For a good percentage of people in this world, four little words habitually accompany their entrance into their work place, dinner with friends or a date.
'Sorry, I am late.'
Oh, wow! That sounded just like me. Oh, well, maybe it was just me.
The truth is that there are many reasons why I just can't get somewhere on time. But there seems to be one common thread running through the behaviour of chronically late Elaine that may be the most universal reason for everyone similar to me with their eternal tardiness—and yet it is consistently overlooked:
I am always late because I don't want to be at any place early.
Only the punctually challenged, suffering from the same disease as I am – being late everywhere – can understand this.
Sometimes I think that if I was a ninja, I would still get to places dreadfully early, yet would be comforted by the fact that since I was a ninja no one could tell if I was there.
I don't know why I cannot be anywhere on time – it has always been so for the past twenty years of my life. But I know why most of the people are always on time. That is because they hate being late.
James was one of them. He hates being late to anywhere. He is paranoid of being tardy. He gets to places embarrassingly early, which sometimes requires him to park his car around the corner and wait surreptitiously just so the others that he was supposed to meet don't notice the real time he arrived.
"I am so sorry," I managed the most apologetic look that I could muster up and gave him my best puppy dog eyes, "My alarm's battery kind of ran out and my stupid best friend forgot to wake me up early."
"That's your excuse for today, Hails," he crossed his arms over his chest unhappily, "You always have an excuse for coming late."
I grinned knowing very well that James was just faking his anger. He cannot stay mad at me, "You love me anyways."
"Be thankful that you are cute, or I may just not talk to you at all," he teased, flashing me a small playful grin.
I rolled my eyes at him as I slid into the seat opposite to him, "Aye, aye, Captain!"
The moment I slid into the booth is the same moment I realized that James was indeed not alone today. My breath hitched in my throat as my eyes locked with the ocean blue eyes of the man that shone with an intensity that made my stomach roll with knots forming in them. He had dark brown hair – almost black – that was slicked back perfectly letting me know that he had spent some time grooming himself.
How did I not notice this man before?
"Oh, um," I turned to James with a puzzled look as he was never a person to bring company with him when he came to see me, "You didn't tell me you were bringing company."
"Oh, I would have," James, the almost sixty year old billionaire rolled his eyes at me, "If you had attended my call last night."
"You called?" I frowned.
Why didn't I know that he had called?
"I called at ten. Instead of speaking to you though, I spoke to Dale," he scoffed with disgust clear in his voice; he was never a fan of my best friend, "That devil answered the call and told me that you were already asleep."
I shrugged, frowning slightly when I realized that my best friend had indeed lied to James yesterday. I don't know why she had attended his call and told him that I had already slept when in reality I was busy working on the new code that I was trying to create. She knew I don't fall asleep until midnight.
On cue, James' phone rang and he muttered a small 'sorry' before attending the call. From what I could make out, he was talking to Tania, his secretary who had once accompanied him here and wouldn't stop flirting with Charlie.
My eyes went back to the man beside James who was still looking at me as if he was trying to read through my soul. With that intensity burning through his eyes, I am sure that he can very well read through me.
I frowned, who was he?
I let my eyes wander down to the type of clothes he was wearing and my frown deepened when I realized that he was wearing a tailored Armani suit that fit him like a glove. His blue dress shirt was creaseless and buttoned perfectly to fit his toned body while the grey suit that he wore over the shirt was the most perfect suit I had ever seen.
Was he one of James' business partners?
The man promptly cleared his throat and my eyes immediately snapped up to his face to see the amused smirk plastered across his lips. My eyes widened and I mentally slapped myself knowing very well that he just caught me checking his suit clad body out.
Who even does that? Apparently me.
I cleared my throat and snapped my eyes away from him just as James ended his phone call and turned to me with a smile. It was the same smile that he always has when he was around me. It was the same smile that the whole world is begging to see from this cold hearted, ruthless movie producer who cares only about getting profit out of the movies that he has produced. They want to see him smile, but I am privileged to see that smile without even asking for it.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to introduce you both," he turned to the man beside him and grinned, "Nicholas, this is Hayley Dixon, a friend of mine," and then he turned to me with the same grin, "Hails, this is Nicholas, my son."
I froze. Son?
I blinked and blinked again as his words set in and I turned to Nicholas with my mouth gaping open. He only smirked at me in return, "It is nice to finally meet you, Hayley."
"I-it is nice to meet you too, Mr. Manhattan," I stuttered, offering his greeting back to him, politely.
"Just Nicholas will do," he smiled at me, but something about his smile didn't feel right.
