Emerging

Chapter 13: Jesse Marlon

        Let me just tell you that hearing the sound of a loud and angry female voice and banging was becoming a part of my morning routine.

Persia, the obnoxious ex, has been waking me up every morning for the last couple of days by banging on the front door of my one-bedroom apartment. She usually did it before the ass crack of dawn, I was beginning to kind of appreciate because it got me up and getting ready for work, and I could see Vincent bright and early.

Since I was expecting her unpleasantness so early in the morning, I didn't bother setting an alarm on my phone. When I woke up to the sound of birds chirping. I knew I was late. Rushing through my ritual, I then sped to the tall glass building in which I worked.

I got upstairs only to see my short-skirted assistant, April, flirt with the receptionist, Brandon, and it didn't make my ticked off mood any better. While making a mental note to fire April, I slid into my office trying to avoid the extremely stressed and annoyed glares Vincent was giving me from across the hall.

Aside from my chaotic morning, I began to settle into the peaceful lull of work. All was well until Vincent had come in looking haggard asking about our investor's presentation. I knew he had basically done the whole damn thing impeccably.

I started a small apology in my head when he asked for the list of the investors I invited, and instead of apologizing, I handed it to him. I watch his dark brown eyes skim across the page when I was supposed to be looking at the list he had given me. Just before I look down at his list I hear a soft gasp from him and he starts breathing noticeably harder. I try my best not to stare at him, and it's a few seconds before I hear his airy voice.

"I can't do the presentation with you."

Putting the list back on my desk with a shaky hand he turns on his heel and tries to scamper out of my office. "Why?" I call out to him when he's halfway to the exit and he stops in his tracks. He doesn't say anything he just stands there with his back facing me. I can tell by how tense his shoulders were that I shouldn't push it and that he needed to relax.

   Getting up from my desk chair, I briskly get up and walk in front of Vincent. He looks scared out his wits with wide eyes and his complexion turning a bright shade of red. "Since you did all the important work today, how about I take you shopping?"  Trying to simultaneously get him to forget his fear, open up to me, and make up for not doing shit today.

     He looks up at me with his eyes full of questions. "All of our work is important and I'm not even close to finished." He states indignantly. With a slight smile, I take his hand and lead him out of my office. On the way to the garage across the street, I explain the importance of playing hooky every once in a while, yet he still continued to protest when we got to my car.

    "What about my car? I drove myself today." He looked proud of that small victory and it was then that I admired the way his face lit up in accomplishment. "I'll just take you back here when we're done." I opened the passenger side of my Tesla for him and he slid in with a huff. Once I was in, we drove off to the Pentagon Mall.
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"You drive like a crazy person! And you didn't even wear a seat belt!" Vincent was still berating my driving skills once we got inside the mall. I found it cute that he was such a stickler for safety and the law, but to shut him up I tried to flirt with him by nonchalantly saying, "Since you're so worried, next time I'll wear my seat belt." He immediately turned red at that and went silent. We walked around for a few minutes, but yet all Vincent had chosen were some ties from a suit shop, I had to step in or he was going to buy ten suits of the same color and say they were all different.

It was when he was examining a white shirt as if his life depended on it, I grabbed the shirt and threw it back into the sea of white shirts just like it. "I have a strong feeling that most of your clothes are for work." And with that, he followed me into stores like Hot Topic and Loft. I noticed that Vincent tended to like sweaters two or three sizes too big for him and skinny jeans. We had been shopping for three hours by the time Vincent insisted that I stop buying him clothes, and he bought lunch.

It took a minute to figure out what we wanted with all the options in the mall. But we decided on sandwiches and we ate in comfortable silence, but I noticed that every now and then Vincent would glance to the right and his gaze lingered like he wanted something. Around his fifth time of gazing to the right, I followed his gaze to a store called, Icing on the Cake.

The store was the kind that sold cute skirts and even cuter blouses. I had finished my sandwich yet Vincent still had about half of his left. I didn't say anything while I got up and went inside the cutely decorated store.

Icing on the Cake doesn't exist at least not in the Pentagon Mall. But I'm excited for this next chapter!