What Cinderella Stole

The wine glass had been in her hand for quite a while, tiny droplets of water had condensed on the cool glass and made her already sweaty palms even moister. She was standing near the huge window, gazing down at the cars that drove by far below her, they whizzed by so fast, tiny points of light from so far up. The night city skyline appeared beautiful, hardly anything like the small town she came from. "I'm sorry, will I be bothering you if I stand here?" A slightly deep voice came from behind her, it was a nice voice, smooth and comforting. She turned her head to look at an extremely handsome man. Looking at him made her feel speechless. The first thing she noticed was his dimples, he had two of them, one on both cheeks. She had been a sucker for dimples since she hit puberty, there was just something so charming about them-even her first crush had been on a guy with dimples, but he was that hot senior you could only look at from afar and dream about. The man in front of her had features better than his by far. His eyes were a honey shade and his hair was black as midnight. She said nothing, her words failing her. She realized he was waiting for her reply patiently, the air between them turning stale. She opened her mouth before stupidly closing it again, mute. She nodded her head quickly to salvage this situation. 'God, don't create people so beautiful, the world will turn jealous of them!' The man said nothing as he stood across her, he appeared tired, his formal suit looked creased and his hair mussed from running his hair too many times across it. Her cheeks flushed as she realized she was gazing at his lips. She quickly turned away. "Are you also escaping from someone?" The man in front of her asked. "No-that, I, uh..." 'Please make a meteor fall on me right now...' She thought to herself, embarrassed. She cleared her throat before clarifying, "No, I'm not escaping from someone. I just feel like I don't belong." Her voice turned extremely soft towards the end of her sentence, slightly more than a whisper. She actually didn't belong in here. This was a formal mixer kind of thing—that she did not even know the proper name of—where people from rich families talked and mixed and young people met. She had been roped into doing this by her friend c*m roommate, who just happened to be from the upper echelons of the society. Her roommate didn't want to come to another one of these 'shitty ass boring party with women who had halved the oxygen supply to their brains because of all the hair products they used and men who dress formal, talk formal and know nothing else but to be formal.' She was sent to the venue of the party with a new dress, a promise to pick her up, lunch at a French Cuisine restaurant, Chez Moi with her younger brother and helping her with packing up her bags before she went home for the first time in two years. She thought of her mother's kind smile but her reminiscent thoughts were chucked to the back of her head again as the man in front of her spoke up. "Sometimes, I feel like that too—not belonging that is. Especially when everyone around you is just near you for profit or to get a piece of you." His voice turned high, his face twisted in anger and seeing this expression made her hands tremble. He noticed it. "Sorry, I'm just extremely tense right now." "It's okay." She said softly. "I'm Adam Ellison. I don't think I've ever seen you before." 'Well, of course, you haven't seen me! I don't belong here. Dammit, why did I ever agree to this?' He introduced himself, that meant he wanted to know her name, though he hadn't said it explicitly she could still understand his meaning. She noticed that the ribbon around his wrist was still tied, that meant that he was not accompanying any lady for the evening. This made her panic even more. Tonight for this party, there were some rules. Women would wear masks while men would have ribbons tied around their left wrist. If you were a couple, no need to do either, but if you were single or unaccompanied, you had to follow the rules. If during the course of the party, the men met a woman that they felt could accompany at their side for the rest of the evening, the ribbon would be taken off from the man's hand. At the end of the party, for the sake of fun, all women wearing masks would have to take it off to reveal who they were. Many high profile women and women with tonnes of men pining for them acted low during this party, only to stun them in the end. Or according to her roommate, that seemed to be the case. Choosing a partner meant being accompanied by them. She felt her hair rise as a premonition rose in her heart. "Well, I rarely attend these kinds of parties." In her heart, she changed the word 'rarely' to 'never'. "Really? I have to attend them 'to be social'." He put bunny quotes in the air using his fingers, making her laugh out loud for the first time since the evening started. She never expected such an attitude from a rich person. She knew not all rich people were stuck-up snobs with only profit on their mind, her roommate certainly managed her own laundry and side of the room quite well, all the while listening to rap and singing along at the same pace. She just thought them to be more proper, and the man was wearing a gunmetal grey formal suit over that. She looked