"Where are we going?" She asked. Her heart thundered in her chest as he pulled her up the steps. At the next landing she took some time to look at the view. To her back was the ocean, in all its glory. There was a light breeze, and her straight black hair twirled in her face. Gorgeous trees to her sides sang their song and the lilies danced to the tune. She smiled as she thought it. It was something her mother would say.
"Come on, Kit Kat," he tugged her up some more steps. She giggled at his enthusiasm. Another adorable thing about him. As he moved ahead of her, her wrist embedded in his palm, she thought about him. About his honesty, his confidence, his emotion. She thought about his smile, his pout, even his frown. He was a wonderful man. He was her man. She revelled in that once again. As another landing came she tugged backwards and pulled him to her forcefully. Their lips met and he wasted no time in seeking out her tongue.
"Not yet Kitty Kat, soon," he smiled as they parted and he tugged her onward. She was just about to ask him what he meant when
"SURPRISE!!!" She looked forward at the gathering for a while before it registered that she knew these people. Kai led the front smiling brightly with unshed tears in his eyes. She frowned at that and looked at the man next to her. He smiled with tears to match Kai's.
"What's going on?" She asked. Her voice was hesitant and small. He took her hand and got on one knee. He placed a small kiss on her knuckles before he reached into his pocket and retrieved a small blue velvet box. As he opened it, her breath abandoned her.
"Will you marry me?"
~O~
Katherine James looked at herself in the mirror. She looked at her thick wiry black hair, styled in little twists all around her head. She looked at her dark skin flowing about her body. She looked at her small breasts, her large hips and her plain toes. She sighed, nothing to see here, she thought. She moved away from the offending image to her closet, another offending image.
As she stared at the melancholy collage of gray and beige, she sighed. All the better to blend in, she thought. She chose a particularly dismal beige pants suit for her day. She put them on, one leg at a time, adjusted the shoulder pads (who wears shoulder pads anymore) and pulled her hair into the same bun she had been wearing since she was 10. She collected her handbag and walked out of her room.
"Morning Mama!" Kai chimed. He sat on the couch, indulging in his ritual of early morning cartoons and day old pizza. She cringed at the nickname that was bestowed upon her when she had to bail his drunken ass out of jail, after she berated him in front of half the squad about the dangers of peeing off of billboards. She sighed as she looked at the sink full of dishes. Looking to the heavens for a blessing, she was then accosted by a piece of bologna. She cleared her vision and saw several of its round companions stuck to the ceiling.
"Kai, what the hell?!" She yelled. He looked at the ceiling then looked at her, shrugged and resumed his ritual. She headed out, screaming as she slammed the door.
On her way to work she recalled her first encounter with Kai. She remembered his toned and tanned chest, as he moved towards her in the park. He had just jumped in the fountain, complaining about the insufferable heat. He was wringing out his shirt in an attempt to look presentable. She laughed at his jokes and remembered how he looked soaked from head to toe. His dark blond hair stuck to his forehead, his green eyes sparkled as he made joke after joke. She remembered thinking that he was it. He was her salvations from ennui.
It was not long that she soon saw the light. On the second night living together, cold water splashed on her face as she walked in to find Kai drilling into some woman on the living room couch. The woman, Shirley, was old enough to be his mother. She recalled the tension the next morning as Mommy Dearest made breakfast for them, smiley face pancakes, bacon and eggs. The tension evaporated after her third serving.
She soon realized that Kai was her salvation from mundane; he just brought a different spice to her life. Every night was filled a new adventure. Bailing Kai out of jail, confronting aggressive women he threw away, rescuing him from the clutches of gay bears; every day had a tale. She laughed as she thought, I'm not bored anymore.
She made her way into the car park, finding her space easily. She got out the car and took a deep breath, preparing herself for the onslaught of people in the building. She shook off her relentless shyness and moved into the glass box. In the lobby, she made minimal eye contact and steered herself straight to the elevator, which, thankfully, was empty. Pressing the button, she swallowed her sigh of relief as the doors were halted by a large brief case.
A man came into her elevator. No, man was not an adequate description. Adonis. That was it. He was an Adonis. He was over 6ft and his wide shoulders effectively blocked her hasty exit. His frame was sturdy and shouted strength. His suit was immaculate and made specifically for him. His hair was dark and stopped right before his shoulder. It was thick and looked like it would do well in slow motion. His skin was tanned, but not orange. She snorted as she recalled the conversation she had with Kai about the orange people trying to eat his brain.
Suddenly she was held captive by an ice cold blue stare. His eyes were the colour of ice. She could find no other way to describe them. He turned forward again and the elevator came to a halt. The doors opened and the ice king exited. She smiled at her nickname. She'll have to remember it to tell Kai later. She noticed the floor he came off on. So he was a lawyer. Seems only fitting. She stumbled slightly as the elevator stopped on her floor, jolted from her thoughts about her Adonis and his practice.
~o~
Michael was annoyed. He was tired, overworked and simply annoyed. He strolled into his office and could not even muster up a smile as the underlings parted for him to get to his large office with a view. He sat in his heavenly leather chair, looked at his queen sized desk and sighed. The power this woman had over his emotion was unacceptable. He looked at his calendar and saw that he had to meet with her again in an hour. He growled as he threw his fifth phone across the room.
She kept changing her story. Then she got the times mixed up. Then she invented characters in her plot. He now had a total understanding as to why his current client was getting divorced. He held his head in his hands as he thought of ways to escape this case. After coming up with some plausible excuses, it all boiled down to his bosses' illogical relationship to the father of his insane client. He glanced to the door when his secretary walked in with a small box in hand.
"Honestly, I swear this company has a tax write-off just for you and your phones!" She huffed as she laid the new phone box in front of him. She walked over to the wreckage and collected the necessary parts. Hopping on his desk she began reassembling yet another phone for Michael Xavier. She hummed as she worked; ignoring the sighs and grumbles that came from her irate boss, until finally she found it interfered with her song.
"What pray tell is wrong now?" She asked, totally exasperated by his moaning. He looked up at her, her smooth milky legs that seemed to go on for days, her manicured fingernails and finally her mane of carefully set red curls. He smiled as those emerald gems twinkled with their concern. Then suddenly he remembered why they were concerned in the first place.
"I have a meeting with the bitch from hell," he grumbled. She giggled and he looked at her, shocked that she could find joy in his sorrow.
