He wore a mask

He has always been extremely attractive.

I would give everything to forever replay my memory of him getting out of his limo and stepping onto the red carpet on that day. The grace with which his shoes clicked, his strong gait, and how his long legs complemented each other to make perfect strides.

His shoulders were broad and his tuxedo wrapped perfectly around his torso. I could only see his side profile from where I stood, but he oozed confidence and a commanding presence that I instantly got completely lost in just from staring at him.

“Leila!... Leila!!” The distant footsteps grew closer with every passing second and the sound of my name in the faded background suddenly became audible right as I felt a sharp tap on the back of my neck, jolting me out of my reverie.

“Ouch.”

“What’s the point of standing there looking like a lost puppy? Welcome the guests!” my boss said, rushing her sentences in a way that they almost blended into one. Her visibly pulsating neck vein was all I needed to know how much effort she was putting into not screaming at me despite her impending explosion.

I rushed towards where he stood – the mystery man, brushing down my skirt and adjusting my collars one last time. “Good morning, Sir. Please allow me to lead you to your seat,” I said, not before taking a deep breath. I had perfectly delivered my over-rehearsed line.

For a moment, there was silence and it seemed as if no one had heard me. I looked up at him but he wore a mask and I couldn’t make out his facial expressions anyway. Besides, my mind had already drifted away from trying to figure out if he had heard me, and now I was just trapped in his gaze, staring hard in an attempt to at least figure out what beautiful mystery of a man hid behind the flimsy piece of clothing covering half of his face.

I could swear that my heart rate was beginning to pick up pace, but that was just until one of the hulking guards surrounding him noticed me gazing and instantly glared at me, giving me a condescending nod that flattened out my excitement. He then turned to signal to his boss, and with that, we started to make our way to the hall.

For the first time in my life, I was happy and proud of myself for following my boss’s instructions to the letter. She had specifically instructed me to look neat and lovely, and even though I tried my best to do just that, I still had many reasons to be concerned about my looks as I showed him to his seat. My fingers were cold and sweaty, and my feet were a bit shaky.

I took a very sharp breath as I stepped into the large room and everything stopped for what seemed like forever. The ballroom was so exquisitely decorated and yet it was as minimalist as it could get, with random gold ornaments strategically placed in ways that didn’t make the space look overly extravagant. A popular Hollywood star was going to be auctioning a special collection of jewelry for charity and all the biggest names in the city were rumored to be present. The men were all styled up in the sharpest tuxedos and the women draped in stunning ball dresses. The plain red dress I put on paled in comparison to the glamour of this room.

But all the awe in front of me seemed to be towards my direction. The man walking behind me had the aura of a demigod, and all eyes were fixated on us. The ballroom was dead quiet and only the slower-than-normal jazz music continued to play in the background. All I could do to maintain composure was walk and I continued straight ahead, blocking out all the attention that was coming our direction that I didn’t notice when absolute silence began to give way to whispers and silent murmurs.

“What exactly is going on?” Again, a voice jolted me out of my reverie. And again, it was a voice that sounded too rough to come from a gracious mouth, so I turned around and met his gaze…fierce and vexing, the same hefty guard who had nodded outside.

I looked around and wished at that moment that the ground could open up and swallow me. I had never had so many people stare at me before. It took approximately five seconds to process what I had done. “For heaven’s sake!” I muttered under my breath, not daring to be loud. “Why do I always make a mess of things.”

The VIP’s specially reserved table was on the right side of the hall, but I was with him on the left side. It was a huge mess I had landed in, allowing myself to get so caught up in the moment that I forgot what direction I was heading.

“Mr. A., I’m deeply sorry for the inconvenience we have caused,” my boss apologized, her gaze fixed on the ground; I had no idea when she had arrived. “Excuse me while I show you to your seat.”

“Boss, I would deal with her.” It was him, the guard, eyeing me down in the cruelest way possible. It was now very glaring that he didn’t like me. He started walking toward me and grabbed my arm in one strong grip that I couldn’t conceal my discomfort.

Just then, he looked up, and our gazes locked for a brief moment. “Let her be”. If I weren’t in trouble, I would have frozen at that moment but he spoke again. “Just get me out of here.” He said, directing his words at me.

