บท 40: 40
EMILY'S POV.
I dressed as quickly as I could. After having cappuccino with Lucas, I was late for work. Katie and I were handling a board meeting at the office to discuss the pressing consequences for John's sudden one month leave, which did not sit well with most of the people he was about signing contracts with.
It made me wonder just how successful John was going to get. How could he have so many companies he was about to sign contracts with? He was just getting richer, and richer by the day, and there I was getting poorer and poorer, yet dreaming of revenge.
How was I to revenge on such a wealthy man, with a considerable amount of power vested in him by his family? Thinking about the fact that he was probably going to be an Alpha soon, made me feel sick.
Hopefully, he didn't marry anyone within my three years stay with him. I had a feeling things would get really unbearable then.
On my way to the restroom right before the meeting started, I ran into Mandy, and felt like my day couldn't get any worse. When was the last time I saw her annoying face?
Thinking about the relationship she and John had, I began to wonder what would happen if he married her. That would be the definition of unbearable.
"Look who decided to show up." She commented, and I tried hard not to shake my head at her. I had never in my life seen a woman like her, who claimed to be a secretary, despite how she looked. She looked more like a prostitute.
Her hair was down in a haughty manner. You'd think she was going to a night party. Both her ears had three extra piercings, with shining studs on them, while the main ear piercings had long dazzling earrings.
Her orange suit jacket was longer than its skirt, which was so fitted that I wondered how she managed to walk with them. Her white shirt was open with three buttons, and I could totally see her cleavages out in the open.
Could she really call herself a secretary? I had yet to see such an outrageous secretary.
We both went into the restroom, and she began to apply lipstick while I walked into one of the stalls.
"John's heartbroken fiancée. Oops, ex-fiancée, meeting with… or no, getting a ride from his handsome-as-hell Uncle, and having coffee together? Wait, I think it was cappuccino, or a latte.
"Anyways, They're both talking, and at one point, he's patting her back. Hmm. Looks weird to me" She said, like she was talking to herself. I knew fairly well that she wasn't. She was just trying to get on my nerves.
I flushed the toilet without using it, and stepped out to wash my hands. She was patting her cheeks with a faint blush.
"My eyes are on her. If she thinks she can keep her hold on the Granger family, by clinging onto the sweet youngest, then I'll stamp on her like my cigarette butt, and snuff the life out of her." She said, packing her makeup things into a little purse.
With that, she threw me a red-lipped smile, and left the restroom with her heels knocking on the floor arrogantly.
Did she think I was the same person she was? Meddling with another Granger was the least thing I wanted at the moment, and why had she been watching me?
Was it a coincidence, or she had been stalking me?
After the meeting which had been unexpectedly even more stressful than I had assumed it would be, I took a taxi to a nearby café, where I was to meet with the client who didn't want to discuss matters on the phone.
I sat and ordered myself an iced cappuccino.
Just seeing the milk foam alone made me feel relieved, and when I drank it. Those high espresso notes hit the spot, and I gave a sound of relief. The day had been annoying and suffocating. My scalp burned because I had packed my hair too tight, but I didn't want to release it because I had no mirror with me, and didn't want to ruin the simple way it looked.
I sucked on my cappuccino real fast because I didn't want the client to see me drinking it. The sun outside was scorching hot, and I wondered if it was one of the things that made me so exhausted, or if my day itself had been exhausting.
Shortly, after I had drained my cappuccino, and chewed up the ice cubes, my client arrived. It was a slightly balding man, who seemed to be in his early fifties. He already had a scowl on his face as he approached, and I could tell it wasn't going to be an easy task. As he came closer, I could see he wasn't just balding slightly. Half of his head had no hair, while the back, and sides had little hair.
He sat, and crossed his legs, staring at me with displeasure.
"I expected to see Miss Crooner." He said, grumpily, and I blinked in confusion.
"Miss Croo…ner?" I asked.
"Miss Katherine Crooner."
"Oh, Katie. Well, she's, uh… she's a little busy, so she sent me."
"A little busy? She's so busy that she simply sends someone completely unknown to have an important conversation with me?" He asked.
