Requested by anon
The goose bumps on your arms were coaxing you into closing the window at the far end of your office floor. You looked up at it with dagger eyes wishing it could react to your threat. No luck. You were just as stubborn. You wrapped your jacket around you tightly and began to scroll through your inbox once again. It was almost 8 o clock. Everyone had left the office building but you. You sat in the dark empty room, hoping for a miracle to happen on that Friday night. If you went home empty handed you would most likely not get promoted.
“Come on … come on.. come on!!” you said refreshing the page for the 10th time. Nothing. No new person had submitted a story. You had read and rejected five stories earlier that day. You were hoping someone would submit a good one by the end of the day. The deadline for the first rough draft was the following Tuesday which gave you one more working day to sort things out. Without a story, you would fail at the big end of the month project and never get promoted in your 2 year old job.
You sat in silence staring at you screen in utter disappointment. It was as if the whole universe was conspiring against you. A healthy smile took you at your own thought. You were a bit of a dramatic person.
Suddenly, your ears perked at the *bling* on your computer. The bold words appearing before you could never be more satisfying. It was an email, an email you had been longing to receive. You clicked on it immediately. There wasn’t much content except a single line stating that a story was attached. It seemed as if the sender was in a hurry.
Nevertheless, you downloaded the file and began reading. The very first line had captured all your attention. But slowly the content went downhill. You were starting to lose focus. It seemed as if the writer was very detached from his work. There were occasions that you felt he/she had put their heart and soul into it and at other times the whole story was just falling apart.
You could also tell that English was their second language since the mistakes were beyond imaginable. That, you could fix but only if the story was a little better written. The plot was the same as any other story about relationships falling apart.
“Great! …another heartbreaker!” you frowned at the draft. It was around 9 o clock. It hadn’t taking you much long to skim through the story. You opened a new window and like you had done 5 times already, began writing an email telling the sender that the story was going to be rejected.
With a heavy heart you clicked ‘send’. Your day was finally over. You began packing your content when you heard another *bling*. It was from the same person. You scrunched your nose as you clicked on it.
“Hello,
I am sorry my last email was so rushed. I was at a public computer and my time was almost over. I do not quite understand why my work has been rejected. I have put a lot of thought into it. From your feedback you gave me I have a feeling I still have a chance.
Would you like to meet in person so we can discuss this further? This is very important to me and I do not want to fail at this big opportunity. If you think my request is a bit out of line, I apologize in advance.
Sincerely
Luhan”
You felt your heart sink a little as you read the name. “Luhan… hmmm” you whispered. The name rang a bell but you could not remember for sure. You read and re read the email a few times. There was nothing planned for the weekend anyways. You wrote a brief reply:
“Hey
Tomorrow: 9 o clock
Place: City Café
___________”
“Thank you so much. I will see you there.
Luhan”
“Great,” you muttered to yourself as you walked out of the dark room. Now you had to reject him in person.
***********************************************
You looked more than fresh, sitting in a corner table at the café. You didn’t mind the least being the first one to arrive. You had gotten there a half hour early. There were a few other people at the shop. None of them caught your attention but a guy sitting at the other end of the café, newspaper covering his face. He had seemed to get there a few minutes before you since you saw him order when you entered.
Time flew by quickly. It was five minutes past nine. You frowned a little at his tardiness. That was one thing you hated about writers. Another five minutes passed. You swung your head towards the door again. In the moment, your eyes met the guy sitting at the other end. He had also been curiously looking towards the door. Both you and he smiled at each other foolishly knowing that you had been waiting for each other this whole time. He grabbed his bad nervously, almost spilling his coffee and dropping the newspaper. He walked towards you with a hearty but shaken smile.
“Hello,” he muttered quickly looking away, pretending to set his content on the table.
“Hi,” you replied offering your hand.
Both you and he settled down opposite each other. You gave him a comforting smile so he wouldn’t be completely lost due to his jumpy condition. You heard him take a few deep breaths to relax himself. In only a few moments he seemed to be getting normal.
“I’m sorry about this,” he said pointing to himself. You narrowed your eyebrows as if questioning his statement.
“For being so flustered..” he added. “I didn’t get enough sleep last night.”
“May I ask why was that so? …ah.. you don’t have to answer if you’re not comfortable,” you said. He looked up at you. He was very relaxed and smiling more casually now.
“Oh … I had personal business to take care of. Nothing too special.” He looked away once again so you won’t be able to tell he was lying. He had spent the entire last night editing and re editing the story and practicing how he would convince you. If he didn’t get this break, his career would be over. His rich father will call him back home and force him to attend Business School.
“I’m not too sure why you called me here today?” you asked.
“I want you to re read the story one more time. Let me know what’s wrong. I’ll try my best to fix it…”
“Luhan…,” you said his name hesitantly. “That’s not the problem though. Even if you fix all these little mistakes…your story is still not extra ordinary. It’s not any different from the many others we have published already. We need something different. Something people have never read before. Something that makes them anticipate our next issue.”
His lips parted to defend his position but he soon realized that it would be better he remained quiet. He had to choose his words wisely for you to be convinced. He sat, his head bent down, eyes closed and hands clapped together. You examined his soft features. They were so baby like. Innocence printed all over his face. You were starting to doubt if he was older than you. Knowing that people around you, may be looking you diverted your attention towards the beautiful white Gardenia in the red vase. You were surprised to see them at a small café like that one. There was smell was very pleasing to the nose. You could not help but admire their delicate structure. Taking one out of the vase, you brought it close to your nose. For a second, you felt like you were back at the coffee shop two years ago, waiting for your date. He had walked in with grace, holding those beautiful gardenias in his hands. He had apologized repeatedly for being late. His smile, his eyes, his face everything was a mark of perfection. He was your muse. Every word he uttered sounded like a sweet melody to you.
You shook your head back to reality also sighing deeply. Broken relationships were better forgotten. As you looked up, you saw a dazed writer staring back at you. He had been admiring you, admiring the flowers. But in that moment, he had realized how hurt and broken you were on the inside.
“Are you okay?” you asked.
“Huh.. ah yeah,” he said shaking his head in embarrassment.
“ Look Luhan,” you began once again. Your past thoughts had suddenly changed your mind. You wanted to give him a chance. “You just need to find some inspiration and I’m sure you’ll be able to produce something worthy of publishing.”
You realized that you had placed your hand over his. You immediately pulled back.
“Inspiration is all you need to …”
“I think I just found it,” Luhan said cutting you. You looked at him with a half dazed state.
“Okay then,” you said getting up. “Send me something by Sunday night and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Excuse me,” he called you. “Your bag.”
You took it from him, turning back immediately so he wouldn’t see your light pink blushing face.
******************************************************
Sunday Night, 8 o clock:
You heard the *bling* as soon as you sat down on your working table at home. He was right on time! You clicked open the attached file.
‘Cafe Rendezvous
There was something very beautiful about the way her tear laden eyes admired the Gardenias. The way that faint but breathtaking smile embraced her soft lips, the way her fingers danced nervously and they way her nostrils flared only slightly …all of it was indescribable….’
You felt a shudder run through your body. His words were beautiful…you felt beautiful. You wiped the tears out of your eyes. You had a story to read…
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So ummm I wanted this one to be dramatic and here it is. I hope you guys like this. :*