His Nineteenth Secretary [✔]

Seven

"Alicia, do you think this is okay?" I turned my back to the opened closet while holding in my hand a peach dress which I thought would be suitable for my dinner date with Alex.

At my question, her fingers stopped moving as her eyes left her phone screen to look towards my direction.

"No, I don't think so." She dropped her phone and within a second she was right beside me, before the closet, rummaging through it.

"Let's see," She held a dark gray strappy dress to my body after some time probably checking if she had made the right choice. "This is perfect, you should wear this." She eventually said. I took the dress from her.

It was a simple yet classy body hug dress with a low back and straps forming a crisscross at the front.

She already did my makeup which I complimented her on because it was simple the way that I wanted it to be and I was putting on my heels while seated on the bed when the doorbell rang.

"I think he is here?" Alicia whispered.

"How do I look?" I stood up.

"Don't even ask, you look gorgeous."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." She held out the dark green clutch she had picked out for me which I took from her. "Go on now, don't keep him waiting."

Doing a quick once-over in the mirror, I left the room and made for the living room with Alicia following right behind me.

At the door, stood Alex, in a well-tailored three-piece gray suit.

"Whoa!" I slowly exclaimed, seeing we had decided to go for the same color, only different shades.

"I wasn't expecting this." He laughed.

"Me too."

"You look stunning." His eyes were soft.

"Oh, thank you. You look good too." I said, a little shyly.

He wasn't looking bad himself, always his charming self, his piercing brown eyes standing out under his long dark lashes.

During the drive, we talked about the weather before moving on to another topic, then another. He drove us to an obviously expensive restaurant and I was grateful I didn't go for the peach dress. Since he already made a reservation, we were led to the reserved seat immediately we arrived there.

"I heard the whole thing with you and Lizzy?" He said after the waiter who came for our order had left.

"Yeah." That was all I could say. "I got a new job already though." I decided to add on a second thought.

"That's- That's great news. Really. At where?"

"MAXCO." Upon my answer, he seemed shocked but not for long. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

*

He walked me to the door of my house after driving me back home from the restaurant.

"Go on in now," He said gentlemanly.

"Alright, drive carefully on your way home."

"I will." He assured with a smile.

"Okay, good night."

I entered my apartment to find Alicia, who was seated before the TV, in the living room with a pack of popcorn securely held between her thighs when I actually thought she would be asleep already.

"I'm back." I announced. I was going to take off my heels when she rushed over to where I was and dragged me to the couch. She pushed me onto the couch and threw herself in, just right beside me, afterwards.

"Wha..."

"Hush! Gist me, how did it go? Did you guys kiss?"

I gasped.

"Are you kidding me right now? It was just a dinner date dummy." I slapped her on the shoulder and rose up.

"Ouch!" She rubbed the area where I had slapped her. "Are you saying you guys only talked?"

"I'm tired," I yawned and started making for my room, completely ignoring her deadly glare.

"Did you just walk out on me?" She asked and I scoffed.

"I can't?"

"But you are still going to tell me how your date with him went, right?"

"I need to take a shower first."

As the cold water slid down my body, my muscles relax but there were tears sliding down my cheeks now. I thought I was already getting over Mike and couldn't believe I was crying again because of him.

I missed him. So much.

More of the reason why I later considered the dinner with Alex to be a good idea. I've always heard that new love heals but could that ever be true because getting over Mike seemed close to impossible to me. I hadn't been able to tell grandma about our breakup yet and on the day she was here, I only told her he was doing fine when she had asked about him.

The memory of the time we were still dating came back to me. We started dating towards the end of college and continued after graduating from college. We didn't go to the same college but we met on one of my school field trips. He was the most romantic and sweetest guy I ever knew and I had my first kiss with him.

He was from a rich home and his family owned a big company but his dream was to become a Record Producer which he made a reality. There were times we went skating, we also went on numerous dates. When I started working at Synctex, he would drive me to work and would be waiting in his car whenever I was done for the day to take me home.

On his twenty-sixth birthday, his wish was for us to get married and have kids. Our relationship was going on just fine until the third year of us dating when he started acting strange towards me. He started treating me like a stranger and stopped me from showing up at his studio. He would also make up excuses so as not to see me.

The reason why he broke up with me was still unknown and I really do wish to know the reason.

"Hey," Alicia knocked on the bathroom door. "What is taking you so long? I need to take a shower too."

"I'm done." My hand found the shower switch and I proceeded to turn it off. After wrapping a clean towel round my body, I opened the door to let her in.

"Why..." She was saying but stopped talking when she noticed my red eyes. Standing before me, she raised and rested her hands on my shoulders. "Were you crying?" She asked worriedly.

"No, I wasn't."

"Of course you were. Was it because of Mike?"

"No, I had something in my eyes." I lied.

"Come on, I know when you are lying. Are you still not over him yet, he broke up with you for another girl."

It was then I remembered I hadn't told her about meeting with Phoebe, Mike's cousin.

"It wasn't because of some other girl. The girl I saw with him that day was his cousin."

"His cousin? Why do you think she is his cousin?"

"The girl told me herself."

"And you believe her?" We were seated on the edge of my bed now.

"I couldn't believe it at first too but she showed me pictures. Mike had some other reason for breaking up with me."

"Why are you just telling me all this?" She questioned.

"It skipped my mind."

"This is twisted." She was deep in thought for a while. "Did you go to his place after finding out?"

"I did but he wasn't home. It was through his friend, Ellis, I learned that he already traveled but he won't tell me exactly where?"

"This Ellis, do you know where he works?"

"He works at the same studio as Mike. Why?"

"We will be going there to see him tomorrow then."

"He's also not in town and I have no idea if he is back yet."

"Then we will find out this weekend."