Worth The Risk

Chapter 7|| Fire

ANASHAY
"Are you sure you're good with this?" Sean raised his eyebrows at me from his position in the doorway of my office, I blinked at him a few times.

"I'm sorry?" He gave me a look, I sighed
"Sean for like the 10th time yes. I'm a big girl I'll be okay, chill" he raised his hands

"Ok ok, I'm done. I just don't want you to have another freak out like last time" I clicked my tongue looking at my 'watch'

"I hear you, but it's time for you to go my client should be here like- now" I stood up ushering him away

"What? You don't even have a real watch- okay! Don't forget about tonight I'll pick you-"

"K thanks love you bye!" I rushed him out closing the door behind him then ran a hand over my face, I get he's worried and I appreciate it but sometimes he can get on my last nerves. I laid my phone on the desk closing my eyes again, and remembering that tonight was the charity dinner, shit. Had three weeks really gone by that damn fast? I opened my eyes to glance at the actual clock on my wall and turned to leave my office, Max should be out there. As soon as I entered the waiting room I spotted him, he gave me a cocky smile and I immediately felt my skin crawl. I pressed forward watching him rise to his feet, making me feel way shorter than I actually was. The security guard beside him followed as I motioned toward my office and Max entered making himself comfortable on the couch. The guard stood beside the door, I smiled at him and closed it lightly.

"Your friend isn't coming in?" He said nodding at the door

"Doctor-Patient Confidentiality" I responded lightly raising my shoulders to shrug, his smile grew

"I've missed you, Anashay. After our exciting session I was sad that we couldn't see each other sooner. Agreed?" I let out a breath of air, stay calm just breath.

"I agree Max. Our meetings are definitely the most interesting. How has your week been?" I asked crossing one leg over the other, he watched the motion then looked up to meet my eyes.

"Fine. Although my mom and I have been arguing much more than usual-which is saying a lot considering she never shuts up. You know?" I nodded, my pen moving against the paper as he talked

"Arguing with parents can be the worst, especially when it's all the time. What have you guys been arguing about?" He blinked at me a few times before swiping a hand over his face

"The same old. She-she's just..." he trailed off staring at me, I clicked my pen absentmindedly which seemed to 'unpause' him. He relaxed against the back of the couch smiling attractively at me, I tilted my head at him
"You look very beautiful today, Anashay." I bit the inside of my cheek

"Thank you, Max. I would also like to ask that we keep the conversation geared toward you, this is after all a time for us to try to-resolve some of the tension between you and your mother. Speaking of, is there any reason she hasn't been to the last session and this one? Is she alright"  His smile slowly fell into a frown. I waited for a few seconds before he jumped up suddenly making me move away from him in shock

"I need to use the bathroom" he rushed out ignoring me completely

"I-Wait, Max!" I stuck my head out the door way and saw the security guard hot on his trails, I ran my hands over my face. What the hell? My phone lit up on my desk, I picked it up seeing Diamond flash across the screen. I closed my phone and put it back on the desk, I'd respond to her later.

"Shay?" Sean peaked his head in furrowing his brows
"You good? I just saw the blonde dude go flying down the hall-" he stopped, frowning. I raised an eyebrow at his silence

"Sean?"

"Do you smell that?" He asked quickly and I shook my head, standing up when I saw black smoke floating in the room from above his head. I approached Sean stepping around him and into the hall, there was even more smoke and a red glow on the wall a few feet away. Is that a fire? I pointed and Sean followed my line of sight

"Am I crazy or does that look like fire" I mumbled, he backed away from whatever it was. I stopped listening as the hall grew quiet. Tick. Tick. Tick

"Sean run-" I shouted to him before pulling my purse off the hook, then taking my heels off and running in the direction of the stairs, past all the people stepping out of their offices and watching as the hall slowly started to burn

"What's-Shay?! Where the hell are you going?!" Sean shouted after me. There was a distant explosion followed by screams and I looked back to see that he was now following behind me and away from the now much bigger fire, we didn't stop until we made it down all the stairs and out the building. I bent over with my hand on my chest, looking around at the fire trucks and ambulances already pulling up. Sean was beside me a few seconds later

"You-*wheeze*why did you *wheeze wheeze* you left me?!" He questioned more out of breath than I was, I took a deep breath giving him a look

"If you see me running and I say let's go you don't ask why I'm running you just run too" he laughed coughing a little

"I guess you're right. What the hell was that?" I shook my head slipping my heels back on

"I have no clue, but who the hell could've set up a fucking bomb?" Sean was saying something, but I couldn't hear him because something else caught my attention. Back near the entrance through the sea of people, I spotted a familiar head of honey blonde hair. Max. I took a step in that direction and felt Sean's hand in mine

"Where are you going?" I glanced back at him and when I turned around, Max was gone. I blew out air through my nose

"No where.." he looked at me weird, but let it go nonetheless. We waited on the side walk across the street from the building while firefighters retrieved people from the building which was still slowly burning. A few people were wheeled into ambulances while others sat dazed on the pavement watching the scene unfold, about 30 minutes later Mr.Newhouse returned from his meeting parking in the lot across from the building. All of us stood together, no one said a word. Newhouse approached us all wearing a stressed expression and pinching the bridge of his nose

"Good afternoon, everyone. I just want to start by saying that I am glad no one was severely hurt in the blast, and that we were all able to make it out relatively okay." He was quiet again and he glanced back at the building, which was just now being completely put out.

"There are no words for this..for the time being any in office meetings with clients are canceled until further notice, I want everyone to take the next few days to just rest and I will email everyone with further detail. The charity dinner will still be held tonight, so if you feel up to it you should all attend and hopefully we can all enjoy each other's company in light of this situation. Feel free to call me with any concerns, I hope we can all recover from this and be back at work soon. Have a good rest of your day, everybody" he smiled sadly at us all and we dispersed, Sean stretched out his hand helping me up from the side walk. I turned around and felt a body crash against mine

"Are you okay, Shay?What the hell happened? You didn't see me calling your fucking phone dummy?!" Diamond squeezed me in a hug, sniffling and firing angry questions at me. I hugged her back closing my eyes tightly, she released me and stepped back with her hands on her hips

"Where's your damn phone? You could've at least texted me and told me y'all were okay! I thought y'all..." she trailed off letting out a puff of air, I caught on nodding.

"I know, I'm sorry. My phone-" I felt through my purse, then froze
"My phone was on my desk in my office. Shit"

"Oof" Sean mumbled making Diamond give him a look
"Sorry. We'll figure it out, for now let's get you home we have to get ready for tonight because I need several drinks"