Title: Nasal Spray
Author: LoveeDucky
Given Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Same as before
~ ~ ~ Chapter 11: Trouble
Mina slowly entered the office that belonged to her cousin, peering from behind the door. Her steps were cautious and quiet, all maneuvers that were totally uncharacteristic to her normally cheery and intrusive manner.
Jaden had been reading the newest issue of Us Weekly, the only secret indulgence he would never allow anyone to know of, with his feet propped up casually on his desk and a soft tune being hummed from his lips. He felt brighter this morning-brighter than he had felt in at least a year.
"Hmmm.looks like Britney and Justin are back to feuding," he muttered to himself.
When he saw Mina's blonde head emerging from behind his office door, a beaming smile grew on his face. He couldn't wait to tell her everything that had happened the night before. Well, he could wait, in fact- his face reddened when he realized that he had to hide his magazine from sight as soon as possible.
He threw the magazine in the wastebasket near his rolling chair and stood up quickly, brushing his Armani suit down a bit before presenting his cousin with a confident, if not arrogant, grin.
Mina finally found herself standing face to face with Jaden, her form no longer hidden behind the door. She was frightened in many ways at this moment- her usually chipper mood had been cut short with a new revelation that could possibly leave her favorite cousin a mess.
'Oh geez...he's smiling, too!' she thought to herself regretfully as she looked at him.
She was about to open her mouth to speak when Jaden's eyes abruptly sparkled with a mischievous twinkle. She'd seen this threat of misbehavior before in him, but this twinkle was somewhat different. Her curiosity got the best of her.
"Ok, Jaden. What is it?" she asked suspiciously, folding her arms across her chest. She hoped that he had not discovered _it_ before she had and had convinced himself that he had a chance. He'd have to be dumb and naive to do that-but then again...
"Mina.....you'll think I'm stupid for saying this, but-"
"Oh, oh no! You are not going to get yourself into this mess again, Jaden. Do you hear me? Don't fall into it!"
Mina flew across the room, agitated at the idiotic senses her cousin had suddenly found. Her poor mind didn't tell her that she might have been jumping to conclusions.
"What's got you so huffy?" Jaden said with a snort. "Did Rei tell you?"
The blue eyes of the female Parker blinked with certain puzzlement. Her head bobbed to the side. She wasn't completely registering what the buffoon was saying, but if he was saying what she thought he was saying...
"JAAAAADDDEN! YOU FINALLY GOT WITH REI?????!!!!" she screamed in excitement, squealing and jumping up and down on the padded floor.
Jaden attempted to silence her by waving his hands down in signal, but the girl persisted. On the other side of the door, though, the ravishing brunette known as Rei Hino was busy eavesdropping on the pair. He watched as she and her chair tilted backwards, her mouth slightly open in concentration so she wouldn't fall.
THUD!
The chair and the beautiful girl went down to the floor, as evident by the slender legs (of both the chair and the girl) that soared up into the air a moment before the thunderous sound exploded through the building.
Jaden burst into laughter, his attention far from his excited cousin and the skeptical look she was giving him.
"You have completely forgotten that I'm even in here, huh?" Mina asked in a convicting tone.
He waited to get his laughter under control before he answered her. His face was reddened from the energy he had put into his amused reaction, and his eyes were clear and vulnerable.
Mina had really been excited when she had thought that her cousin and his secretary had decided to date. Her eyes brightened with envy, however, when she realized what was _really_ happening.
"Jaden..." her voice drawled with a playful taunting. "You're in love with Rei, aren't you?"
His ears had only picked up the word 'love' as he had been watching the beautiful raven-haired girl's recovery outside his office. He turned to Mina wearing a smile that was big and genuine, and Mina smiled at the fact that she was right.
"Did she say she was in love with me?" he said eagerly, his eyes searching hers for the answer.
"You're in love with her! Oh my gosh-this is so exciting! Have you told her? You idiot- you need to tell her! This means that I'll have a...a...well, another cousin!"
Mina was jumping about the room as Jaden absorbed all that she was saying. He-Jaden Parker, the man who had become a god-like figure at the B & B-in love with his secretary? It couldn't be love. It was only hours before that he had decided that he was not going to ruin her life by making decisions for her. He wanted to be with her, caress her like he had the night before-but he couldn't, and it wasn't love.
