8 Chap 8: Insane

Mia

"Dance with me," the closeness between us had exhilarated me and I couldn't comprehend what he just said. He moved an inch back, released his hands from my face and grabbed my waist. He looked at me with fervor and hope. A slow romantic song played in the background at Chloe's house.

"Please?" and looked into my eyes for approval. At that moment, my mind was blank and my stupid heart danced in a fast rhythm. We were so close that I knew he could feel my heartbeat. I nodded instantly and we slow danced to a romantic country song. He looked solely at me, his scent, warm breath made me high but offered the ultimate sense of belongingness which I hadn't felt in the last couple of years. His touch gave me the impression of protection. Was it possible that a simple closeness from a person could make you feel so much or did I think too much? His arms were around my waist and my hands were placed on his chest.

"Mia, you're important to me," he said, his voice soft yet deep, "You mean more to me than you think" he gawked at me and I went weak at my knees. I felt things that honestly I should have felt with Noah.

"you're so damn beautiful" he came closer and his nose touched the tip of my nose.

"I want to kiss you, Angel," while his eyes moved from my eyes to my lips. He tilted his head and gently touched his lips with mine. The song stopped and in a flash, I remembered this was wrong and it shouldn't happen. I pushed Ryan away from me but unfortunately, he didn't move an inch. He looked at me with a surprise that immediately turned into despair.

"Ryan let me go" I mumbled to him. I tried to get out of his embrace but he didn't let me go.

"Mia!" he sounded heartbroken and my heart felt the pain too. But I had to be strong,

"I want to go home, Please!!" I begged him. His expression was full of hurt and he looked scared. It hurt me to see him look vulnerable and I didn't want to feel this, I didn't want to feel anything. If we had kissed I am sure I would have died of guiltiness forever. How could I ever cheat on Noah? He gazed at me like I had said something truly painful to him. He let me loose and took a few steps away from me. I wanted to apologize for what happened with us but I couldn't utter a single word.

"I am sorry, I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable," He said with pain and gradually turned away from me. I looked at his back and wondered what just happened, how all of a sudden the environment between us changed from good to a total disaster. I took long breaths, pictured Noah in my mind. After a few minutes later I walked back to Chloe's house and saw Ryan with Chloe. He said something to her, and kissed her. Within seconds Ryan bypassed me and saw Chloe wave goodbye to me with a smile. I wished her Goodbye and followed Ryan to his car. He stood near the passenger door and looked down at the road. When I reached the my side he opened it for me. I sat in and and he went to his, opened his door and we drove in silence. I tried to steal a few glances at him throughout the drive but he had the same stoic expression. When we reached, I said goodbye to him but he didn't respond. I walked up to my hostel and when I reached the end of the staircase of my hostel, he fired his engine and drove off.

Ryan

Today evening she saw a lot of different sides of mine. She saw the possessive one, the desperation one, and then the abandoned one. She brought out a lot of emotions in me especially today. With her around I could never use my brain, I only did things that I felt at that moment. My history, the romantic song on the beach had intensified my feelings and they all got riled up. I completely let loose my guard, my senses. She looked confused when I asked for a dance then she looked lost but then she looked adorably cute when she agreed. Her adorable expression, her soft skin, her beautiful vanilla fragrance, and her lips an inch away from me made me want to kiss her so I let her knew and forgot about the consequences. But then everything shattered and I soon realized my mistake. She pushed me away and it brought me back to my senses. When she requested to let go of her, the walls of my abandonment grew strong. I felt helpless and scared of her to leave me. Her request to go back home crumpled my heart, I didn't want to give her the chance to tell me that she never wanted to see me or talk to me so I maintained a distance with her. I decided not to talk to her or even give her any insights because I was shit scared to hear anything from her

"Hey" I parked my car near the side and answered Chloe's call.

"How are you?" she sounded concerned, she knew something was up when I said goodbye to her

"I am fine," I said and tried not to think of Mia

"You didn't look fine" she repeated and I tried harder to remove Mia's image from my head

"I am fine"

"No, you are not"

"I am fine Mia," I said in a harsh tone and quickly realized my mistake

"Mia?" Chloe's said, not surprised by my reaction.

"I am sorry" I replied,

"So Mia huh?" She said like she knew it

"A friend"

"A friend?" She said in a surprising tone.

"Yes, a friend"

"Didn't seem like" she scoffed,

"What is it?"

"You like her?" she wanted to confirm from me,

"Chloe I need to go home," I didn't want to talk about her

"I thought you will stay with us," she questioned,

"I had to drop Mia back, I will come tomorrow" I replied,

"Ok. but will talk about Mia"

"No"

"Why?"

