I own nothing - Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer.
I looked around and Princess Fiona is in her office, door shut, talking on the phone animatedly and scrutinizing the picture that's showing on the Facebook wall, again.
"I bet she's gossiping about Sam's new girl with Jessica again" I typed a quick Skype message to Angela.
"Why does she even bother? The girls changes every week."Angela's reply came instantly.
Lauren Mallory, or Princess Fiona as Ang and I secretly nicknamed her because of her 6"2 height was with Sam for a grand total of...three months. Granted, that's probably the longest period of time Sam has ever been seen with any women. Lauren thought she was the one, to "tame my Sam down" and change his partying lifestyle. Apparently not.
"I don't really care what she does outside work as long as she doesn't throw shit at me every time I get ready to leave"I skyped. Ang stood up from her cubicle, pretending to stretch, throwing a sympathy look to me.
Truth be told, I love my job and I'm here because of Lauren. I met her at a bar one day where we were both spotting the same expression on our faces - sulking at having to wait for our friends. We got to chatting and in between my beer and her extra dirty martini, I told her my sappy story of trying to get a proper job other than walking dogs. My business degree is going to go to waste. Three drinks and a whole load of laughters later, our friends arrived and we said goodbye, she passed me her business card and said: "Call me tomorrow, I have the perfect job in mind for you". She winked and left.
I looked at her card and it said "Lauren Mallory, Global Sales, Masen International Hotel Group". She works for Masen Hotels, holy cow! That's the hotels where rumours had it all the whos-who have stayed there but no one has ever spotted them because the hotels are so fucking exclusive! You get lost in there and the paps can never get near the hotel, never.
Lauren offered me a position in her department with a starting pay I cannot believe. For a start, I will be the sales secretary and reporting directly to her. Everything was amazing until I found out about her crazy work habits. For one, she locks herself in the room all day on the pretext of international conference calls but I know all she does is gossip with her friend Jessica Stanley. Until about 30-minutes before the clock strikes 6pm, she comes sweetly to me and say "Hey Bella, how's your day? Look, I really need this report for Mr Masen's office first thing tomorrow morning, so can you put together our last five years figures from Asia and then break it down per country?"
That is why for the last three years, I always end up having to cancel plans with Ang.
"You are not cancelling tonight are you?"Ang typed. I can hear her typing getting faster and louder.
"No, relax. Try not to kill your keyboard. I am going, I needed that drink anyway, been such a long week. Let me finish up this email and we'll go" I heard a sigh of relief coming from the cubicle in front of me.
Sitting in Angela's living room waiting for her to get dressed up, I shut my eyes hoping sleep would find me, even for just ten minutes. I couldn't be bothered to go home and change, besides, there's no one I'm looking to impress. Tonight is all going to be about Ang, she's on Operation Declare-My-Love tonight.
Ben, her brother's friend, has been the subject of Angela's crush for the longest time ever. As an observer, I think Ben likes her too but he's too afraid to do anything to jeopardize his friendship with Eric. I'm so proud of Ang for finally deciding to do something about it, and I know I have to stand by her side and provide her the support she needs. Tonight, we are all heading out to my favourite Mexican bar for some nachos and margaritas. Eric's gotten a promotion at work and we're celebrating with a bunch of friends.
"Wassup Bells? You look terrible!" Jake said as he put the margarita in front of me. Strawberry, my favourite.
"I don't know, every time I go to sleep, my bed shakes so badly its like a scene from The Exorcist. I decided not to sleep ever. Vampire is the way to go." I rolled my eyes.
"No wonder you like red drinks" he mumbled and went to serve the other customers, not before ruffling my hair. Eric and Ben arrived, with some of their friends at work and I noticed immediately how Ben went and sat beside Angela. I congratulated Eric and demanded he buys every one a round of Tequila shots.
5 margaritas and 3 shots later, I was feeling warm and fuzzy and ready to go. I was looking around for Ang and wanting to see if she's ready to go, before she slammed hard into me, hugging me so tight that I couldn't breathe.
"Ang, I'm going to throw up on you if you don't release me" I managed to say.
"Oops! Sorry! It's just that, Bella, you had no idea what just happened! I cannot believe it! You know what Ben just told me? "Heaskedmeoutonadate!"
"Slow down, Ang. I don't understand a single word you said"
She looked at me like I was an idiot, but her eyes were just so full of happiness.
"Ben just asked me out on a date this Sunday" she said, slowly, as though enjoying the words herself.
"That's wonderful Ang! Did that happened after you spoke to him?"
"No, actually, he got to me before I could even say anything. Look Bella, I love to stay around more, but Ben has asked if I want to grab supper before sending me home..."
"Go, don't worry about me, I was just about to look for you and tell you I'm leaving too"
"You sure you're ok? You can join us for supper, we can drop you home later"
I wondered how much Angela meant it but gave her a big hug instead "Just go babe, I'm fine. I want to hear about it tomorrow though"
"Thanks Bella! Love you!"
As I stepped out of the bar, I accidentally bumped into someone.
"Ouch!" I whimpered.
A pair of strong hands grabbed me by my sides, preventing me from falling and a velvety, low voice said: "I'm so sorry, are you ok?"
I looked up to see the which part of "ouch" the guy whom just bumped into me didn't understand. I rubbed my shoulder and...gasped. No wonder it hurt, I just slammed into the well-defined muscles of the most gorgeous man I've seen. He was still holding me, and I smelled Hugo Boss cologne that I so love, his v-neck tee shirt defines his chest and biceps and I gulped. His green eyes pierced into mine, searching for an answer.
"I'm not responsible for that" I said, pointing at the floor. His broken Blackberry in 3 pieces.
He looked confused but followed my finger. He let me go and smirked, while picking up the pieces "No, its all my fault. I shouldn't be walking and texting at the same time. Are you alright?"
He's British. The accent. I.. cannot.. incoherent.
I nodded. He looked at me once more "Sorry again. Have a good evening"and he walked away.
I stood here, watching him leave.
AN: Lauren is based on someone I knew and nicknamed Princess Fiona, not just because of her height but she was fairly big too. I realised it might be a little offensive to tall ladies but that's not my intention at all. It seemed like a harmless name to share when I was writing it.
My very first attempt at fanfic, so its raw and amateur.