His Lost Bride

Episode 2: Encounter

Sarah took the call as she rushed out of the office hurriedly. As soon as she picked the call, all she could hear was her mom, Hannah Brown, exclaiming, “why aren’t you picking the damn phone? Are you trying to avoid doing your filial duties?                                                                                                                                      

Just because you are earning now, doesn’t give you the right to avoid your parents who are dependent on your help.” Sarah couldn’t help other than to listen to her rant while waiting for the elevator.                      

Although Sarah was getting impatient, she replied to her mom in a very composed voice, “I am at the office and am not allowed to use my mobile phone within the premises. Can’t you be a little patient before screaming at me.”                                                                                                                                                       

“Oho! Now you are old enough to give me lectures. Who am I to you? Just an old lady who works, day and night, for the family. Now that you are earning, I am just a housemaid for you. You think you can call the shots now?” came an instant retort.                                                                                                                       

Sarah rubbed her forehead, trying to control her anger but she knew in her heart that it’s useless. She knew by heart her mother's usual rant even before she would actually say it. Sarah tried to make her mom focus on the issue at hand and asked, “Why did you call me, can you please tell me?”                                        

“Hmm.. your father needs to have surgery by today evening. The hospital has asked to pay $1500 as an initial payment and the rest, as and when the expenses are incurred. So you come here and pay the money. Remember it’s your father who raised you till now, so don’t even think of evading it. Pay the bills, so my husband can live longer!” her mom rudely exclaimed.                                                                                       

Before Sarah could respond, she crashed into someone. Her phone got disconnected making her mom rumble in anger.                                                                                                                                                       

Hannah kept on saying to Adam and Neil Brown, Sarah’s brothers, “how dare she disconnect my phone call? Who does she think she is? All just because she is working in a fancy place, who gave her the right to be rude? Let her come and I will give her an earful.”                                                                                              

Both brothers were getting annoyed with their mother’s attitude. Adam just said in a hushed voice, “Can you keep your ramblings to yourself? If you want to say something, tell sister Sarah directly. Don’t make us hear your complaints. We’re not interested!” Listening to their response forced Hannah to shut her mouth but she couldn’t help grumbling in her mind.                                                                                                     

Sarah’s POV                                                                                                                                                                 

Before I could say anything, I heard the elevator arriving on the floor. My office is on the 15th floor of the CM building, one of the renowned places in S city. The building belonged to the Dan group, based out of Z city. 

Dan group is listed as a top Fortune 500 company, playing a vital role in the development of both these cities. Z and S cities are next to each other and are connected by a natural bridge, famously called the Connecting Bridge.                                                                                                                                                      

Many tourists visit this place just to see how roots and branches are magnificently intertwined together covering the two living natural corals, taking the form of a bridge, allowing the two cities to be connected. S and Z city are also known as conjoining twin cities as both are connected by a bridge.                          

Interestingly, what people don’t know is that the rest of the rock is submerged inside the sea giving the onlookers an illusion of a bridge connecting both the places.                                                                          

Panic-struck, I turned around as I crashed onto someone. I quickly bowed my head down low and said, “I am sorry, Sir.” As soon as I stood up straight, my head was smacked to the other side by a force that came in contact with my right cheek. I gazed upwards, disoriented and confused, to see what I did that was so wrong.                                                                                                                                                                                

My darn luck, it was my project manager, Mr. Charles Garcia. All I could hear was, “How dare you! You ruined my new Louis Vuitton shoes.” Mr. Garcia was screaming and I left the place hurriedly after apologizing.                                                                                                                                                                           

I know in my heart, I need to excuse myself from there before he creates more trouble for me as this short-tempered man will take his revenge whenever the opportunity shows. Before he could react, I withdrew myself, and hastily entered the elevator. I saw a man standing inside the elevator watching the chaos nonchalantly.                                                                                                                                                                 

After entering the elevator, I apologized to the man for the inconvenience caused. He just glanced at me and nodded. I was at loss and didn’t know how to respond to such a situation.                                             

Well, it was my fault, to begin with, so I remain silent and focus on another issue at hand, my cheek, which was aching very badly. Thoughtlessly, I rubbed my cheeks causing it to hurt more.                                

Suddenly, I heard, “it will leave a mark if you keep rubbing like that, better to keep an ice-pack and let it reduce the soreness and swollen part of the cheek,” said the man. I turned towards him as I was standing across him.                                                                                                                                                                  

That’s when I noticed he had the looks of a Greek god, adorned in a white shirt topped with a dark royal blue suit. In short words, he looked magnificent, with his fit abled body and sharp chiseled jawline. I know it’s embarrassing but I couldn’t help checking him out. Once in a lifetime opportunity, I consoled myself.   

He casually raised his head from his phone and he commented, looking at my starry-eyed face, “You don’t know me. Good and interesting.” He looked at me again as if trying to gauge my reaction and he smirked and left. I was still standing inside the elevator stupefied.                                                                                  

Then, I heard a man saying, “Miss! This is the ground floor.” Probably, looking at my perplexed face must have made him ask, “If you are not getting down, can you please move inside?”                                       

Coming out of the reverie, I apologized and bowed down to him a few times and moved out towards the lobby. Today is not my day, I realized it sadly, recalling the number of times I had to apologize.                      

