PRESENT DAY
‘Physically shot, emotionally hit
Ready, aim, you get the party lit
I'm shaken to the core, my defenses are shit
Under siege, I'm marching to your beat
You're staring at me, so damn piercing Got under my skin like a tattoo
Let's keep going 'til hell's freezin'
To get to heaven just take these two’
Maybe, it is a bad idea to listen to her favorite songs after all. Whether it is her vivid imagination or it is fate’s play, every lyric started to mean, especially, they are pointing out her situation. She switched off her speakers and removed her sweater. The top beneath was displaced when she did that and a part of her cleavage is displayed where the tattoo lay. It is a Korean word that contains, don’t know how many letters. The first letter is, 에which sounds ai, the next letter is so vague, as she got a wound there due to the accident. Everyone believed that the word is Ayla.
As far as she remembered, her mother would kill her if she has a tattoo near her heart, she never knows, why she has a tattoo of her name in a completely unknown language. Blake convinced her many times that it is nothing but the word Ayla itself. But, when she touches the skin there, when she caresses her finger across it, she feels odd, like it is something else she doesn’t know but she needs to know. This time, her tattoo reminded her of Jayden, his fair skin turning into a pink bruise when the coffee was spilled. Even the thought itself made her cringe immersing her in an ocean of guilt.
Her phone rang and she knew that it is Blake without even looking at it.
“Efendim.” She says while keeping her phone between her ear and neck, with her two hands applying the hand cream.
“What are you doing?” Blake asks on the other side of the phone cheerfully. “Let me guess.” He says before she answers, “You are looking at your tattoo in the mirror and thinking of your forgotten past, and if I know you well, you held your phone between your ear and neck and doing something. Aren’t you?”
It’s not that Blake is smart. He knows Ayla well. “You are right. But I am not thinking of my forgotten past.”
“Then what it is?”
After listening to everything that happened to her, Blake burst into laughter.
"What? You are saying that you lost your job?" He exclaimed on the other end of the line.
"Nope. I said I did something that can cost my job." She corrected.
She heard him laughing loudly again. Definitely, he is recreating the scene that happened at the cafeteria in his own vision. She cursed him under her breath before she hung up the phone. It is 2:00 AM and everything that happened yesterday deprived Ayla of her sleep. Her heart is not at all at ease. It has been drumming since she met him. That shouldn't have happened like that, she thought. That shouldn't have happened at all. She would rather not meet him than spill hot coffee on him.
Will you die if you don't have a cup of coffee Ayla?
She mentally slapped herself. She stomped from her bedroom to the living room, the living room to the kitchen, and then to the balcony. Her apartment is small when compared to Quinn's, but large enough for her. She could say she has a decent living as long as she has a job. Her phone rang again.
"Breathe, sweetheart. He can't fire you for spoiling one of his branded shirts." Blake is right. He can't fire her for that. Even the idea of buying a new shirt popped into her mind along with an ointment. It would take away almost half of her salary. She inhaled deeply thinking of the house rent and other bills.
"Are you there?"
"Yep."
"Easy, girl. Everything's going to be alright. You will be fine. Even if something happens, we are there for you, Quinn, Daisy, and me. You know that right?"
"Yep.”
"Good girl. Go to sleep."
“How can I? The first impression lasts. And I screwed it, Blake.”
“Wait. What do you mean by the first impression? On whom did you spill that coffee?”
“On my new boss’s shirt.”
Ayla heard him muffling his laugh. She scoffed at his reaction. “This is my life, Blake. Do you know who my new boss is? It is Jayden Knight. He is the one who bought our old firm. Now, the entire building is owned by him. He works upstairs.”
He felt like someone cut off his oxygen as soon as he heard his name. He knows that she looks at Jayden like a role model, an inspiration, and an idol. But he never thought they would cross their paths ever again after what has happened. They did, now and he is still in the middle of swallowing this truth that is tightening around his neck.
“Do you mean your demigod you always blabber about?” He tried to sound so casual like nothing she said had affected him. Deep inside, he prayed it isn’t true.
“Yes.” She said and he is taking deep breaths with his mouth to suck more air.
This time, he fails to soothe her and left the call in the middle.
