This story starts out a little slow, but keep with it and it'll be worth your while! Happy reading!
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College life is a bitch. There's endless, mundane lectures, papers that take weeks to write, and internships that virtually eliminate any possibility of a social life. However, being a grad student, Nicole had finally managed to find the perfect balance between work, school, and friends. Not that she went out all that often. In high school, Nicole belonged to a few different cliques, and never managed to make any friends that she felt the need to stay in touch with after graduation. The same situation applied to her college life. During the weekend, if she had a spare hour, Nicole would occasionally go to one of the many local bars with a few girlfriends, but it's not like she really planned to stay in contact with them after college. They would graduate, go their separate ways, and head off into the world to become successful working women. For most of her life, Nicole knew she wanted to become a journalist. She was naturally very curious and often described as nosy, not always knowing when to mind her own business. She figured becoming a journalist would be the perfect way to put her investigative skills to good use. Being an intern for the same newspaper for 2 years, Nicole knew there would be a job waiting for her after graduating. However, she had dreams for something bigger and better. New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine....the list goes on.
Of course, being as aspirational as she was, Nicole rarely had time for romance, and at the age of 22, she had never really been in a serious relationship, and was still a virgin. Not that she minded. She was determined to be a woman dedicated to her career, and a relationship would only serve as a distraction.
Sometimes, during study breaks, she would read erotic stories on her laptop. Nicole's primary focus for the past three weeks was the story that she was hoping would establish her as a credible journalist. During her 2 years at the paper, she was mainly given assignments that involved covering local events like concerts, benefits, and school openings. It was boring as hell, but she was in no position to complain. But this story-this story would get her name out there, open up doors that would get her right where she wanted to be.
It happened one night when she stumbled upon a news article about William Harrison II- billionaire business man who got his fortune from the oil and coal businesses. Normally Nicole wouldn't have paid too much attention to the details of the article, but she couldn't help but notice that there was something odd about the location of Harrison's next mining project. She recognized the name as being that of a virtually unknown hot spot in South America that was home to thousands of rare species and protected by the government. The only explanation Nicole could think of that would justify Harrison being able to disturb such an important area is the bribing of a government official, and it would have to be A LOT of money. Journalist instincts kicking in, Nicole immediately began doing research, sending emails, making calls, etc. She was determined to get to the bottom of this.
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"Shit, shit, shit!" Nicole loudly swore as she ran as fast as her high heeled feet would allow, holding a stack of papers that consisted of her drafts, research, and presentation. Today was the day she was going to pitch her story to the editors. There were still many details that she was missing, and the finished product would probably take her a good month or so, but the framework was all there; she just needed their approval to continue working on it. Unfortunately, she had spent hours doing as much research as possible resulting in her subconsciously pushing her snooze button every time the alarm clock went off, and waking up a good 30-45 later than she had intended to.
"So close..." she thought, seeing the building at the end of the street. She was so focused on the building that she failed to notice the stranger walking in her direction that was too busy texting to notice her.
Oomph!
Papers flew everywhere. "NO! God, why me!" she thought out loud as the stranger came to his wits and realized he should probably help retrieve the stray documents. "God, I'm so sorry. I should have been paying attention. Are you alright?" he inquired. Nicole had pretty much reached her breaking point. "No! I'm not okay! I've spent days working on this presentation, and now I'm running late, and they'll probably never approve my story, and I'll probably spend the rest of my career interviewing drunk, stoned assholes at concerts!!!" she screamed, bursting into tears and causing a bit of a scene. "Okay, here's what's going to happen," said the stranger, "I'll take these papers, walk you to your office, and explain what happened."
"If you think that's going to help me one bit-"began Nicole
"Sh, just listen to me."
Nicole was too frustrated and stressed to bother arguing. At this point she was pretty much resigning to her fate. "Alright," she said, "Whatever, my office is right up the road. Just follow me."
