The False Truth

The Hang-Over

Chapter 6

The Hang Over

"And then he fucking smiled, showing all his teeth. Like, can you believe this guy... "and laughter burst out...

"Seriously?" Not a word. Another voice said...

"Not... a... word!" Then the guy burst into laughter. "Not... a... freakin'... word!"

"Ahh man...That must be one hell of a chick... that you are still feeling down even after your promotion..." one of the guys said, as that person patted Steve's shoulder. Steve looked at him and shrugged his shoulders.

Steve was just sitting at the corner of the table lost in his thoughts...mostly regretting...while his friends were celebrating his promotion. He was not regretting the promotion or the missed opportunity to ask that girl out on a date...But he was regretting that why the fuck would he tell one of his friends about this...because he was repeating the story with spicier details and all of them were laughing and making fun of him while being drunk...and on his money too.

"It...could...lead to a beautiful love story..." One of the friends said while looking at Steve with a mischievous smile, and then the whole bunch fell into a session of laughter again. The drunker you get, the more vulnerable you get... and once you start laughing, you just can't stop... Even the stupidest things make you laugh.

"To Love Story..." One of the friends raised his glass of wine as a toast toward Steve while grinning... Others followed him as well, while laughing... All of them were waiting for Steve...

"Come on...Come on...." his friends kept pushing his hand...

Steve just looked at this educated bunch, who were heavily drunk and now making fools of themselves and him...He smiled and joined them as well by raising his glass... "To A beautiful love story..." he said, and everyone laughed.

It was probably the best decision to reserve the whole top floor, otherwise, they would have been thrown out way sooner due to noise complaints by customers. And his friends were taking full advantage of this privilege as they were showing no restraints in enjoying the party and celebrating Steve's promotion, but this was just more than that. Although it was wholly and solely Steve's achievement, the company decided to give his whole project group a huge bonus along with his promotion.

Steve, who was the soberest among them, was not enjoying the party as much as they were, partially because his friends were too drunk now. He decided to leave before he got wasted like them. He thought about the lady in the reception; he wasn't sad or regretting anything. He just couldn't thank her for the gratitude he felt for her optimistic behavior before the interview, which helped him build up confidence... Steve knew where she could find her since he knew where she works... but Steve was not a stalker and thus deemed it inappropriate to approach her any further. He felt pretty satisfied with how things turned out. His friends, on the other hand, found a new topic to tease him with.

It was getting late, and Steve got up to take a leave from his celebration party, which, according to his friends, had just started. Steve reached his hotel room and went to sleep immediately. Before he could start working as an assistant manager, he still had to stay in the city for a few more weeks to process the different aspects of the contract he had signed with the new company.

Steve woke up with a severe headache in the morning. He had to go to the same building for a follow-up meeting starting at 11:00 am and right now, it was almost ten. He decided to take a coffee cup on his way to the office. He quickly got dressed and reached the building in a taxi in about 20 mins. As he got out of the taxi, he decided to go to the building directly and do his breakfast in the reception lobby. But more importantly, he was excited to meet up with the same receptionist. Although he wasn't planning to ask her out, he was definitely looking forward to do some chit-chat with her. He entered the building and went quickly to the reception counter, but was met with sudden disappointment. There was another female at the reception counter. Not the one he was expecting.

In his mind, he had planned it out, that this would be her working time and he would meet her, do some chit-chat, make few jokes and make her laugh and seeing her smile would clear out his headache but unfortunately, he met with an unpleasant surprise. He was already having a headache and this didn't help his mood at all. He returned midway and didn't even go near the reception counter. He came right outside the building, contrary to his plans of doing his breakfast in the reception lobby. He looked at his clock and there were still 30 mins to the start of the meeting.

He was confused but mostly angry at himself for being so naïve and foolish. Why was he expecting her to be there? It was obvious that in such a big company, with twenty-four services, there were bound to be more than just two receptionists. And their duty timings would obviously vary. And not only that, but last night he had convinced himself and decided not to pursue that woman, who had nothing to do with him, yet today he went there with expectations. Steve jerked his head in frustration.

He looked at the bright sun, as the increased light was intensifying his headache while the noise of the road was resonating with the throbbing in his head. He felt nauseous and looked around for a new place to sit around and have his breakfast, or a coffee at least. He had a presentation within 30 minutes as well, so he had to do something about his headache. He saw a coffee shop on the opposite side of the building with a good window side. He quickly went to the café, but at this time of the day, it was like the whole city had just woken up and was doing their breakfast now. He couldn't find a table. Although the café was nice, it was crowded. He went to the counter and ordered a cappuccino. In the meantime, a table was evacuated on the window side corner. Steve quickly went to occupy the seat and waved his hand towards the person on the counter to deliver his order to the table.

As Steve waited for his order, he looked out the window, seeing the hustle and bustle of the street, the glowing car windows, the noise, and not forgetting the majestic building on the opposite side, where he was supposed to give a meeting in a few minutes. All this reminded Steve of how life is moving so fast. Everything is evolving and moving forward, as it should be, but for Steve... everything seems to be standing still. Despite the fact that he was working in a good company, earning good pay, and ranking up, he never felt that he was moving forward. He wanted to feel like he was also part of the world that is advancing so fast, part that's growing. He felt, that he is missing something, something that he still needed to find, whether it could be another person or an inanimate object, but something important was missing from his life and he felt that he was on a quest to find that something and be a part of it or make that something a part of himself.

His headache caught up to all his deep thoughts and due to pain and frustration, he closed his eyes, held his head with both hands, and bent down on the table. He looked like a person who has enough of the world's bullshit or just an ordinary sleepy person with his head bent down. In the meantime, the waitress brought the Coffee.

"Here is your Coffee Sir..." A Sweet voice was heard and Steve immediately opened his eyes but didn't raise his head. He stayed in that position and replied

"Thank you..."

The waitress put the Coffee on the table and asked.

"Sir...Would you like to have something with your Coffee..."

"No...that'll be all..." Steve said as he straightened himself up. He felt embarrassed that she had to see him like that and couldn't look her in the eyes. The waitress turned back and left. As she was walking back, Steve looked at her. She was wearing a black dress with a white apron and looked quite neat with lovely golden hair tightly tied in a flower-like knot. She turned and went inside the kitchen before Steve could see her face.

Steve let out a sigh of embarrassment. He picked up his coffee and took a sip but due to his dry throat, it felt very hot and bitter. He looked at his clock, only twenty minutes were remaining. He was a slow drinker, as he could not drink hot stuff and there wasn't enough time for him to finish this drink in time. He waved towards the counter. The guy on the counter shook his head and sent a waiter towards him.

"I would like to have a blueberry muffin...please!" Steve said to the waiter which he duly noted and went to get it.

Steve was looking outside the window when he got alerted by the same sweet voice, that he heard earlier.

"Here is your muffin...Sir"

Steve turned towards the waitress and became still due to sudden shock, as he saw the waitress's beautiful face, with a faint curve-like smile standing with his blueberry muffin.