Ayla lay still on the bed looking at the ceiling. This is not about the job. It is about the impression she had made before him. As Blake said, he can't fire her for that. But, the question, what would he think of her erupted. She still has no idea why does it matter so much to her.
Blake and Quinn misunderstand her admiration for him. They don't get it when she says she feels strangely connected to that ‘unknown’ Jayden. No one understands. They call this insane. Jayden is not even aware of her existence when she thinks of him from time to time. Even though she sounds like a stupid teenage fan girl, she can't help it.
*
"She met him." Blake mused after a long silence he kept between Daisy and him.
Daisy is not surprised. She knew that this would happen. And it did.
"Maybe I should tell her the truth." He said in a spiritless tone.
He saw her lips form the correct words," It's too late. It has to happen one day. And it did. I saw this coming.”
“How?” He asked her. “It is the least probability.”
“I don’t know about the probability of their meeting, Blake. It is the truth, I am talking about. It can’t be kept hidden for a long time. You hid that from her. You lied to her. It is coming back crashing your lives.”
He knows that Daisy didn’t accuse him of anything but merely spit the truth.
They both have to eventually cross their paths and the consequences will be merely her pain. Ayla doesn't deserve that. ‘If there is anyone to suffer, it's me,’ Blake thought to himself.
He still remembers her F******k profile, a 17 years Turkish redhead with grey eyes, fair skin, and wide lips with a charming smile. That's what he thought of her. She is the most optimistic, broad-minded, and understanding person Blake has ever met. She is mature beyond her age yet innocent and clumsy. She is a simple girl who had big dreams. And in every large house she was going to build, every car she was going to buy, every place she was going to visit, her mom was with her. Due to her mother's ill health, she was forced to stay with her father to complete high school, the father she never met till then.
On the first day of school, she ran into Mr.Davies, the math teacher, and fell on the floor with a thud. While all the other forks laughed at her, Blake stood silent in the crowd planning her next humiliation.
Back then, Jayden stood for her. He gave her the love she deserved, he became her home. He protected her from her father, her stepbrother, and from Blake. Now it's his turn to protect her from Jayden. Blake saw the inescapable fight coming after seven years of Ayla’s accident.
Ayla is riding her car on the wide wet roads of London crowded with vehicles. Her heart is thumping out of anticipation of what is going to happen once she reaches her office. As she drove into a peaceful street, she saw a teen covering her head with a yellow colored raincoat on the side pathway. The girl shoved her hands into pockets of her skirt and walking slowly when someone from behind came running and removed her coat off her head. She didn’t say anything and walked like that. The girl reminds Ayla of herself. She has been through many harsh things when she was a teen. She grew up with her mom in Istanbul. When she is old enough, she started questioning her mom about her father. He was somewhere in Europe. Every time she asked about him, her mom used to smile. Just a smile, a smile of assurance saying that she was there and Ayla doesn't need anyone. And that made her feel secured enough. She was sixteen when her mom took her to Ankara for a tour. She started to
Ayla is already late when she entered the lobby. Her parka jacket and her hair are slightly touched by rain. With a bag and car keys in her hand, she rushed to the elevator which she found occupied. She moved to drive another one. But when she saw the person inside the elevator, her legs paralyzed. Ayla stared at the tall man in the black suit. He was keeping his middle button of his suit. He looked simple, sophisticated and subtle. He would have already recognized her. A wave of embarrassment hit her when she remembered what she did yesterday. He neither said anything nor his face showed anything. He looked at her as if she is nothing and pressed a button. The doors of elevator are closed on her face. "I'm dating an artist. He is cute." If it isn't for this message, Ayla could've met Jayden formally. She could've said 'good evening' and he could've wished her as wel
It is a foreign feeling for her. She is never used to that or never felt that before. Why is his gaze, so intense piercing her from head to toe, she wouldn’t understand. Being a second alone with this man, took her breath away, at the same time filled her with new life. He didn’t say anything rude, he didn’t even give a glare, he didn’t wear any kind of knives on his chest, yet he scares her. It is not the fear that he could do some potential harm to her; it is an unknown intimidation to which her body reacted without her knowledge. The rain drops are harsh on her sensitive skin. She raised her head to feel the more of piercing cold drops on her face. Slowly closing her eyes, she remembered the River Trent, the rain there. Her heart is filled with unknown agony. She started to miss something. She has no idea what. “Is that, that bad?” the voice came from the