Or so his mind conveyed to him, though his heart pounded at the thought.
He moved back to his chair and his desk and sat down, still in apparent deep thought. Mina continued jumping up and down like a giddy schoolgirl, until she remembered the real purpose behind her solemn entrance into her cousin's office.
"Jaden," she began, perfectly intent on telling him what was bothering her so much.
She looked at him, with the passion storming in the deep blue orbs of his eyes, and she couldn't bear to let him down. She'd just have to look after him more carefully-that was, if Rei didn't keep his attention all the time.
Mina smiled to herself. The nasal spray lobbyist and the arrogant blond tyrant had managed to overcome their differences and succumb to the desires they had subconsciously denied. It was a match made in heaven. Much better than-
Her eyes caught another figure behind the door of Jaden Parker's office. This one was thin, blonde, and had two meatball-shaped items in her hair. It took everything in Mina to stop the urge to ram through the door and beat the other figure to a pulp.
She took one last look at Jaden. He was mindlessly staring at the ceiling, his feet once again propped up against his desk as he bobbed his chair back and forth. He certainly did not need to be disturbed.
With her hands balled into fists, Mina Parker made her way out of the office.
"I'm sorry, miss?" Mina heard Rei's voice call down the hall. "Did you say that you needed to talk with Mr. Parker?"
~ ~ ~
Rei continued on her venture for the young girl with the funny hairstyle. She bit down on her lower lip in frustration as she called out to her again.
"Miss? You need to speak with Mr. Parker?"
Finally, the young blonde girl with the strange hairstyle emerged from behind another door. She looked timid, Rei observed, and she was presently biting on her index fingernail as she approached her.
But she was very beautiful as well. Her eyes were a lovely shade of blue, and her skin was even and light. She could have been an angel or some other celestial being, Rei guessed. And then she remembered...
"The girl from the park..." she spoke to herself as the image recalled itself from her memory.
The girl continued walking towards her, until she saw something behind Rei that startled her.
"Diana!" a familiar female voice called. "What in Venus's name are you doing here?"
Rei's eyes widened with disbelief. It couldn't be- could it? Jaden's former love-the heartbreak of his life-was standing before her in the flesh, and she just happened to look like a goddess from the moon? Rei's heart struggled with feelings of sadness and jealousy. Had the girl come back for Jaden?
Rei's mind once again recounted the image of the girl at the park. At that time, she hadn't been alone. In fact, she looked very content with the handsome man she had been with. She wasn't intending on winning Jaden back...she was going to break the news to him that she was around and somebody else's.
"Mina," she turned to her blonde friend, her countenance fighting the sadness that threatened to show itself.
"Yeah?" Mina replied calmly, folding her arms across her chest as she glared at Diana.
"I'm going to let you handle this. I'll get Jaden out of the office, if you'd like me to."
Mina raised an eyebrow at the idea, her stare not breaking from the meatball-haired girl before her, and nodded silently. Rei nodded in acknowledgement and took one last look at the other girl. Her lips pursed together as she took a few steps forward, and she was on her way to get her man.
But was he really her man?
~ ~ ~
He had been frantically pacing about his room nervously, something that he wasn't really accustomed to. After Mina had barged in unexpectedly and they had had their little talk, he had a part of his life to look forward to. And although the little voice in his head insisted that he was an idiot for even letting his life advance so rapidly, he knew that he was right where he needed to be.
He had spent a year in a premature dating mode which had resulted in a "playboy" like reputation for himself. In the entirety of that year he had forgotten sincerity, honesty, chivalry- everything that a good man should uphold regarding the opposite sex. But one week with the strangely clumsy, headstrong Rei and the true romance he had in his heart began to display itself.
To think that she could be in love with him, so quickly even, made his heart beat faster than he had ever thought possible. He almost scolded himself for feeling so anxious and emotional. He could, at the moment, compare himself to his female cousin and her giddy cries of triumph when she would get a date with some guy from the office because he felt like shouting of victory as well. Actually, that didn't sound like too bad of an idea-
"Jaden?" a surprisingly chipper voice called to him from behind his office door.