While walking, Nicole took a moment to actually look at this stranger who made promises of making everything better. Although she hated to admit it, he was quite handsome. He was tall, around 6ft (a great deal taller than her petit 5'2") and had a great body. Not too muscular, but it definitely looked as though he spent a good amount of time at the gym. He had dark curls that went just past his ears, and beautiful, intense green eyes. However, the way he held himself seemed somewhat arrogant, like he had the ability to do whatever he wanted to and get away with it. He may be handsome, but Nicole couldn't stand cocky guys like this one.
"Phillip", he said suddenly.
"What?"
"My name's Phillip" he said, eyes focused straight ahead
"Oh, of course. My name's Nicole."
"Nice to meet you." He turned to her, and flashed a brilliant smile that would make any girl swoon. Nicole didn't respond.
A few minutes later, they reached the office. "After you." Said Phillip, holding to door open. "Thanks," Nicole murmured, not exactly conveying any sort of appreciation.
"So, who do I talk to?"
"The editors. They should be waiting for me through that door." Said Nicole, pointing to the meeting room.
"Alright then, be right back." Said Phillip, shooting her a wink before confidently swaggering into the room.
Nicole wanted to drop dead as she watched the doors close behind him.
They're going to fire me, she thought to herself. I bet they're all in there right now laughing about what a total moron I am, and coming up with the most embarrassing way possible to let me go.
Naturally, being a pessimist, Nicole could only come up with worst case scenarios.
About 5 minutes later, Phillip came out sporting a huge grin. "You're good to go," he said, "I took the liberty of passing out what I assumed to be copies of your draft, and I explained what happened on the way here. They were very understanding, I don't get what you were so worried about." He said, acting as though he did this sort of thing on a daily basis. "But listen, I really do feel bad. Let me take you to dinner tonight. What time do you get off?"
"Well, 5:30, but I don't think," she began
"Alright, I'll pick you up at 7. What's your favorite kind of food?"
"Japanese, but I really shouldn't,"
"Great! I know an excellent sushi place. Give me your address and number." He said, handing her a pen and piece of scratch paper.
"Oh, alright," she agreed, resigning to the fact that he probably wouldn't leave her alone until she said yes. Besides, ONE date wouldn't kill her, even if it wouldn't be her ideal way of spending the night.
"Awesome. See you tonight."
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As Nicole left her office, she couldn't help but let out a huge sigh of relief that her day was finally over. Not that anything bad had happened, but it had been a little strange, especially after Phillip left, leading her to wonder what he had said to the editors. She walked right into the room after he had left, and the editors seemed more than willing-even excited- to listen to her proposal. After she was done, they told her to get started right away and to not worry about anything else for the next month, and to get started right away. She wasn't complaining, but it definitely wasn't the workday she was expecting.
Guess I better get ready,
she thought, starting her trek home thinking about all the things that would probably go wrong.
He's not even my type. What if this is all just some sort of joke?
she wondered.
Walking into her apartment, she was immediately greeted by her roommate, Leah. "Hey Hon, how was work?" asked Leah.
"Meh, same old, same old." Nicole responded, too worried about her upcoming date to go into details about her day. Nicole and Leah had been friends since they got jobs at the same restaurant senior year of high school. They were lucky enough to get into the same university and had been roommates ever since. "Hey, I'm exhausted. I'm going to go lay down for a bit." Nicole called over her shoulder, heading to her room and closing the door.
Is it even a date? Am I thinking too much about it? Why am I so worried? I'm just going out with him once, then I'll never seen him again, she thought, getting ready to pull her hair out.
She flopped onto her bed, considering telling Phillip she had spontaneously caught the flu.
That sounds so stupid!
She had no experience with guys, let alone guys as attractive as Phillip, and was absolutely positive she would find some way to embarrass herself.
Oh well, let's just get this over with.
With that, she began taking off her clothes and hopped in the shower.
20 minutes later Nicole was out of the bathroom, all cleaned up and smelling like raspberries and vanilla.
Now, what do I wear?
