Untitled Story

Chapter Five

Morning came around faster than I would have liked. Today was one of the days that I didn't wake up until my alarm made its presence known to the world. By the time it went off, Tony had already left for work, leaving me to the apartment alone, which if I'm being honest, I seem to be more accustomed to these days. When he's here I feel like one of us are in the way.

Getting ready quicker than normal, it isn't long before I find myself walking through the door to my office. Placing my bag on the chair by the door, I remove my jacket and hang it on one of the hooks in the room. I feel as if I'm late, despite being perfectly on time, so I hastily make my way over to my desk. After taking a seat and opening my emails, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that only a couple of people had emailed me since I checked last night. However, I'm fairly certain that might be due to the fact that it's still early on Monday morning, and that at some point I'll be bombarded by a wave of activity later on in the day.

Deciding where to start first thing in the morning has always been a struggle that I am yet to overcome. Knowing that I have a meeting with Kacey, the creative director, just before lunch, I decide to start with prepping for the meeting. I go through all the material that I know she'll ask about, and I organise it neatly in a binder.

Having worked under Kacey for the last year and a half, I've picked up on how she likes things done. So, by making the binder and in the order that I have, hopefully I can be out of that meeting in ten minutes. Not that I have anything in particular that I need to be doing after the meeting, just being in a confined room with people who view themselves as better than me rubs me the wrong way.

At some point, I find myself satisfied with the work I had put into the binder, so I move onto the next problem - my emails. In the time I spent on the binder, they had managed to pile up to almost one hundred emails. Mindlessly scrolling through the growing list, I decide that I would much rather go make a cup of coffee than start engrossing myself in other people's problems.

As I reach for my phone, to take it with me, I start to receive a call from an unknown number. I look at the number to see if I recognise the number, but I don't. I slide the accept button before I give myself the opportunity to convince myself not to.

"Ava Coleman," I say down the line.

"Hey Ava, it's Lexi." At the sound of her velvet voice, I can't stop the smile from forming on my lips.

"Oh, hey Lexi. How are you?" I spin in my chair so that I can look at the city view I have from the window.

"I'm good thanks. Am I calling at a bad time? I forget other people work normal jobs." Lexi's light laugh fills my ears, and my smile grows.

"Not at all. I was actually just looking for a distraction. It was going to be making coffee, but that's boring by comparison. So, what can I do for you?"

"Well, I'm glad I'm at least more interesting than a coffee machine." We both chuckle slightly. "Well, you were adamant that you wanted to see my art, so I thought I'd give you a call and find out a good time. If you still want to, I mean. If you don't, that's totally cool too, we can go for coffee or lunch or something instead." I can't help but think her rambling is adorable, a thought which causes a soft blush to rise to my cheeks.

"Of course, I still want to see it. When is a good day for you?" I find myself fiddling with a pen, placing the end of it between my teeth.

"Honestly? Any of them." She laughs nervously. "I live and work in the same place, so unless I have plans, this is where I'll be. And as far as I know, I don't have plans until next week." She pauses for a second or two. "Wow, I sound so dull." She laughs again, and I try to stifle my own.