at his charming smile, as the background turned bright and scented flowers seemed to rain behind him, all the while he was the focus. "I am attending because my friends asked me to. Then I ended up alone." "If you don't mind, would you like to accompany me for the evening." He asked sincerely as he looked over her. He seemed to have a good impression of her. "No!" Her words came out too forcefully and he seemed to be hurt for a moment, pulling back the hand that he had extended. "I'm sorry, I just..." She tried but there was no explanation. What was she supposed to explain anyway? That she was just waiting for her friend to pick her up so she could leave, that she had only come in using her friend's invitation and wasn't actually invited, that she didn't want him to see her face? "It's okay. Well, if you won't accompany me, is it fine if we stay here and keep talking? I really don't want to go back there." He wanted to stay despite her being so rude? What happened to him? "Is it that bad?" "Terrible. Horrendous. Dreadful. All other synonyms from the thesaurus." "It can't be that bad! If you're willing to talk, I'm willing to listen. Maybe we can come up with solutions to your problem?" She felt more in her element now. She had always been an 'elderly sister' kind of person, fussing over others, giving advice that (in some cases) stemmed from zero experience and caring for others. "One word—marriage." He said nothing else. She was stupefied. She gave advice without experience but marriage problems between a couple were just too far off for her. She couldn't do anything about this... No, wait a second. Was he even married? He could be, but she saw no ring and absolutely didn't want to guess from his age, age was deceptive after all. He looked young, but he could be ten years older of what she was guessing. Though, it would make sense if a person like him was taken. "Ah, can't give advice on that topic. But I always believe in one thing." "And what is that?" "If being with a person doesn't make you happy anymore, let go. I mean, you can't please the world and everyone around you, you have to think for yourself too. You are your own person and if you're not living happy, everything you work hard for and strive for is meaningless. So, whatever problems you're having, think of your happiness first and then resolve them." He was silent for a moment but then, a wide smile graced his lips. His eyes seemed to shine like the lights in the skyline, blinding her momentarily. "Yeah, if you're not happy, nothing you work for has meaning... Thank you." "It's nothing." "You don't seem to belong here." She felt the exact same way, but what exactly did he mean by that, had she been exposed? She felt panicked as her brain clogged and stopped working. She was an English major dammit, why couldn't she think up some cooked up story now? But, as it turns out, her fears were for nothing. Adam's cheeks turned slightly red as he appeared nervous. "I didn't mean it like that!" He said in an almost shout, causing a couple a little farther off to be startled as they looked over, he hurriedly lowered his voice as he clarified. "You're easy to talk to." "Oh..." After the initial discomfort passed, they seemed to be talking about anything and everything. She discussed her English major while he discussed business. They both argued over their favorite poems, hers was 'If' by Rudyard Kipling, while his favorite was 'Macavity, The Mystery Cat' by T.S. Elliot. Both were beautiful poems, but they both seemed intent that theirs was the better one until they called it a truce. Surprisingly, the second poem on their list was the same. This was a surprise as they both started laughing. She really enjoyed talking to Adam. Suddenly, the entire hall turned silent and she realized everyone was looking towards the host, it was nearing the end of the party and it was time for the women to take off their masks. Seeing this, she panicked. Her friend had told her she would definitely come over before this since these parties always worked in a time frame. She was late and it was time. Adam sensed her discomfort and wanted to ask her a question. "Wow, I just realized I never got your name." He seemed surprised, the conversation had just flown so smoothly that he completely forgot all about her mysterious identity. "You can call me Cinderella." Since worse had come to worst, all she could do was hope to make a dash for it, without getting caught or toppling over in these heals and uncomfortable dress, "That—" He seemed confused and his hand came up to hold hers. This increased her panic tenfold, but she felt her phone vibrate in the clutch and she just knew that it was her friend. Giving him one final glance as she looked into his honey irises, she turned before running away. "Hey—" Adam called after her, but a woman's voice sounded from behind them, calling his name. She felt pain in her heart from realizing his heart most probably already belonged to someone. Adam Ellison had, in a single evening, completely stolen her heart. She told herself that her feelings were probably superficial, and would be forgotten in a few days to feel better, but they sounded like lies. She ran away from Adam Ellison that day, deeply altering a lot of lives. Pain and heartache would plague hers for quite some time in the future.