DAVID
“Looks like you didn’t get the deal, buddy!” Samuel patted my shoulder while my jaw twitched a little. You know the feeling of finally stepping up and doing something for yourself after living your whole life according to other people? Yeah, this deal could have been that feeling of freedom for me. But I absolutely screwed it up.
A hundred million dollars was nothing a member of the Carlsen Hospitality Group couldn’t afford, but I wanted to do this with my personal finances, without taking a penny from our company.
This property was really not worth the quoted amount, which is why I thought maybe if I presented myself as a hotshot, my offer would look more amicable. But I forgot where I was standing. It was Dubai. Properties were bought and sold like peanuts by industrialists here. And just like that, some inland industrialist got the property I wanted to build my restaurant in.
My flight to London left in two hours, which meant, I needed to hop on the next cab and go straight to the airport but I just couldn’t get past the fact that I was so close to my dream and I found a way to fuck it over.
“David, is everything alright?” Samuel’s voice brought me out of my head. I nodded as I tried to plaster a polite smile on my face.
“No, yeah, yeah. I’m all good. It was great meeting you.” I extended my hand and he shook it firmly.
I could wallow in self-pity until I reached home, but right now? I needed to get a cab if I wanted to catch that flight. By the next forty-five minutes, I was at the airport, all checked in and ready to board the flight. Only, I needed to pour some caffeine into my system.
I hadn’t slept the whole night because of this property meeting, and I think my sleep-deprived body was making me question every single decision I have taken so far, in a really negative way.
So, I went to the first coffee shop that caught my attention and bought myself a large cup of Americano. My body rejoiced at the taste and warmth of the coffee as I slowly walked towards the boarding gate that was mentioned on my boarding pass.
But as I reached, it was already jam-packed with people. My eyes couldn’t find a single empty chair available, apart from the one in the second row.
I walked closer and found the chair sitting between a girl who looked young and a big, elderly man who looked like Joe Calzaghe, only softer and older.
My eyes then narrowed on the girl. Pitch black hair done in a nice low ponytail, with a loose strand hanging around her right cheek. A lavender coloured top with a pair of ash-brown jeans and a smart watch on her right hand. She was bobbing her knee at an unimaginably high speed while staring into space. It looked like she was thinking about something really hard.
She looked cute from where I was standing.
I still had an hour till the boarding started, which meant I would need to wait. Normally, I would busy myself roaming around the airport rather than sitting uncomfortably between people or making other people uncomfortable with my presence. But I didn’t have that kind of energy today, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping to have a conversation with her.
So, I very carefully made it towards the empty chair, constantly asking people to shift their legs out of the way. I almost reached the chair successfully, but then the misfortune had to happen. My shoe got stuck on something, and I tripped in a way that had me lose the grip of my coffee cup, which ultimately spilled over the girl’s top and a little on the side of her cheek.
For the love of God…
“I’m so sorry,” I apologized right when she got up cursing, “What the fuck?” She looked at me with a deep frown on her face, and I should’ve been apologizing again, but instead, I was staring at her. For the split second that she held my gaze, my eyes roamed around her features. Brown eyes, wheat-ish skin tone, bushy eyebrows… before she ran towards the restroom.
I ran my hand through my hair. I was sad that my coffee got wasted, but I was downright cursing every morsel of this Universe for having me spill it over her. I couldn’t even say ‘Hi’ to her, and she already hated me.
I looked behind me to check why exactly I tripped. But there was nothing. How could my stupid shoe get stuck on thin fucking air?
I shook my head in annoyance and settled on the damn chair for which all of it happened, keeping my eyes on my phone, lest I discovered just how many people watched me embarrass myself.
I kept an eye on the way that she had gone, though. In case I caught her coming this way, I could prepare myself to apologize correctly.
Several minutes passed, and she never came back.
Maybe she found herself another seat where she won’t be spilled hot coffee on.
I grimaced. But her bag was still here, and before I could put my conflicting thoughts to rest, I saw her standing at some distance. There was a watermark on her t-shirt, but it had faded mostly.
I thanked God that the coffee at least didn’t leave a stain on. She was looking around the place, as if trying to find something, or somebody, before her eyes landed on me and then shifted to her bag.
She walked the distance and very quickly took her bag on her lap and started looking for something in it. She looked pissed. I didn’t blame her. I would be too.
I debated whether I should speak now, but who knows if I would get the chance later? I locked away my phone and started, “Hey… Are you okay? I’m so sorry for what happened. I should have been more careful.”
“It’s fine.” Her curt reply and lack of interest in looking my way told me just how fine it was.
“Doesn’t look like it,” I pushed a little. “Look, I will make it up to you. Just let me know—”
“I said it’s fine,” she didn’t let me finish. Her voice grew a little louder than before as she finally met my gaze. “Please don’t talk to me again if you really want to make it up to me.”
Something about her felt off, but that tone worked its way up to my mind. I was at fault, and I was apologizing for that. But that didn’t mean I’d let her talk to me that way.
Maybe it’s not all about you?
Yeah, well, I have had a pretty shitty too. I don’t need more of it.
I shifted my body as far away from her as possible while being in the next seat to hers and busied myself with looking through my calendar.
