfortable saying his name, she didn't want her boss asking who he was because even if she had, what would she say? She's never even talked to the guy – she thinks. "Well that guy is my new best friend; I can't lose you right now! Now, let's go talk to Rome." Mrs. Adler seemed almost as excited as Ramsey was.