“Thank you, Sir. She will now lead you to your table,” my boss said in the gentlest voice I’d ever heard, looking at me with a face void of expressions but still managing to let me know I was in for it. She had previously given me strict instructions to lead him to his seat and make sure he didn’t run into anybody but I had led him straight to another person’s table and made him the topic of murmurs.

But beyond my fear of what my boss would do to punish me, I was startled. I had just looked into the most piercing pair of eyes, and they were staring back at me, piercing my heart and soul. I’m not sure what I was feeling, but thank heavens I didn’t trip and fall. Those eyes sent chills up my spine. It was a miracle that I was still able to walk given the intensity of the electric current that had passed through my entire body.

My heart was racing like a bloody pumping machine, and I instantly felt the need to hold my breath. What the hell was going on? As soon as he was seated, I excused myself and escaped to the restroom to regain composure. Glad that I didn’t run into my boss on the way, I heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed.

I walked slowly to the mirror, still feeling a little shaky from that look Mr. A. had given me. I couldn’t stop wondering who he was, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. This party was full of important young people, and there were tons of them in New York City.

I quickly realized that it was an impossible task and hesitantly gave up. I splattered water on my face lightly. My fingertips, still tingling from the intensity of our eye contact, massaged my forehead in a futile attempt to smooth away the tension.

My face was still damp and my fingers were yet to stop tingling when I glanced in the mirror. Suddenly, I wasn’t alone. There, right behind me, stood a figure, and it was my boss! The surprise knocked the air right out of me.

“Leila!” she boomed, her voice tight with hurt. “How could you do this? I trusted you completely, and you messed up big time! My job was almost on the line because of you!” Her words were not enough to hit me like a ton of bricks as I was in an entirely different headspace, but it was her face, usually stern and controlled, that did the job. It looked twisted with pain. The disappointment in her eyes was like a punch to the gut and suddenly, the bathroom, which was once my haven, felt like a tiny cage closing in on me.

Shame turned my cheeks red. The weight of my mistake crashed down on me. All I could think about was how my actions had almost cost her everything. Maybe, just maybe, this was the wake-up call I needed to make things right and take ushering more seriously.

“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” my words tumbled out, desperate like a leaky faucet. “I didn’t mean to mess up!”

My apologies bounced off her ears right down the drain. “Leila,” she said, voice tight and low, “it’s not just about one goof. It’s about the trust I had in you. And you broke it.”

The air hung heavy, each second longer than the last. “You put not just this gig, but my whole job on the line,” she sighed, her shoulders slumping. “I trusted you with everything, and…” she stopped, then continued, eyes fixed somewhere past me. “And you let me down.”

My heart turned to stone. She was right, I knew it. My ‘sorrys’, even if they came from my toes, wouldn’t glue the trust back together. As pleasant as she could be, the one thing my boss didn’t joke about was her job, and it just so happened that this was her biggest contract in her fifteen years as an usher. “I know,” I croaked, the words like dry leaves against the wind. “I just…”

But she wasn’t listening anymore. She shook her head, a final nod to my mistake. “Leila,” she said, and my mind went numb at the words that followed, “you’re fired. I can’t keep someone like you on my team.”

As she turned to leave, I just sank to the floor. My mistake, big and heavy, lay on top of me, suffocating me. And in that moment, surrounded by the wreckage of my own doing, I understood the sting of letting someone down, the price of one careless mistake.

The walk home was slow, my head hung almost as low as the streetlights. And I wrapped my arms around myself, attempting to console myself with an embrace. Yeah, I was free of the holiday job (and let’s face it, It wasn’t exactly “Christmas Cheer Central”), but the way it ended left a bitter taste.

Still, there were two bright bits in this gloomy pie. One, my bank account was finally stuffed enough to get me through the next school year without selling my hair for ramen. And two, well, there was him. The mystery man with eyes that sparked like fireworks and a presence that sent shivers down my spine in the best way possible.

Even after I made it into my room, long after the streetlights turned into blurry dots, his eyes kept flashing in my mind. The way they crinkled when he spoke to me, the way they darkened when he looked at me… I replayed that single glance, that one sentence, feeling that tingle again, like electricity buzzing under my skin. I wanted so much to see him again, just to feel that surge of electricity.

I drifted to sleep eventually, with half a smile and half a frown on my tired face, and he was there in my dream, a silhouette beside me under a blanket of stars, his unseen face burning in my imagination. And even though I didn’t know what he looked like, that night, beneath the starlight canopy, he felt closer than ever.