Other than attending meetings myself and arranging meetings for my father, I didn’t have much to stare at. My phone chimed with an incoming calendar invitation. Nathan Ashcroft sent you a calendar invite. My lips thinned as soon as I saw the name.
We both knew that we didn’t like each other, but I never understood why he had to keep putting up these plays. Family events and media appearances were understandable. But he didn’t need to go out of his way to include me in his matters. Just like I wouldn’t care about including him in mine.
Right then, my screen flashed an incoming call from my mom, and I picked it up.
“Hi, my baby. How’s it going?”
“Hey, Mom. How’s what going?” I asked, getting up from my chair. She inquired about the meeting, and I told her the truth, pacing around the aisle of the seating area. She and Fiona were the only people I talked to about my meeting here. For everybody else, I was here because I needed some time off.
“You’ll get their darling. Don’t stress over it too much, okay?” she assured, and I felt some of the knots that had formed in my stomach ease out.
“I know. Anyway, tell me what’s Fiona been up to?” I asked, finally standing still at one spot, and as I lifted my eyes up from the floor, I found the rude girl staring my way. Not in a creepy, stalker way, but as if she was trying to decipher something through me.
Funny how she went from being the cute girl to the rude girl for me in ten minutes. She was still cute, but unnecessarily rude too.
The fact that she didn’t look away even after seeing me stare at her confirmed my suspicion, but then, as if her senses came back to her, her brows moved ever so slightly, and she jerked her head back to her phone. A faint hint of pink brushed the tips of her ears.
“Fiona is making a card for you. I’m not supposed to tell you this, but she said she knows you will have your restaurant soon, so she is making an affirmation card for you,” my mother’s voice made me focus back on our conversation.
“Affirmation card? Where did she learn that from?”
“I’m pretty sure she picked it up in school. When’s your flight again?”
“Leaves in…” I looked at my watch, “thirty-five minutes.”
“Alright. Have a safe flight, honey!” She said and hung up. Minutes later, the boarding for my flight started, and I went to get my trolley. I watched the rude girl jump up from the chair, take a step forward, and pause. She held onto the straps of her bag so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
She eyed the queue forming in front of her and gulped. I wish we hadn’t met the way we did. At least I could have asked her if she was okay. But then she walked and secured a place in the line, and I focused on my business.
Slowly, I crossed the boarding check and made my way to the aircraft. The attendant standing at the door greeted me with a smile as she did to every other passenger, while I just nodded my head. My seat was towards the end, so I walked behind a lot of people, occasionally stopping as some of them started putting their bags in the bin the moment they found their seats.
This was one of the things I absolutely hated. If you have found your seat, well done, but you don’t have hog the rest of the people behind you just for you to settle in. People these days lack basic human manners.
I exhaled a loud breath before the man in front of me started moving. Somehow, my eyes found the rude girl again, sitting alone on an aisle seat as her gaze met mine.
But I retracted my eyes as I went past the man who had now stopped at his seat, until I found mine. An elderly lady followed suit, taking the middle seat in my row. I had just placed my trolley in the bin when another grey-haired, round-spectacled lady approached me.
“Excuse me, darling. Do you mind changing seats with me?” She appeared to be in her fifties, or sixties maybe. “My sister doesn’t do well in the cold.” She gestured towards the lady who had just sat beside me.
I didn’t really want to, but I understood their need for it as well. “Absolutely. It’s no problem. Where are you seated?” I asked, plastering a smile that I hoped looked polite enough. And that’s when I realized the tragedy. Her seat was beside the rude girl, and that meant…
Thank you, Universe!
She had witnessed all of that, as I could say from her perplexed expression, but I had no other option here. I had already agreed to the situation and, well, it was just a few hours. I just need to maintain my distance, and we should be fine.
That being said, I went and stood beside her seat, waiting for her to shift when she quacked, “Absolutely no freaking way!”
I blinked. “Believe me, you are the last person that I’d want to sit next to as well. She wanted to sit with her sister, and I agreed before I realized what I was agreeing to.” It was the truth. Getting along with people was like a game to me. But she shut me off even before I could try, and I didn’t want to try anymore. Not with her, at least.
She stared at me for a few seconds before she got up to give me the space to get inside. I didn’t want to go inside, and I thought she would just take the window seat like most women did. My brows knit together in confusion. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” She retorted, and I was starting to believe this was how she really behaved with people. However, I tried to keep my calm as I said, “No, I mean, you can take the window seat if you want. I’ll be fine on the aisle.”
Her mouth formed an O. Her frown slowly vanished. If I weren’t being delusional, I’d think I caught a hint of a smile there as well. “Um… no, I’m fine in my seat as well. You can take the window.”
“I know. But I insist.” I spoke firmly, not allowing her to be any more difficult than she already has been. It was clear she wanted the window, and I wasn’t a fan of them anyway. Heights and I didn’t go well together when I was watching it.
She obeyed and settled inside while the attendants started their instructions. Without the caffeine intake, the exhaustion of all that had happened so far was starting to take a toll on me, and I just wanted this to end.
I can’t wait to be home.
Author's note: Sitting beside the cranky woman who raised her voice on himm for the entire flight? But we know, Aarvi isn't the villain here.
Could their first meeting improve from this? Or will they part their ways to never meet again?
Find out in the next chapter!
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