BLINDED

CHAPTER 3

It was the second day of work and I was glad that I had backed up all my sketches and ideas on the cloud and I could just use my laptop for the day to look at them but if I didn't get the tablet I had to buy a new one. I ditched the purse it was too heavy and made me look like I had aged over two decades and it just seemed like bad luck. I decided to just use a regular sling bag and went to the train station a bit early so I could pass by the coffee shop.

I headed for the coffee shop and prayed that they had kept the tapings of the previous night before I put Taptiklis as my main suspect, someone as handsome should not deserve to be placed as the main suspect. It was empty and I could see they were putting the seats down and just opening the shop. I knocked on the door and one of the baristas pointed at the sign which said closed.

I knocked on the door again until he came to the door.

"Sorry ma'am we open at 7:30"

I looked at the clock on my phone and it was seven but I had to be at the office before 7:45.I never wanted to paint a false impression that I could not keep time on my second day.

"No I'm not getting a drink, my tablet was stolen yesterday...."

He proceeded to point at the side of the shop that said: "leave your belongings at your own risk, any loss of property will not be held accountable by the establishment."

I sighed. Some people were so difficult.

"Please I won't hold you guys responsible. It was at my irresponsibility but can I please see yesterday's tapings I suspect someone took it."I said now in more of a pleading tone.

He looked at me and sighed. He opened the door and took me to the manager's office in the back.

"Hey, she wants to look at yesterday's footage. She claimed that she suspects someone who had stolen her tablet."He told me what I assumed was the manager.

He was a lot kinder than the other one. He asked for the time and it was around 5:30 to seven in the evening. He was kind enough to show me the tapes and curiously Taptiklis and I never appeared in the recording. That was weird.

"Are sure you were here last night?"He asked.

"Yeah I was here I came in with this tall handsome guy I met at work," I said concerned

"I'm sorry but I believe you have described many people on this p[lanet who resemble that description ."He said

That must have been wrong. I was super sure I had coffee with him. I could not forget those eyes and that smile and I was sober the whole time so I knew I was at that coffee shop. I checked my phone to check the time my mom called and it was exactly 6:47 pm when I was there, so I knew I had the timings correct.

"Maybe you were at a different place, madam."

"Ummm yeah thank you," I said walking out.

I could not wrap my head around what had happened. Or maybe we sat at a blindspot which I could not see, all in all, it was going to 7:30 and I had to go to work immediately. I walked fast and going through the annoying security check I went to the office just on time and Linda was already there at her desk.

"Good morning Linda," I said

"I don't like morning greetings, they are unnecessary," she said shutting me down once again.

"I apologize," I said sitting down wondering what her issue was.

I glared over at my desk and I had to do a double-take. My tablet was there on the desk and I was in pure shock and relief. Did I leave it there and stress over nothing? Maybe Taptiklis was innocent and just my carelessness was the reason I was freaking out over nothing. I opened it and looked and everything was fine and all my sketches were there but now the true question was why was I not in the security footage in the coffee shop yesterday night. Was it by mistake? But I had to stop overthinking about it. I was just glad that it was there.

I decided to put that beside me and prepare for the day hoping it would take my mind out of there absurd things. They always sent us the assignments by email and I checked the day's work.

During the lunch break, I decided that I should go find Taptiklis and ask him why he ditched me in hopes of making sure I was actually at the coffee shop. I did feel a bit hurt that he left and since he never stole my tablet why did they leave if it was part of embarrassing me I needed to know.

I looked in the fifth-floor lounge and I did not see him anywhere. I decided to leave it alone I hoped it would have been as yesterday was we would accidentally collide with each other. I went back to the office where I felt most at ease and decided to make something small since I had finished the first half of my assignments and it made me feel better. Linda had gone for lunch and probably to kiss up to the other employees.

Suddenly, Taptikils entered the office and I pricked myself by mistake.

"That looks nice, you work even during your lunch break?"He asked

"Yeah, it makes me relaxed. Why did you leave me yesterday ?"I asked

"My friend Mark got in an accident. I had to go see him. That's why I came to apologize plus I could not find you. I would have left a message but we never really exchanged numbers."He said remorsefully.

I considered that a good excuse and at least it answered the question that I was in the coffee shop which was good as it could be to make sure I was not going crazy. I concluded that the coffee shop had set the wrong date or something even when he was apologizing it was smooth and calming.

"Oh, that's fine," I said a bit embarrassed by my thoughts yesterday that he was a thief.

"To make it up to you I brought you lunch."He said removing a lunchbox

He was quick to be kind to me and at that point, I felt I would just take his offers since at least he tried to make me feel comfortable in that new environment. I took the lunch and opened it and it was a quinoa salad weird how he knew my favorite thing.

"Thank you even though you never had to do this for me," I said looking at him.

"It's the least I could do considering that I left you there. I shouldn't have done that." I looked at him and I was surprised that he could embody charm and remorse altogether.

Taptiklis was not that bad of a person. My first did go well and at least someone was trying to help me and I took that for granted and jumped to conclusions too fast. We decided to have lunch together and we talked some more. It was interesting how he was able to work as an agent to models at the same age I was just getting started in that industry.

I had to admit that he was an interesting person and he was fun to talk to. I felt blessed to have all these things falling through in my favor.