"Chloe!! she is just a friend and nothing more. So can we drop it?" I was irritated at her,

"Fine. Bossy"

"See you tomorrow," I said, and before I could cut the phone,

"Goodnight and listen," she said,

"Yeah?"

"I love you," she said and it suddenly pierced my heart. The only time I ever heard it was from my parents when they were alive. In those times I tried to be stronger for my grandparents and my sister and yet they all left us. I buried my emotions soon and lived like there was no room for any affection. I never let anyone walk over me, but with Mia, I felt different. I wanted to express, I wanted her to know what I felt for her but she walked over me because I gave that power to her and it crushed me. I was afraid to lose her because of my emotions.

"I love you too," I said. I knew she loved me but we never said it until today and I was thankful to her.

"Bye"

"Bye" and we cut the phone. I started my car and drove home.

Mia

"Mia, did you get any update regarding the internship?" Ariel asked.

"I have applied to over 70 companies and I am still waiting to hear from them, " I said and smiled at her and began to hunt for more companies.

"Mia give it a rest let's go for dinner. John and Keith would be there too" Ariel said,

2 months passed since I last saw Ryan. With Noah I spoke only once through message, he asked me about my internship and said he would call soon but 47 days passed. Luckily I couldn't ponder so much of my energy on Noah because these two months were strenuous for me, I had a lot of project submissions, followed by exams and a three-month internship. All the MBA students had to apply for the internship program and only a few days were left for it to start. Emily planned to intern with one of her friend's company and Ariel with her uncle's company. They had asked for my resume as well, but I wanted to earn it and I apply to every company I could. Unfortunately, I got no response from anyone and my chances of internship looked bleak,. To make my day, Ariel wanted me to come for the dinner with Ryan's friends. So I got ready to head out with Ariel and Emily and hoped to forget about internship stress. We walked to a nearby restaurant from our hostel and saw John, Keith, and Beth (Keith's girlfriend) seated at a table. I hadn't seen them since I and Ryan met for the first time.

"Look who we have here," John said and looked happy to see me. We all took our seat, the two boys on one side, and all four girls on the couch opposite the boys

"Give it a break John, she is going through a lot" Ariel sneered at him.

"Really?" John looked curious at me,

"Ariel is just concerned for me, nothing more," I explained with a smile but Ariel looked at me as if she was about to eat me alive,

"Really? You don't have an internship after those strenuous projects and exams. You haven't spoken to Noah, who at the moment should support you" she bellowed. Everyone hated Noah and they couldn't understand why I still supported him.

"Noah?" John looked puzzled at me and Ariel,

"Noah, her jackass boyfriend," Ariel said with hatred, John and Keith looked at each other with confusion, like they didn't know who Noah was?

"We didn't know you have a boyfriend," John asked me and looked at Ariel,

"So? It's not like she is going to talk about her personal life to every Tom Dick and Harry" Ariel made a comeback, "Thanks," Keith said in sarcasm. John and Keith didn't know I have a boyfriend, how was that possible? Ryan knew about Noah and If I clearly remember he told me that it was John who told him but clearly from the looks none of these guys knew until today. Why did Ryan lie and How did he know about Noah?

"Do you know I love seafood?" I asked John and Keith.

"Uhh..no but thanks for letting us know, I guess" John gave a puzzled look to me.

"You want seafood?" Emily asked me as she gave the order to the steward,

"Yea, I think I will have shrimps," I said to Emily "Do you guys know which store I work in?" I asked John but he looked more perturbed.

"We didn't know you work" he looked perplexed. All of them looked at me and wondered why I asked these weird questions to them.

When Ryan met me at the store for the first time he mentioned that John told him where I worked. It was pretty clear than John didn't know anything about me but Ryan knew everything. But, how did Ryan know so much about me? The whole dinner I was lost in my thoughts, wondered if I was ever going to meet him,

"Where's Ryan?" Emily asked

"He has been out of town for the last 2 months and probably will be out for another 2 months," Keith said and looked at Emily and me.

"Work purpose?" Emily asked

"Yeah. His work is important to him" Keith replied,

"But don't you think he always looks bogged down, exhausted all the time. Even in college, he looked tired and sleep-deprived" Ariel asked with curiosity to John. They both looked at each other and gave an expression which meant that they knew something about him and they didn't want to discuss. It was true, Ryan always looked exhausted, he had dark circles and his eyes always seemed sleep-deprived.

