5 A CHOICE TO MAKE

The weekend had been wonderful. Erica believed it would have been perfect if she had spent her weekend with Harry. It was another day at the office, Monday to be precise. Erica had been eagerly waiting to see Harry all morning, now that she had earned a reason for a conversation with him. It was all thanks to their cancelled date. Harry was yet to come out of his office. Erica decided to wait till lunch break, before interrupting his alone time.

Shelby was currently facing her own trouble's, she was completely clueless on whether Harry was her man or not, seeing as he never asked her to be his boo. The other thing on her mind that drove her crazy was, Harry had chosen not to call her since the day of their date.

" What's going on in that pretty head of yours?", the curious Becky asked .

" He kissed me!!!" , Shelby said with a dreamy expression worn on her face. She absent mindedly stared at the half a million dollar painting on the wall of her office.

" Who did?" , Becky asked with her eye's wide open.

" Harry, on Saturday he kissed me after the movie and that was all..", Shelby spoke in a tone that portrayed utter disappointment.

"Wow!!!!....Sleek move from Mr Harry, I am taking a liking to him myself. Seeing as he got the mighty Lady Shelby in a dilemma", Becky remarked with a huge smile on her face.

" Ah ah!! ", Shelby turned her gaze to Becky with a confused expression worn on her face, " When a guy deliberately shares a kiss with a lady, does it mean he likes her?".

Becky was currently enjoying this episode of the day, this was the first time business was set aside for a chit chat concerning a man. Surely she was going to savour this moment with an open heart.

"Hmmm.... depends on the type of kiss, how intense was it?", Becky asked.

Harry Was seated in his office having a swell time. He had completed the project work he was giving, earlier than expected. All he had to do now was relax and wait for Shelby's call.

" I wonder what lady Shelby's up to", harry pondered a little, he stared at his phone on his desk. Harry was really puzzled as to why shelby was yet to call him after their date. She promised to call and never did.

There was a knock on the door, Harry gave the permission to enter, the door came open. Erica magestically walked in with a shy smile on her face. Harry couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked every single time they met.

" Good day sir", Erica sat in one of the couch present in the office.

" Hello Erica, feel free to call me Harry", Harry insisted with a friendly smile on his face. " What's up?", Harry asked, he got up from behind his desk. Erica watched him dreamily, as he took manly strides from his desk, to the vacant couch opposite the one she was currently seated on.

Erica cleared her throat, " well it's lunch time, I didn't see you in the morning, so I made the decision to come say hello".

"Oh, I see", he nodded , " that's all you came to say?". Harry was deeply captivated by her beauty.

Erica glanced at her palms, like answers were written in them, she was obviously nervous .

" oh well, I really wanted to apologise for calling off our date last weekend", she turned to face him, her heart skipped a bit, when she caught him dreamily staring at her.

Harry laughed, " there is no need for an apology, besides my weekend wasn't bad at all, I ended up having a good time".

Erica felt a little disappointed at the fact that he wasn't bothered about it, she literally had this thought in her head all weekend till the very minute.

"I see", was all she was able to mutter in a very disappointed tone.

Harry noticed her change of mood " you still owe me a date.." he said to cheer her up.

Erica flipped a thousand times joyously in her head, she hardly said much, yet she had gotten the assurance she needed. This time nothing was going to spoil their date and she meant it wholeheartedly.

" Yes!!!", She replied before realising how overjoyed she was, " pardon me........I mean..........no i won't".

She was cut off immediately by the ring of a phone, it was Harry's phone. His facial expression was that of utter suprise. Erica wondered who the caller was.

Harry turned to face Erica, " I am really sorry, i really have to take this call in private".

Erica understood he needed his privacy, she walked out of his office immediately. Erica was definitely not done with this conversation, at least she was satisfied with the result from the visit to his office.

Shelby finally agreed to go with the advice giving to her by Becky. Becky walked out of the office and closed the door quietly behind her, Shelby picked up her phone and placed a call to Harry.

It took a short while before the call was received, " Hello Miss Shelby", Harry spoke from the other end of the call.

Shelby was really pissed at how calm and at ease he sounded.

" Hello miss Shelby!!..... really?!!!" , She replied.

Harry realised he probably should have called, "Someone's really mad at me. I very well understand your reason for being angry. The truth is i have also been eagerly waiting for your call".

The last statement made her heart flutter a bit, " Really?, the questions not retorical".

There was laughter in his voice, " yes I was. Truth be told, I am new to all this and I don't want to cross the line based on...."

Shelby cut him off, "chicken!!!.....cross what line Mr?!....I mean there's no line to cross in the first place, you crossed the boarder with that kiss already".

Harry was always dumbfounded on how blunt Shelby could be most times.

"oh my", he muttered, " I work for you, that's a fence to climb over". He had heard stories of people dating their superior's at work, very few ended up with a fairy tale ending.

Shelby had never been desperate for a man, she could not understand why she was acting this way.

" Young man", She sighed ," do you ever listen to what I say?...........I don't care!, I really don't care!!". Shelby definitely wasn't going to ask him or beg him to be her man, her being blunt had it's limits.

" When next can we meet?" Harry asked.

This got her heart pumping with excitement, " anytime, anywhere, right now!.." Shelby replied

Harry laughed "right now?.......how about tomorrow?" he asked.

Shortly after the call was ended, they were both satisfied with the end result.

The closing hour had come, Harry decided to stay back at the office for a while. At about 5pm, Harry walked into the car park , he deeped his hand into his pocket to get out his car key .

"We still haven't finished our conversation", a voice similar to that of Erica's said from behind him.

He turned to look, there she was, " Erica?!....you caught me off guard".

" I am sorry....I tried calling you from afar, but I didn't want to draw attention", Erica stated.

" No need for apologies, you heading home?", Harry asked.

" Naturally yeah, but seeing as we are both getting off work really early today, I was hoping maybe we could have a pre date today". It was a long shot but Erica was taking it. Her friend had told her to act before someone else takes him from her grasp.

Harry was dumbfounded " uh....", he stared at Erica's face again,

" Where are we headed?",he asked. Harry was currently contemplating on whether to cancel or not, he clearly didn't want to hurt Erica's feelings. Erica didn't want them to go anywhere fancy, all she wanted was time alone with him.

" Do you mind going to a park?. I just want to talk and get to know you more than I do at the moment" Erica stated

" Your wish is my command", Harry joked. "Where is this park located?".

" It's actually my family's private chilling spot, I don't want any distractions, I really hope you don't mind", She looked up at him.

Harry realised Erica had a very persuasive way of talking to him, it made him always want to answer positively in her favour. He realised the need to start building a resolve before falling in too deep. They ended up driving in their different car's to the giving location. On their arrival, Harry was completely dumbfounded. Erica had said it was a family chilling spot, whereas this was a huge resort people would pay huge sums of money to have access to, it had such vast amount of land that he knew not where it ended.

" So this is the park?", Harry asked sarcastically.

Erica realizing his shock replied, " it's actually a park, it's named after me", she pointed at the entrance. " Read with me, Erica Anderson's park and resort. So you see I didn't downplay it's name", she giggled, fully aware of what a regular park randomly should look like. Erica had called the park manager before their arrival, she wanted things to be in order before she got there with Harry. Today had to be a day to remember for Erica, for she couldn't wait till the weekend to spend time alone with Harry.