Souled [Editing]

Chapter 2

The two Countdowns were scattered haphazardly near their feet. There was no mistake. The Countdown never made mistakes, she knew that. But she felt like this was one.

Meredith was hyperaware of the open mouthed stares of her friends as they watched the events unravel. Perhaps Ella's stare was the most shocked of them all.

"Mr. Tucker." For some reason she couldn't bring herself to call him by his first name. He was as high up as bosses got and he intimidated the hell out of her. Even before she had ever met the man, she was afraid of meeting him. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you as well. I'm sorry, you didn't say your name." He was still holding her hand and his eyes were boring into hers.

"Meredith, sir. Meredith Mason."

"Please, call me Nate." He let go of her hand and smiled. "I get enough of the 'Mr. Tucker' stuff from the office."

"Of-Of course." She couldn't stop stuttering. She was in shock.

"Well, can I buy you a drink?" He gestured towards the bar.

She started walking towards it and Nate followed. "I already have one, but maybe you can buy me the next one." She grinned at him.

"I'll take you up on that," he said as he flagged down the bartender.

While Nate was distracted, Ella scurried around to Meredith and whispered in her ear. "Holy shit! That's fucking Nate Tucker." She pulled away from her ear and took a look at him. A good, long look.

Nate was talking to the bartender about drinks. From what Meredith could tell, they were talking about the different types of beer they had.

"He's not bad in person, either." Ella winked at her.

Meredith couldn't disagree. He was pretty attractive. The way Nate held himself seemed to say that he knew that, too. "It doesn't make this any less awkward. I'm completely intimidated by him."

"You can do this, Mere. You could be perfectly matched with someone way worse than that, dear."

She was right.

"Okay, go. I'll talk to you later." Meredith shooed her off as Nate took his drink from the bartender.

Ella giggled as she walked away. Nate's eyes locked with hers. He took a long sip before speaking.

Meredith had the irrational urge to run. She knew she couldn't, at least that's what she was trying to convince herself. She took a swig of her own drink.

"So Meredith, where do you work?"

She swallowed. It was almost funny how close they were to each other every day but over two years they had never met until now. Besides, he didn't even recognize her name.

"I, uh, work at Tucker Architecture."

His face paled ever so slightly and his eyes widened. "You're kidding."

She shook her head.

"No wonder your name sounded vaguely familiar." He scratched at the label on his beer bottle.

"What do you mean?"

He shook his head. "Just employee overview type business. I must have seen your name on the list."