Take Two

3. Hailey

We often tend to immerse ourselves so badly into our jobs, that we never take out the time to sit and ponder over the purpose of our lives. I do not intend to be philosophical; you don't need to have elaborate goals in life. It can be something as simple as wanting to be happy, waking up to the laughter of your kids or things like that, but have we ever sat down to ponder over that? Have we ever gone astray from our daily routine to mull over that purpose, that ultimate happiness we want to achieve and are working our asses off for?

Have you ever done that?

What is your purpose?

If you fall short of an answer, trust me, start thinking it over. You never know when your wretched life will give you a deadline with a burst of evil laughter. I can almost picture a bushy-browed woman called 'Life', laughing maniacally at my predicament. Why a woman, you ask. Because life is a bitch, and a bitch is a female.

I was stomping through the narrow hallways of the corporate office of Bigfoot Consulting. I passed through one of the boardrooms, where a team was in a full-on brainstorming session. I rolled my eyes. I used to be one of them until a day back. But once I learned about my expiration date, all this obsession with work and money started appearing hilarious to me.

My eyes met with the man leading the discussion in the room, his hair dishevelled, probably due to the long night the team had. He had dark black eyes, his white dress shirt complementing the colour. The top two buttons were open, and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was probably one of the most - if not the only - handsome Partners in the firm.

His eyes twinkled with delight when he caught me staring at him, and his lips curled up into a smirk. He winked at me through the glass walls of the board room, and I felt my cheeks flush up. I turned away and increased my pace in a hurry to get back to my room.

"Hailey...." I heard his throaty voice behind me, and I cursed under my breath. He was the last person I wanted to spend the few remaining precious minutes of my life with.

I turned around with a scowl on my face. I usually tend to smile at people, even if I want to watch them burn. It was a normal thing to learn in a client-facing business, but I just couldn't pretend to do that for this man. My lips never seemed to curl up into a smile at his sight.

"Some action you pulled up at Milford's. I wish I were there to witness it! Damn Hailey, I'll miss you so much once I become CEO."

Christian Wright, this arrogant bastard, was the Head of the Technology Practice at Bigfoot and the other potential candidate for the post of the CEO, the first one being me.

"I doubt you'd make it there, Christian. I have heard that your team has been pulling all-nighters for the last week. Probably everyone hates you by now." I huffed.

"Oh, but you don't, do you, Mrs Hailey Johnson-Wright?" I swear I could hear the grin in his voice. "What did you say about me..? I think you called me smart and handsome, with good manners.."

Yes. This arrogant bastard was also my ex-husband. I bit my bottom lip in embarrassment and gave myself a mental kick.

Julia, damn you!

"I think you missed the word 'asshole'," I bit out.

How in the world did I ever fall in love with this asshole?

His mouth curved up to show his signature lopsided grin, and yes, I remember now, it was precisely that attitude of his that I fell hard for.

"Well, I would consider that a compliment as well, coming out of your pretty mouth as it is, Mrs Hailey Johnson-Wright," he spoke as he placed his index finger on my lips and I think I blushed at that moment. I wasn't sure even after all those years, how he could still manage to incite that kind of reaction out of me.