If Only

Chapter One: I recognize you...

I've spent my entire life dreaming about other people's love stories. The sort I've read about and watched from a distance. The more I think about love, the more obsessed I become with my lack of it. Can I fall asleep only to wake up a different person? A person who experiences the love I crave?

Life doesn't work that way. I'm at a loss.

The year is 2025, and every minute of it has been the same. The days bleed together like ink through paper, and I watch myself becoming more and more engrossed with routine. Each morning I exercise, go to work, and then come back home to my dog, Sebastian. I feel disconnected from the life I worked so hard to build. I'm stuck.

Perhaps today will be different. My company is hiring new employees. I'm a writer for a fashion and lifestyle magazine, Le Brilliant, and we have a position open for an assistant writer. I had to fire my last assistant in a horribly awkward ordeal which involved ten minutes of me stammering through a speech I had prepared the night before until she finally got the hint and left. She never showed up, I had no choice but I still left awful about it. I just hope the new hire is decent.

A week has passed since then. While I go about my daily schedule, I am interrupted by a shrill, overly chipper voice.

"Daisy!" My boss, Bethany, shouts. "Your new coworker is here, come to my office and meet him!"

Him? I wonder. Not many men work here outside of the photography department. I take a deep breath before I open the door to the office, and secretly hope for him to be attractive.

"Finally you're here," my boss says when I enter the room. "I feel as though I've aged ten years waiting for you!" She throws her head back in a rehearsed motion and gives an exaggerated laugh. She gives me a forced smile before speaking again.

"Anyway, Daisy, this is your new partner, Ian!"

The man next to her raises his head slightly. "Hello, nice to meet you," he says in a flat voice.

I finally get the chance to look at him and I am taken aback. He is quite handsome afterall, tall with light brown eyes, styled black hair and a fit frame. I feel as though I've seen him before, his face is so familiar.

Well I guess my wish came true. I think to myself.

It was hard to be happy about this however when he looks so damn familiar.

Suddenly, Bethany's voice once again brings me back down to reality, "Daisy! Stop daydreaming and introduce yourself," she says with a hint of annoyance. She presses her lips into a tight smile.

I widen my eyes in an attempt to snap out of my trance. "Oh, hello. My name is Daisy. I'm a writer here. Pleased to meet you." I hold my hand out timidly.

He shakes it and the moment he touches me, my skin lights up horribly. I feel myself shiver and goosebumps rise all across my arms and down my back.

He said nothing.

"Alright, why don't you go show Ian around," my boss says, practically pushing us out of her office. "Show him whatever you're working on."

She shuts the door behind us forcefully and then it's just him and me.

I pause for a moment, in hopes that he would say anything, but he just looks through me, bored.

"Okay..." I start, once the silence becomes too awful to bear. This guy was starting to piss me off. "Well, Ian, I guess we can start off on the first floor and work our way up."

"Okay," he says coolly.

He may be attractive, I think, but he's acting like a total jackass. Not very fun.