The Traitor Lives Within

Chapter 1: The Newbie

I'm a 28 year old guy named Rick , working a 9 to 5 job in the IT branch at the FBI.
I'm still a bachelor and I live with my 20 year old younger brother, Caleb who works part time as a barista and is studying at a well known University to get a better job.

Caleb is an intelligent and a serious guy and works really hard everyday. Whereas, I am a fun guy and have always been satisfied with this job but I never actually worked hard. Instead I worked smart and got that job by donations and all.

One day, a beautiful young lady, about 26 or 27 years old... Joined the company situated right besides our IT branch building. Her brown eyes looked like brown zircon gemstones. Her lips as if they were rose petals and her perfect nose with freckles that came down to her soft looking cheeks that had dimples which always highlighted whenever she smiled.
The perfect girl that everyone had a crush on,Hazel.

She had a friend already working at the same company as hers and they would always hang out at the café 3 blocks down the street, where almost every employee of the two departments went during the break.

I used to go there with my friend, Damion every week. But since Hazel started to go there, I convinced Damion to come with me everyday and eventually, it became our routine to have our lunch at that café.
Damion started to notice that I liked Hazel but thought it was weird how she was everywhere I went to.. I think they were all coincidences though.

I didn't had the courage to talk to her but I needed someone's advice. So I thought I'd ask Caleb about it as he's been dating his high school sweetheart since last few years. So one day when I went home from office, I told Caleb about Hazel. Caleb was very supportive and told me to find an excuse from our everyday lives or just straight up offer her to have coffee with me.

The next day, when it was just us at the café with our friends , I approached Hazel.

"Hey ,Hazel. Nice to meet you,I'm Rick from the IT branch..it's just besides your company's building", I said

" Hey Rick, Nice to meet you too", She replied

I couldn't focus on my words.. I was too mesmerized in her eyes as she looked upto me and said my name in her homey like sweet voice. Rick.. My name never sounded better before. My heartbeats were faster than usual, I was too shy to ask her questions back to back. So I asked her if she would like to hangout with me on the upcoming weekend.
She said "yeah sure" While smiling. Her smile.. It gave me butterflies.
I wanted us to be together as long as we could. I wanted to be the reason for her smile.

"Well then can I get your number? Just so we can decide on the suitable time"
She looked at her friend , they both smiled at each other and she gave me her number immediately.
It felt like I was floating.. I was glad I made the first move and at least got her contact number.

"I'll call you after our office hours. Hope that's okay with you" I said.

"Yeah it's totally fine." She said.

"Okay then, See you soon" I said while smiling

"See ya" She said and smiled back.

Our office hours got over. I was just going to the parking lot when I saw her coming my way. She had her car parked besides mine. I said, "Nice car.. Mclaren 720s? "

"Yeah, Thank you. You have a nice car as well" She said

"Naaah.. Not so good but thank you though" I said

"Well at least it works well and you have it clean so it's a nice car. Look around you" She said while pointing out the dusty cars.
We chuckled "you know what? I guess you're right" We smiled while I was staring at her eyes again. I just couldn't look away from her.
We saw each other off at the parking lot exit and waved goodbye to each other.

After I reached my home, I tried calling her.. She didn't pick it up for the first two tries. I gave up.

I knew it was too soon to give up but I was devastated and started thinking that maybe she didn't like talking to me and she was just trying to be nice earlier...

***Continued to chapter 2***