Heyo! Hope you're liking the story so far...another week has gone by for Jane and Edmond. I wonder what they'll be up to today...
Happy reading!
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Another week had gone by and Jane was at the courtyard gate once more. With her mask on, she opened it and entered.
There he was sprawled on the bench with his hands leaning on the back of the bench on either side of his head. His head was facing upwards, eyes closed, wearing a pair of jeans and a t shirt just like she was.
She tip toed quietly to him and looked at him. Whatever she could see of his face looked so peaceful and handsome as the sunlight gleamed off his face. He was smiling slightly completely oblivious to her presence. She could stare at him all day.
But she had to get back at him for trying to stamp her the last time. So instead she bent down near his ear and screamed.
"Aaaaaaaaaaghhh"
He jerked up, eyes wide open , "aaaaahh aaaaahh aaaaahh what what happened??" He screamed
She burst into laughter.
He heaved a sigh oh relief before scowling at her. "I hate you."
She laughed evilly. "Now we're even"
"Uh huh" he replied. "Don't worry soon we won't be. You might wanna be on the look out."
"Oh, game on cowboy!" She laughed.
He simply stuck out his tongue at her.
"Very mature" She rolled her eyes at him. "You're early today." She commented.
"Oh yeah" he beamed. "I have some exciting news."
"Really? Do tell." She said, interested as she sat down beside him.
"So at work? For the longest time there was an issue with our purchase orders taking way longer to get placed than our customers were willing to wait.."
"Uh..."
"What happened?"
"Aren't you scared of saying something that might make me guess who you are?"
"Don't worry, I think I know my way around that by now. I'm not going into specifics."
"Oh okay that's cool then. Continue."
"Okay. So....I managed to figure out the kinks in the process and was able to design a simple software that can take care of them and reduce the process time from 20 days to a week!"
"Damn! That's nicee. That's brilliant!!"
"Thanks" he smiled broadly.
"How did you figure it out?"
"Well to be honest I got so tired of all the complaints we've been receiving from the customers and all our employees telling me that nothing can be done about it that I sat down with the whole thing myself. And four weeks later....there you have it" he laughed.
"That's really impressive!"
"Oh yeah. This improved efficiency is going to be able to bring in billions more. All my superiors just thought of me as the pretty boy in the office. But I proved them wrong!"
"Coool! I'm so prou-...." She started excitedly before pausing and adding awkwardly, "I mean...not that I'm related to you or anything...."
"Yeah. Thank God for that." He laughed.
"Wait? Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why would you not want me to be related to you? Why did you say that?"
"I don't know. I just think it would be....weird? I just meant that you can say that you're proud of me."
She decided to push the whole matter out of her mind. She was probably seeing things where they weren't there.
She beamed proudly, "Well then, I'm proud of you."
He smiled happily. "Thanks. You know.....you're the only person I was genuinely excited to tell."
"Oh yeah?" She said happily.
"Yeah. With everyone else it's just been champagne and pictures and fake smiles. They all told me they're proud of me which I know they don't mean. They're just happy they'll be getting a lot more revenue in now."
She laughed happily and shrugged. "Well that's true. What's your revenue to me? I just like the fact that you're so happy and that you achieved something this big."
"See? That. Exactly that."
She smiled. "You know, since you've flattered me so much already...let's go out and celebrate."
"Celebrate how?"
"Let's go have ice cream! I think I saw an ice cream booth on the way here. My treat." She said getting up from the bench and making her way to the gate.
"That sounds wonderful. Let's go!" He said as he got up and followed her. He sounded as excited as a kid at the sound of ice cream.
She smiled at that innocence. She knew that he was probably rich enough to have any number of ice creams delivered to his room if he wanted but this wasn't about the ice cream, it was about what he had achieved.
They walked on the road alongside each other on the road.
"Aren't you worried about what they would think about our masks?" He asked suddenly.
"Meh" she shrugged. "I don't care what other people think of me."
"Says the woman wearing heels she doesn't like."
She looked at him suddenly with a grin. "Do you only notice my feet if you wanna stamp my toes??"
"What do you mea--" he started speaking as he looked down to see her feet, "Oh, sports shoes, huh? Nice!"
"Yup" she said smiling.
"What, you planned the whole ice cream thing before hand?"
"Nah not really. But I am grateful to be wearing sports shoes now that we're walking." She chuckled.
"Wait does it matter to you what other people might say about our masks?" She asked him.
"Well..I might have if they knew who I was. You know, given that I have a reputation to maintain and all that. But then they don't know who I am because I'm wearing the mask so I don't care what they think about me wearing the mask" he grinned.
She laughed, "Came full circle on that one, huh."
He shrugged. "There's a whole in my bucket dear Liza, a whole" he quoted.
"Hey, you know that rhyme!" She exclaimed.
"Who doesn't" he smiled.
"Well...you remember it!"
He laughed. "Yeah we're probably the last ones on earth who remember it" he said sarcastically.
"We probably are" she deadpanned. "You know what we should do?" She said excitedly. "We should sing it at the top of our voices till we reach the ice cream booth."
"What? No!"
"Oh come onn! It'll be fun!" She pleaded.
"I will not be seen singing a nursery rhyme at the top of my lungs in public!" He said, exasperated.
"But they won't know who you areee!!" She kept on.
He heaved a sigh and scowled. "Fine."
"Yaaayy" she said childishly.
"Here goes nothing" he said before taking her hand in his and swinging it as he started singing.
"There's a whole in my bucket.." he paused as he looked at her. "I thought we were gonna sing together? Don't ditch me."
She unlike him was in another world all together. She had no idea that he would take her hand in his and when he did it sent butterflies not just through her stomach but all through her body.
She shook her head to focus on the question directed at her.
