Second Chances

Justin.

                  I wake up with my t-shirt half buttoned up and the sleeves are loose. I have a migraine that feels like my whole brain is going to explode. I look at my phone but it's too blurry for me to look. I take a shower and as the water runs down on me, I remember the look on her face when she saw me. I run my fingers through my hair and close the shower. I head to the dresser and start to choose my outfit. I wear dark blue fit khakis, a light blue dotted white casual shirt, a dark blue cravat, and a dark blue jacket. I wear my watch and head out. "Good morning Roy," I say and step into the backseat of the car. "Good morning, Mister Justin," he says as he closes the door and runs to the driver's door. He starts the car and heads towards the office. When we arrive, I head upstairs. "Good morning everybody," I say to everyone in the office. "Good morning Mister Justin." A couple of them say back. I go to my office. "Good morning Mister Justin." Laura says "Good morning Laura. What do we have today?" I ask. She starts to tell me about our program and that I have 2 meetings this afternoon and one of them I have to meet the client outside. "Okay! Inform Mister Aiden that we could have our meeting over lunch. Can you bring me a cup of coffee, please?" "I'll bring it straight away," she says and heads outside. After a couple of minutes, Laura brings me my coffee and a couple of files for me to look at and give approval on them.I tell her to call Roy and make him head home. After looking at them and signing most of them, I open my laptop to check on my email. "Hey! Are you coming? Mister Carter, the owner of the perfume company, is here and he is waiting for us in the meeting room." Maria knocks on the door and says. Wow! Is it afternoon already?! I say to myself. "Yeah, yeah," I tell her, taking my phone and my jacket and heading to the room. After a couple of hours later, the meeting was finished. There was an hour until lunch and my meeting with Mister Aiden, so I head to my room. I take off my jacket, roll up my sleeves and start to think of ideas for the perfume advertisement. I hear a knock on the door. "Yeah?" I say to Laura holding three laptop boxes. "A guy delivered those here and said that we ordered them." She tells me. "I didn't order anything. Let me see if Michael or Maria ordered them,"

                 I ask both Michael and Maria but they both said that they didn't order them either. "Maybe  the new people upstairs ordered them." Maria assumes. "I'll take them!" Michael says quickly. "No, no... I could take them." I say to him "Don't you have a meeting with Mister Aiden?" Michael asks. "Yeah but that it's still an hour away. I'll take them and I wanted to see those people anyway and welcome them to our building." I head towards the door "You could welcome them later." Michael says, running in front of me. "Just let me pass! Is there anything upstairs, I shouldn't see?" I ask, weirded out by Michael's attitude. "Well,..." he pauses. "Nothing." He makes way for me. I roll my eyes and sigh heavily. I go upstairs and see the logo of the company. The Lost City. "Good afternoon. Where is the office of the manager?" I ask the receptionist. She tells me the directions. As I head towards the office, I look at the details of the company. The pictures on the wall, the color of the desks, and the vibe. I've never felt that in my office. It has a lot of positive vibe. I knock at the door of the office. "Come in Mark," the manager says, sitting on the chair and her back is to me. I could see that she is holding a cup of tea. I recognize that sound. Could it truly be her?! "Um-Uh... Those were delivered to us." She spins the chair. Rachel. I mouth but even she won't know what I said. Both of us are standing still, all we could do is look at each other. The cup of tea was dropped from her hand. "Are you okay?" I say running to her, putting the laptops on the desk, and picking the pieces of  the cup up. She picks up with me and as we are collecting them, our hands touch. We look at each other but then she says, "Ouch!" she withdraws her hand. "Let me see!" I say touching her hand. "It's okay! Thank you for bringing the laptops," she says and leaves the room as quickly as she can. I look back at her and smirk. She is still as she was.

                 I go downstairs, take my car keys and my jacket, and head to my meeting with Mister Aiden. I arrive at the restaurant and while I'm waiting for him, I order a cup of coffee. "Mister Justin?" a man calls my name. I stand up and turn, "Mister Aiden? Hi." We shake and gesture for him to sit down. "I'm sorry for being late. There was traffic." He apologizes. "No, it's okay. There is always traffic." I chuckle and he chuckles back. "We could order and talk work during eating," he says and I agree. We order and while waiting for the food, we talk a little about the city and other countries we both had been to. We talk about work while eating and by the time we finish, it was almost dark. "Okay. So we are on the same page. Tomorrow I will make my assistant send you an email with all the details and we could work out a due date for the plan to be viewed to us." I nod and smile. He leaves and I order the check and head to the office. I wanted to check some stuff before going home. As I finish my work, I head to the elevator and wait for it to arrive. She is in there. I get in there and see that she doesn't look at me for a second. I press the G floor and stand by her side leaning on the side of the elevator. We arrive at the ground floor and as I was about to leave, she moves quickly in front of me; her hair getting into my face and I close my eyes at how good it smells. Her smell never changed. I smile and get into my car. As I arrive at home, I turn my music player on and Time by Mikky Ekko plays. I take a shower and change into a white oversized t-shirt and workout pants. I wear some necklaces and braceletes and a dark blue jacket with black sneakers and wear a blue leg bracelet. I run my hands through my hair and go to the dresser to take something from there and then head to the pantry to make me a glass of bourbon. I turn up the volume of the song and go to the porch. I stand by the pool and smile. I sit, crossing my legs to my chest and hold her cardigan in my hand. I smell it and lay down. Holding it right beside me, I close my eyes and sleep with the last thing on my mind is her and her amazing, unforgettable smell.