He lowered his arms to his sides, which had been ready to pound at his chest in a very Tarzanian fashion, and looked towards the door.
Two high-heeled feet stepped out into the office, and when Jaden's eyes finally caught the sight of Rei's face, her smile had brightened significantly. He had never really seen her smile the way she was at this moment- relaxed and carefree. She approached him steadily, her violet eyes reflecting a glimmer of something that he had seen from himself from his mirror this morning.
She stopped only a foot away from him. Her standard yellow-paged notebook was loosely held to her chest, one of her pens placed above her right ear. She was in full secretarial mode, although she would look best dressed as a princess.
"Hi," she spoke softly, her gaze locked on Jaden's.
"Hi," he returned with a smug smile. A little nervous, he raised his hand to push some loose strands of hair from his face.
They stood in silence, both still staring at each other, and made small gestures that indicated anxiety. Rei suddenly giggled, stopping herself as her face turned red from slight embarrassment.
Jaden returned her laugh and his hand made its way to Rei's face, pulling the pen from her ear and adjusting her hair the way he liked it.
"Look at us," Rei said with a smile. "We're both acting like junior high kids. Except, what happened last night was not in the slightest bit-"
"Juvenile? You got that right," Jaden replied, closing the distance between them.
"I just came to get you out of the office," Rei sputtered, knowing full well that her small outburst was induced by his hand tickling her collar bone.
"What for?" he asked seductively, his lips making their way to her left earlobe.
She had to push him away from herself, worried about the attention they'd get from other employees. As far as she was concerned, their office romance could be commenced anywhere but the office. She didn't want to be discussed in the lounge room as Jaden Parker's newest conquest or a conversation piece around the muffin bin.
"Let's just go. It's about lunchtime now anyway."
Jaden looked at her questionably, folding his arms across his chest.
"Besides," she added in a different tone of voice, "wouldn't you like to do this somewhere more romantic than this stuffy old building?"
He looked to the ceiling in mock thought, placing a finger to his chin to exaggerate the situation. Rei swatted at his arm and let her hand travel down his arm until she found his hand. His smile intensified, and he allowed her to lead him out of the room.
He pulled back when the two came to Rei's desk. He observed the brown package and instantly became curious.
"What's this?"
Rei shrugged her shoulders in reply and her ears picked up the faint sound of two female voices from another hallway. She immediately recognized one of them to be Mina's, and her mind went into a quick panic. She had to get Jaden out of the building, and fast.
Grabbing the package and placing it under her available arm, Rei practically had to run down the opposite way with Jaden to avoid the meeting between him and Diana. She really didn't want a confrontation between those two because it would only mean one thing- she would be put on the back-burner. She had never had that happen before, and she didn't want it to happen now.
Meanwhile, as Rei and Jaden had escaped to the other elevator, Mina and Diana had made their way to Jaden's office.
"Look Diana," Mina said firmly, "I don't want you coming anywhere near my cousin. He's come a long way since you left his life a big fat mess, and I don't want him to go into a relapse. Besides, he's got Rei now, and I don't want him to forget her because your scrawny ass decided to make an encore appearance."
Diana shook her head in protest. She was hurt by Mina's portrayal of her, which was a gross exaggeration from Jaden's point of view, probably.
"Mina, I'm not here to 'reappear' in Jaden's life or anything. I'm simply here to share a piece of information with him that I think he would want to be informed of."
"And what would that be, Diana?" Mina answered skeptically.
"I'm engaged."
~ ~ ~
Author's Note (9-07-03):
Sorry for the delay, everyone! Now, I realize that today is the day after Nasal Spray's official one-year marking, and I apologize. I wanted to have this posted yesterday, but some things delayed it.
Ok, this chapter has really been bugging me. The last part of it I just had to write quickly because if I didn't pen it now, I wouldn't finish it any other time soon. And just so you know, this story took a complete turn in a direction that I wasn't aware it was going to go, so I apologize for any inconsistencies that may present itself either in this chapter, previous chapters, or future chapters.
I'm going on and on at about 10:20 this evening when I still have 15 vocabulary words to look up and half of Beowulf to read, so I'll get to it. Enjoy the chapter, and please, don't forget to
REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW.
Are you loving it right now? Hating it? I wanna know. Now hop to it, and goodnight.