NOTTINGHAM SEVEN YEARS BACK Ayla felt like she is sitting at the edge of a cliff, it is both excitement of meeting Blake for the first time and fear meeting many new people at the new school. She wished her father drop her off at least say how to behave or few father – daughter talks before she goes to school. But he left the home before she even woke up. She said to herself that he is a busy man that he will talk to her later. Her step brother Jack dropped her with much disgust as if she took away a very important aspect of his valuable time. Biting her lips, and fixing her sling bag, she walked briskly with a masked confidence, deep inside, she is trembling with dread. “Waoh, looker.” She heard who passed by her on skating wheels say. She didn’t understand the reason behind his jaw dropping, whether it is good or bad. She sets her red hair straight, and hurried to the office room and right before she e
NOTTINGHAMSEVEN YEARS AGO Ayla doesn’t know the meanings of the words such as bint or naff. Even if she knows good English, sometimes the slang is beyond her. When she checked them on the internet, she felt horrible, not to mention the words students used to call her, things they did to her always kept her in tears. Not even a single night after coming to Nottingham, she slept peacefully or went to bed without lying to her mother. Being in everyone’s mouths, becoming target to every harsh act is hardly endurable. Slowly, she lost confidence in herself. No matter what happens, she could never go to her dad. She highly doubts if she could even say hi to him and ask how his day was. She really hoped that Blake comes to her aid. He never did. And on one particular day, she finally saw his true colors. The same girl in the red skirt before now came in pink. Being the
LONDON PRESENT DAY Ayla looked at her reflection in the mirror and for the first time in her life, as far as she remembers, she admired her work on herself. Her short red hair has smoothened more with the striaghtener, she didn’t put much effort on doing her face as she put on her hair, a blush nude matte lipstick and a moisturizer did enough magic. She selected a blue colored 3/4 sleeve elegant pencil peplum dress. After all, she is now working at a mega corporation; she has to look elegant, class, and simple as per her comfort. The dress is in suitable hourglass shape with ruffles on the right side which hugged her body tightly showing all her curves perfectly. She always preferred simple pumps, but this time, she wore black pointed high heels. Her confidence rose to a new next level with the new perfect look. All thanks to her old boss. If he hadn’t called yesterday and informed that
PRESENT DAY LONDON “No. I don’t know if it is fated or just coincidence or whatever. You mother cheated on your dad. You were easily tricked by a school girl. This is the biggest joke that has been played in front of my eyes.” An evil laugh played on Jack’s long face underneath a very less hair. His eyes are so small that the triumphant laugh made him look like he bore some holes instead of eyes. He thought he got under his opponent’s skins who are there for a meeting – Jayden and Mason. His words only worked on Mason who has lost his calm and raised from his chair with so much force and rage that he kicked that chair behind. “You son of a bitch.” He cursed. “As far as I remember,” Said Jack with a smirk, “It is Jayden who is the son of a bitch.” Apparently, the words Jack delivered at Jayden hits Mason first. Jayden doesn’t seem to be intruded or slightly moved b
“I don’t understand, Mr. Cliff. What do you mean by I didn’t do well?” Ayla questioned impatiently. She has checked her list for hundred times since it is the first ever significant work she got to do at Knight & Gray. The old man in his mid forties- Mr. Cliff, shook his head removing his glasses with a stern look, “Rupert's report and the list he has made is quite outstanding. I suppose, it is the best when compared to you.” “But, I –” He waves his hand dismissively, “No. Miss. Sargin. This is no use arguing over this. Get this file another photocopy. I reckon you can do the job well.” Ayla sighed getting back to her regular photocopy machine with a look of contempt. She is so sure she did well. Rupert, on the other side, is having a friendly chat with some other boys. Ayla made her way to him. He looked at her incredulously. Most of the staff doesn’t really know her and even if they did, Ayla has no reputation in friendly talks. “I am Ayla. I was wondering if I c