"I'm so sorry, sir. She's acting as Mr. Granger for now because she was kind of…"
"Shouldn't the vice president or so do that?" He asked, tapping a finger impatiently on the table.
"Uh.. Mr. Granger left her in charge, and uh…"
"So, she sent the lowliest of the secretaries to me? You can't even speak properly. This had been a waste of time. Tell your bosses to forget about signing a contract. I came all the way from Singapore to New York. Search it up, and you'll see it's one of the longest flights in the world. I spent a little over nineteen hours on the plane for this?" He asked, looking red.
"I apologize deeply sir, but I promise you that this will be worth your time." I said, keeping my calm and composure.
"You—you are a waste of time yourself. Please leave."
"Sir, I promise you will not regret this meeting. If you'd just let us talk about…" I was saying, still with a smile on my face, only for him to swear at me.
I gasped.
"Take your irritating face out of my sight, and I might give Mr. Granger a chance." He said, with disgust, and it was so hard to keep my smile up, but I did anyway.
"Thank you for your consideration, sir. I will take my leave now." I said, and got to my feet. "Have a nice day, sir." I said, bowing.
"Go crash yourself somewhere, pimp. Annoying." He spat, as I turned around to leave, and I felt like crying.
He probably had a bad day, but why was he venting it on me? Why was he taking out his aggression on me? That was just so unfair.
I went out of the café, with my chest burning, and took out my hair from its bun. I felt a little relief as the pain reduced. It had been a terrible day. I sighed, and began to walk away. Even calling a cab seemed like a tedious task to do. It felt like I'd burst into tears if I tried talking to anyone.
Just then, a car pulled up next to me, and I saw Lucas. What was he doing there? I looked around, feeling weird. What if Mandy was somewhere around, stalking me?
"Get in." He said, and I immediately protested, raising my hands.
"Oh, no. It's fine. I'm not…" He got out of the car, and made his way to me. What if someone saw us? The baldy, grumpy man was inside. What if he saw us through the glass, and recognized Lucas?
Wait, would that be a problem or not? Even if I was going out with the Uncle of his business partner, it wasn't really his problem, was it?
"It's…" I tried to say again, feeling like it was better if everyone stayed away from me for the whole day, but he held my wrist gently.
"I borrowed you for the day." He said, with a smile, and at that moment, he looked like an angel. Did he know I was having a bad day? Was he sent to me? No wait, he borrowed me for the day…
That was more work!
At that rate, I was going to burst into tears if I wasn't left alone. He led me towards the car, opening the door, and I got in.
Who knew what he wanted me to do? How had we even managed to run into each other?
"So the thing is, I borrowed you so you could be my stress manager." He said, after sitting next to me.
"Stress manager? What's that?" I asked, looking at him.
"It means I need someone to have fun with."
"Someone to…"
"This past week has been so stressful, so I felt I needed a way to burn out stress. John's not around, Katie's very busy, the kids are too young, but there's you. You're perfect for it. You're around, not busy, and old enough." He said, with a smile that made me look away.
"So how do you relieve stress?" I asked, with a sigh.
"Easy. I spend the day doing things I want, and when I'm exhausted, I go to bed, take a day off, and relax the next day, and pretty much, that's all. The next day, I'm always feeling more motivated to work." He explained, and I wondered why he needed me.
"I still don't understand why you need a stress manager." I said.
"It's no fun to have fun alone, is it?" He asked, and I sighed again.
I wasn't in the mood to have fun. All I wanted was to be alone, and think of how harsh the day had been to me.
Our first stop was an arcade, and an even bigger sigh escaped me.
What were grown-ups doing in an arcade? Everyone in the area knew the arcade was for the teenagers.
Lucas got down first, but before he could come around, and open the door for me, I quickly opened it, and stepped out fast.
He gave me a smile, and signified with his arm that I was to go in.
The arcade was bustling with lots of kids having fun.
"Okay, there." Lucas pointed to arcade basketball hoops, then seemed to change his mind. "What do you think our first game should be?" He asked, and I looked around. I recalled the old days when John would always accompany me to the arcade. It happened whenever I had nightmares about my parents, or when I had been teased about them. The arcade was where I let out steam.