I nodded at him curtly and looked up at James, questioning him through his eyes about what this was all about. I couldn't bear to look at Nicholas anymore, not when his intent stare was making my stomach flip with an unknown feeling that I was still not sure if I had liked or not.
Instead of looking at Nicholas and wondering about this new feeling that developed inside of me or think about the heat that pooled between my legs, I did the one thing that I was sure I can do without showing out the reactions that my best friend's son brought out of me. I looked at James, pushing him through my eyes to tell me what was going on. James hated bringing people with him when he was coming to see me, but when he does, it was only because he wants to discuss something important with me.
"So?" I prompted, raising an eyebrow at him, "You wanted to talk to me?"
James gave me a smile, this time though his smile made me uneasy because it was filled with something else. His eyes were reflecting how mischievous he felt at this particular moment. Uh-Oh! He was up to no good.
"Hi, Hayley!" he chirped suddenly, grinning at me.
O-okay!
I blinked at him, giving him a weird look, a look filled with the confusion and wariness that I currently felt. James was always very mischievous for his age. He was in his late fifties but he always behaved and played with me as if he was in his teenage days and that is something that used to make me both happy and scared.
"Okay, James, now you are scaring me with that creepy grin of yours, again. You are looking like a loon," I informed him, giving him a look, while Nicholas on the other hand gaped at me.
What? I just called him a loon. I have called him worse.
Before James could open his mouth and reply to me, Charlie was standing near our table, serving us all with a cup of coffee each. I grinned. James always knows the way to my heart.
"You ordered coffee for me," I gave James a grateful smile, knowing very well that I needed coffee in my system after the hectic morning I just had, "This is the reason why I love you."
Charlie faked a gasp, looking at me with wide eyes, "But I thought you loved me."
"I love you too, Charlie, but James is a bit more special now; he bought me coffee," I played along, obviously joking. James chuckled as I continued, "But I love you for a different reason. Oh the joys of having your boss serve you coffee."
Charlie rolled his eyes at me, smiling slightly as he said, "You are on cleaning duty with Rebecca after Mr. Manhattan leaves."
I scrunched my nose in disgust at the news for two reasons. One, I have always hated cleaning and two I have always hated Rebecca. Normally there will never be a situation where I have to work with her, because I normally work along with a girl called Skylar. We were like partners here at work as we share all our work, but as Sky was on leave today, I guess it was Rebecca's duty to take over her spot.
What a fantastic day I am having today!
Charlie chuckled on seeing my reaction and shook his head at me. He had always known about the dislike that I felt towards Rebecca. What can I say, we are not really secret about our feelings for each other. And Rebecca is not a nice person. She is mean and annoying and always warming our customers' beds for extra tip. Not to mention she irritates me to the core by calling me fatty just to get a reaction out of me.
"I am sorry about that," Charlie gave me a sad smile, "Since Skylar is on leave today, you will have to combine work with Rebecca or would you like to work with Kate?"
By the way his lips curved up in a smirk, he knew how much I was against working with Kate, "Hell, no!" I exclaimed immediately making his smirk widen.
Don't get me wrong, Kate was a great girl, very nice and awfully sweet. In fact, I and Dale were best friends with her during our high school days. We were all joined at the hip, going everywhere together and just having fun. When I first took up this waitressing job, I was kind of happy that I had Kate with me at work. I thought this will all be fun.
And it was. We had the best time of our life here.
But that all changed the moment she confessed that she was in love with me since our high school days and had tried to kiss me in the kitchen part of our cafe. I was so terrified by her confession that I had ran out of the kitchen and out of the cafe in seconds. I only stopped running when I was home and in the embrace of Dale.
When I told her about what had happened, she was first very shocked because just like me she had not known that our other best friend was in love with me. But as time passed and the news settled in her mind, she burst out laughing, teasing me in the process.
I didn't mind her teasing, but what I had minded at that time was how on earth I didn't know that my best friend preferred girls to boys and how the hell did I not notice that she was catching feelings for me. I was normally a better judge at that. So how did I miss it?
That thought had bugged me the entire day. Later that day though, Dale had pointed out that I wouldn't have caught her change of feelings towards me because I don't swing that way. And when she put it that way, she was right.
Though I had talked to Kate the next day and told her that I did not swing for the other way, it was still very difficult to talk to her after everything that had happened between us. Though Kate had accepted my apology for running out on her and had in return apologized to me for not really asking about my gender preference before making a move, she stopped talking to me and Dale after that.