Author: LoveeDucky
Given Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Same as before
~ ~ ~ Chapter 11: Trouble
Mina slowly entered the office that belonged to her cousin, peering from behind the door. Her steps were cautious and quiet, all maneuvers that were totally uncharacteristic to her normally cheery and intrusive manner.
Jaden had been reading the newest issue of Us Weekly, the only secret indulgence he would never allow anyone to know of, with his feet propped up casually on his desk and a soft tune being hummed from his lips. He felt brighter this morning-brighter than he had felt in at least a year.
"Hmmm.looks like Britney and Justin are back to feuding," he muttered to himself.
When he saw Mina's blonde head emerging from behind his office door, a beaming smile grew on his face. He couldn't wait to tell her everything that had happened the night before. Well, he could wait, in fact- his face reddened when he realized that he had to hide his magazine from sight as soon as possible.
He threw the magazine in the wastebasket near his rolling chair and stood up quickly, brushing his Armani suit down a bit before presenting his cousin with a confident, if not arrogant, grin.
Mina finally found herself standing face to face with Jaden, her form no longer hidden behind the door. She was frightened in many ways at this moment- her usually chipper mood had been cut short with a new revelation that could possibly leave her favorite cousin a mess.
'Oh geez...he's smiling, too!' she thought to herself regretfully as she looked at him.
She was about to open her mouth to speak when Jaden's eyes abruptly sparkled with a mischievous twinkle. She'd seen this threat of misbehavior before in him, but this twinkle was somewhat different. Her curiosity got the best of her.
"Ok, Jaden. What is it?" she asked suspiciously, folding her arms across her chest. She hoped that he had not discovered _it_ before she had and had convinced himself that he had a chance. He'd have to be dumb and naive to do that-but then again...
"Mina.....you'll think I'm stupid for saying this, but-"
"Oh, oh no! You are not going to get yourself into this mess again, Jaden. Do you hear me? Don't fall into it!"
Mina flew across the room, agitated at the idiotic senses her cousin had suddenly found. Her poor mind didn't tell her that she might have been jumping to conclusions.
"What's got you so huffy?" Jaden said with a snort. "Did Rei tell you?"
The blue eyes of the female Parker blinked with certain puzzlement. Her head bobbed to the side. She wasn't completely registering what the buffoon was saying, but if he was saying what she thought he was saying...
"JAAAAADDDEN! YOU FINALLY GOT WITH REI?????!!!!" she screamed in excitement, squealing and jumping up and down on the padded floor.
Jaden attempted to silence her by waving his hands down in signal, but the girl persisted. On the other side of the door, though, the ravishing brunette known as Rei Hino was busy eavesdropping on the pair. He watched as she and her chair tilted backwards, her mouth slightly open in concentration so she wouldn't fall.
THUD!
The chair and the beautiful girl went down to the floor, as evident by the slender legs (of both the chair and the girl) that soared up into the air a moment before the thunderous sound exploded through the building.
Jaden burst into laughter, his attention far from his excited cousin and the skeptical look she was giving him.
"You have completely forgotten that I'm even in here, huh?" Mina asked in a convicting tone.
He waited to get his laughter under control before he answered her. His face was reddened from the energy he had put into his amused reaction, and his eyes were clear and vulnerable.
Mina had really been excited when she had thought that her cousin and his secretary had decided to date. Her eyes brightened with envy, however, when she realized what was _really_ happening.
"Jaden..." her voice drawled with a playful taunting. "You're in love with Rei, aren't you?"
His ears had only picked up the word 'love' as he had been watching the beautiful raven-haired girl's recovery outside his office. He turned to Mina wearing a smile that was big and genuine, and Mina smiled at the fact that she was right.
"Did she say she was in love with me?" he said eagerly, his eyes searching hers for the answer.
"You're in love with her! Oh my gosh-this is so exciting! Have you told her? You idiot- you need to tell her! This means that I'll have a...a...well, another cousin!"
Mina was jumping about the room as Jaden absorbed all that she was saying. He-Jaden Parker, the man who had become a god-like figure at the B & B-in love with his secretary? It couldn't be love. It was only hours before that he had decided that he was not going to ruin her life by making decisions for her. He wanted to be with her, caress her like he had the night before-but he couldn't, and it wasn't love.
