A Step Closer to Love

Kieran watched Aurora get down, he gave her a little time so she could get to the office before he got down from the car and walked into the office. As he walked through the office he could not get his off Arabella as he walked to his office.

“This is kind of weird but Kieran keeps staring at you” Chole whispered into Arabella’s ears.

“Uhh?” Arabella asked her eyes going up to see Kieran staring so blantly at her. She bent down so her eyes did not make contact with his.

“What’s that about?” Chole continued in a whisper.

“What’s what about?” Arabella asked keeping her eyes down.

“I don’t know it’s weird, why is he staring at you so very loving?” she asked not giving up. She had to know why her boss was staring at a worker that way.

“What do you mean lovingly? I am sure you are mistaken” Arabella said dismissively.

She wondered why Kieran did that, it was like he was begging to be caught by everyone there. She did not want anyone to know that she was in a romantic relationship with him. She was uninterested in attracting unneeded attention on her.

“I am going to get a cup of coffee” she announced to Chole when Kieran had successfully made it to his office. Today of all days his glass was clear and the blinds he usually used to keep the stares out were gone.

Arabella gave him a quick judgy look as she went into the kitchenette to make sure he knew she was not pleased with him. She took out her phone and tapped on it to send him a message.

‘Are you dying to get caught?’ she asked and saw him typing already.

‘What do you mean?’ she scoffed. Was he trying to act dumb? Did he not catch himself staring at her?

‘You were staring, even Chole caught on’ she typed back.

‘Are we keeping this a secret?’ he asked and she gasped at the phone. Did she need to spell it out for him? Even if they were going to tell people then they should at least let the relationship mature. They had only been in it for barely an hour do their coworkers need to know?

‘OF COURSE’

‘Oops’

She face palmed as she stared at her phone screen. ‘What do you mean by oops?’ she asked hoping that it was oops he had just realized what she was trying to tell him.

‘I accidentally told Aurora’Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

‘But I am sure that she won’t tell anyone’ he added quickly.

Arabella wanted to scream out loud in the air to let out her frustration. She thought he was supposed to be smart but it seemed like his smarts were not smart enough.

‘Are you still there?’ her phone chimed with a text from him.

Of all the people who he could tell first, it had to be Aurora who was seriously against her. She had been quiet in recent times but she was sure that this new piece of information she had would unleash a new dimension of her pettiness soon.

‘Let’s see after work’ she typed and took out her coffee so she did not raise suspicion for staying too long in the kitchenette.

As she stepped out of the room she prepared herself to be terrorised by Aurora, Maybe she deserved it for walking willingly into the lion’s den.

Kieran could not wait for the day to be over. He knew that today was going to be his first date with Arabella and he could barely sit still. He glanced at the click multiple times and could barely get any work done.

He had wished to have lunch with her but could not because he had an important lunch with their investors and had to go out to eat without her. She had made it clear that she did not want to let others in the office that they were dating so there was no way he would have asked her to lunch without seeming suspicious to everyone around.

‘Do you want to have dinner together?’ he typed to his phone and looked up to see her reaction when she read the message.

Arabella glanced at the message and dropped the phone to the table without sending a response. Her lips were in a straight line as she continued working on whatever it was that she did.

‘Do you want me to pick you up? I will wait in the parking lot till everyone has gone.’ he typed again and waited for a response. The same train of actions happened again and he was tempted to go out and ask her why she was ignoring his messages.

He took a deep breath and sent another message. ‘Are you angry by any chance?’ She did the same thing but this time she picked up the phone and typed her response to him.

His phone chimed and he happily opened the message to see ‘Yes’

Yes, to what? he wondered. What did she want to say yes to? To the dinner request? To the request of waiting in the parking lot for her? Or To the angry message.

‘To all the requests’ she added as if she was reading his mind. He looked up and saw the cutest frown on her face.

‘What did I do?’ he asked and she responded almost immediately.

‘We are at work, let’s talk later’

And just like that she ended the conversation. He wanted to talk more but the expression on her face a few feet away was not encouraging at all.

He watched as Aurora came out to give orders to her and how she went on to carry them out without uttering a single word of complaint.

The end of the day came so quickly and now Kieran was pretending to work so he did not have to go with every other person.

“Are you working overtime?” Chole asked as she stretched out.

“No, but I want to finish this up before I go” she said waving the document in front of her.

“Okay, I guess you and Kieran can close up,” Chole said.

Arabella’s eyes darted and landed on Kieran. She shrugged and mouthed a maybe. She knew the man was not working. He had not been working at all and just pretended when the end of the day drew close.

Everyone muttered goodbyes before they left. Arabella made sure there was ample time for everyone to be away from the vicinity before she went down to the parking lot to wait for him.