We tried to make Kate feel normal, but she refused to reply to all our texts. She greeted me every morning with a curt good morning and replied to any of my questions with only a single word. She stopped hanging out with me and Dale, always making an excuse whenever we asked her if she wanted to go out with us. After a point though, we gradually stopped bothering her and that was the end of whatever we had.
"That's what I thought," Charlie gave me a smug look, enjoying the fact that I was uncomfortable.
James gave me a look of disapproval, before taking a sip of his coffee, the look in his eyes clearly spelt accusation. I rolled my eyes at that and looked at Nicholas from the corner of my eyes to see that his eyes were already trained on me, but there was nothing but curiosity in his eyes.
I shook my head, scowling up at Charlie, "Go away, Charlie."
Charlie chuckled, "You are cute when you are mad," he said as if it was the easiest statement to say, before bending down to press his lips to my cheek in a chaste kiss. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped at that as I watched him pull away from me and straighten up.
He looked down at me and chuckled with a hint of satisfaction in his eyes as he looked at my disbelieving expression, before he turned around and walked back to the kitchen probably to deliver an order to another customer, without even a word to me.
I turned to James with disbelief written all over my face – who was for some reason holding an amused expression, his eyes calculating something, "Did you see that?!"
"He kissed your cheek," James chuckled, lowering his cup to the table, "Yes, Hails, I did see that."
I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest, "I had been single since the day after we graduated high school till I joined here to work in his place and he had been my friend all through that! We had five months in between our high school graduation and me starting to work in his place, all through which I had been single. Why couldn't he have done something like that then?! Why now? Ugh!"
"You are still single," James pointed out, "You could still pursue a relationship with Charlie if you want one."
"I can't afford time for a relationship right now, James" I pouted, "You and I, both know this. Relationship demands to spend time over it in order for us to build it stronger and I don't have that kind of a luxury at this moment."
"You can always make time for a relationship, Hails," he said, looking at me seriously, "You have not dated since after you and that guy, Logan broke up. I think it is time you start dating again."
Logan. Logan Sky. Just hearing someone say his name gave butterflies in my stomach and made me so happy that I had been friends with a humble and a great person like him in my life. It made me happy to know that I meant something to Logan at some point of his life and that I would always remain so to him.
Logan Sky was my first serious relationship in high school. He was not my first boyfriend, but till date he has been my last boyfriend and my one true love. We both met each other in a party our sophomore year where I had got stranded by my sister who thought it would be fun to just ditch me in a stranger's house and drive home on her own, leaving me there – She was the one who dragged me to that stupid party in the first place. I was bored out of my mind and had been waiting for Dale to show up to pick me from that party, when I had ran into Logan. Like literally.
We started talking as I waited for Dale and had become quick friends. He was at that time dating another girl and I was with a jock jerk who was dumped by me the next day when I found out that he had cheated on me in that same party with one of our school's cheerleader a girl that used to be friends with Dale. Long story short, Dale dumped smoothie over that girl's head the next day in the middle of the cafeteria for what she did and it was pretty funny, really.
Logan was the kind of guy who would just walk into our lives and step out of it only after leaving a mark in it. He would make himself unforgettable to everyone he has crossed paths with. I was that kind of a victim to him. In just a month of us being friends, he had very soon left a huge mark in my life and I had started to struggle, trying to maintain my carefully composed cool girl mask whenever he was somewhere around.
Within months of knowing him, he left huge marks in my life, not to mention he had also left a huge Logan shaped blotch in my heart as well; he tainted my heart with love which I tried to suppress and hide from him as much as I could. It was difficult considering that I had been falling for Logan over and over again in the months that followed. He was hard to resist and forbidden to be with because he already had a girlfriend who he had liked so much at that time.
Six months after I met him, was when everything had changed. I had told him about my feelings, one drunken night without me even having any control over my words. Logan had picked me up from my home late that night – almost at one o'clock in the morning – and I had sneaked out of my bedroom window to spend time with him. We normally do that very often, sneak out of houses way past curfew to go to our special place which was a dock to sit down and talk about everything that was happening in our lives over a few bottle of beers, that is. My drinking had gotten out of control that night. I had gotten very drunk and had admitted my feelings to him, caught in the moment.
At that time, he was still dating that girl he was dating when I first met him at the party and I thought that it was the last night of our friendship because he had dropped me home immediately and had drove away looking pretty mad. I remember him saying something to me on our way back to my house and the disappointment in his eyes, but in my drunken state all I could comprehend was the sound of his voice and not the words that were associated with that shouting.
