by Anna Collins
"Look how handsome he is! I have never seen a better-looking man in a suit" I heard some whispers behind my back and my lips curled into a proud smirk.
"Mr.Hudson, how did you like our office environment?" Gary asked wearing his fake, I-am-here-to impress smile.
"It's small but I can see that they are disciplined and hardworking" I stated.
"And thanks to you and bigger authorities for not spreading the news about me buying this company. You know I had some issues with the tax agencies and the secrecy has helped me a lot. But now the time has come to announce my take over. I am going to rename it with my surname" I added, putting my hands back in my black trouser.
"I think that will be a good thing, marking it as your own" Gary smiled.
"I don't care what you think, it was an announcement" I shrugged, making my way away from him to the other side of the office.
"very well sir, very well," Gary said at my back.
Man! He was beginning to irritate me.
There were cream-colored pillars all over the big working area of the staff, followed by the personal office rooms of the head engineers and management teams, they were vert anxious to catch a glimpse of me.
After discussing my new business plan with them, I began to make my way towards the exit, that's when I noticed someone hiding behind a pillar. That seemed pretty odd; where as the rest of the staff weren’tgetting enough of me and she was hiding from me. Yes, I could tell that she was a girl because a part of her back was visible to me and I noticed a french braid. Her really long hair reminded me of Freya. Damn you Robert! How could she be here? I scolded myself, but decided to take a look anyways, just to clear my doubt.
"Ya, it has been good so far. All the staff had lined up to see the new owner and I took the chance to escape and make this call. This is boring man! ok, love you too" I heard her speak. The voice, it seemed too familiar. No! It could be Freya, No.
On leaning over my doubt got cleared it was Freya Lawrence, whose presence made me do strange things which I regretted later. Ahh! Double crap.
She didn’t notice me as she was too busy in laughing and talking. Obviously, she won't notice me, it was her boyfriend on the line. The thought of her being intimate with someone else and hear her laugh at his jokes made my blood boil. And the next moment I found myself snatching away the phone from her and throwing it away on the ground. The force of my throw was so strong that the phone broke into pieces right in front of me.
Chapter 17
Freya
"This is an office, you come here to work, not to flirt with your boyfriend" Robert Hudson snapped angrily and walked away. He was just like a storm in my life who came to destroy everything that I loved. And now it was the turn of my favorite iPhone 6. I only knew what I had to go through to save money for this expensive piece of phone. I have been longing for that particular phone for so long, and I didn’teven get to spend a month with my beloved handset, all thanks to the monster in my life.
Tears had formed in my eyes as I kept looking at the broken dead body of my phone. He killed it! God make sure to burn that dickhead in hell.
"Poor Freya, this will be a history, no one has never been fired on the very 1st day of their job. You are a trendsetter" Gary clapped, his irritating mocking voice only added fuel to my anger.
"Fire! Who fired me?" I turned to him, my voice quivering with fear.
"Ah! Darling, it's not official yet, but you will soon get the termination letter because the handsome guy who broke your phone is our new owner. All the best" he patted on my shoulder and giggled then he left.
Arghhh! Again! Is this guy some kind of a job snatcher? Because he kept snatching away every source of income from my life. Kate was so right. He was a bad omen who had covered me in his dark shadows. But I would not let him do that further, I said to myself and ran to the elevator. He might not have gone further, I said.
Till the time I reached the parking lot, I was panting, following someone was really difficult. I wondered how could they do so easily in the movies. Freya forget about movies, concentrate on your real life villain, I advised myself.
"Hey you, stop" I yelled at his back. He stopped and turned to me, giving me the chance to reach him.
"What?" he spoke in an uninterested tone, never meeting my eyes.
"Have you sworn to destroy my life? 1st you ruin my chances of becoming a reporter, ate away my job and now you killed my phone and are planning to snatch away my new job from me? And for that, you even bought the company? How long is your revenge game going to last?" I spoke without a pause and he stared at me with an amazed and shocked expression on his face.
He leaned close to my face and looked at me in a way as if he was examining me. I swallowed, moving away.
"What..are you up..to?" I asked nervously. Eh, where was my bold and demanding voice that I used just now?
He laughed, bringing his finger near his lips "I am trying to see if the loose screw of your brain has completely fallen out or not".
"What do you mean, I am mad?" my eyes went bigger.
"Then how can you think that I bought out an entire Webstore, spending thousands of dollars only to seek revenge on you? Who are you to me? You don't even exist for me!" He snapped rudely.
"Only a terrible person like you can go to any extent to hurt someone. But you know what, I don't care. You want to fire me, fire me right away. I am sure I will be able to withstand this storm as well because I am a fighter and I don't get my kicks by giving pain to others" my voice sounded heavy because I was on the verge of crying but I controlled it somehow.
