Arranged

Alternately

So, one of the readers (sonam306) suggested this thing. What if Kelly and Darian (Luke for some, Ryan for others) had met under separate circumstances? Like, an alternate universe thing? And after weeks of pondering over it, I figured something. But before you read on, keep in mind that timelines and situations are not the same. Just the base characters are same.

In short, it is not a continuation to the story or an epilogue -- it is just a "what if" situation. Read it without prejudice and give me your honest opinions.

Go on ahead now!

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The only excuse he could come up with for leaving early or rather on time, when enquired by his boss, was that as the manager, he needed to set an example for his underlings – he absolutely used the word "underlings" and still forged on even though his brain prompted his teeth to bite his tongue, figuratively speaking – about how they should wrap up their work within the allotted time frame. In other words, efficient.

Gwen had sniggered in her mind, he was absolutely sure of it, despite the outer poker face she had on while she overheard the conversation. She met him out by the elevator and he kissed her quickly before grinning and hopping behind the closing doors. She was always irked whenever he jumped in like that, she considered it dangerous and he called it fun.

The real reason Darian Summers left work early on any day, not just today, was that he loved those extra hours of being away from work. After all, they never did pay for overtime, it was strictly for eight hour, which was why he could not fathom how staying over benefitted him in any way. Again, Gwen had very separate work ethics and he could not get enough of teasing her about it every opportunity possible.

"Out early again?" the security guard asked, smiling, as Darian strode past him. He turned on his heels, winked and saluted with the first two fingers, adjusting the shoulder strap of his bag.

He arrived on the curb and looked up and down the street, hoping to stop an empty cab. His motorcycle had gone into servicing in the morning and it would not delivered for two more hours.

Darian held out his hand, fruitlessly waving it. "Is this not the norm for hailing cabs anymore?" he mumbled and sighed.

"Goodness, how are you still that far?"

Even though he knew he was not being addressed, Darian dropped his arm and looked over his shoulder. A woman was walking rapidly towards him, her gaze fixed to the contents of her open purse which her hands were rummaging through and a cell phone was being balanced between her left ear and shoulder. She had a red dress on and her black locks repeatedly fell over her right cheek into her talking mouth and she kept blowing them out.

He could only see the name of the company she worked for on the ribbon around her neck as the actual identity part of the ensemble was hidden behind her handbag.

When she still did not look up from whatever it was she was searching for, Darian wheeled around on his heels and stopped her by the shoulders before she could crash into him.

"Yeah, okay –!"

Her conversation was cut midway as she looked up in surprise. Her phone slipped out of its nook and fell straight through the open zip of her handbag.

"Do watch your steps, red," Darian said, releasing her from his grip soon as he realized that the statutory amount of time for this action had passed.

"Excuse me? I'm not a redhead," she replied, cocking her head to one side.

Darian clicked his tongue and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I was referring to the colour of your attire. I can see though how my statement was wrong."