Or so his mind conveyed to him, though his heart pounded at the thought.
He moved back to his chair and his desk and sat down, still in apparent deep thought. Mina continued jumping up and down like a giddy schoolgirl, until she remembered the real purpose behind her solemn entrance into her cousin's office.
"Jaden," she began, perfectly intent on telling him what was bothering her so much.
She looked at him, with the passion storming in the deep blue orbs of his eyes, and she couldn't bear to let him down. She'd just have to look after him more carefully-that was, if Rei didn't keep his attention all the time.
Mina smiled to herself. The nasal spray lobbyist and the arrogant blond tyrant had managed to overcome their differences and succumb to the desires they had subconsciously denied. It was a match made in heaven. Much better than-
Her eyes caught another figure behind the door of Jaden Parker's office. This one was thin, blonde, and had two meatball-shaped items in her hair. It took everything in Mina to stop the urge to ram through the door and beat the other figure to a pulp.
She took one last look at Jaden. He was mindlessly staring at the ceiling, his feet once again propped up against his desk as he bobbed his chair back and forth. He certainly did not need to be disturbed.
With her hands balled into fists, Mina Parker made her way out of the office.
"I'm sorry, miss?" Mina heard Rei's voice call down the hall. "Did you say that you needed to talk with Mr. Parker?"
~ ~ ~
Rei continued on her venture for the young girl with the funny hairstyle. She bit down on her lower lip in frustration as she called out to her again.
"Miss? You need to speak with Mr. Parker?"
Finally, the young blonde girl with the strange hairstyle emerged from behind another door. She looked timid, Rei observed, and she was presently biting on her index fingernail as she approached her.
But she was very beautiful as well. Her eyes were a lovely shade of blue, and her skin was even and light. She could have been an angel or some other celestial being, Rei guessed. And then she remembered...
"The girl from the park..." she spoke to herself as the image recalled itself from her memory.
The girl continued walking towards her, until she saw something behind Rei that startled her.
"Diana!" a familiar female voice called. "What in Venus's name are you doing here?"
Rei's eyes widened with disbelief. It couldn't be- could it? Jaden's former love-the heartbreak of his life-was standing before her in the flesh, and she just happened to look like a goddess from the moon? Rei's heart struggled with feelings of sadness and jealousy. Had the girl come back for Jaden?
Rei's mind once again recounted the image of the girl at the park. At that time, she hadn't been alone. In fact, she looked very content with the handsome man she had been with. She wasn't intending on winning Jaden back...she was going to break the news to him that she was around and somebody else's.
"Mina," she turned to her blonde friend, her countenance fighting the sadness that threatened to show itself.
"Yeah?" Mina replied calmly, folding her arms across her chest as she glared at Diana.
"I'm going to let you handle this. I'll get Jaden out of the office, if you'd like me to."
Mina raised an eyebrow at the idea, her stare not breaking from the meatball-haired girl before her, and nodded silently. Rei nodded in acknowledgement and took one last look at the other girl. Her lips pursed together as she took a few steps forward, and she was on her way to get her man.
But was he really her man?
~ ~ ~
He had been frantically pacing about his room nervously, something that he wasn't really accustomed to. After Mina had barged in unexpectedly and they had had their little talk, he had a part of his life to look forward to. And although the little voice in his head insisted that he was an idiot for even letting his life advance so rapidly, he knew that he was right where he needed to be.
He had spent a year in a premature dating mode which had resulted in a "playboy" like reputation for himself. In the entirety of that year he had forgotten sincerity, honesty, chivalry- everything that a good man should uphold regarding the opposite sex. But one week with the strangely clumsy, headstrong Rei and the true romance he had in his heart began to display itself.
To think that she could be in love with him, so quickly even, made his heart beat faster than he had ever thought possible. He almost scolded himself for feeling so anxious and emotional. He could, at the moment, compare himself to his female cousin and her giddy cries of triumph when she would get a date with some guy from the office because he felt like shouting of victory as well. Actually, that didn't sound like too bad of an idea-
"Jaden?" a surprisingly chipper voice called to him from behind his office door.
He lowered his arms to his sides, which had been ready to pound at his chest in a very Tarzanian fashion, and looked towards the door.