Logan didn't talk to me after that night, for the next two months. I really did miss him, but I learnt to live with the consequences of my actions. During the summer holidays that year though, something changed - and this time for the best. Logan all of a sudden showed up at my house in the middle of the night and went all Romeo style by climbing into my room through my bedroom window. That night he told me that he loved me and that the two months that we had spent not talking to each other, made him realize just how much I meant to him and how much he had loved me even before I admitted feelings my for him. He was nothing without me, he had said. And that was the same night we shared our first kiss too.
He and I dated all through the summer and went to school as a couple the first day of junior year. We rarely fought - and when we did, we made up instantly. We were always by each other's' side. We practically even had our wedding planned out by the end of junior year in high school. We were known as the 'it' couple of our high school for the next two years. We were one of those couples that the teachers thought would be the first to get married, fresh out of high school. We were one of those couples, who made other people jealous. We were one of those couples, who were known for their best love relationship.
Too bad, not all things work out the way we want it to. After we had finished High School, I wanted to go to a University in California while Logan wanted to go to a University all the way in Melbourne. We knew we could have tried long distance relationship and still be a couple, but we both knew that distance will only drift us apart and it will only be a matter of months before we lost the love we had for each other. We didn't want to lose our love; it was a special kind of love what we had for each other and losing it felt like we were losing a part of us. Hence, came the inevitable. Our practical break up.
A day after our graduation ceremony, we both mutually broke up – we had decided to not talk about 'us' before graduation, because we wanted to be that happy, in love couple for graduation day. It was a painful, sad and emotional break up. We talked with each other and decided that breaking up was the best thing to do.
There were a lot of tears and there were a lot of 'I love you' and 'I will miss you', but both I and Logan knew that all these will be painful only for a few months and then we would move on with our lives happily; we had been practical and I don't regret anything that happened between us. It has been a little more than a two years since I saw him last – the last I saw him or heard of him was during my high school graduation two years ago.
I believe in destiny though; if Logan and I were meant to be, I am sure we would meet again and start from where we had left.
"Oh, Logan," I let out a dreamy sigh, ignoring James' other words as usual and Nicholas' curiously intent stare, "Oh, how much I miss Logan! He was a wonderful boy. I bet he has a beautiful girlfriend now and is happy somewhere in Australia."
James chuckled again, shaking his head at me, realizing that I was diverting the topic from my dating life to something entirely different, "You are such a girl, Hayley."
I narrowed my eyes at him, "I am a girl, James."
"Okay, okay," he raised both his hands in surrender, but then the same accusing look came over his eyes again, "And about Kate..." he trailed off raising an eyebrow at me.
"What about her?" I inquired, playing dumb.
"Hayley Dixon," James warned, his eyes narrowing at me.
"I tried," I pouted, immediately giving in, "I apologized like you told me to. I didn't shun her out. She did."
"You promise me that you tried to mend things with her as much as you could?" he raised an eyebrow at me.
"I promise, I tried," I shrugged, "She just wouldn't have any of that. Not only to me, she stopped talking to Dale too."
James snorted, "I could care less about Dale."
"I know," I nodded, knowing very well that James does not like Dale, before taking a sip of my coffee, savouring its taste as I gulped it down.
"Dad," Nicholas turned to James with a look, "We came here to talk to her about something."
"Oh, yeah," he smiled at him, patting his arm slightly, before turning to me, "Alright, well, what was I saying before Charlie arrived here?" James took a sip out of his coffee, smiling at me.
I frowned, shrugging, "You were not saying anything," I blinked, "You were just grinning at me like a lunatic."
"Okay, so, what I wanted to tell you about was," he clapped his hands together and grinned at me the same away again, "I am here because my son would like to offer you a job at his company."
I chocked, the coffee travelling my throat through the wrong pipe. I cannot believe this. He is the only person in this world who can disclose such big news to anyone in such a nonchalant way.
I patted my chest as I looked at him with wide eyes, "W-what?"
"A job offer in my son's IT company?" his words may sound like a question, but he was just ordering me to go through with whatever it is he has planned, "Tomorrow morning, be at his office at ten, alright?"
"What?" I mouthed to him, my voice not coming out.
James just grinned at me while Nicholas fished out a business card from the inside pocket of his coat, extending it towards me for me to take, "My dad tells me that you are very talented in coding. There is an interview about to be held at my office tomorrow at ten. I would like to see you there," he said calmly, "This will help you get inside my office building. Just show this card to the receptionist at the front desk, she should buzz you in."
"I, uh," I got the business card out of his hand and looked between Nicholas and James, not knowing what to say them, "I will be there tomorrow," I finished lamely, even though I should have told him that I was not really that talented in coding.
Oh my God! What have I gotten myself into?
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Pic : Jeremy Irvine as Nicholas Manhattan