The Good Boy's Facade

2

The only desire Claire had was to gain peace.

She just wanted to stay at a place, close her eyes and be able to shoot a smile that would warm hearts, not go around grunting at anyone who looked at her. Her behaviour was in contrast to her thoughts, and her job was too (which Adam never failed to remind her).

"What is this?" The man grumbled.

"..story." She pursed her lips together, looking at the man expectantly.

He was in his mid 50s, still working as an editor or more like a publisher who just went through the short story Claire had managed to write.

"I don't see story here, it's just curses and very badly written humour. This can't be called writing." He shook his head in disapproval, looking through the thick rimmed glasses and at Claire. "I expect more from you."

The toughest challenge Claire had to face was to not lose her temper. Once, she was the baddest bitch in her school, everyone falling at her feet and begging for mercy. Here.. well, she had to let go of her old self to survive the new atmosphere and make a living.

"What do you want?" She groaned slightly, sitting back in her chair while the old man sat back in his.

"You can definitely write better. You aren't applying enough efforts." His gruff voice sounded like venom to her ears, and she side eyed him with dismay.

"I have no idea."

"Hmm." He looked at her intently, a finger on his chin and eyebrows forrowed as if deeply in thought. "Your articles have always pleased readers, why then, aren't you able to write a 3 page story?"

She just shrugged, because really, she didn't know either. Maybe it's because Adam went around screaming his one line dialogues or enacted every single movie scene he had scene in the same room as Claire just because he wanted to which distracted her to no end.

Then again, she couldn't ask him to shut up, because he seemed happy while doing that. And she barely had seen him happy in earlier days.

"I have nothing to write about." She muttered.

"I'll give you three more months, and this time, your story should be 300 pages long or 30k words all together, choose any genre. I'd love to read some.. erotica? Will you be able to write it?"

Claire squinted her eyes slightly at him. Erotica? This old man wants to read that kinda shit?

"I guess." She agreed nevertheless because, let's say, she always wanted to read one but never got a chance. Or that she never put in efforts to actually search for one.

"Great. Meet you after three months."

———

"Three months, Claire. We have three months." Adam immediately said when he saw her walking in through the main door.

And yes, Claire was usually met with silence greeting her every day but today.. sounded different. Adam himself jogged down to her and put both his large hands on her shoulders to shake her vigorously.

"Three months for what?!" She managed to snap between the struggle of trying to get away from him.

"Hailey's wedding. I thought you knew." He said, stopping in his tracks as he watched her take off her shoes and push her bag off.

"I didn't. I only knew she's getting married. Why are you yelling, though? Why aren't you asleep?"

He didn't answer, so she just walked into her room and shut the door closed behind her. All she did was walk closer to the windows to close it but instead, froze half way through and just stared out.

It's in three months. But she can't make it. She has her project going on, and it'll probably disrupt her working schedule which she can't afford. Sorry to Hailey, she won't be attending the wedding.

Now that she thought about it, two rich kid's wedding must be something like the royal wedding? Something huge and magnificent? And there'll be lots of people from all kinds of companies and ceos and celebrities.

She hated being around people, which was one of the reasons why she kinda liked her occupation. She got to sit in home all day and do nothing at all, how cool was that? Except for constant writer blocks that made her want to snap her neck.

The door opened, and Adam leaned against the door frame, hands folded. A look in his eyes that reminded Claire of the times when he used to look at everyone with the dark, cold stare.

"What are you up to, Claire?" He asked, voice lowered as if he would disturb the silence in the room.

"An erotica. Three months time, I have to do it or I'll lose my job." She replied, just as lowly as he had asked.

"Would it hurt to spend ten days solving this problem?" He asked.

"What problem?" She didn't see any problem that needed to be solved.

"You know what it is. Why do you think Hailey gave you 26 missed calls? How long will you ignore her?"

"Who ignored? I was busy, you can't blame me for being indulged in work." She paused, licking her lips because that was a lie. She was in a cafeteria all day, playing a game on her phone and drawing circles into a piece of paper.

"You can't run from all of your problems, Claire." He pursed his lips at her.

"Why would I run when I don't have one? Its not like their wedding should matter to me, it's been 8 years, Adam. Congratulations to her, and her fiancé, I'd love to greet her but I can't."

"Okay then. I'm taking the car for a ride back to town tomorrow. I won't be back for next three months." He informed, and she just nodded. And before he left the room, he turned back around. "There are two buses. 10am and 10pm. I think I saw few empty seats. But I'll just take the car."

And with that, he smirked.