Saving My Heroine

Chapter 6

6th May 2020

(The previous timeline)

Celine stared blankly at the woman before her. Coral was as beautiful as photos made her to be, only Celine could not understand why she was cornering her. She stared silently at her, waiting

“So, you're who Michael's dating now.” Coral said dryly.

Celine flinched, she and Michael had not made their relationship public yet. She looked at Coral who was staring at her with malice in her eyes. Coral looked like a doll, her brown hair across her shoulders, her skin was fair and glowing, her eyes lips a muted red and her eyes a beautiful shade of amber. She wore one of the new Haute Style collections.

Such a shame, Celine thought, her pretty eyes are ruined by her malice. Celine sat up straighter, rolled her shoulders gently and smiled brightly.

“Miss Coral, I don't think we've met before and I don't think you have any job that you need my help with, and even if you did I'm just a junior engineer, you'll need to speak to my superior. So why then, are you here?" Celine asked sharply.

Coral flinched, she had not expected Celine to be so calm and decisive when acknowledging her, that was her mistake, she supposed. She had come here today because she wanted to attack and humiliate Celine at her place of work but she had been scared of Michael, so when she found out that Michael would be on a business trip she had taken the chance to come here.

“I just wanted to see the woman who stole my fiancee." Coral replied, smiling sweetly.

“Ex fiancee!" Celine corrected immediately. “Your engagement has been broken since Michael turned 18. Don't try to make it seem like I seduced Michael when he was with you."

She was aware that Coral was trying to twist the facts and destroy her reputation amongst her colleagues and she was not having it. She could see her colleagues had focused their attention on the confrontation. Of course most people were aware of the relationship between Coral and Michael but it would be easy for them to twist things if they wanted. She had worked way too hard to get to where she was and she refused to allow a petty woman ruin her career because of jealousy.

Coral glared at Celine fiercely, she hated the calmness in her face, she had come here to embarrass Celine but now she was the one being embarrassed as the girl who can't let go of her ex.

With a sneer of contempt curling on her lips, Coral scoffed, “You might think he loves you but at the end of the day he would still have to marry someone of his status." She rose from her seat and stormed out of the room in fury.

The room fell into silence, some people went back to their work while others stole glances at Celine. Celine ignored them all, happy and surprised to have survived that encounter without crying. She sent a short message to Michael, telling him about the confrontation and went back to work.

3rd April 2020

Anna shut the door behind her and slid down. She rested her head and sighed. She wished Michael was a bad person but honestly he wasn't. Even in the previous timeline they had been friends and while the relationship between him and Celine had deteriorated, she knew that it wasn't his fault and he had loved Celine a lot. She stood up and moved to her room.

After a quick shower, she came out drying her hair with a towel and moved to her desk. She picked up the book detailing her past life and opened a new page. She laughed softly at herself, she had not even lasted long in her resolve to break them up.

“Fixing a toxic relationship," she muttered to herself as she wrote. While she knew that they both loved each other, she was also aware of the fact that they had a lot of issues.

Anna believed that healthy communication would fix most of their problems but there were still some events that affected their relationship negatively and they needed to be avoided or contained. She hummed softly, the closest and trigger for everything was what she needed to tackle first and that was Celine's insecurities.

She spent almost an hour writing down most of the events she could remember, she stopped after she had yawned for the fifth time. She stood up from her chair, her steps lighter and hung her towel. She looked at herself in the mirror, determination shining in her tired eyes.

“There's work to be done." She yawned, “but first, sleep."

Anna slept in and woke up to the ringing of her phone, she searched wildly as she rose up, still very sleepy. She stretched and glanced at the caller ID. She saw Celine's name and picked up with a smile.

“I can't believe you're still sleeping.” Celine laughed. Anna grumbled intelligibly and rubbed her eyes.

“Are you awake now?" Celine asked.

“Yeah, good morning." She replied, “but why did you call so early?" Celine burst out laughing

“Lazy bones, it's almost 11."

“Oh." Anna replied.

“ I wanted to ask you about Michael but you still seem sleepy, so should I leave you alone?" Celine asked.

“He's pretty amazing, actually.” She said,

"Yeah? So…..you approve?"

“Of course, you two are really cute and he obviously really likes you." Anna smiled, Celine giggled.

"So what did you……" As they conversed Anna went around doing chores and preparing for the day and soon the morning entered noon and they ended their call with plans to speak later in the day.

Anna stretched and picked her bag out to go shopping, she was running low on groceries and wanted to prepare for the upcoming week.

She entered the bustling mall and pushed through the crowd and started her shopping.

“Anna?" She heard her name and looked up.

" Mr Masen.” She greeted as he walked up to her.

"I didn't know you lived around here.” He chuckled.

"Just down the street.” She replied, "I'm guessing you just moved here?”

"Yeah, I bought a small condo just opposite.” Masen smiled, his expression warm and friendly. "I'm glad we ran into each other, Anna," he said “I've wanted to have a conversation with you but have been unable to find the chance."

Anna's eyes widened, she knew why. She wasn't dumb, she had noticed his interest in her but she wasn't expecting him to say it so plainly. Well it wasn't really plainly, she mused.

“Oh?” She asked, "about what sir?”

"Anna.” His voice went low. Anna felt her legs go weak at the sound, the room faded when she looked into his eyes “Yeah?"

“Call me Masen." He looked very hot and Anna had to steady herself with her cart.

“Masen." He smiled and his entire countenance changed. His face brightened with a hint of boyish charm, he didn't look like he was close to thirty at all.

This guy is very dangerous, Anna thought, staring at him. She stared into his warm and inviting gaze with her heart pounding. She could feel the heat of his gaze on her and her head spun with the understanding of his interest.

“Could I invite you to dinner?" A small smile tugged at his lips, “My treat?"

Anna contemplated softly, while she couldn't deny her attraction, there were so many reasons to deny his request. She had to focus on Celine and he was her boss. She looked up at him.

“Okay." She replied, surprising even herself. Masen stretched out his hand requesting her phone to exchange numbers, she handed it to him and he inputted his number into her phone and gave himself a call. He saved his number.

“I'll text you." He waved to her, as he left. "I still have some things to buy.”

Anna stared at his back for a short while after he left then went back to her shopping, putting the encounter behind her. The rest of her shopping trip passed in a blur.

Back in the comfort of her apartment, Anna dropped her bags on her kitchen table and dived into her couch. She settled in her mind replaying her earlier encounter with him. She scolded herself for agreeing to go out with him but couldn't help but smile at the thought of his warm gaze and inviting eyes. She had never felt such an intense attraction to anyone before and so quickly too.

She groaned, burying her face in a pillow. She pushed herself from the couch when she received a message. She checked and saw that it was Masen confirming that she was home. She let out an unconscious smile at that and quickly sent him a reply.

She dropped her phone and went about sorting her groceries, trying to shake off her desire to continue the conversation. Less than an hour later, she went back to her phone and saw that he had dropped three messages. She replied to the last one asking what she was currently up to and apologized for replying late and immediately got a response back. She curled into her seat and spent the rest of the afternoon texting him.