This Heart of Mine

Ch. 1: The Cliched Beginning

The client raged upon her incessantly; the decibels increased every second.

Naina watched carefully. She'd heard this argument for four years. It's my wedding, and I'm the boss. I want this done perfectly, blah blah blah. The stares of her coworkers and their clients burned into her back.

"I understand that, ma'am—"

"No, get me someone that speaks English. It's obvious you can't, and I can't believe that I didn't get Gigi," the woman huffed, crossing her stick-thin arms like a pouting child would. "I got stuck with someone so stupid. What do you mean I can't change the venue? It's not like the wedding's tomorrow, it's next week!"

The woman's mom gaped at her in shock, as though aghast by her daughter's behavior. With a furrowed brow, she stifled a gasp; color tinged her cheeks.

Gigi, her boss, allowed one reason to cancel a contract with no frills: if they insulted her workers. Grant it, to cancel a contract was irresistible when each consultant landed a crazy bride every week. The insult had to be the worst that they'd heard.

Naina smiled sweetly and pulled up documents on her computer. "Of course, ma'am. If you can, please read the following document and sign it." 

She printed them and handed them to the bride.

Despite her telling the woman to read it, the bride did like all the previous ones had: she didn't read it and signed it, while asking, "What's this about?"

"It's a document stating all our procedures when canceling a contract. Because you chose to cancel it a week before, you'll be able to get some, not all of your money back—"

Naina couldn't speak anymore, because the woman let out an earth shattering, mind boggling shriek.

Her face mottled red as her voice reached an octave unknown to humankind. "What do you mean canceled? I never dealt with this kind of shit before, how dare you do this to me! This is my special day. I've paid so much for this, you psycho bitch, stop smiling."

Naina struggled to keep her smile in place; the yelling battered her brain left and right like a punching bag being throttled. People hovered around the outside of her office, eagerly peering at the unfolding scene. The rookies gaped in horror, while veterans, like herself, sniggered behind a calm mask.

The mother of the bride started when her daughter turned to her, still shrieking like a banshee.

"Mom, do something! She can't do this to me."

Her mom stared at her long and hard and took a deep breath. "Honestly honey, if it were me, I would've have thrown you out from the minute you walked into my office. I don't know how this lady handled it."

She stood up, and Naina followed, while the bride sobbed like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Pulling her up, the mom said to Naina, "Thank you for everything. I'm sorry this fell through. If you can, please refund any money to the bank account that the checks were issued from."

To her daughter she said, "You're going to explain to Daniel what happened today. Maybe he knows someone that can fix this."

As Naina walked out of her office, the deafening silence burst into a hive of activity, with her colleagues attempting to look busy but failing at it.

Spinning on her heel, she headed towards Gigi's office when something large struck the back of her head.

The woman had smacked Naina with her ginormous purse, sending her into the floor. The wall she collided off of knocked out her breath, leaving her wheezing and disoriented on the cold tile.