Fatal Attraction

Chapter 1 - Mary Jenkins

Mary Jenkins's POV

"Aww...Ouch..." I winched in pain as my feet finally touched the cold marbled ground after two hours of standing in my stiletto heels. The relief of having my feet flat on the ground was satisfying.

Damn stiletto, if it wasn't a compulsory work attire, it would have never ever been in my footwear list.

I've been pacing back and forth outside the conference room in this god darn killer heels, bearing with the aching sore building up over the ball of my feet, not knowing when the meeting would end, all for the sake of shafting this file of important leads in the face of my superior, Marvin Sanchez, the Chief Prosecutor in the Office of International Affairs.

"Alright, get me updated on the progress," Marvin said in his demanding voice as the door to the conference room opened.

Shit... Why now?

I scrambled to get my heels back onto my feet as I watched men in suits walking out from the room giving me the disgusted sneer.

I must have looked pathetic...

Marvin cleared his throat at my embarrassing situation and frowned at me before he walked away.

"Mr Sanchez! I have an important lead that just came in this morning, it's about the Gambit Empire!" I shouted from afar, I didn't care if I would embarrass myself further because I'm not going to waste my two hours of wait in this killer heels for nothing.

Marvin continued to walk ahead, as though he did not hear me at all.

What an asshole!

I know I have unintentionally annoyed him on a few occasion because of the difference in the beliefs on how we felt work should be done, but he should be at least professional about this, this lead is about the Gambit Empire, the biggest organised international crime syndicate of all times!

To hell with this man, I'm going to put my athletic sprint record back in college onto this moment.

"Mr Sanchez!" I continued to shout as I gritted in pain at every step that I landed in my killer heels until I finally caught up with him.

"Sir, please, this is an important lead that is rare to come by, this could be the pivotal moment for us to wipe out the Gambit Empire," I rushed after Marvin, panting hard as I tried to follow his big strides in my heels while trying to get the file of leads in my hands to his attention.

He finally stopped walking and turned to me to blast at me annoyingly, "God damn it, Mary! Listen! I know you've been secretly working on the case of Gambit Empire when I had specifically told you not to. For the last time that I'm going to repeat myself, it is not our job as a prosecutor to investigate on the leads, that's the job of the international police, and they are working on it. So please, follow the procedures and step out of this before I suspend you from your duty."

"Oh and just because you've won a lot of cases under your belt, doesn't mean you can do whatever you want here," He snapped at me before he turned to walk away.

I was dumbfounded for a moment for how he went ballistic on me and humiliated me as if it was nothing.

"Asshole..." I cursed at him in my head. I felt a rush of heat over my face and they were soon wet from my tears.

"Damn it," I wiped my tears off my face as I tried to stabilise my emotion by taking in big breaths.

"Did you cried?" Nicholas Allen, my colleague in the Office of International Affair, asked me the moment I returned to my desk. He was my childhood playmate and my junior throughout my schooling years. He was two years younger than me and was literally like a little brother whom I can't shake off.

"Not now, Nick," I said to him coldly. I called him Nick instead of Nicholas all my life simply because I found it a mouthful to say out Nicholas.

"Alright, then I'm not going to remind you that you were supposed to have a lunch date fixed with your boyfriend," Nick scorned as he tapped on his watch and showed me the timing on his watch. This reminded me of the lunch date that I have fixed with my boyfriend, Sean Davis. He is a senior prosecutor in the Office of International Office, also a promising figure in the office. We knew each other when I was just an intern in the Criminal Division seven years ago, he was smart and so full of righteous justice when I first knew him, but sadly, maybe people do change over time...

"Oh shit!" I gasped at how late I was for my lunch date, and then I jumped out of my seat immediately and grabbed my handbag along with my coat, "Thanks for the reminder, Nick!"

I was praying hard in my mind as I rushed to the restaurant just two blocks away from our office, hoping that Sean wouldn't be mad at me for being late.

"Sorry, Sean!" I waved at Sean who was standing outside the restaurant. I hurried over to his side and grabbed his arm instinctively, only to have my grip shunned as he whispered to me in an annoyed tone, "Honey, we agreed on this, we shouldn't be holding hands."

"Oh sorry, it was just a slip of my mind," I quickly retrieved my hands off him.

Yes, I do remember that I was forced to agree with him that we shouldn't be holding hands at places near our workplace about two years ago, but I never really understood why. He explained to me that it was because now that he was promoted to a higher rank, it would not be appropriate for us to be seen together. He also felt that it was inappropriate for couples to be holding hands in the workplace. However, it still hurts me whenever he shuns my hands away from him.

"Are you angry that I was late?" I asked Sean cautiously as we were looking through the menu, it was almost as though I was handling a bomb that was about to blow.

He said no to me coldly without even bothering to lift his head to look at me.

I thought it would be a good idea to defuse the awkward tension by changing the subject, "Well... I'm sorry, I got caught up with work, and you know that stupid Marvin hasn't been giving me a good time at work. This old man just enjoys throwing his weights around."

Speaking about Marvin, my blood boiled and a slew of rant just came spewing out of my mouth, "He wanted to suspend me from my duty, can you believe it? Just because he doesn't like to handle trouble, doesn't mean we should cut slacks on our job! There could be many innocent souls out there who are still suffering just because these criminals are still out there at large, thinking that they could outrun the law..."

"Could you please watch your volume?" Sean dropped the menu and warned me about my volume with his stern look.

I froze for a moment and my eyes darted around the restaurant briefly to see if my volume was indeed so loud that people were looking at us.

Nope, not a single soul had their watchful eyes on us.

"Ok, I'm sorry..." I whispered.

"It's okay," Sean dismissed me.

Then his phone on the table vibrated and a message across his screen flashed. I saw the name Kathy for a brief moment before he quickly picked it away from my sight.

"I heard that there's a new intern, Kathy, working under you, how're things going on with her?" I asked, this time round watching my volume.

"Look, I know what you're worried about, nothing is going on alright? Could we not talk about work now?" Sean rubbed his forehead in frustration.

I would be lying if I said I did not felt hurt by Sean.

"Alright, I'm sorry..." I apologised once again. I don't know why the word "sorry" could come out of my mouth so cheaply. I hated myself for that but I guess I did it just because I thought he was worth it.

Silence ensued between us over lunch because I no longer knew how to approach Sean. He has been serving me the silent treatment occasionally ever since a year ago, I guess I am getting used to it already.

It was obvious, he wasn't trying anymore, we were crumbling.

Sean used to be a sweet guy back in those courtship days, there weren't any of such stupid agreements or bad temper from him. Nick used to warn me about dating Sean back then, but I dismissed his concerns, now to think about it... I kind of regretted not taking his advice.

Does he still love me?