Chapter 2: The Accident

Brandon Cornwall’s POV

I was getting tired of these missed calls. I don’t know why my father was insisting for me to talk with him. Well, fuck it! I know what he wanted to say and right now, I don’t have time to deal with this.

“Mr. Cornwall, someone was here to see you,” my secretary said before I nodded so that my visitor can come inside the office. I looked at the familiar silhouette. It was none other than Alexander MacWatters, one of my best friends and the heir to MacWatters’ empire.

If he ever quit being a Chemistry professor, that is.

“Alex,” I said as I stood up from my chair and I went to hug him and pat his back. He returned the gesture as I was sitting at the sofas with him in front of me.

“Do what I owe this pleasure?” I asked him as my secretary was pouring the tea before she left us for our privacy.

“I heard that you will be going to the Bay Area,” he said as he was sipping on his tea. I smirked at him before I put some sugar cubes into my tea.

“That is correct, yes,” I said before he was putting the teacup down.

“I will be getting married,” he said before I stopped midway to sip on my tea. I looked at him as he was putting that air of confidence right now.

“Seriously?” I asked. He nodded.

“I know it was sudden but I think I cannot help it. I feel it in my gut that she’s the one,” he said as he was leaning against the chair. I put my tea down before I amused by his declaration.

“I don’t think you have it in you, MacWatters,” I said as I was looking at him. He has this longing look when he was staring out into the city through the glass window of my office. I sighed.

“Who is she?” I asked him before he turned at me. I smirked at him before I put my hands in the air.

“Just asking. I have no desire to get this woman and track her down. It just that…if you were thinking of marriage, I will have to come up with some plans to get out of my parents’ pressure for me to find a bride,” I said logically before he relaxed.

“Her name is Azalea Johnson and she was one of the Ph.D. candidates from the university that I am working at,”

“Fuck, did you fuck one of your colleagues?” I asked him before he was glaring at me.

“For your information, we cannot be fucking people if we want, and second, she was not even from my department,” Alex said as he sipped on his tea, trying to control the anger that I managed to get out of him. I smirked.

“I know. I just wanted to test you,”

“I met her through my friend, Ian. She was his fiancée’s sister,” he said. I laughed.

“God, you can’t stop yourself, can you?”

“What? I have nothing to lose. And besides, she’s feisty. I love that about her,” he declared before I was gagging in my mouth.

“Ugh, get a life,”

“I am since I will be a married man. I think you might want to look up for your bride as well,” he said before he took his leave. I was about to ask him about any date that he was ever done with her. He smirked as he turned to glance over his shoulder before he was getting out of my office.

“I just came from that date you mentioned,” he said before he closed the door. I shook my head as I was chuckling at Alex’s strange behavior. One thing for sure, he was highly besotted by his bride and he did not even know it.

That was a week ago when Alex came to me stating that he will be married. I shivered as I know since the firstborn of MacWatters has been married, my parents will ask me to find myself a bride now.

You see, being an only child, I was having this kind of pressure to ensure that I will continue the line of Cornwall, the elemental of Earth. I know, sounds corny but it was the truth. Alex was the wielder of the Water element if you cannot guess from the surname yet.

Mine was Cornwall, it supposed to mean earth or something in Latin but I was not paying attention when my grandpa was describing our family history to me. I was his only grandson and the greatest earth wielder right now.

I sighed as I was looking outside the car that I was being escorted to the conference that I will be giving some details about the new mineral that I have been discovering since a couple of months ago.

I kept it a secret so that I will have all the glory and think about the reputation of my company since I was the only one will be naming it later. This was the most glorious day of my life. I smiled as I was getting out of the car and strode to the conference room.

I know the direction since I have a branch office here as well for the budding geologists in California. It was insane how much people applied for the job but I can only offer few. Then it hit me.

“Oh God! I’m so sorry sir,” someone said as she was getting up from her crash with me. Her hair was in a French twist on her head before I was taking in her feminine figure. She was wearing a black blouse underneath the stylist coat that she had on her. She was wearing a pencil skirt and a pair of high heels, which I might add accentuated her long, shapely legs even more.

“Oh my God! Are you alright?” She asked as she was recovering from her crash as she was standing in front of me, bending to look at me. Her face was ordinary as her nose was straight and petite, her high cheekbones and thin mouth. What took my breath away was her eyes.

It was Amber as in the color of hard tree sap that we can find a few million years ago. She was that breathtaking and I think I just forgot how to breathe normally.

“Sir, we have to go now,” my secretary said as I was breaking my trance of her beauty.

Mine.

My darker thought was coming inside my mind before I was shoving it down the drain. I nodded at my secretary before I was getting up from the floor.

“Shoot, Adam will kill me,” she whispered before she was running again with that thin high heels and she was running through the lobby to her destination. I was still tracking her before I heard my secretary was talking about the tentative tonight.

“So, you will be presenting the discovery tonight and after that, you will mingle with the scientists that were interested in the research. That will be all before we went back to our hotel,” she said as I was looking at the door. The staff was putting the microphone for me to talk into and I was getting ready for my presentation.

“And I almost forgot, your father sends his regard. He asked you to call him back when you have the time, Mr. Cornwall,” she said as she was looking at her iPad. I smirked before I was taking a deep breath.

“Did he ask what he wanted me to talk to him?”

“He said about family urgency,” she replied.

Of course, nothing would matter to him now that Alex was happily married to his bride and they were in New York City. I sighed before my mind was coming into that woman who just crashed into me.

“I will make the phone call after this,” I said before I went to the stage and started my presentation.

“That was an excellent discovery. How do you manage to get that mineral?”

“What’s your next plan for the research?”

“Can I join your expedition. I’m John Adams by the way, professional mineralogist,”

“When will you show the real sample of the mineral?”

A lot of question was being asked as I was walking around and mingled with the scientists that wanted to get their dibs on the excavation that I will be doing. I was smiling at them and assured them that I will do it as soon as I can.

Then, the moment has come to me as I can hear someone was calling after me when I was walking away from the crowd as I was about to make my exit.

“Mr. Cornwall,” she called as I was turning around. If you must know, I never turn down a damsel before and this damsel right now was the woman that bumped into me earlier.

“Yes?” I asked her as she was huffing and breathing hard as if she was running all the way to catch me.

“I want a spot,”

“Excuse me?” I asked her as she was looking into my eyes with her uncanny amber eyes.

“I want a spot in your excavation and I do anything to make sure of it,” she said with the boldness that I never find attractive before.

But this time, it did.