In peripheral vision, I saw the same arrogant, indifferent, good looking man talking to another stern-looking man, wearing a black suit, near the lobby. Stern looking man seemed to be that arrogant man’s subordinate. When I was about to reach near him, I heard that arrogant man saying, “Asher, take my car out.”                                                                                                                                                                                        

I wanted to leave the place without having to meet him again. While crossing him, I pray in my heart that the arrogant man shouldn’t see me. Even before my prayer could be heard, I heard the same deep, masculine voice, coming from behind me, say in a sweet, sing-song way, “Missy!”                                            

On instinct, I turned only to find him smirking at me and comment, “are you in a hurry to leave after checking me out so blatantly!”                                                                                                                                          

I couldn’t help asking him, “Don’t you have any work to do? Why are you waiting for someone like me to come along? Go and do your work.”                                                                                                                              

He chuckled and said, “Well, who has the authority to question me for not doing work?” and then looked at me arrogantly.                                                                                                                                                                

“Sheesh! My luck, he saw me checking him out. I so want to bury myself in the ground,” I cried in my head however, I managed to keep a poker face and say to him, “Okay, I have work to do so, excuse me!”                   

I tried to leave after giving him a forced smile. Before I could take another step, that arrogant man blocked my way and quipped, “Who gave you the permission to leave?”                                                                               

“I didn’t know I required permission to leave. And who are you to restrict my freedom? It’s a free country,” came an instant reply even before I could realize what I had said.                                                                         

He gave me a reproachful look and said, “Now it’s getting boring. Look at my face and you can’t deny I have the looks. But you refuse to give me any credit.”                                                                                                           

I got irritated and said, “Listen, I don’t even know you yet you are here wasting my time. I don’t care if you have no work to do but I have plenty. Leave me alone, you p*****t!” Before he could get closer to me, I ran from there and turned to see his expression darken. I made a face at him and shouted at him, “arrogant bastard.”                                                                                                                                                                      

Normal POV                                                                                                                                                                    

This is the first time Asher saw his boss chuckling. Hell! He never took interest in any person, leave alone a girl to boot. Asher tried to remind his boss that he had a meeting to attend. President Yang was waiting for him but he paid no attention. He casually said, “I met an interesting girl in the elevator. I am waiting for  her.”                                                                                                                                                                               

Asher was shocked as his boss made an effort to reply to him and what's more, he was talking to him which was highly unusual for his boss. You see, most of the time, he has an aura of authority around him that would not allow anyone to talk to him. He is a working machine and opens his mouth to give orders. Today, he was not acting like himself as if he was high or something.                                                      

However, Asher kept all these thoughts to himself as he was his boss and any unnecessary, casual comments could lead Asher to carry around bricks in a construction site instead of being his secretary. 

Asher again reminded his boss about the meeting when he ordered to get his car out. Before leaving, Asher saw a brunette coming out from the elevator. She looked elegant but somehow, it appeared she was walking vigilantly as if she was avoiding someone.                                                                                              

That’s when Asher heard his boss call to her, leaving him baffled about the whole situation. Since it was his boss’s affair, he left without glancing back.                                                                                                                

As soon as Asher returned to inform the boss that his car was ready, he saw the very same girl run past him, calling his boss an “arrogant bastard.”                                                                                                                

It’s good she left otherwise there would have been a bloodbath. As soon as she left, our cold and aloof CEO returned and asked me icily, “Where is the car? And what are you staring at.”                                                

Before Asher could form an answer, his boss walked out towards his new sleek, jet black Maserati. Asher sighed and ran after him.                                                                                                                                          

CEO’s POV                                                                                                                                                                             

I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I kept remembering an image of a soft-looking brunette with a small, chubby face. I asked Asher, my secretary, to leave by an excuse to get my car as I saw him checking out the same girl when she came out from the elevator. I waited patiently for him to leave and wanted to see how she would respond when I would mess with her.                                                                                                           

I could see her trying to escape from my presence by pretending not to see me so I engaged with her illusion and allowed her to walk towards the door. Before she could breathe out a sigh of relief, I walked stealthily towards her and called out from behind, making her turn instantly.                                                    

But that insolent girl ran away after calling me, “a p*****t and an arrogant bastard.” Before I could catch her, my stupid secretary came back saying that the car was ready and I have a meeting to attend. Using that time, she left.                                                                                                                                                                

I sighed and went towards my car but I couldn’t help feeling dejected. Something, about her presence, triggered in my heart but I can’t properly explain to anyone. All I could think was how I wanted to mess with her.                                                                                                                                                                                       

As I got into my car, I felt happy from inside. After all, it’s not every day, you meet such an energetic person. Looking at the scenery outside, I thought about how people behave before me. Most of the time, people around me always try to either impress me to gain favors or they are intimidated by my presence as I am born in a rich, business-class family.                                                                                                                    

Everyone sees me as a profitable business deal so they always try to fawn over me. However, this girl was the first person who dared to retort instead of fawning over me. Moreover, she even dared to look straight at me without batting her eyes and confront me boldly,” that thought made me smile unconsciously.      

Suddenly, I recalled she was slapped by that grumpy old fat man before she entered the elevator. All of a sudden that memory made my blood boil with rage.                                                                                                   

It took all my efforts to stop myself to go back and punish that ill-mannered man for insulting my woman. I repeated in my head, “my woman” but couldn’t help smirk at the next thought, “oh yes! She will be my new prey. After all, she dared to call me an arrogant bastard and a pervert.”                                                                   

I refuse to let that woman leave after crossing my path. She will have to take responsibility. That was my last thought when I heard my secretary, Asher Gonzalez, say, “Boss! We have arrived at our office building. President Yang is throwing a fit for making him wait. He is in the meeting room.”                                                 

I walked out of my car, pulled my coat sleeves, and ordered him, “I want all the details of the girl who entered the lift along with me and the man on the 15th floor.” Asher looked at me all confusedly but he knows me better as I saw him nod understanding what I wanted to know.                                                          

As I walked towards my company, I wiped off all emotions from my face and readied myself into an indifferent CEO. I knew for sure that I will meet her again and next time, I will make her follow me and obey my orders instead of attacking me as she did today.

                                                                                        *****