what on earth is Leah thinking about? With her wedding so close... Always Writing, T. C. SARAH.
I hadn’t seen Ryan Fisher in a while and I was starting to get curious about him it was almost getting ridiculous. “thinking...flower arrangement… Leah!” I looked at Aly, a little startled. “What?” “You’ve been distracted all day. What the hell is going on with you?” I blinked a couple of times, trying to find the word to say and settled on sorry. “Are you getting cold feet?” I paled at her words. “What? No! Of course not.” She narrowed her eyes at me for a few more seconds before looking away. Nalini seemed to be enjoying our conversation, looking at both of us with a smile on her face. She was such a happy child. “If you have a different opinion, you should talk. It is YOUR wedding.” She shrugged. I didn’t have a different opinion. In fact, I liked Aly’s input. I would have been hella confused on what to do if I’d been left alone with it. “Nah. It’s cool. I’m sorry, I should be more attentive.” I gave her a small smile to show that I was sorry for zoning out. I yawned tiredly
“I think we don’t have enough data on the Indian Market to rule it out as a failure.” I swallowed hard, feeling his piercing gaze nail me to my seat.He nodded his head and took lead of the meeting. There was a couple of whispers before he swiped the screen content away.“Miss Leah is right.” I started to wonder if I’d told him my name before. Most CEOs wouldn’t bother, well, I believed so.I squeezed my eyes in pain. He didn’t have to point out that fact. The rest of the meeting was filled with warning glares from Judy to me and from Ryan to everyone else.The meeting wrapped up with a need to reconvene much later as the day was drawing close and the CEO seemed to have more important things to do than school his accountants. At least he wasn’t a figure head.“Excuse me?” My eyes widened in shock. Had I said that out loud?“Hmm?” I acted dumb. If I didn’t confirm it, it would seem as though they’d misheard me. David dropped it, thankfully.“Where do you think you are going?” Judy scow
I breathed in the diner air. Fresh as ever. Jack and I had agreed after multiple scheduling and missed calls to catch up. He’d become a bestfriend too over the years and I missed seeing him a lot. To be honest, it was my fault.“How’s work with you?” He looked so tired I felt prompted to tease him but I was no better.“Ugh! No one told me this would happen! I thought I’d work and get paid.” He groaned.“Isn’t that what is happening?”“Not really. I leave work and still have work. I can barely eat man. My fridge has been empty for almost a week now.” I started laughing.“Trust me, I know how that feels.” I relaxed against my chair and looked around. I wasn’t one to notice faces around Joe’s but it was clear that they were new around here, freshers maybe. The nostalgic feeling hit hard and it’d barely been months.I took a large slurp of my strawberry milkshake, remembering how young I was back then.“How’s the wedding planning going?” That question wasn’t supposed to catch me off guard
I slept fitfully in a long while, even Jared seemed to notice.“Are you okay?” I groaned as I rolled away so I could get ready for the day. It was already past 10am and I was hungry for food.“Yeah.” I nodded and almost tripped over air. I could hear Jared scramble for me but I held him back with my hand.“I’m fine, really.” I felt terrible and I wasn’t sure it was only because I hadn’t been able to sleep well.I turned on the shower in the bathroom and let the warm water cascade down my back, turning my bones into jelly.I was tying my robe when Jared walked in.“Hey, can we talk?” I turned to him with confusion written all over my face but I nodded. It wasn’t like I had anywhere to go.“Sure.” I followed behind him into the room and sat down next to him.“I have to travel.” My brows dipped in a frown.“For how long?”“It could be weeks.” My brows skyrocketed towards my hairline.“Weeks?” He nodded. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what kind of job he had or the role he had to play in hi
I adjusted my skirt and my hair before knocking.“Come in.” It was faint but it still commanded authority. I took a brief look around the office before settling on him. He looked larger than his desk and it almost made me laugh.“Good morning sir.” I smiled nervously. He gestured to the seat in front of him and I sat in it.“How are you?” His smile was so disarming that I felt myself loosen up.“Good sir. You wanted to see me?” He nodded and pulled out a manila envelope. I was confused but I collected it from him and pulled out its contents.It was a new contract that had been signed between Elise Industries and Marque and Co. I’d heard of Elise Industries somewhere before but I couldn’t remember when or how I’d heard of them.“Why are you showing me this?” Even if I didn’t remember Elise, contracts only existed between big shots here and I would be stupid to take such documents lightly, which was why I was surprised I was being shown the documents in the first place.It was supposed
“You’re so big now.” I kissed Nalini on the cheek. Ugh! She was so cute. She giggled and grabbed onto my shirt tightly.“I hope you have something warmed up for me?” My stomach grumbled and I groaned. I hadn’t eaten all day and I was beyond starving.“I’ve got loaded mashed potatoes with pork chops.” My mouth watered at the thought. Thank God for Aly.She brought a plate to me and I was quick to drop Nalini on the floor.“Sorry dear, auntie’s gotta eat.” I gobbled down the food like I was being chased. Aly simply waited for me to be done eating before going for the jugular.I was cleaning up my mouth when she finally spoke.“What happened between you and Jack?” My head snapped to her, my eyes locked in on hers.“How do you know about that?” She rolled her eyes.“Does it matter?”“Uh, yes? Was it Jack?” I scowled, thinking about what happened at Joe’s.“That’s not the point, Lee. He told me about it ‘cause he’s worried about you.” My scowl only deepened.“Look, I’m gonna be honest abou
For three days, I worked with Judy. My hair was thinly close to coming out of my scalp and it was all because of her. She barely let me breathe. I was working morning till night, going over financial records of Elise Industries from decades ago, decades when everything was filed analogically. I didn’t even bother wearing heels to work. They had my toes and back of my heels blistering. Judy would sit at the table and wait for me to bring all the files and watch me go through each one, record by record. It was amazing how quickly she spun in her chair to pretend to help me out whenever she heard the CEO was coming around. I of course remained mute. I had agreed to working out with her instead of making a formal report about unjust work conditions and it was my punishment. “How far have you gone with the records?” I looked up to find Ryan looking directly at me, as though he knew I was the one doing all the work but I looked at Judy instead. She had the habit of talking over me so thi
“This isn’t me coming on to you.” I blinked fast, trying to understand his angle and still not look stupid. Had I completely misread the situation wrong and assumed my boss was flirting? My face started to redden in mortification. Oh goodness. Thankfully he was chill and simply chuckled. Funny enough, he never asked about who my fiance was or about the fact that I was engaged. “I think you can leave work for now.” He said, standing up and offering me a hand. “Uh, no sir…” He gave me a stern look and I cleared my throat. “There’s way too much to do and I’m supposed to hand in the report in a few hours.” I quickly looked at the time and saw that I’d spent way too long having a not so meaningful conversation with my boss. “What of Jessica?” I looked up at him and deadpanned. He knew she was off frolicking somewhere and if he didn’t, he certainly wouldn’t hear it from me. “I don’t know. She could be working her ass off at home.” I said bitterly and realised I’d just spoken inappro