Dahlia Grace, a 22 year old ambitious young woman, is on her way to begin a new life after having just graduated from college.
She has the perfect job, the perfect apartment and the perfect friends.
But she is hiding something. Her grievous pas...
Shit I'm gonna be late for work. Seriously, they should change world's fastest human to Dahlia Grace because I was freaking flying. My clothes were all untidily put onto my useless body and my blonde hair was tied in a rather messy bun.
Quickly, I grabbed my grey coat and black bag off the nightstand and rushed outside. Charlie and I didn't exactly have stable careers. So, our place was a little low budget. Emma, on the other hand, was a successful chef and was quite well- settled in life right now, so her apartment was much better and lavish than ours. But I liked ours the way it was. The clock showed 8:45. That left me precisely two minutes for breakfast. While putting on my nude stilettos, I ran over to the other apartment and directly to their kitchen, with one shoe still in my hand.
I came face to face with three people- who were eating their breakfast so calmly, it made me jealous.
"Hey Cinderella." Andrew said chuckling at me.
"Hey Ursula." I replied, making a reference to the Little Mermaid. Get it? Because he's evil.
"Are you late?" Emma asked, looking back from the gas stove.
"Yeah. Terribly." I said, taking a seat.
"But we don't have to be at the office for almost another half hour!" Andrew exclaimed, peaking at his wristwatch. His light brown hair was looking exceptionally good. Wait what?
"Well wake up Sleeping Beauty, it's almost 8:50 now." I retorted.
"Are we seriously continuing with the Disney references?" Charlie groaned.
"No, it's only 8' o clock right now." Andrew stated.
"But it was 8:45 at the clock in our place." I state confusingly. If it's one thing I know about Andrew is that he is always on time.
"Oh that. Yeah I forgot to give you a heads up. The clock at our place is messed up. Charlie informs me with an innocent smile. I simply glare at him. And then realization struck me.
"That means for the first time I'm not late. Yippee! And that also means I get to have your amazing pancakes." I exclaim.
"And you edit that. Enter the numbers, save the files and you're done." Andrew said, pointing and moving the mouse about the computer.
"Thanks." I said gritting my teeth, grudging every syllable. I also hated the fact that he was so close to me, literally breathing at my neck and I couldn't punch him.
"Now that you're familiar, please get started. We don't have all day." He said, a sudden change in his tone. Hey, he did not have the right to speak with me in this angry manner. But before I could cause a scene at the office, calmly, gathering myself, I smiled in response. It was more of a challenging, evil smile. He looked a bit taken aback but controlled his composure and left.
"Well that was brutal." Said a feminine voice from behind me.
I turned in my rotating chair to be confronted by a beautiful face. She had long black hair and the perfect features. I was actually very envious of her. She even had the body. What was she doing here? She could be a supermodel for god's sake. Yet her face seemed hauntingly familiar and I couldn't pick out the part of my brain that trapped her memory.
"What?" I asked bluntly.
"That look? Piercing." She replied.
"Thanks?" it came out more like a question.
"I'm Chloe. I think we work in the same department." She said, putting forward her hand, waiting for me to shake it. Again, the memory tugged at the back of my mind. This face. I remember it. But i just shrugged it off.
I gladly shook it and got up. Even in heels, I couldn't reach her height, but was quite close.
"Hi, I'm Dahlia." I said in a sweet tone.
"So you're the new girl." She stated.
"Yup." I said.
"Okay just a warning. No big deal. Do you see that guy over there?" she said, pointing towards my arch enemy standing alongside a cute guy of the same age.
"No flirting with him." She completed. I'm assuming she is talking about the cute guy.
"Not interested." I say clearly defining my interests. I don't need dating shit right now.
"Good. So are you single?" she asked excitedly.
I raised my eyebrow in return for her sudden happiness.
"I'm quite the couple maker." She explained.
"Oh." Was all I said. Now it was her turn to raise her eyebrows. Totally forgot about her question.
"Hundred per cent." I said with a beam on my face.
"Great! Now let's see." She said and started scanning the floor for some target. But before I could stop her, her eyes settled on someone.
"Seems like someone's got an eye for you." She said in a sneaky tone. I followed her eyesight and found my eyes linked with a pair of gorgeous brown eyes which shyly looked away.
"Not my type." I stated and just as she was about to convince me, Joanna buzzed me into her office. Thank the gods!
"Yeah Joanna?" I asked, stepping into her office.
"Hi. Sit down. Okay, so there's this party, office related, that I'm invited to on Friday night. Many famous people will be there. Important people. And I was thinking, since you and Andrew are new here, I'd love you'll to come. Both of you. However, I only get one pass. So I was thinking..." she said hesitantly.
"Yeah?" I urged on to go ahead. Something was not right. I could smell it. Well, not technically smell it, but you get the gist.
"Could you probably bring Andrew as your date?" she asked very innocently. No! No! No! No way.
The horror must have been quite evident because she flinched as I was known to get a bit angered sometimes.
"I don't know Joanna, there's just so much history between us. And I can't even talk to him without thinking of punching him." I rambled on trying to make excuses. She listened very patiently.
"Look it's the only way to come to the function. And besides, aren't you both neighbors?" she asked very sweetly.
"Yes." I said, gritting my teeth, reminded of the unfortunate co-incidence.
"Then you'll come?" she asked hopefully.
"I'll come." I said, whining.
"Great! So I know you won't mind telling Andrew about it too. Thanks sweetie. That is all." She said. And I left with an uneasy feeling in the pits of my stomach. This would not end well.