"Work," Keith said curtly, We all understood and thankfully Beth diverted the topic around food. The dinner went off well but my mind was still occupied with Ryan and how he knew so much about me.

Mia

After 2 days, I received an interview call letter from the JR company. They had asked for a face to face interview the next day. I was elated and did my whole research on the company and the important people of the company. The company had two founders, one was James and the other was Rick Hardin. Their company head HR was Mrs. Leah Keaton who was to be my boss If I got selected. I also read about the job role I had applied for. The next day I went and had an interview with the HR team, Head HR of the company, and with one of the business partner Mike Rice. It lasted for 4 hours and they told me that they would get back to me in a couple of days. In the meantime, I hoped for other interview calls from other companies but got no call. I began to panic when I had only 3 days left to find an internship because I had no other offer even from the only company I got interviewed with. Noah knew the situation because I kept him updated through the message but he did not call me. With Just 2 days left, I decided to finally ask Ariel for her help but as luck would have it the same day I got a mail from JR, it mentioned that they would offer me an internship and would also pay me a stipend. I was on cloud 9 and I decided to celebrate my luck with Emily and Ariel who planned to leave the next day. We enjoyed our dinner and talked about Jason, the companies, exercise, and makeup which I was immune to it. After dinner, we went back to our room and slept off.

Mia

The Internship Day

Ariel and Emily left for their respective towns and I had the room all to myself for the next three months. I got up at 5:30 am with enthusiasm, went for a run, got ready, had breakfast, and left for office. I Reached 15 mins early, I took the lift and went to the 9th floor where the HR department worked. When I reached I made my way to the reception.

"Hi, I am Mia, the new intern, could you please let me know where do I have to report". The girl behind the desk smiled and politely told me to wait. After a few seconds, she handed me the ID card and told me to report to our HR Head Mrs. Leah Keaton who was in room no. 2. I made my way and reported to her, she then got me introduced to the other HR managers on the floor

"Mia, you should consider your self lucky," Leah said politely while she showed me my desk

"Thank you very much for the opportunity." I genuinely showed my gratitude to her but she rebutted.

"Mia, what I meant is, we don't hire interns. This the first time we have ever done this," she said

"Oh" I was felt deliriously happy, 'Wow! My resume was that impressive' I thought to myself.

"Well, I hope you don't disappoint us" she warned politely but with a smile,

"I won't! I will give my 100%" I reassured her,

"All the best"

"Thank you" I sat on my chair and my 3 months internship started.

Almost three weeks into work and everything went great, my colleagues were helpful, my boss Leah was amazing and helpful too. The company did great and recently we had ventured into a new department. The company already had its name in the IT field, Security, Mobile Network and Entertainment field. It now ventured into Fashion and Jewellery department. We were informed that the company would throw a party to welcome and inaugurate the fashion jewelry business in the next 5 days.

Finally the-Day arrived and we all were excited about the party. I had worn a dark orange color, alter neck, maxi dress, my hair open and I had put on a light brown color lipstick and black eyeliner. I highlighted my face with long white pearl earrings. I never applied makeup because I believed Makeup was for someone who could be creative and I wasn't one. It was an art and not everyone could be good at it so I never tried it. I looked myself in the mirror and was happy with the outcome. I shared the selfie with Noah and I expected no reply from him.

After I reached the venue and sat on my respective assigned tables, the program started and we had designers on the stage to display their product. These products were about to get launched in the market in a few days. After 2 hours, the show finally ended and it was speech time. I looked at the food counter because my stomach grumbled for food, I was hungry.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen" I heard a deep soft voice. I looked at the stage and my mind went blank. Ryan?! Why was he here? He wore a custom made black suit with a grey shirt and a white tie and he spoke on the stage in front of everyone.

"I am proud of each department especially the Marketing for their hard work and achieving beyond the targets and within their deadlines," he said while he looked at the crowd. For a moment I was lost and flabbergasted, everyone around me clapped for him. When I had read the company profile there was no mention of Ryan.

"Who is he?" I looked at Aidy, one of my colleagues, who sat next to me on the table.

"He is the Founder," Aidy said,

"What?" I gawked my eye at her,

"Leah just introduced him, didn't you hear? He is Our CEO" She said.

How is it possible? When I had done my research on the company I had realized he didn't have any of his photos in the company album. Rick Hardin was the face of JR and James never made any public appearances. No media entity knew about his looks but they only knew that he built the company at a very early age. While he addressed on stage his eyes streamed in my direction and then back to the crowd. He knew I worked here!