"Uh...yeah....um...I wasn't ready. From the top?" She smiled.
"Sure."
This time she started singing with him. Their hands interlinked they shouted the song at the top of their lungs. There were only a handful of onlookers along the road most of whom frowned at them. Some were so weirded out by it that they turned away. One smiled.
They smiled back. Though none of that mattered to Jane. She felt Edmonds strong, warm hands wrapped around her own tiny ones and enjoyed the electricity she felt through the touch as they swung their hands together and shouted and laughed.
They reached the ice cream booth soon enough. They let go of each other's hands as they walked up to the booth where an old man was seated. Jane immediately missed the feeling but shook her head once again, subtly this time and walked forward.
"What would the two of you like to have, my dear?"
"Oh um...I would like to have a strawberry ice cream and.." she looked back at Edmond.
"I'll have a chocolate one." He replied.
She looked back at the old man.
"One chocolate and one strawberry coming right up!" He smiled.
"You two returning from a costume party or something?" He asked as he scooped the ice cream.
"Of course. Why else would we be roaming around with masks, looking so stupid?" She laughed.
She looked back at Edmond who had raised his eyebrows at her in awe. The old man chuckled. "You're the smart one, eh?"
She grinned. "Actually, he's the smart one. He did something amazing at work and we're celebrating."
"Ah I see." The old man replied. "Well done lad" he directed this Edmond.
"Thank you sir." He grinned.
"I must say you two look very cute together." The old man commented as he gave Edmond his ice cream.
"Oh, we're not together. We're just amazing friends!" Edmond replied. "Wait." He paused. "Are we friends? Or are we still strangers" He directed this at Jane.
"I think you attempting to stamp my toes and me screaming in your ears qualifies us as friends." Jane smiled.
"Riight. Friends it is then." He told the old man.
The old man chuckled. "Very well. Now why don't you go stand over there, son?" He told Edmond, "I don't want any spilt ice cream in front of the booth."
"O-kay" he said as he moved further away from the booth.
Once Edmond was out of earshot the man whispered to Jane as he handed her the ice cream, "Don't worry, girl. He likes you too. He just doesn't realise it yet." He winked at her.
She was surprised by his comment. "How can you tell that I like him?"
He chuckled. "I'm much older than you, kid. I can see it written all over your face. He's blind not to see it even through the mask."
She blushed. "Just don't tell him" she whispered.
"Oh, not a word." He replied. "Here you go." He handed her the ice cream.
"Thank you, sir." She replied as she paid him and took the ice cream. "For everything." She added.
He smiled. "Sure thing kid. Good luck."
She nodded as she went to stand with Edmond.
"What took you so long?" He asked as she approached him.
"Just chatting with him."
"About what?"
"This and that" she shrugged brushing it off.
"Ah" he nodded as he continued to enjoy his ice cream.
"Did anything interesting happen for you last week?" He asked after a few licks of his ice cream.
"Nah. Nothing much really. Unlike you I actually had some tough luck. Was this close.." she brought her thumb and index finger really close to each other so that they almost touched, "to closing a deal with quite a big company.."
"And?"
"Turned me down at the last minute."
"Damn! That's harsh!"
"Yeah it was. I was bogged down for quite a while but I'm back on my feet now."
He paused thoughtfully, "I kinda feel bad I wasn't there to cheer you up then."
She smiled at his thoughtfulness.
"It's alright. You're here now. Besides, I'm a saleswoman. These things are not uncommon in my line of work. You get knocked down, you back up. It's the way of life." She chuckled.
He smiled half heartedly.
"You could talk about it now if you want to.." he asked hopefully.
She looked up from her ice cream and into his eyes, "What do you want me to say Edmond?" She said quietly. "It sucked. It really did. And I didn't like how it made me feel. But it's really not a big deal. I'm sure I'll close a big deal pretty soon and then we can come here to celebrate." She smiled. "Okay?"
"Yeah. Alright." He replied.
"Hey! We're here to celebrate your thing..don't let this dampen your spirits!"
He nodded.
She looked at him thoughtfully. Her heart warm at the fact that he cared for her even if only as a friend. She wanted to remember this moment.
"Here let's take a picture" she said suddenly as she took out her phone from her purse and he peaked over her shoulder.
"Hey no peaking!"
He chuckled. "Why? Will the type of apps on your phone reveal who you are?"
"Maybe. I don't know" she laughed.
He leaned his head on hers as she stretched her hand with the mobile and angled it. They smiled for the picture as she clicked multiple times.
"Hey I want some too!" He said once they were done.
He took out his own phone and angled it as she placed her arm on his shoulder, stood on her toes to match his height and stuck out her tongue. He laughed before sticking out his tongue too and clicking.
They finished their ice cream as the sun began to set and the sky grew darker.
"Thanks for this, Jane. I'm telling you, I enjoyed this evening ten times more than any of the evenings spent toasting prestigious pretentious champagne glasses." He grinned.
She laughed. "Now, now. The champagne glasses didn't do you any harm. Don't take it out on them."
"Ah. My apologies" he replied.
"Seriously though, I'm glad you had fun. You earned it." She smiled.
He smiled. "I'm guessing it's time to go?"
"Yup. Afraid so." She replied.
"Which way do you go?"
"That way" she pointed to the left.
"Ah. Too bad. I go this way." He pointed towards the right. "Else we could have taken a cab together." He laughed.
"Yeah and figured out where the other person lived. Drop in occasionally. Sure" she laughed sarcastically.
He joined in.
"Alright. Until next time then, Edmond."
"Until next time, Jane."
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So how do you feel after reading this chapter? What do you like most about Jane and Edmond's personalities? Is there something you'd like to change about them?
Do tell me in the comments! And don't forget to vote if you enjoyed it! Thanks❤️😁