The mean expression on Robert's face vanished, maybe he could see my pain through my eyes but I knew that someone like him would never reach out to ease anyone's pain. Bloody monster. He was silent.
And I turned away, forcing myself not to break down in front of such a horrible person. I knew he would think that my tears were a sign of my weakness and would mock my softness.
~
"Don't be ridiculous, he can't fire you like that" Danny exclaimed.
"Dude, he is Robert Hudson he can do anything" Rick added.
I flopped my face on the yellow pillow. We were in Danny's living room. He brought me and Rick to his place and was trying his best to inject some positivity in me. Considering the fact that he was a bachelor his small one bed room apartment was nice and clean. I liked his brown couch and cream colored wall. I wanted an apartment of my own. I frowned thinking about my failures.
"Can't you try and be a bit positive, Rick" Danny scolded him and handed me a bottle of soft drink, but I refused to take it, I was too busy being sad.
"I can be but Robert Hudson can't be less cruel" Rick blurted out.
"Well, he can be because now he has changed. He is totally mooning over Freya" Danny winked, picking up my face from the pillow.
Both I and Rick looked at Danny with disbelief and then Rick laughed out loud "yes, and Queen Elizabeth is going to gift me the keys of Buckingham Palace" Rick teased.
"Danny are you nuts? He broke my damn phone and you are saying that he is mooning over me?" I barked.
"Sis, he is blind. He thinks that hatred is a form of love" Rick exclaimed, making a you-are-so-dumb face at Danny.
"Will you two shut up? I can totally prove my point. Freya, when you were smiling and giggling while talking over the phone. He was jealous, jealous of the guy who can make you this happy and the rest is history" Danny said seriously explaining each of his words with hand gestures.
"But I was talking to Kate and he told me that I don't even exist for him" I cut him off.
"Ya,because he, himself doesn’tknow what you are to him. He is a very complex character but he is very passionate about you and I could see that in his eyes when he was kissing you. And that's what made my jaw fell open" said Danny.
Danny's words took me into a deep thought. And the images of Robert's hypnotic blue eyes appeared in front of my eyes. Those eyes were holding so much of secret which I was d
ying to uncover.
"Nonsense! Robert Hudson is a murderer he can't feel anything for anyone. Sis, you can't forget what he did to your life" Rick reached in front of me,fighting Danny.
"Trust me, Rick, I can never forget what he did to me. He broke my dreams, my precious dreams and nothing in the world can compensate for that" I clutched on the pillow and my eyes were rigid with sadness and anger.
"Guys lets change the topic. Emily invited us to her private party, you guys wanna come?" Danny asked.
" ‘Us’ means? She doesn’teven know me! And she hates sis for obvious reasons. And how did you get so close to Emily?" Rick raised an eyebrow.
I shook my head "Rick, they played shot and score- the home edition".
Rick winked at Danny "way to go man!"
O-M-G! Danny was blushing. I had never seen him like that before. "She had seen you at the pub and she doesn't hate Freya. Emily is a nice girl, she understood that Robert and Freya might have a thing, that's why Robert was never interested in her. As you guys are my friends she wants to know you better." Danny explained, encircling his arms over Rick's shoulder.
"Ahaan, then she must really like you" Rick ticked Danny.
"Ya sort of, who can resist me?" Danny laughed.
"Good for her. No one deserves to be with a mean person like Robert Hudson" I blurted out in disgust.
"Okay my erupting volcano, now calm down and get ready for the party, it's going to be a cool one," Danny said with excitement.
"Tell Emily I said thanks for inviting me, but not feeling like partying now" I sighed.
"Come Nah! Please! Otherwise, I will forcefully carry you. These muscles are not for show" Danny warned flaunting his fluffy arms.
I smiled sadly.
Tiny white lights were twinkling all over the green grasses at Emily's backyard pool side. Their reflections made the water look like it was made of glitters. It looked beautiful, but the people surrounding it snatched away the pureness of nature.
I hated myself for making another emotional decision. I was feeling completely out of place by being surrounded by a bunch of rich, spoiled and half naked young people. On top of that, it was a pool party which gave them an open license to wear the skimpiest clothes possible. I had seen fewer pool parties taking place at night. But not to forget the fact that rich people could do anything that they wanted. Money talked like nothing else. Though Emily was being nice and sweet to me, she even hugged me and complimented my red knee length cotton dress and my side bun hair style. She told me I looked decent. I also told her that she was looking beautiful. Emily blushed and asked me if Danny would like her attire. Well, she was wearing a triangle bikini with glitter flowers shimmering on it. Her attire left little to the imagination, so there could be hardly any guy who would be able to turn their faces from that. "Yes, Danny is a guy after all" this was my reply. She smiled wildly and hugged me again. Fakeness!
