After spending the afternoon with my well, colleagues at 'A Little Bit Of Everything', we decided to leave. Claudia said that she had a dentist's appointment to get ready for, so she excused herself beforehand, leaving Iyanu, Elliott and I to head back to the agency's main building.
Upon reaching the building, before heading inside, we got caught up in a group of fangirls that had appeared out of nowhere, screeching and screaming once they laid eyes on Elliott.
"Can't say I didn't miss this." He smirked, surrounded by hormonal adolescents. He ushered us inside the building before heading back to his groupies.
Was he taking one for the team or one for himself?
Elliott had been in Brazil for the past two months, representing the agency in a number of fashion shows being held over there. One thing he admitted was how much he missed being 'harassed' by American females.
"Forever the ladies' man, that one." Iyanu shook her head as we got into the elevator. She pressed the unnumbered button at the top and the doors shut closed.
It wasn't long until the metallic doors reopened and that familiar redheaded secretary sitting behind the semicircular desk was the only thing in our view. She looked up for a moment as we walked in her direction. She pointed to Mr Harrings' office, then silently went back to typing on her computer.
"Oh, shoot!" Iyanu exclaimed. "I think I forgot my phone downstairs." She handed me the credit card and told me to wait up for her as she bolted back into the elevator.
I entered the spacious office cautiously, as if I was sneaking into someone's house. Even though I'd been in it before, that didn't stop me from being resurprised by its massiveness. A shiny, glass vase on a table close by the door caught my eye. It had several coloured waves engraved in it. I bent over slightly and began tracing the patterns with my finger.
"Marianne, what are you doing here?"
I jumped at the voice, almost knocking over the vase I was picking at. I swirled around, noticing the human being standing by the window I somehow managed to ignore when I walked in. "Mr Harrings. Hey. How's it going?" I made gun gestures with my hands, pointing at him with them for no legitimate reason whatsoever.
He chuckled. "It's going pretty good, thanks for asking." He motioned for me to sit on one of the leather chairs, as he took a seat on one himself. I sat down but then remembered why I was there in the first place. I couldn't be bothered to get up again, being the couch potato that I am, so I placed the credit card on the glass table between us and slid it towards him. He placed his hand on top of it, disrupting its momentum, just in time before it could fall off of the edge of the table. "Thanks." He said, picking up the card and waving it in his hand.
An awkward silence followed. I didn't really know what to say or do, I just had to stay put until Iyanu got back. My eyes began to wonder around the office, traveling from the gigantic, brown bookcase to the multiple posters of models on the walls.
"Where's Thomas?" I asked as I looked at the poster of him. "I didn't see him today."
"He had a meeting." Mr Harrings answered straight away, almost a bit too fast. "Busy man, being the face of DH and all."
"Right." I mumbled. How many meetings does a person have to go to? My phone buzzed continuously in my pocket and I pulled it out, seeing Iyanu's pervy face on my screen.
I need to change her contact picture.
"I see you found your phone." I remarked after picking up.
"Yeah, was on Cory's makeup table, woopsies." She responded.
"So, where did you disappear to?" I asked, wondering why on earth she wasn't here in the office indulging in the awesome awkward silence too.
"Oh I'm outside, hurry up."
"You're what?!" I asked quite loudly, making Mr Harrings furrow his eyebrows in worry. I smiled at him reassuringly. "You what?" I repeated in a more hushed tone.
"I did the math. I was on the eleventh floor, which was much more closer to the ground floor than Mr Harrings' unnumbered office."
"Fifty fifth." I sighed.
"Come again?" She asked.
"His office is on the fifty fifth floor. I'm on my way down, stay put." I hung up on her and stood up from the surprisingly comfy leather chair. I quickly told Mr Harrings that I had to leave and began to make my way to the door.
"Oh and Marianne," he called, making me turn around mid-step and slowly continue to walk backwards. "Good job today."
I gave him a thumbs up and left his office.
***
The next day I was on cash register duty at the café. Bethany was taking orders from the seated customers and Claire was behind the bar making tens, if not hundreds of Maroon Lagoons. Business was buzzing, which became the usual ever since the launching of our signature drink, but that didn't stop my mind from wondering off.
I feel like my brain has been tainted with.... Fashion. Even when I'm freaking daydreaming, I'm thinking about what colours match or silently judging people by their clothes, approving or disapproving of their choice of clothing that day. Why can't I just go back to the plain, old me, daydreaming about complete nonsense like why was it called the 'World Wars' when not every country in the world participated in them? Or why you can get sick from eating raw chicken but not raw fish? Or why Mufasa had to die?
Someone clearing their throat brought me back from lala land.
"Oh, you're alive." I noted when I made eye contact with Thomas.
"Aww, I missed you too!" He snickered. "One Maroon Lagoon to go please."
"Excellent choice." I sarcastically added, taking the twenty dollar bill from his hand. Without a second thought, I placed his remaining change into the tips' mason jar. He gave me a funny look and I shrugged. "Oh, don't look at me like you weren't going to do that yourself."
"You know me so well." He claimed, placing a hand over is heart. "I'm touched."
I rolled my eyes and thanked my lucky stars when my phone began to vibrate. I pulled it out of my apron's pocket and picked up.
"Hey Dad."
There was a sigh from the other end of the line. "Marianne."
Uh oh, something's not right. It's always sweetie, or hun, or something. Anything but Marianne.
"Dad?" I asked, starting to freak out by his formality. There was a pause for quite some time before he spoke again. Three words that I hadn't seen coming.
"It's your grandma."
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A/N:
I absolutely HATE cliffhangers but it just happened okay, please don't hate me! And I'm sorry this kind of took a while, I'm just trying to mentally prepare myself for the summer holidays. I finish exams in 2 days and I'm leaving in 4!! I haven't even packed yet...
So I have a psychology exam on Monday and I was reading a passage on 'imagination' and this is what it had to say about daydreaming:
• "It is practiced by all people in everyday life."
• "It is self motivating and wish fulfilling."
• "Extreme fantasy and loss of contact with reality points to psychosis."
RIA, GIRL U CRAY CRAY!!!!
Dedicated to wtrprks ♡
Dave Harrings: played by Ben Affleck (#TeamBatman all day, everyday)
Feel free to comment, vote, follow, whatever :')
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