Downgrading Miss CEO

Chapter 9

As I finally came home after a long day at the office, filled with calls, paperwork and meetings, I kicked off my heels and threw my keys on the table beside the door. I immediately made my way to my fridge and looked for something edible. To my big surprise, there was one container in the fridge, containing some homemade pasta, and a container holding a piece of strawberry cheesecake. On the kitchen counter, next to my fridge, was a note from my mom.

Lucy,

I am so sorry about what happened at dinner. I tried to talk to your father, but you know how he can be. There are some containers with pasta and dessert in the fridge for you. Please, give me a call when you get home.

Love,

Mom

I cleared the content of the container on a plate and put it in the microwave to heat up and then immediately grabbed my phone to call my mother. As she was probably waiting for my call, I wasn't surprised she answered right after the first ring. "Lucy, thank heavens! Are you okay? You haven't called after what happened at dinner and I was really worried about you. Oh, honey, I am so sorry your father lashed out on you like that. And Andrew, I had no idea he would hit it off with Ava. He seemed like the perfect guy for you!"

My mom was rambling on the phone and somehow it immediately put a smile on my face. This was so typical for her, apologizing for the stuff she had no control over. It made me love her so much more. "Mom, calm down. It's okay, it's not your fault. Dad will always be dad, we know he'll never change. And the matter considering Andrew, it's okay. Ava deserves it, he is a good guy. I will be fine, I will find someone, and if not, I will still be okay. Don't you worry about me okay."

The microwave beeped, signalling that my food was now warm and ready to be eaten. "Look, mom, I have to go now or else my pasta will be cold. How about we have lunch together tomorrow, that way you can see for yourself that I am eating well. We can also ask Ava to come and have some quality mother-daughter time. I think we could all use some."

My mother easily agreed and I quickly sent out a messaged to Ava to inform her of lunch and asking her if she, too, was coming along. When she also agreed I got my plate from the microwave and some cutlery from the kitchen-drawer and sat down at my kitchen island. I took my first bite and was immediately reminded of my mother's cooking skills. She taught me everything I know and I have always loved cooking but I just don't have the time to slave myself over the stove every night, so logically, my diet consisted of business lunches and take-out dinners.

After finishing my dinner I put my dishes in the dishwasher and sat back down, this time with my laptop in front of me. While I was going through some of my emails, I thought back to that one message I received on the dating website and eagerly logged in to see if he replied yet. As the page was loading, I felt myself getting slightly nervous and I immediately felt like I was back in high school, constantly wondering if my crush would reciprocate my feelings.

A wave of relief washed over me as I saw that he indeed replied back to my message and again a smile spread over my face.

Julian: To be honest, I am more of an NSYNC kind of guy, but I guess that's pretty embarrassing to admit in the early stages, isn't it? But then again, I already did now. Please tell me I didn't make a complete fool out of myself right now. But if I would have to choose, I would say Sporty Spice. Can't really say why though. So what's the mystery with your picture?

Was this guy for real? Again he put a smile on my face by saying something completely silly, something so irrelevant to life, but at the same time, it shows the importance of being able to just joke around and feeling comfortable with who you are. With the smile still plastered on my face, I wrote back a reply.

Allison: So I guess you are more into Justin Timberlake huh? I bet you were screaming for him at their goodbye concert, in the front row. I was there you know, so there may be a chance that I've seen you. Actually, I am not allowed to tell, but let's break the rules for the fun of it. I am an undercover agent, I can't flaunt my real identity around on some kind of dating site. Who knows, maybe I am investigating you? Besides, you can't really say your picture is all that clear to figure out how you really look like. So we're even.

Looking at my message again, I felt content with hit and hit enter. It seemed like it was light-hearted, but at the same time, it showed some of me, of how I really am. Allison would be proud of me and I couldn't wait to inform her about possible progress to whatever this may be.

I waited for some time so see if would receive a new answer from Julian, but as five minutes passed without a reply, I went back to going through my emails and finishing up some paperwork that I took home from the office. My father would always take everything to his home office, but I never liked to lock myself in an office outside of the office hours. I preferred to just sit at my kitchen island, accompanied by a glass of wine. Besides my preferences, my apartment didn't even have a home office. It was a fairly small apartment, considering I was the only one to live in it. I never really understood why people wanted to live in an extravagant and big penthouse just because they could afford it. I felt perfectly content in my two-bedroom apartment.

After an hour of answering and sending out boring emails and taking care of the never-ending paperwork, I decided it was time to treat myself to take a nice hot bath and enjoy my mom's homemade cheesecake afterwards while watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy. It was like the perfect combination of my lifelong interest in medicine and enjoying other people's drama, instead of constantly being aware of my own crappy relationship with my father.

I was about to make my way when some sound was coming from my computer. The sound wasn't unfamiliar to me, as I already heard it coming from Allison's computer this morning, indicating a message on the website. Excited like a freshman on her first day of college, I eagerly opened the message on my computer.

Julian: It's good to see your boss let you go home after what I assume are long hours. Besides that, I am glad to see that so said boss didn't take away your sense of humour. But I see, guess I would have to wait and see how you really look like when I take you out for lunch tomorrow?

Allison: Do you always go around and ask strange women to lunch like that?

Julian: You are hardly a strange woman to me. I know your favourite Spice Girls song, which definitely isn't something I know about every woman here in the city. And how dangerous can an undercover agent be? Aren't you using your skills for the good? And before you say you don't meet up with strange men, you know my favourite Spice Girl and the fact that I was a die-hard NSYNC fan.

Allison: Okay, you seemed to have convinced me. Okay, you've got yourself a deal. Does 12:30 work for you?

Julian: 12:30 sounds perfect? Want to tell me the name of your company so I can pick you up like the gentleman I am?

Allison: Sure, meet me in the lobby of Harrington Inc. If I am not there yet, just let the receptionist call me and I will be right down. I guess I'll see you tomorrow.

Julian: You bet you will. I will be the only person out there without a suit and tie. See you tomorrow, have a good night.

I closed my laptop with a smile on my face and couldn't help to feel a little nervous. Sure, I have been on blind dates before, my mom has tried to set me up for as long as I can remember, as is Allison. But something about him, about the way we 'met', or maybe the entire marriage thing, it felt much more loaded. It felt different because this time it wasn't someone else who set me up, it was me taking a leap of faith. It was me who was going to jump into the deep end and hoping to land on both of my feet. This was me searching for my own happiness, even though my father forced me to find myself a husband in a set amount of time. This was my choice, and it felt good.

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