The Chrysalis Project | Rewrite (Slow)

9 | Good Cop

We were two awkward people standing in the elevator.

I silently laughed in my head at the scene as I remembered last night's elevator incident. The scenario was the same, but the tables have apparently turned this morning - the mood was significantly lighter.

My hands were still kind of sweaty though, mostly because the elevator was warm, but it was also partially due to my nervousness about eating breakfast with Hayden Whitehall. He was one of the richest people in Valentino University and quite famous as far as I am aware. Afraid that my hands were a little too sweaty for comfort and that I didn't want to gross him out, I lightly wiped the palms of my hands on the side of my really damn expensive clothing.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked as I broke the silence between us.

"Go ahead," Hayden replied, but his attention was focused on his phone.

"Why are you suddenly being nice to me?" I asked, and continued, "first thing today you've already spent seven thousand dollars on me and now we're going for breakfast?"

"True, I was pretty angry last night." Hayden stated and let out a chuckle and tucked his phone into his coat pocket, "but we'll discuss this over breakfast."

"Okay, so you're just not going to talk to me now?" I said, clearly annoyed.

"That's not what I meant. We can talk about the details later on but right now I just want to have a basic conversation. My brain doesn't like to think unless it's had food first thing in the morning, a force of habit I guess," Hayden shrugged.

"Fine, I guess we'll just stand here, awkwardly and silently..."

He finally turned his head in my direction, however, he didn't look slightly amused at all. I crossed my arms and leaned back against the corner of the elevator, clearly displeased at his action.

"What," I said plainly, "I just want to clear the air."

Hayden put back his phone and tightly pressed his lips together in deep thought, it took him ten seconds to compose something to actually say to me.

"You are only making this awkward by saying it's awkward," he looked at me hoping I would already know the answer to that, but I rolled my eyes.

"Well, how am I supposed to get to know you then? Especially without you being able to function or wanting to talk," I answered.

"Well, I can talk about myself for a bit if that makes you feel less anxious."

"Okay then, why is the Whitehall family so famous at school then? I didn't know you from before but I recognize the family name, so you must be connected to the school somehow."

"We basically donated to the 'Wallace and Cecilia Whitehall Centre for AIDs Research', those are my parents' names. We also own a few skyscrapers around the city, one of which is the famous Whitehall Building. They have observatories on the top floors that look out to the entire downtown view. Have you ever been to any of those places?"

"I can barely afford new socks, what makes you think I have money for that?" I said sarcastically, but partially in a joking manner.

"I'll take you next time after hours," Hayden said and smiled.

So, there was a 'next' time, I thought to myself.

As my mind tried to figure out how there could be a next time for him and me to talk alone, the elevator dinged and opened its doors to the second floor. Hayden led the way to the cafeteria and I followed him; we sat down at a table near the corner beside the windows that displayed the fall scenery around the campus. As I looked around the cafeteria, I noticed a lot of eyes were on both of us, some were whispering to each other and the others were just confused.