Two high-heeled feet stepped out into the office, and when Jaden's eyes finally caught the sight of Rei's face, her smile had brightened significantly. He had never really seen her smile the way she was at this moment- relaxed and carefree. She approached him steadily, her violet eyes reflecting a glimmer of something that he had seen from himself from his mirror this morning.
She stopped only a foot away from him. Her standard yellow-paged notebook was loosely held to her chest, one of her pens placed above her right ear. She was in full secretarial mode, although she would look best dressed as a princess.
"Hi," she spoke softly, her gaze locked on Jaden's.
"Hi," he returned with a smug smile. A little nervous, he raised his hand to push some loose strands of hair from his face.
They stood in silence, both still staring at each other, and made small gestures that indicated anxiety. Rei suddenly giggled, stopping herself as her face turned red from slight embarrassment.
Jaden returned her laugh and his hand made its way to Rei's face, pulling the pen from her ear and adjusting her hair the way he liked it.
"Look at us," Rei said with a smile. "We're both acting like junior high kids. Except, what happened last night was not in the slightest bit-"
"Juvenile? You got that right," Jaden replied, closing the distance between them.
"I just came to get you out of the office," Rei sputtered, knowing full well that her small outburst was induced by his hand tickling her collar bone.
"What for?" he asked seductively, his lips making their way to her left earlobe.
She had to push him away from herself, worried about the attention they'd get from other employees. As far as she was concerned, their office romance could be commenced anywhere but the office. She didn't want to be discussed in the lounge room as Jaden Parker's newest conquest or a conversation piece around the muffin bin.
"Let's just go. It's about lunchtime now anyway."
Jaden looked at her questionably, folding his arms across his chest.
"Besides," she added in a different tone of voice, "wouldn't you like to do this somewhere more romantic than this stuffy old building?"
He looked to the ceiling in mock thought, placing a finger to his chin to exaggerate the situation. Rei swatted at his arm and let her hand travel down his arm until she found his hand. His smile intensified, and he allowed her to lead him out of the room.
He pulled back when the two came to Rei's desk. He observed the brown package and instantly became curious.
"What's this?"
Rei shrugged her shoulders in reply and her ears picked up the faint sound of two female voices from another hallway. She immediately recognized one of them to be Mina's, and her mind went into a quick panic. She had to get Jaden out of the building, and fast.
Grabbing the package and placing it under her available arm, Rei practically had to run down the opposite way with Jaden to avoid the meeting between him and Diana. She really didn't want a confrontation between those two because it would only mean one thing- she would be put on the back-burner. She had never had that happen before, and she didn't want it to happen now.
Meanwhile, as Rei and Jaden had escaped to the other elevator, Mina and Diana had made their way to Jaden's office.
"Look Diana," Mina said firmly, "I don't want you coming anywhere near my cousin. He's come a long way since you left his life a big fat mess, and I don't want him to go into a relapse. Besides, he's got Rei now, and I don't want him to forget her because your scrawny ass decided to make an encore appearance."
Diana shook her head in protest. She was hurt by Mina's portrayal of her, which was a gross exaggeration from Jaden's point of view, probably.
"Mina, I'm not here to 'reappear' in Jaden's life or anything. I'm simply here to share a piece of information with him that I think he would want to be informed of."
"And what would that be, Diana?" Mina answered skeptically.
"I'm engaged."
~ ~ ~
Author's Note (9-07-03):
Sorry for the delay, everyone! Now, I realize that today is the day after Nasal Spray's official one-year marking, and I apologize. I wanted to have this posted yesterday, but some things delayed it.
Ok, this chapter has really been bugging me. The last part of it I just had to write quickly because if I didn't pen it now, I wouldn't finish it any other time soon. And just so you know, this story took a complete turn in a direction that I wasn't aware it was going to go, so I apologize for any inconsistencies that may present itself either in this chapter, previous chapters, or future chapters.
I'm going on and on at about 10:20 this evening when I still have 15 vocabulary words to look up and half of Beowulf to read, so I'll get to it. Enjoy the chapter, and please, don't forget to
REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW.
Are you loving it right now? Hating it? I wanna know. Now hop to it, and goodnight.