9.20.03
To Love Again
By Dragonlow
Chapter 8
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.
So sorry about the delay! I know I promised I'd get this to you about 3 weeks ago, but chaos ensued in my personal life and things were a little hectic. Fortunately, I have some free time, so here's the next chapter!
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Darien just stood outside his main conference room for a few minutes, trying to compose himself. Well. She was certainly starting to fight back. This could make his plan a little harder, but he felt up to the challenge. His face fixed itself into his usual uncaring expression and he walked back into the conference room, acting as if nothing surprising had just taken place.
The women all looked up as he closed the door behind him, and suddenly something came to him. He was in a roomful of women. Very beautiful women. He couldn't believe his anger had blocked this fact from his mind. This was perfect for his plan. He smiled charmingly at them all. "Ladies."
He watched them carefully for their reactions. The quiet one with the blue hair blushed but turned back to the contract after glancing up. Both Lita and the dirty blonde haired woman scowled at him unpleasantly, unimpressed by his charm. Serena's lawyer smiled beautifully at him, but he could see she would not fall for his charms. Now the aqua-haired womanMichelle was her name. She was the only one to give him a friendly smile. He noticed how tall and graceful she looked, absolutely beautiful. He gave her another smile. She was the one.
"Well, ladies, what do you have for me today?" he asked, making sure to sit down next to Michelle.
Serena eyed him thoughtfully. What was he up to? She had to watch him very closely. She cleared her throat and said, "Well, Mr. Chiba, I've already given you my thoughts on how the building should look. You haven't given me any input, so I'm going to assume that it's alright with you and we'll work from that." Darien nodded attentively.
"As I've mentioned before, Amara will be doing the glasswork for the building. I assume you want them all tinted?" At Darien's nod, she continued, this time speaking to Amara. "Why don't you tell us what you have planned, Amara."
Amara nodded and stood. "I'll be honest with you, Mr. Chiba. You're really not giving me much to work on," she said coldly. "I don't really see what I can do for you, it seems that my talents are being wasted with this project. But Serena thinks that I can add my creative touch to this building, so I would suggest that, instead of a black tint, which is what would normally do for a building like this, we can have an equally dark color instead. It can be anything from blue to purple to red. It would give the building a nice look. I'm no good with colors—that's Michelle's line of work—but I'd suggest a color that matches Lita's sculpture." She sat back down, done with her input on the building.
Darien nodded, liking the idea. Lita stood as Amara sat back down. "I have some ideas for the sculpture, but nothing to show you yet. I have some color schemes for it, though. The sculpture can be a lot of bright, bold colors, like red, yellow, green and orange. If you don't like that, you can always choose a color and I can work with the different shades." She looked at Darien for his answer.
"I'd like this building to stand out, so I think the bold colors would be best," Darien replied.
"That would make the red tint best," Michelle put in.
Darien smiled at her. "Yes, that's a good idea," he said.
Michelle raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I know."
"What do you have for us, Michelle?" Serena asked abruptly.
Michelle stood up and began. "I think that the offices should be a warm color, like cream or toffee. We don't want too much color inside them, because that can distract the workers. The hallways and lobby, however, should be a little more colorful. I think the lobby should be a soft yellow, and all of the floors should have a different color scheme. There should be a few floor plants and some excellent photography of things that relate to your business."
The whole time she was talking, she was looking directly at Darien. And Darien made sure to listen to her attentively, smile, and nod, obviously flirting with the beautiful woman. As much as he wanted to see Serena's reaction, he made sure to pay attention only to Michelle.
Michelle nodded, finished, and sat back down, glancing at him. He smiled. Then he looked at Serena, as if to see what was next. Really, he was just trying to see her reaction. And he wasn't displeased with it at all. Her mouth was set in a firm line in obvious annoyance and she looked almostjealous. Perfect.
"Anything else that needs to be said?" Darien asked, all business again.
"Nothing," Serena said shortly. We can all meet again in a couple of weeks and see how things are progressing. Amy will have a contract drawn up by then."
"Well, alright, then." Darien stood up. He smiled at all of them, making sure to linger at Michelle for a few seconds longer. "It was nice meeting you all," he said, still looking at Michelle. She smiled back. He looked back up at the rest of them and nodded. "Good work." That said, he strode out of the room and headed back to his office, a satisfied smile gracing his face.
***
Serena stormed back into her apartment, slamming the door behind her. Raye looked up from the TV, eyebrows raised. "What happened?"
"That idiot was flirting with Michelle! And she was falling for it!" Serena fumed.
"And?"
"Andand nothing! That's it!"
"Why do you care who he was flirting with?" Raye asked curiously.
"I don't care! I justI don't want Michelle falling for the likes of him!" Serena said. Now she was confused, though. Why did she care?
Raye smiled. "Sounds like someone's jealous."
"WHAT! I am not jealous! He can flirt with anyone he wants! See if I care!" She marched into her room and slammed the door. Raye just shook her head and turned back to the show she'd been watching.
Inside her room, Serena tried to work on other projects, but Raye's words kept coming to her. Why the hell would she be jealous? She didn't like that aggravating idiot at all. She rubbed her temples, tired. It was a good thing she didn't have a lot of work to do, because right now she just wanted to lie down and take a nap, something she hadn't done since she was small. She changed into more comfortable clothes and climbed into her bed. She soon drifted off to sleep, cold blue eyes haunting her dreams.
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Well, I don't know if I showed the flirting too well, but there it is! Things are finally developing!!!! I can't promise when I'm going to get the next chapter out, but hopefully it'll be soon!
