Why Me ✓ (FINAL EDITS)

Chapter 3

EMERSON FINDLAY

His evening blue eyes were looking straight into my hazel ones. And for a moment, just for a moment, all my brain could think of was how beautiful they looked. At that moment, I could feel or sense nothing around me. Then, they started roaming all around my face. Shit. All I hoped and wished was for him to think of me as just any other clumsy office worker having a terrible accident on her first day. At that moment, however, as he scrunched his face into a knowing frown, I realized that maybe he still remembered me. So I took it upon myself to pretend my best to not know him. That way, maybe it would get easier for me to work, letting this slide into my memories as a fateful and easily forgettable meeting. After all, what were the chances that he also worked here? What were the chances that he was on the same floor as me? What were the chances of me ever bumping into him again? Very close to zero.

After the agonizing, long moment alone with my thoughts had passed, I rapidly blinked my eyes a few times as he put me back to my feet and pushed my glasses back at the bridge of my nose, from where they had slid down. His eyebrows were now even more deeply furrowed into a frown. "What are you doing over here?", he asked me in his deep voice, in a very knowing tone. I quickly stood up straight and pretended as if I did not understand his question.

"Um... I'm new here. Today is my first day. ", I replied as calmly as I could in the situation. Before he could say anything else, I continued, "I'm sorry for crashing into you like that. I was in a hurry. Actually, I still am. So, please excuse me." I quickly made my way right out of the elevator, without turning around and made a beeline right to my cubicle. I was breathing heavily, trying to process what happened along with the whirlwind of my thoughts. After calming myself down, I once again started working on the task at hand.

Before I knew it, my working hours had gotten over. Time really did fly away when I was too busy with your work. I packed all the stationary items back into their respective cases, filed all my designs, straightened myself up and headed straight to my H.O.D. Mrs. Banker's office. She had asked me to give her daily reports.

I slowly knocked on the door and waited for her to call me in. But, when I didn't receive any answer even after minutes of standing there, I opened the door and peeked inside. There was nobody over there. So, I quickly made my way towards the desk, dropped the file there and after leaving her a quick note, headed back to my desk so that I could take my bag and head back home.

I found a cab pretty quickly and headed homeward. After quickly climbing the flight of stairs, I made my way to my room, got in, and locked the door behind me. Today was really a very eventful day. Gosh! Adrian had come back into my life and there was no running away this time. I really did want to believe the what-ifs that my brain was coming up with to prevent me from spiralling into some dark place in my mind. But there was really no running away this time.

I took a deep breath and straightaway, went into the bathroom to take a bath. I stripped off my clothes and open the tap. The warm water came rushing down on me and the slow noise the droplets made while touching my body was very calming; a very welcome white nice to temporarily save me from me.

After I had changed into a casual t-shirt and leggings, I headed downstairs toward the dining table to have some dinner. When I went there, I couldn't see anyone having dinner. So, I went into the kitchen. There was a covered plate placed on the kitchen counter. It was then that I checked my phone only to see that it was way past dinnertime in the house. Everyone was probably getting ready for bed.

As I was about to check out the dinner on the plate, Mrs. Jonz spoke behind me, giving me a tiny bit of fright. "Emma, you are late today." I turned back and said, "Oh yes Jessica. Remember, I told you about my new job? This is the time I'll be coming from now on." She maintained a stoic face and nodded. My guess was that she really did not appreciate the 'tone' of my voice. Well, it was only going to be a month for her to 'put up' with me and then I would be out of her hair. For good. Whether for hers or mine, it was for time to tell. "Then you'll have to eat food this way. Use the microwave oven to warm it up."