Chasing Smoke

Chapter 15: Fun Lunch

I groan out loud and put down Smiths Co. financial reports. I feel like my eyes burning up from all the numbers I've read.

I've worked in here for a month and I really enjoy it. Get up in the morning with a new purpose and finally wear clothes I bought impulsively and became a pile of trash in my closet. Not only that, but now I can join family conversation whenever we all gather around in a living room. For the first time, I feel like my old self. I feel I belong in my own family.

Alex has been helping me a lot. I rarely saw Darius because he mostly went to the site and monitoring the project directly. And if he was in the office, mostly he slept on the couch because he looks so tired. One day he came to the office at noon with dirt all over his shirt and he was wearing a safety helmet. It wasn't supposed to be attractive, but it was Darius we're speaking, of course dirt would look good at him.

A month working in here and sharing the same office space with Darius is another thing. I learned new things about him every day. Darius likes his coffee black without sugar. He's a big fan of scotch and red wine. One time he was working overtime, and I accompanied him because I still had a work to do. We ended up having Chinese as dinner and exchanged stories about our life. I told him mostly about my childhood and avoiding any stories about my illness. In exchange, he told me about his childhood too. Sometimes he told me a story about his friend from college. One day he randomly came up and told me that his favorite color is blue then he vanished into another meeting.

He can be a very fun person and we totally have a same taste in music. One day he put on the songs and dance a little. It was not a good day for me but he cheered me by grabbing my hand and making me dance. We ended up laughing while dancing. It was a friendly gesture, even though I noticed Darius looking at me differently from time to time. One thing that I know for sure, he understands me and can see me through.

"Bad day?" Darius leans on the door frame with a smile on his face.

"No. Just tired, I guess."

"Take a break. Don't push yourself too hard."

He walks and sits on my desk. He's looking at my desk and picks up the financial report, but then makes a funny face when he reads it.

"What kind of shit is this?"

I lean a little to see the page he's reading.

"That's your income statement. It's basically tell you about your company earn and your company spending until you finally get the net income or you might say profit or loss depends on the number." Darius smiles, mischievous smile. "You knew that, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I knew that. Alex taught me a basic of the financial statement." I pout and move back to my laptop. Pretending look at the numbers on the Excel. "Oh, come on, don't be mad."

I ignore him and continue pressing down arrow and scroll through the spreadsheet. At this point, I already have Smith co.'s number memorized on my fucked up head. Darius pokes my shoulder with his fingers repeatedly.

"What?" I sigh in annoyance. I'm not mad, actually. I just feel uncomfortable with him being nice and all flirty, especially when he still has a girlfriend.

"Let's have lunch."

"It's eleven?"

"So?"

"The lunch break is on twelve."

"I thought you are a rebel, Jenna."

"I am a rebel, but I have work ethics you know."

Darius nods in amusement, but he breaks into a wide smile.