The Blooming Of Natalie Flare

Chapter Five: You're Blushing

Natalie

For to be happy, we must occasionally shed off some habits.

I adjusted my reading glasses and shuffled in my chair, leaning closer to the book I was reading.

One of the greatest mistakes people make is holding on to things that deprive them of inner peace. Things, people, feelings even, these are the things that are stopping so many souls from being free.

"Natalie." I heard a voice. I pondered if it was real or just in my head. Too engrossed in my book, I ignored it.

Happiness is something every one of us deserves. Most of us want and crave it, but only a few have it.

"Natalie." The voice became louder. Realising it was real, I looked up. Melanie was standing in front of me with an impatient expression.

"Sorry, what?" I mumbled.

"I need the stapler." She said, her voice laced with irritation. Melanie never liked me, since the day I started working here. I didn't know why, honestly, it wasn't like I'd ever done anything to her. I wanted to come up with something clever to say to her for being a bit rude but her voice cut me off.

"Stay-plerrr." She motioned her hands to look like a stapler, like she was talking to a kid who didn't know what a stapler was.

"Geez! Hold on!" I bent and looked at one of the shelves under the table.

"Here." I handed it to her.

"You know, instead of burying your head in that book, you should actually do your job." With that, she flipped her auburn hair over her shoulder and walked away.

What the hell? I hadn't been reading for that long. I took my current book, To Be Complete by Peter Croxley, and put a piece of paper in between then closed it. It was a great book, really profound and captivating. It made me ask myself if I was happy, of course, I found myself unable to answer that.

I loved reading. My fascination with books grew more and more over the years. When I finished school, I thought I'd be a librarian or something. I was completely unsure of what I wanted in life but I knew it had to involve books. An internship at a book distribution company wasn't what I had in mind but it had to do. After a while I started enjoying it. But of course I wasn't planning on staying here forever; I was very open to other job opportunities.

I raised my wrist and glanced at the blue watch around it. A small smile formed on my lips, I remembered Bennett. After dinner last night, I hadn't gotten him off my mind. I didn't know why and I hated it. I gasped seeing the time. I was reading for well over thirty minutes! While on the job! I couldn't blame myself though, it was really quiet today. Mr Delais took the day off and cancelled all his meetings, saying he wasn't feeling well. I hoped he was alright.

Having nothing else to do, I decided to open the book and continue reading .

Bennett's POV

"Gentlemen, Everbook.co has agreed to distribute the book across the country. Savour your privacy while you still can Jonathan, soon you'll be famous." Mr James, the CEO grinned at Jonathan Bax, the writer of Of Another World. He chuckled a bit.

"That's wonderful news." Mrs Williams commented.

"Yes. Jonathan, Mrs Williams and I shall finalize the details tomorrow."

"We should take one of the gentlemen." Mrs Williams looked at me and Marcus. "They're the chairmen and  did help with sealing the deal."

"Ah, yes, Mr Jones?"