“Trust me, you’d be mad if the same man who had shoved his car door into you bumped into you the next day and still somehow faults your eyes for it. It’s pretty obvious he doesn’t even deserve to live amongst humans.”
Justin held back a chuckle the moment he saw my red rimmed eyes turned on him. He raised his hands up in mock surrender.“I’m just saying, mother fate might be at work here. Who knows, he might be your destiny.”
“What!” I screamed, faking a gagging sound as the thought of that rude punk being my destiny. There was no way.
“Mother fate had better be ready for a big surprise because there is absolutely no way in hell I’d ever consider a man like that to be anything but the rude clump of dirt he was.”
“Whoa, calm down, Feisty one,” Justin said, his hand reaching out to me as he pulled me down into a stool.
“I’ve studied humans quite a lot and those who appear to have the worst first impression are the ones who turn out to be the most amazing people, Ashley.”
I scoffed, awarding him a sharp glare. “Look here, Justin Andrews, not everyone is like your beautiful and calm Jenny who made a bad first impression and turned out to be a sweet human.”
I made sure he got this information well. His girlfriend might be the sweetest soul he knows, but that doesn’t make everyone else so. “Some people are just plain bad. It happened twice. On two different occasions, he showed who he was.”
Justin fought back a laugh but soon he let it roll out as his calculated gaze roamed across my face. For some reasons, I couldn’t figure out what was so funny.
“Stop laughing or I’ll gouge your eyes out and Jenny won’t have those annoying eyes to gaze at anymore!” I threatened, my hands squeezing the cup on the table.
“Alright!” Justin made a show to raise his hands once again, calming down his heaving chest. “I mean what is the possibility that you bump into the same person twice on two different occasions?”
“He bumped into me,” I corrected, refusing to believe otherwise anymore. I’m sure his head wasn’t in the right place both yesterday and today.
“Of course he did, I know,” Justin said, nodding his head, a sly grin on his face. It took everything in me not to pull out his blonde hair at that moment. “I’m sure you won’t have to see him again though.”
“I hope not,” I said absentmindedly as I reached for my beeping phone.
I pulled out the phone from the bag to see a text from IM CORP, inviting me for an interview the next day. I smiled. “I got a message from IM. I have an interview with them tomorrow.”
Justin reached out for my phone and read the text with an unmistakable smile on his face. “Looks like we’ll finally be able to pop that champagne tomorrow.”
“You bet!”
I hightailed towards my borrowed room, my mood lifted and mind off the annoying green eyes hunk. Life was definitely going to be smooth sailing from now on.
Chapter 2
Ashley
Life was definitely going to be smooth sailing from now on.I had assured myself of this fact yesterday and it did look like things were turning out beautifully well.
I was up early the next morning and left for IM with Justin, who didn’t understand my need to arrive an hour early for an interview. My interview was for 10:00am and I was already at the company by 9:00am. This was my way of getting familiar with my environment. I call it ‘scouting the battleground before the big war’ and it was a habit I grew into back in college.
I’d always arrive more than thirty minutes early for almost everything. It helps to keep me calm and makes it easier for me to carry out what I intend to do effectively because once I’mfamiliar and comfortable in my surroundings, every other thing becomes relatively easier for me.
So on this day, instead of heading over to the HR department where my interview would take place, I decided to take a tour of the company after checking in with the security. With a cup of coffee in hand, my bag in the other, I paraded the several big buildings compiled into one, admiring the beauty of the place.
It was obvious great care was taken into building this place; it sure looked like the headquarters of a corporation like IM. Every employee that walked by me had an IM gadget in hand, phones, tablet, earphones. I couldn’t blame any of them though; even I prefer IM’s phone to any other one. I can’t even remember the last time I bought a phone that wasn’t a product of IM.
After I decided I’d had my fair share of the place, I started making my way towards the HR department, my eyes glancing towards the silver wristwatch on my hand. I stopped in front of one of the glass walls and checked out my reflection to confirm that everything was perfect.
And it was. Not a hair was out of place. My brunette hair was styled in a tight high ponytail, and I was looking every bit as professional as I wanted to in my dark blue pants and black lacy shirt tucked in smoothly. With one final glance, I turned swiftly only to nearly bump into a person. What was wrong with me?
I quickly looked up to find a tall man whose gaze was fixated on a tablet in his hand as he walked past me, not even sparing me a glance. My eyes followed him, taking note of the expensive suithe had on, the jet-black silky hair that almost reached his nape and the broad shoulders that looked so inviting from where I was. I wondered what could be so engrossing that he’d not even look up when we’d barely survived a collision.
It was in my goodwill to ignore the blind bat, not wanting to spoil my day, but then I couldn’t ignore him if he was walking straight into a pillar. It wouldn’t be nice to see such a sturdy young man get a concussion because I refused to do a good deed.
“Hey!” I ran after him and pulled him back the elbow only to come face to face with that rude jerk from yesterday.