Robert
For the first time in my life, I was letting my heart control my mind. And there I was struck in a so called high profile party. Did I do the correct thing by coming here? The loud music jamming my head made me raise this question to myself over and over again. I was here for a purpose. I was here to make it up to someone for my abrupt and unfair reaction.
I felt hopeless for making such a move, but a part of me indicated that I had made the correct decision and that somehow brought me a bit of relief.
"Hey Robert, thanks for coming. Wow, you look gorgeous in this navy blue shirt. But why do you always wear dark colors?" Emily scratched her forehead.
"Because I like darkness" I replied coldly.
"Good. I am glad that we can be cool after whatever happened to us" she said nervously.
Nothing ever happened between us, what was she referring?
"I know that you don't like me and I have decided to move on but don't worry this will not affect our business deal, I am ready to sell you my 30% shares whenever dad agrees to sell his too and I will keep poking him about it" Emily smiled.
It was a bit uncomfortable, but thank God! She understood my situation and I was glad that she chose to move on. She would be happier with someone else. I couldn’t give anything to anyone except for darkness and pain.
~
Maybe she didn’tcome, maybe I was just acting foolish I said to myself, making my way to the garden area which would lead me to the exit. Fewer people were here as the party had just started. I kept looking backward only to get a sight of her while my mind tried to aware me how stupid I was acting. This seemed nothing like Robert Hudson.
Then I felt someone standing behind me before I could turn around to see who that person was, a rushed but gentle yet familiar feminine voice whispered "please don't move, let me hide behind your back" she held my arm.
Normally I would have just walked away. But there was something in her voice that stopped me from moving.
"Is hiding behind good looking gentlemen, your favorite hobby?" I teased.
"Oh please, instead of a monster like you I would have preferred hiding behind a smelly dumpster" she stomped.
Insulting tone, monster? Oh damn, she was Freya!
"Freya? Why are you hiding?" I asked and tried to turn to her but she stopped me.
"Don't turn, otherwise, the drunk guy will see me. I hate to say this, but you seemed a better choice than him" she said. I could hear the frown in her voice.
"Drunk guy? Did he do anything to you? Are you all right?" I asked.
"No need to show your fake concern, I am fine. He was flirting with me, I took out your anger on him and punched right on his face. As a result, he went furious and tried to touch me; I ran away and maybe he is following me" she explained in a voice filled with panic.
Ignoring her protests I turned back, feeling the urgent need to see her.
I was mesmerized by her simplicity, she was wearing red, the color of pain, but her presence only brought relief to my eyes.
"As expected, the monster never listens to anyone," she squinted her eyes.
I smiled, shaking my head and took a look at her to check for any bruises, thankfully there wasn't any.
"Leave my hand. This place is filled with weirdoes" she jerked away, making a cute expression of irritation.
Man! Was I acting weird?
Shaking my head "Don't worry, you are with me. That guy will not come near us" I tried to reassure her, thinking that she might be scared.
She smirked "yes yes you are the king of this world and no one will dare to upset his majesty" making a mocking face at me.
"Oh God, there he is!" she screamed, pointing towards a short guy in hipster attire. His highlighted hair and ragged clothes were giving me the creeps.
Freya tried to run away but I stopped her by pulling her close to me. I encircled my right arm around her shoulder, protectively, gesturing her that she had no reason to be afraid. She was struggling but when I looked at her, she stopped at stared at me for a while. I loved how her spontaneous baby brown eyes got fixed at me. Having her trapped in the cage of my arms brought me an undefined sense of peace. I dig my nails into her soft skin, she gasped and that made her look even hotter. She was wearing red lipsticks, which was alluring me to her plump lips.
"There you are, I have been looking for you for so long," said the creepy guy.
"Why? You want another punch?" she yelled at him, crooking her forehead.
"Calm down," I asked Freya.
"And hey you, if you want that head on your shoulder then stay away from her. She might be beautiful, but she is not yours" I warned the guy, glaring at him with my fiery eyes.
My single look made him shake like a leaf did during the time of a heavy storm, and he went away running.
Freya wiggled away from my embrace "there was no need to throw your greatness at me, I could have easily tackled him" she stomped.
"I saw how you tackled him" I smirked playfully.
Again she was squinting her eyes at me, did she had any idea how cute she loo
ked when she was angry and her nose was turning red too.
"Listen Freya, I am not here to fight with you, wait for a second," I said calmly and took out a paper box from my pocket.
"Here, this is for you" I smiled.
Freya's eyes were raised to her forehead and she kept blinking as if she was trying to make sure if it was a dream or not. When she didn’tmove, I took her hand and made her hold the box.
She looked at it "It's a new phone".
"Yes, because I ‘killed' your old one. It's the latest model of iPhone, it is not available in the market yet and you are welcome" I winked.
