The Dawn

Chapter 6

Ria's Pov

I tried telling everyone about how I never took the pills to work that day. But they all came up with an explanation that maybe I took two at night. I protested over and over that I couldn't have overdosed. But other than that, I couldn't come up with a logical explanation.

Andrew didn't overwork me after I returned the next day though. He made it seem like he didn't care at the hospital that night, but he did seem to have a tiny bit of humanity inside him.

The meeting with Global Constructions next week was a hot topic at work. Everyone was absolutely sure that Andrew would succeed, putting me under immense pressure.

Andrew too was tensed because of it. He seemed to have forgotten about the whole challenge thing because he kept ordering me around to make sure everything was okay and there were no mistakes. I, too, had my hopes pinned to success because I was really working hard for this contract to be signed.

Also, I developed a great friendship with Drew. He's an amazing guy. Charismatic and goofy.

Finally, the day before the meeting arrived. I decided I needed to look extremely good because I was supposed to stand through it the entire time, tending to the needs of our guests. So I went to the salon after I finished for the day to get my hair cut and styled. I took V with me and she made me get bangs over my forehear. She also made me get dull red highlights and dyed my hair black. I watched as my strawberry blonde hair went jet black with dull red highlights at the edges. Actually, my hair colour was originally light brownish. But when we ran and came over here, I kept changing it to different colours over the years. The last colour I had on was strawberry blonde.

After that, this black made me look like a whole new person. After we were both done, she got her hair dyed to a platinum blonde, we went out to shop and have dinner.

I picked out a red sleeveless top that enclosed at the neck and black jean shorts to wear that day. I didn't want to wear a pencil skirt because I didn't simply like wearing that. I also picked out red heels to wear. I returned home around 10. V had already left for her home.

I dumped everything I bought inside my room and pulled my hair in a ponytail. I still hadn't forgotten the incident with the pill and my fainting even though it happened a week ago.

I rubbed my face and decided to talk to Andrea. She had called this morning but I couldn't talk to her because of work. I grabbed my purse and opened it. My phone wasn't in there. I raked my brain, trying to remember when was the last time I had it.

My eyes widened in realization.

It's in the meeting room!

I groaned. Seeing as I had no other choice, I grabbed my purse and a flashlight, and left to get my phone. I hired a taxi and took it to that huge building I call my work place. A car whizzed by speedily as I stepped out.

I paid the guy and hurried inside. The clock ticked to 10:30 as I entered the lobby. It was dark, gloomy and awfully silent here in contrast to the hustle bustle of this place during business hours. Switching on the flashlight, I illuminated the dark hallway. I stood infront of the elevator doors and contemplated whether I wanted to take it at this time. With no one inside the building too.

Not wanting to risk my phobia, I decide to walk up 6 floors so I could reach meeting room no. 5. Determined, I pushed open the door to the stairs and began to climb, one step after another. It drained all of my energy, but I managed to reach the 6th floor, panting and wheezing. The silence of this place was terrifying me, so I quickly pushed open the doors and flashed the light down the secluded corridor.

Everything was deadly silent and dark. I quickly scurried towards the meeting room. When I got there however, I noticed that the door was ajar.

Weird. I'm sure I was the last one out and I shut it pretty firmly. How come it's open?

A sudden fear began to crept within me and gripped my heart. Not liking my uneasiness, I pushed the door open. Fumbling for the light switch, I quickly threw it down.

The room flooded with light, revealing something that made me give a scream and drop whatever I was holding.

The room was completely messed up!

By messed up I don't mean a few things dropped here and there, but completely trashed.

All of the chairs in which the guests were to be seated were all overturned and scattered across the room. The napkins and table mats that I had laid out were all either ripped or thrown everywhere. The huge meeting table was also all scratched up. The projector had been mercilessly pulled down from it's hanging position on the ceiling and thrown at the side. The crockery that I had arranged, the tea cups and small snack dishes, were all broken to a billion pieces. And it looked like someone had slammed them on the wall to break them because a certain portion of it had scratches all over.

My legs gave out at the sight infront of me and I shrank to the ground, my hands on my head. Everything that I had worked for, every single thing was either half destroyed or completely destroyed.

"How did this even happen?! I monitored every single thing before I left so how could this have happened?!" Andrew screeched for the millionth time now. I just sat on the ground, too dazed to even speak.

When I recovered from my paralysing shock a couple of minutes ago, I called him. I told him everything and he raced here like 20 minutes ago. And since then, he's been either swearing or yelling at the top of his lungs.

My boss kept yelling for another 10 minutes and honestly, I was beginning to get annoyed.

"Tomorrow's the meeting and every single this is a total mess! Chairs all overturned, the crockery all messed up, how on earth could this have-

"Stop it will you?!" I yelled. That cut him off and he looked at me. "You yelling is not going to help us. This is the only room big enough to house all of our guests so would you please stop fretting and get to work?" I finished, my chest bouncing up and down because of my breathless rant.

Now he looked angry and embarrassed. "Oh yeah? So what's your idea smarty pants?"

