"Happy Birthday mother." Elle wished into the open air. "This last year has gone by really fast. A lot of thing"s have happened. I moved out of the family home. I"m not sure if you"d be happy about it; I"ve had to leave your garden to father"s care and we both know how well that"s bound to go, but I felt like it was time for me to leave. I met someone you see. His name is Adam. He"s rich and handsome and very respectable. It"s almost comical that a silly and simple girl like me gets to have him, but for some reason he seems to like me very much."
Elle began to feel her cheeks heat up. "Ah, how embarra.s.sing. He should be here soon. Should I make him talk to the empty air like a lunatic too? On the very low chance that somehow you really are listening?"
Back in his office Adam and his father were having a standoff.
"You didn"t have to come all this way." Adam said.
"It turns out I do. Why didn"t you tell me about the issue with the contract."
"Because it"s not an issue."
"Then show me a signed contract." His father countered.
"It"s obviously only a tactic. They"re stalling in hopes of getting a better deal. MK has nothing to loose even if the contract falls through and they don"t sign with us."
"But Amelia does. This contract is the best opportunity for her right now."
Adam"s eyes narrowed. "You"re here on her behalf?"
"It"s a mutual benefit." After a long moment his father finally relented. "Look, I"m not telling you to force contract to be signed but at least go to the negotiations. Your own managers are struggling to resolve this right now. At least pretend you care."
"Fine." Adam conceded gruffly. "I"ll attend the next one."
"No, you"ll attend the one taking place tonight."
"I can"t, I have something more important to attend to."
"What is it?"
"It"s a personal matter."
"This is a personal matter." Mr. Hayes said stubbornly.
Adam could see that his father wouldn"t back down today. He glanced down at his watch. It was still a little early. He hated to do it but Adam knew that if he didn"t satisfy him today he would only make things worse for himself in the future.
"I can spare 30 minutes and not a minute more to this."
"Fine." His father agreed.
"I"m doing this only as a favour to you. I"ll be collecting on this favour in the future."
Adam left the room and made his way downstairs, his father followed with a disapproving grunt.
Elle glanced at the time. It had already been some time since Adam"s last text message but he still hadn"t arrived.
"Was there traffic? Or did he get held back at work?" Elle wondered anxiously.
She decided to text him first. "Have you left yet? Are you on your way?" she asked. Elle waiting but there was no reply. In his haste Adam had left his phone in his office. It vibrated uselessly against his desk in the empty room.
Meanwhile in a meeting room in MK Amelia smirked with satisfaction as she saw Adam enter the room.
"You came." She noted with fake surprise.
"Only to listen in for a bit. I"ll be leaving in fifteen minutes." Adam said. His father had parted ways with him in the lobby. He had no way to enforce the thirty minutes Adam had promised to.
Amelia"s smile faltered. "Do you have somewhere to be? Perhaps a date with Elle?" She only said it as a joke but judging from the way Adam"s jaw clenched as he stole a glance at the time she felt she had hit the nail on the head.
Adam ignored her questions. "Let"s begin quickly." He instructed his staff.
In Elle"s condo the dim light of the candle, which was getting lower and lower with each pa.s.sing second, was beginning to cast dancing shadows against the walls. The scent of burning candles filled the air as the wax slowly melted away.
Elle sat beside the coffee table with her knees pulled up under her chin, watching her phone screen, watching the seconds tick by, when suddenly her phone buzzed. She jumped for it, expecting it to be Adam"s reply. Instead she saw she had received a text message from Amelia.
The two girls had exchanged numbers during the time Elle had treated her and Mrs. Hayes to tea but they had never called or messaged each other since then. Elle frowned and wondered what she could have possibly sent her as she opened the message.
"Sorry Elle, Adam"s held up in a meeting with me at MK." She wrote. "He wouldn"t say so but it seems like he had a date with you tonight. This meeting will still take a few hours longer so if you"re waiting for him it would be best for you to go home first. I"d hate for you to be left waiting alone. I"m sure he"ll make it up to you next time."
Amelia"s text was carefully crafted. It was polite enough that no one would suspect her ulterior motives, she even pretended to have Elle as her main concern. However Elle knew better. Her reaction wasn"t what Amelia had hoped for.
She hoped Elle would get angry with Adam and text him telling him she had gone home, leaving Adam with no obligations for the evening. But instead of feeling angry Elle just felt pathetic.
She knew his work was important but had she not sacrificed enough in the way of his work already? Elle already said she was fine with him being late but did he really plan on being a few hours late? All over a silly contract negotiation?
After worrying in circles Elle finally gave up. She only knew one way to satisfy the craze within her mind. She reached for her phone.
The second fifteen minutes had pa.s.sed Adam politely excused himself from the meeting.
"Are you sure you have to go?" Amelia asked in a hushed voice, in a futile attempt to spend some more time with him. "It"s already been a while, Elle wouldn"t have waited this whole time. Surely she"s gone home first. Why don"t you let me treat you to dinner tonight as my thank you for your partic.i.p.ation?"
"No, thanks." Was all Adam said before leaving the meeting room.
As soon as he had his phone back in his grasp Adam saw the notifications from Elle"s missed text messages. He immediately tried to call her back but there was no reply. Adam cursed under his breath and rushed to her side.
It was still early in the evening by the time he arrived at her condo but Adam knew he had left Elle waiting for almost an hour now. As he got out of his car he saw he had another missed notification but this time it wasn"t from a text message or a call - Elle had updated her story.
Adam knew what this story was to her, it was a crutch. A place for her to dump her unwanted feelings. He could only imagine what she had written in it today. With a guilty heart he opened the story.
"I wonder if it was a lie when you said I should trust you. For the first time in my life I feel wronged by you."
She was right to be upset. Adam could do nothing to fix it but to rush to her side, and so he did.
When he got upstairs he found Elle still sitting in her spot on the floor, with her legs tucked up against her chest. On the coffee table beside her was a small cake now partially covered by the wax of the candle that was once lit in it that had now melted away to nothing.
Elle"s eyes, which were wide with surprise as she watched Adam walk in, were tinged with red.
"I"m so sorry." Adam immediately apologized. "I"m late."
"You"re here." Elle breathed. "I thought you would be working for much longer still."
"Of course I wouldn"t. We had a promise didn"t we? I know I"m late, I beg your forgiveness for it. It"s inexcusable but - "
Adam was cut short by Elle who crossed the room and threw herself into his embrace. "It"s okay since you"re here now. You"re barely late, I thought you might be much longer still."
"It"s not okay. You were right, I wronged you." He said, quoting her written words.
"What?" Elle asked, leaning back to look at him incredulously. "What are you talking about?"
"You wrote saying you felt wronged by me right?"
"How do you know about that?"
"I know everything about you." Adam said with a playful smile. "Did you think you could hide your diary from me when you posted it online?"
Elle stared at him with an open mouth. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine Adam might be reading the words that she had been writing. Her earlier worries were forgotten in a moment of sheer panic.
Adam chuckled at the expression of shock on her face. "From now on don"t run to your book, instead talk directly to me."