Yeah, yeah. I know, I'm a horrible person. Not updating in 8 months, and all that.

It was part of the creative process?

I was really busy?

Someone kidnapped me for eight months?!1!1!?

Chapter 12: A Little Less Awkward

"And you had no idea that was coming, did you?" The interviewer shook her head sympathetically.

"None at all." Annabeth tried to look wistful, but in all honesty, the only thing she could muster that even resembled emotion was tiredness.

Life wasn't too crazy until the final episode aired. It helped that she had to practically stay in hiding until all the episodes had aired.

Then the reporters and press started coming. Tabloids, news shows, newspapers that apparently had nothing better to write about. They all asked her why they had really left her, like they hadn't explained it well enough. There must be something else, an unknown reason why they would leave Annabeth Chase, smart, pretty, and talented, apart from simply not being able to choose a guy. That was the whole point of the Bachelorette, right? There must have been another reason.

The funny part was that they were all sympathetic. 'WORST BACHELORETTE SUITORS EVER', one title proclaimed. 'WILL SHE EVER CATCH A BREAK?', they asked her. She would have liked to think that she (as well as the tabloids) were right and not Ryan and Percy. She couldn't, though.

This was T.V. They couldn't have their Bachelorette looking bad, so cut out some scenes and they made Annabeth look like a goddamn angel. So she pretended they had done her wrong. It was easier to do that, rather than to accept the fact that they were right. They embarrassed her on national television and were complete douches about it, but they were right.

She cringed watching herself on the show every week. Had she done this to herself or had they turned her into one of the girls she used to roll her eyes at?

3 months later

Annabeth was on top of the world. The media had stopped caring about her (the new Bachelorette had been announced) and she was back at her old job, living in her old apartment, and back to doing the thing she loved most: being Annabeth.

She had just stopped by her favourite coffee shop on her way to work. She waited in line just like she used to, and ordered her usual: black coffee and a muffin. The barista, who Annabeth was on a first name basis with, smiled and told her to wait for three minutes, just like always. Annabeth smiled and did just that.

Walking to work and riding the ridiculously slow elevator took precisely eleven minutes. Annabeth knew this because she timed it one day when she was sick of being late for work. When she got to work, she sat down in the brown leather chair in her office (one of the few places where she could completely and honestly say she was completely at ease) and got to work.

Just when she started laying out papers on her desk, an intern knocked on her door.

"Uhm… Mr. West wants me to tell you to meet him in his office." The way he said it made it sound like it was a question. Usually, when a guy was this nervous around her, Annabeth would presume they had a crush on her, but this was the norm with interns around here. They knew her as 'that girl from T.V who got dumped' and seemed to think she was still a celebrity.

Annabeth sighed. "Why didn't he just email me, then?"

"Because he wants you there… pronto. Like, he wants me to walk you up there, right now."

Annabeth groaned. She was just getting into her morning groove and she hated impromptu meeting with a passion. "Fine. Let's go."

The intern seemed to be adamant on walking less than a foot away from her as they made their way to the elevators. Every time Annabeth looked at him, he grinned shyly and blushed a little. Maybe he wasn't nervous because he thought she was a celebrity, after all.

She started to study him a little. He was surprisingly quite cute. He had auburn hair, tall but not too muscular, and had sea green eyes that were the most amazing shade Annabeth had ever seen.

He opened his mouth a couple times as if he was about to say something and closed it again. Finally he said. "Annabeth?"

"Yeah?" Annabeth was tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the elevator door to open.

"I was wondering, if you were free later this week, maybe you would like to go out for coffee with me?"

Annabeth stared at him for a couple of seconds before she realized she had to respond. Before she got the chance to do so, he went red and said "Of course you don't want to, never mind. I just thought-"

"-No, it's just that… I don't really date. For right now, at least."

"I completely understand. With the whole T.V thing, I would be scared, too."

"Scared of what?" She asked.

"Scared of guys hurting you. And if that's what you're afraid of, I can promise you that I won't-"

"I'm not scared of guys hurting me, trust me. I'm just not looking for anything right now, you know? I have the big project with MLU and I just really don't think it would be good for me in general." She said it all in one breath to get the conversation over with as fast as possible.

He looked at her questioningly for a few seconds and cleared his throat. "Right." He said.

"Right." She said.

"Anyway, here he is. I just need to show him that I brought you here so he doesn't kill me. He's been crabby today." He gestured at Mr. West and hurried off to do something else.

Annabeth walked into his office. "You know I don't like meetings in the morning. This better be good. Or not?" She said, registering the expression on his face.

"Annabeth, I've just been talking to the people over at MLU, and they're slightly concerned about some of the research facilities and how we've planned them out."

She groaned, not mentally prepared for another setback. "Fine. Tell me their specifications and I'll redraw. I'll have to stay here late this entire week, but I'll do it." She said assuredly.

His face still looked sheepish. "The thing is, Annabeth, they have quite a lot of new specifications and they said they would be flying out a representative to talk them over with you."

"Dr. Reynolds?" Annabeth met him a few months before the show had started and she liked him. He was soft spoken, in his thirties, and didn't beat around the bush like a lot of their clients did.

"His wife's in labour, he can't come. The person under him is Percy Jackson."

Annabeth knocked over his coffee cup. "That Percy Jackson?" Judging by the look on his face, it was that Percy Jackson.

"Don't worry. I'll meet with him and summarize what he says. Ill draw up a detailed report so you don't have to meet him. He's coming in a week, you can even work from home there. I'll arrange for interns to email you everything and drop by your house."

"Don't be stupid, Mr. West. That would be way too much extra work on your part. I'll do it, I'm fine."

He stared at her as if she had just said she wanted to conquer all of Europe. "Are you absolutely sure? I can't cancel."

"Yes, I can handle it."

He nodded uncertainly, leaving Annabeth free to walk down the hallway in a semi-professional manner until she was out of everyone's sight then sprint to the toilet. She splashed cold water on her face and watched mascara run down it. She didn't really care about how she looked just then.

The Annabeth that she became during the show would have let Mr. West take the meeting, even if it meant extra work on his plate because she would have been scared. She would have let her feelings get in the way of a business meeting.

She wasn't that Annabeth anymore. She would go into that meeting room, talk about what needed to be talked about, and promptly leave. Calm. Composed. Professional. Annabeth was great at being all those things. She would try to make the meeting a little less awkward. Percy chose to walk out of her life, and Annabeth couldn't give two shits about him anymore.

She washed her face completely and reapplied her makeup, and got back to work. Annabeth had never worked so hard in her entire life. She chose to stay late that day, and the day after that. Because every time she stopped thinking about work, every bathroom break she had, every time she waited in line for her coffee and muffin, every fleeting moment where she wasn't thinking about anything in particular, she would think about him.

Review and tell me what you think will happen!