Stitched Together By Hate

5

~Alina~

The time is now 9 pm and I'm pacing around the room waiting for Karlos. I have to make sure I am more presentable this time, my whole career is at stake. It confuses me as to why he thinks that coming at such a late time is helpful. I already have to deal with coming to work at 9 am, that's like 100 hours at work. At least the only good thing is that he's the last customer of the day so straight after I can go home.

In front of the mini stage there stands a large mirror that spreads across the wall. Obviously this is for customers to see themselves and all but I'm standing here directly facing the mirror and checking if I look presentable. I even check my teeth because having stuff in my teeth would be so embarrassing. After I finish analyzing my whole physique, I pace back to my desk and sit down. Moments later I regret my decision and stand straight back up, fuck why can't I sit still.

Before I knew it I got a text from Lily, 'He's here.' Is all it said. My heart started racing again, the fact that he's technically my boss frightened me, but also having to face the Karlos was 100 times worse.

The curtain slightly moves, I can hear my heart beat roaring out of me. I better not fuck this up. The slow moving curtain did not help one bit at all, it only built my anxiety more. The curtain stops moving and Karlos is fully exposed now. Karlos looking this good did not help one fucking bit, it confuses me and messes with my mind and that's not what I need right now, what I need is to redeem myself from 2 days ago and not loose my job!

Karlos is staring at me and it's so intimidating, I can't read him, I really don't know what he thinks of me, well that's a lie I know he probably hates me, but he is staring right back at me and his eyes are burning holes in my body. I realize that I'm doing what I was not supposed to do and cough and walk towards him. "Hello Karlos, sorry I couldn't introduce myself earlier this week, but my name is Alina Madison." I say with a bright smile on my face.
"It's Mr Reed." Is all he replies with not even looking at my face. He walks past me to strand on the stage and wait for his fitting. What a fucking asshole.

"I'll just get your suits from the back you can start undressing in the fitting rooms that are in the corner," I point to the dressing rooms. He doesn't even glance at me and walks into the direction I showed him. I quickly rush to gather his suits, with clients like this they need multiple options to choose from because they're so stingy. Personally I don't see a great difference between the collars of the 2 black shirts but he definitely will.

I'm hastily walking to the dressing rooms, and I stop when I see Karlos removing his shirt facing the mirror. He can't see me but it throws me off guard, he slowly removes his shirt and I can only see his back. Fucking hell, I knew he was in shape but not this much. His broad shoulders carry tattoos that branch to his arms. His waist is noticeably slimmer and his muscles tense as he moves. The ink spread across him is breathtaking, my eyes quint trying to focus on the tattoos to reveal any clues about him.

He turns around rapidly and gives me a poker-faced look. You had one fucking job Alina. I cough to divert the attention and say "here you are, try them on and come back to the room so we can evaluate whether you like it or not." I hand him the garments and run off before he can say anything.

I sit on the stool waiting for him. My clammy hands are placed in my lap fiddling with each other out of pure anxiety. I'm feeling that tingly sensation again and it's so frustrating as this was not my goal.

Moments later he walks out. My eyes raise from my hands to his body while he places himself on the stage. He's clearly got this thing against me because he hasn't looked at me once. He lifts his head to face the mirror in front of him. About 3 seconds later with no movement he says "no I don't like it." He can't be serious right now?
"What?! Um I meant why's that." I say
"I just don't like it." He replies. Well thanks alot Mr Reed that was so helpful. "Have you tried on the other options," I ask still having hope.
"Don't need to, I didn't like the view of them either." He says bluntly.

How I meant to respond to this. No one has ever reacted this way to my productions before, so right now I have no idea how to act. In fact no one has ever left the store with something they didn't absolutely love.

"It needs to be more rouge," he says to me, which is better than nothing. I don't respond and I'm sat on the stool waiting for some development of this conversation. "Let me see the design prints." Is what he says. I do as I'm told and come back with sketches I made for the suits and the computer sketches. "Pencil." He barks at me. I'm not his slave but right now all I'm trying to do is be on his good arife so I grab him a pencil. I hand it to him and he walks to my desk.

He takes a seat making himself comfortable and rushes to work. I've never been so intrigued by someone's drawings. I've always been stubborn when it comes to these things, ever since I've started studying fashion I've always been so competitive and refused to believe that anyone else's work was better then mine and I'm still like that to this day, but there's something different about Karlos drawing. I mean maybe it's because he's a boy, I was surrounded by women in this industry as it is a heavily female dominant career, so I never really say any man be interested in fashion but here we are.

Karlos takes no time finishing his drawing and hands it to me. He doesn't ask what do I think he just lets me stare at it, because he knows it's good. Obviously I don't give in, "What difference is this to mine?" I ask. I didn't spend half my life perfecting my textiles abilities for this man to just do the same thing as me and get credit for it.

He rises from the chair so slowly, this guy and his slow actions are killing me, every second that goes by my heart rate increases by a thousand percent. As he's standing he's staring directly into my soul, his eyebrows slightly tilted and the muscles in his jaw flex. I take a big gulp. This is it I'm getting fired is all I can think.

"I'm not going to ask you for your consolation when I clearly know my shit." He says. I didn't realize how tall he was but now he's towering over me and I feel smaller than ever. "Well you should've made your own suits if you didn't like the ones I made, you know since you do own the company." I say harshly. His expression shifts and I can clearly see his muscles relax, I don't know if this is a good sign or not.

He scoffs and gives me a grin. You're double fucked Alina. "Well that's funny because I technically own you too, I think you forgot who runs this place." He says in a sarcastic tone. Fuck. I'm definitely loosing my job. "Now, can you make these by tomorrow," he points at his drawings. I nod slightly feeling while my head is facing the ground. I feel so ashamed I really shouldn't have said that. "Good, then I'll see you tomorrow same time." He says.

I don't say a work after that. He scatters off back into the changing rooms and minutes later walks out and doesn't even look in my direction. He walks away and pass the curtain so I can no longer see him.

I'm in deep trouble.