So Wrong, Not Right

Chapter 2

She was proud of herself knowing that she has accomplished all that amidst Collective Soul’s whining in Justin Adams’s bedroom.

The next day, she had lunch with her bestfriends. Yuan works on the building next to hers and Jill’s, and all of them work on flexi-time, so it was quite easy for them to get together for lunch and coffee breaks.

“How was Troy?” Jill asked Adrienne.

She shrugged. “Having study dates with Kim.”

Jill raised her brow.

“They deserve each other you know.” Yuan said blatantly.

“Yuan!” Jill hissed.

“What?” He asked nonchalantly. “They are both boring.Come on, Yen. It’s not that I want you to be jealous or hurt. It’s just that I think you deserve a more exciting lovelife than seeing your boyfriend twice every quarter and hearing him sing your sister praises! You have been keeping up with this for three years and it’s not good for you.”

“I can’t say I don’t agree with you, Yuan. I mean, come on, Yen! You deserve to have more life! Why don’t we get to that makeover thing! You could use more makeup and clothes hotter than your square pants! And for God’s sake!

These are reading glasses!” Jill said flicking on her eyeglasses.

“Ouch!” She said irritably. Somehow, her friends have this illusion that she can be hot and she has a face of a goddess.

Adrienne doesn’t think she is ugly, but she doesn’t think she is fabulous either. She’s got dark brown hair with some red highlights and green eyes. She is slim and slender. She does

take pride in her curves. Somehow, she doesn’t have to go through the ordeal of dieting and exercising on a strict schedule. She’s never been overweight. She’s never too

thin either. She was well-endowed, according to her friends, but for her, her breasts were just the right size. Not small, and not too big either. But she never thought herself to look above the ordinary. She found no reason to flaunt

her features. According to her mother, Kimberly was a beauty. She, on the other hand:

“Well… Adrienne is not ugly. But Kim is the beauty and the brains in the family.” These were her mother’s exact words.

If your own mother can’t think you are beautiful, who else will? She was glad that she got Troy’s attention though. And this made her mother extremely proud of her. Maybe that is why no matter how her friends tell her to drop Troy,

she just can’t bring herself to do so. He could be the only achievement she’s ever had, as far as her mother was concerned.

“By the way guys, I saw Justin Adams in the office this morning. What a snob that guy is! I was trying to look him in the eye as we pass each other in the hallway, and it’s like he didn’t see me at all. But God! Was he devastating!”

“How could you look him in the eye, when he always had those pair of shades on?” Adrienne asked her matter-of-factly.

Yuan chuckled to Jill’s dismay. Adrienne smiled. “I’m not… I’m sorry. Do go on with your story. I was just being a brat.”

“There’s nothing more to it. I’m just saying that I saw him this morning. That’s it.

“Don’t try to catch that guy’s attention. You can faint all you want in front of him, and I don’t care he’ll have a care for us mere mortals.” Adrienne said.

She tried to tell her friends that Justin Adams lived across her, but then she decided not to. She didn’t know why exactly. But somehow, she remembered how excited she has been to go home just so she could prepare some nachos

while she sit on her spot in her room, just beside the sliding door, when she can watch Justin in the balcony smoking, doing nothing but stare at their New York view.

She has been doing that for a couple of days now. She doesn’t know why she found it exciting. She sounded like a lunatic! But it is not everyday that she does something out of the ordinary. Something exciting and out of the propriety.

Justin sleeps until twelve noon time on weekends. On weekdays, she finds him busy on his cellphone long before she was up. He will be in when she comes home by seven

in the evening, sometimes he has his buddies in his place, playing poker or just simply drinking and smoking in his balcony. Oftentimes, he will be out by nine in the evening, and there were times she would read a book until he comes home around one in the morning, sometimes later than that.

He would smoke in his balcony, take a shower and go to bed. He takes a shower more than three times a day. She knows because she often sees him parading around his

bedroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist. Then she would see him in his balcony with his hair still wet from the shower.

She smiled in her desk. She stared at her laptop and decided typing. Soon she found herself composing a plot.

She drew a picture of him with words. Her rebel was a dark-haired knight, who was a duke banished himself from his inheritance and his legacy to escape the gallows of his

monopolizing father. Her heroine was a red-haired princess, the second daughter of a king to a maid, with an evil queen stepmother and charming but vile stepsister.

She juggled between writing her novel and writing the work stuff. She was progressing on her novel even during office hours, she even missed the coffee breaks she usually have with Jill and the other girls in the office. She figured, she can do away with more Justin Adams talks. All the information she needs about him for now is a balcony away, from her at home.

She was in Chapter Three. By then, her raven-haired rebel had already met each other for the first time, in a ball they both went to, where her Princess disguised herself as a lady’s companion of her dear friend.

She sighed. Her eyes were tired but her mind was still reeling with words to add to her novel. She decided to stretch out a bit and stood up from her seat. Her eyes caught a dark-haired figure walking in the aisles towards to

Jada’s room. He was wearing a pair of Oakley shades and a leather jacket. For a while, she thought he looked her way and an eyebrow shot up.

She blinked and when she looked again, he disappeared into Jada’s room. She took a deep breath. She must be out of her mind. The

last thing she wants is to be obsessed with a guy who is already being obsessed about by half of Manhattan.

She continued to work on her novel when she went home. All the while, she is sitting beside her sliding door, looking over at Justin’s balcony, watching him. He was inspiring her writing. She has molded her character perfectly in his image.