"I'm going to clean this mess up, put everything in order again," I quickly walked over and grabbed on of the chairs, turned it over, straightened and dusted the leather and wheeled it in place. Then I did the same thing with another one. As I kneeled down to pick up a napkin, I saw Andrew's hand shoot down and scoop another one. I looked at him and he looked at me.

"Well tomorrow is an important day. And I need to make sure nothing goes wrong," he straightened up and took off his jacket, revealing a dark sports t-shirt underneath. He looked really hot in the casual clothing and I realized this was the first time I was seeing him in it. "Let's do this together than, shall we?" He looked at me expectantly and determinantly.

It took me a moment but I quickly nodded my head. After that, it was a total pain. Both of us set to work and straightened the entire room out. He put the tables and chairs back in order while I collected all of the napkins and replaced them with new ones. I also replaced the table mats and hung a portrait on the wall over the scratches.

He tried fixing the projector back but all of it's wires had been broken. It was bound to be that way though, due to the way it had been wretched off the ceiling and tossed aside. He went out to call the electrician and tell him to come early morning to fix it.

Meanwhile, I grabbed a broom and began sweeping the broken pieces of the tea set. After I had gathered all at one place, I crotched down and began to collect them inside the tiny trash tray. I dumped the shreds of the broken glass inside the little dustbin I had brought. I looked around for more but there were none.

"Looks like got all of them." I smiled but in my happiness, I lost my balance and fell backwards. My hands shot out to the floor to steady myself. I guess I was wrong when I said I got all of the glass shards because a sharp pain shot through the palm of my hand.

I gave a screech and yanked my hand up to see. Sure enough, a huge piece of glass had lodged itself in my palm, cutting it open. Blood was pouring out.

"What the- how did you cut yourself?" Andrew's worried voice made me look up. He was kneeling down beside me now, surprising as I never heard him come back in, studying my bleeding palm. He took my bleeding hand into both of his big ones. His touch was warm and soft and it made waves of electricity pass through my wrist.

I closed my eyes as my hand stung.

"I'll remove the glass, wait." He said. I watched as he gently removed the glass piece from my hand. But no matter how gently or slowly he did, it pained just as much.

I winced and squeezed my eyes shut. My hand kept shaking in his warm ones.

"It's okay. It's going to hurt just a little bit." He said gently, softly even.

I nodded rapidly. "Just get it over with. It really hurts." I mumbled.

He quickly got to his feet and tugged on my arm, pulling me on mine. He led the way to the bathrooms outside the meeting room and washed my blood down the drain. I winced as the warm water grazed the cut, making it sting a bit more.

"Go back to the room and sit down. I'll bring the first aid box from my office." Andrew said and before I could protest, he left.

I walked back inside and sat down on one of the chairs and looked around. Everything had been done. One couldn't even tell that somebody had turned this place upside down.

But who could've done this? It wasn't me. It couldn't be Andrew either. The staff required entry cards to come in and they always left them at the front desk. And they left the building before I had so they couldn't possibly have done this. Then who?

I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of Andrew walking back in, holding the first aid kit. He took a seat next to me and motioned me to him my hand.

"It's okay. I'll do it myself." I said.

"No I'll do it. You won't be able to sterilize the wound up properly anyway." He replied and stubbornly took my hand. I neared him so he could easily sterilize and bandage up my wound.

Whilst being so near to him, I took the time to properly admire his features.

Aside from being a total jerk, he had been blessed with the most beautiful of facial features. His jaw line was sharp and his light stubble looked so damn attractive. His eyes, nose, lips everything screamed perfection. Plus from this close, the guy smelled really really good. His scent was intoxicating. My eyes fell to his biceps, which flexed as he moved his arms bandaging my hand.

"Take a picture. It'll last longer." He looked at me and smirked.

I blinked and moved slightly back, embarrassed that he had caught me checking him out.

"Than-," my voice came out squeaky so I cleared my throat, "Thankyou."

"What?" He looked at me.

"Well, I'm uh, just surprised that you would do something like this." I waved my bandaged hand. "Not that you can't. I don't mean it offensively. I'm just genuinely confused." One minute, he would be my cold boss who would make me do tons of work and the next minute, he would be sweet like bandaging my hand.

I thought he would look at me skeptically and snark in response, but what he actually did shocked me even more.

He laughed.

Like a real laugh. Not one of those sarcastic ones or rude ones. He threw back his head, ran a hand through his hair and laughed.

Seeing him like that, I couldn't help but smile myself. He stopped laughing and fiddled with the bottle of antiseptic in his hand.

"I don't know. Circumstances can change a man." He replied, staring hard at the bottle in his hand.

His response took me by surprise. He had always struck me as the type of person who never had anything to worry about in his life. Someone who had the world to his beck and call. Someone who could hold all the happiness of the universe in the palms of his hands.

But now, sitting here in this dark building and staring into his beautiful grey eyes, I realized that everything is not what it seems.

Rich or poor, arrogant or humble, every person has to deal with many road bumps. Living in this strange country for 12 years now, with no idea as to who and why killed my parents, I had always thought that I was the only who could tell what sorrow really is.

But Andrew proved me wrong today about two things.

Not every rich person, swimming in a pool of money, is as happy inside as he is outside being the first one.

And that he isn't heartless after all being the second one.