"Let's drive." I said to him, and a few minutes later when I was in the world of VR, I held onto my steering wheel like I wanted to smash it.
Immediately we started, I went twice as fast, surprising Lucas. As I went, I hit cars from left to right, smashing them, and pushing them out of the way. Those cars were Mandy, the annoying old baldy man, John, and Katie. If I could scream while doing it, I would have.
I showed no mercy to Lucas' car too, hitting it with each chance I got.
In the end I won the game, and relaxed into my seat, taking breaths like I had really been driving.
"What was that all about? Sounds like you need this more than I do." He said, and without looking at him, I replied,
"Maybe." I already had a really shitty day. Instead of crying, it was better to get mad. "What next?" I asked, and he chuckled softly.
"Follow me." He replied, getting out of his seat.
Lucas and I played almost all the games in the arcade. We shot the life out of zombies, and even battled against ourselves. There was a boxing game that was perfect for me, and Lucas laughed his head off because I accidentally shouted.
"Take that you crazy old, balding man!"
"Who's the balding man?" He asked, and I boxed faster.
"A man who probably wants to see only Katie's beautiful face!"
We had a game where the faster we ran, the faster our game characters ran, and competed against ourselves. I won that too.
After that we used the claw machine where I tried to get a large doll to gift Sadie for keeping her mouth shut, but it turned out it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.
I had never used it all my life.
It only made me more annoyed, and worse than I felt before approaching it. Lucas also tried his best, but he ended up leaving, and when he returned, he had a doll, which he definitely bought.
"I think you might break the machine at this rate. What do you need a doll for?" He asked, and took it out of his hands.
"For Sadie. Thank you." I said, and walked past him, trying not to cry. The old man had really been the last straw. How could he have been so rude, and uncaring?
As we went on, we saw a theme park, where people climbed on a really high set of stairs, and took pictures as they were on top of the world. Some of them were shouting and although I couldn't hear what they were saying, I guessed they were having fun. But then, it struck me as nice that we couldn't hear a thing they were saying. I didn't like heights, but I needed to vent out my anger, or I'd just end up crying.
"I think going up there would be good for you." I suggested, and he gave me a weird look. "Experience." I added.
"That doesn't seem like a good idea. Hey, it's really high." He said, waving it off.
"Are you perhaps scared of heights?" I asked, and he chuckled.
"Nope. Let's go then." He said, and we got tickets, and waited for their time to be up.
When their time was up, the both of us began to climb, and jeez, it was so scary. Everything seemed to be getting smaller the higher we got, and when we got to half of the long staircase-like ladder, my legs began to tremble, but I tried to expel my fear through laughing. Underneath it was something that looked like a really soft surface, and I guessed it was to help if anyone happened to miraculously fall.
From a distance were the rollercoasters I didn't dare to ride. There was also a large Ferris Wheel.
When I got to the highest point that had a round base, and high rails to keep people from accidentally falling, I let out a shiver. People looked smaller than they ought to be.
I took in a deep breath, and closed my eyes. "Damn you! I'm way better, you just don't know it!" I screamed, ignoring Lucas, who was still on his way. "All of you are just so stupid, and damn you, Mandy! Just wait for me, I promise to make you regret everything you've ever done, and you baldy old man, you can decide not to sign your contract or whatever. After all, it's John's loss and not mine. You all… you all should just buzz off." I screamed, shaking hard, and immediately felt a little better.
As always, the best thing was screaming out, instead of bottling it all up. I took deep breaths, filling my lungs with clean air, and admitted it felt really good. It would have been way better to say that to their faces.
After about a minute, Lucas finally came up.
"You sure have a lot of things on your… jeez!" He exclaimed, looking down at the height, and the way his face turned pale, told me he really wasn't a fan of heights.
I burst out laughing at his horrible expression, and couldn't stop. He looked at me, and smiled, even though he still tried hard to stop looking down.
Then, I stopped myself abruptly. When was the last time I laughed like that?
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