“How come Justin Adams doesn’t have a girlfriend?” She asked her friends when they had coffee later that night.

Jill shrugged. “He’s too snob.”

“I think he thinks no one is worthy of him. One must be royalty first.” Yuan said.

Adrienne raised her brow. “What is he doing in New York then? He must go to England if he wanted to meet some royal girl.”

“Well, we know he is constantly available. He’s dating around. He has been seen with models, and some members of the elite class. His name won’t be linked with these girls

for more than two weeks. He would then walk out. He would be gone. After two weeks, he’ll be seen with another woman of higher class and the same will happen.”

“He is a playboy. He can’t commit. Like he dumps all these women after two or three dates. Then he would move on to the higher mortals.” Jill said.

Adrienne sighed. In her mind, she thought about her novel.

“Maybe that is why he was known to be as a rake. He doesn’t commit. And yet we know he doesn’t go without a woman for long. He just… drops them so soon.” She said.

“Well, you know he’s the ultimate commitment-freak!”

“But he won’t stay uncommitted for long. Guys like Justin Adams must already have been engaged to someone by his father. Maybe that’s the reason why he doesn’t want to go back to his family.”

An idea formulated in Adrienne’s mind. Her dark-haired knight would have a betrothed somewhere that her heroine wouldn’t know about. That would present a very interesting conflict in her novel. She smiled at the thought.

“She must be royalty or an heiress. These would be the type of girls his father would have in mind for him.” Jill said.

Her heroine’s stepsister! Adrienne’s smile went wider. She can’t wait to go home and start writing again.

They went home around twelve midnight. She got inside the elevator and pressed her floor number. The door closed and after a split second, it opened again.

She sighed in annoyance. Just then, a dark-haired guy entered the elevator. Her breath caught in her throat. He smelled of aftershave. Musculine and fresh. He was still wearing those damn shades! She wanted to know what the color of his eyes are. She has drawn out his character in her book, and left out her rebel’s eye color. She pushed her glasses up her nose. He was a snob. She must be a fool if she thought that for a moment he looked at her in Blush.

After two weeks of seeming like a stalker of Justin Adams, she was halfway through her novel. She found time to make it through her articles. She was in the middle of a conflict between her rebel and her heroine when she got a call from Jada. She rolled her eyes.

,

“Can you come to my office, darling?” Jada asked sweetly.

She groaned as she stood up her seat.

What does the Devil in Prada want now? She thought.

“What is it?” She asked her as soon as she stepped into her boss’s room.

She handed her a ticket.

Gypsys: An enlightening. Come join us in our grand opening.

“What is this?”

“A new trance or whatever bar. They are opening tonight.

I want you to check it out. Since you are our events and features editor, and I can’t possibly go, darling. Unless I can salsa in there.”

“And you think I would enjoy going to a trance bar?” She asked. She looked down at the one ticket in her hand.

Exclusive Gathering. It says.

“And I have to go alone?” She asked more irately.

Jada raised her brow. “Well, that is all the ticket I can get.”

“Or this is all that is left?” She asked under her breath.

“What is it, darling?”

She shook her head. “You don’t expect me to dance, do you?” She asked.

Jada shrugged her long straight hair off her shoulder. “Well, I expect you to say something about the bar, the drinks, the crowd, the music and the dancefloor.”

“You mean, I will dance alone since you only gave me one ticket and I cannot purchase another one for one of my friends to join me because the event is exclusive for invitees

only. So you’re telling me, that I need to say something about how the music sounds from the dance floor, and how glaring or discreet the spot lights can be if one wants to make out in the middle or corner of it, and for me to be

able give a professionally accurate opinion in my review, I have to dance… alone?”

“You will if you have to.” She said.

Adrienne rolled her eyes and turned her back on her boss.

“And Adrienne dear.” Jada called.

The thing about Jada is that she can be a b***h to the other employees, but Adrienne has her ways with her. Jada needs her more than anybody else, since she is the only one she

trusts enough to come to the meetings, appointments and interviews that Jada should be doing herself.

Adrienne let out a sigh before turning around to face Jada again.

“Yes?” She asked.

“If you will dress up tonight the way you usually do, you will be dancing alone.”

Her brows shot up and then she looked at herself. She was wearing a beige square pants and black turtleneck. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and she was still wearing her reading glasses.

“What type of bar is this anyway? I’m not going to a strip bar, am I?” She asked irritably.

Jada let out a sultry laugh. “No, darling, no. I will have Jacob send something for you to wear tonight.”

“It’s really not necessary.” She said.

Jada shook her head. “Come on, Adrienne, darling. I don’t want you to look like you just went there to write an article

about them. I want you to blend. Trust Jacob’s taste darling.”

She rolled her eyes again and dashed out of Jada’s office, shaking her head. In her haste,she ran straight into a hard

surface that smelled familiarly masculine and fresh.

“Hey, easy.” He said, and she felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her waist to balance her.

She stared up and found herself staring at a devastatingly handsome face that made her knees instantly turn to jelly.

Good thing, he was still holding her. Otherwise, she knew she would have collapsed on the floor. His brows shot up and his lip was half-curved in amusement. That brought her back to reality.

“Sorry.” She said curtly and then she pulled away from him and walked towards her desk.

She was thankful that she could still walk a straight line. She was shaking and she realized that all her nerves have spun back to life the moment her body touched his and his

arms went around her.

She didn’t look back. Had she done so, she would have seen that he followed her with his eyes, smiling sheepishly before he shook his head slowly and then entered Jada’s room..

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