AVERY
I knocked on the gate. First once, then twice when I got no answer.
A man appeared out of the side of the building On his black shirt, security was boldly written in front of it in plain white. Just like the white building and the black gate. It was very odd.
I had expected him to come over to the gate, but he stood a considerable distance away from me. Like he was being cautious.
He was scared of me? If anyone should be scared of the other, then it would be me scared of him. There was a possibility that my boyfriend-I still couldn’t stop calling him my boyfriend-was inside this building and they had captured him. It took some real guts coming here. And, hell, I was scared, but I wasn’t about to show it.
“What do you want?” The man asked rudely. He was a thick man, with beefy arms, wide chest and a protruding belly and right now? He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but here. He sure as hell didn’t want to be talking to me.
“I uh… want to speak to the people who run this place.”
Shit. I almost stuttered. There could be no room for stuttering. Any little crack, any break in my act and they would be suspicious. The man was already regarding me with a way and suspicious look. I didn’t want to give him more reason to suspect that something was wrong with me.
“Who do you think runs this place? Some jobless people?” He scoffed, giving a condescending look, “Run along little girl.”
His condescending look, along with the tone he used, pissed me off and I stood straighter, giving him a stern look.
Again, I repeated, with an air of someone who was in a position of authority, “I said, I want to speak to the people who run this place.”
My attitude seemed to give him pause, and he gave me a curious perusal, as if wondering what a person like me could want to tell the people in charge. Mentally, I evaluated what I was wearing and how I looked. I had on my usual washed jeans-although they were in good condition-and a simple blue t shirt. Seeing as my hair was in its usual braids and I probably looked like a teenager, I didn’t blame him for giving me the look he gave me.
“What business do you have with them?”
“Its confidential, and of utmost priority which is why I need to speak to then immediately.”
“And how can you know that whatever you wish to tell them is of utmost priority, as you say it is?” He asked with a sneer. Oh boy. This man obviously didn’t like me, but it was also the first time that he was seeing me which meant that he had no reason to dislike me. He probably just didn’t like people in general. I decided not to take it personally.
Still, I was not going to be dissuaded, “I wouldn’t come all the way here from where I live if it what I had to discuss wasn’t important.” Forcing steel into my voice, I said, “Now, please let me in and stop wasting both our times.”
He stared at me, probably wishing that he could bite my head off, before walking over to the gate, unlocking it with a code-I knew that it was a code because he typed something into a pad by the side of the gate-then there was a beep as the gate slid open.
As he opened the gate for me and moved to the side to let me pass, I realised that I should have called Mariah and old her where I was just incase. There was a huge possibility that things wouldn’t go as planned and if at all it happened, someone needed to know where I was. Mariah needed to know that I had come to this place.
It was too late now.
As I walked inside, the possibility that I might not come back out, became more and more likely, and it started to fill me with fear.
“Come with me.” He said, giving me a look because I had already started walking even before he asked me to, then going over to walk in front of me towards the main door leading to the building. This door, however, was black.
The doors slid open as we walked past. He led me into a hallway and I kept praying that he was not leading me to my death. He led me to an open area where there were six people in total sitting at different positions, with tables and computers in front of them. One of them, a woman, was sitting directly in front of an office and my eyes wandered there. When she caught me looking, she gave me a cold look that almost froze my insides. Jesus.
“Tell the general that a lady is here to see him. That she has confidential information she wishes to share with him.” The security man was speaking to the woman who had just threatened to freeze my organs with the sheer frost of her look.
She cocked a disbelieving brow at me, but picked up her office phone to call the ‘general’ anyway. She relayed what the security man had just told her to the general, apparently, he was the man I was seeing.
When she ended the call, she said, “You can go in. Through that door.” She pointed at the door behind her and swiftly dismissed me, going back to typing on the computer.
I turned to the security man but he was already walking back out through the way we had come. Well, I guess that was it then. Saying a solent prayer, I walked towards the office, knocked on the door once out of habit, before pushing it open.
More white. Too much white, it was almost sickening to look at it. I felt like all I was going to see after I left this place, was going to be white.
That is if you leave.
The room was very cold and I found myself rubbing my palms down my exposed hand, as if it could keep me warm. A man sat at the centre of the room with a huge white table in front of him. He was looking right at me, as if he had been expecting me and actually, he had. I just didn’t think he was going to be so obvious with his acknowledgement of me.
He was… shockingly attractive. He had dark hair that was cut short at the sides and high on top, deeply tanned skin, even darker than Cyrus’ and a wide frame. His body filled out the chair and with his arms on the table in front of him, his veins bulged.
I didn’t know what I had been expecting, but it wasn’t a man like this. I had expected an older man, maybe someone with a pot belly similar to the security man’s. I had not expected to be meeting with a man as young as he was. He had to be in his mid or early thirties. So he was the general. Meaning that he operated this place?
If that was the case, I had no business deeming him attractive. He should be as ugly as a person could be, to me.
I made to walk over to take the chair opposite his when he stopped me with his voice. “Stay there.”
I froze, wondering what the hell was about to happen. Nevertheless, I stopped, waiting for him to make a move, and he did. He stretched to his full height, looking imposing, and walked over to me slowly, taking his time with each step.
My pulse rabbited in my neck and since there was no way I could slow it down, I tried to calm myself and hope that it wasn’t that visible. Which wasn’t likely with the white light in the blindingly white room.
“Arms out.” He commanded and I tried not to glare at him as I spread my arms wide on each side of him. He seemed to find this amusing.
He stood in front of me, too close to not piss me and I opened my mouth to tell him to step back-general or not, he did not have the right to invade my personal space, besides I wasn’t here to act the meek girl. Boldness was part of my act after all-when I felt his hands on my shoulders.
I jumped back, almost bumping into the door. “What the hell?”
“Relax. Im just trying to check you for weapons.” He said, laughter in his voice, “You didn’t expect to just walk in here and not to be checked, did you?”
“You should have told me.” I said quietly, glaring at him.
He had a small smile on his face, making him look even more attractive. He ran his hands down the sides of my body from my shoulders, down to my ankles. I noticed how he took extra time on the sides of my boobs and my hips. In fact, it seemed like he didn’t want to remove his hands from my body at all.
I gritted my teeth all through, trying not to physically remove his hands from my body. The thing was, even if I found him attractive, I didn’t want him touching me.
Calling him attractive was just like seeing a pretty dress at a store, admiring it and walking past. It didn’t necessarily mean that I wanted the shirt. Just like how, right now, it didn’t mean that I wanted him. I felt absolutely nothing but nausea and impatience with his hands on me.
He finally stepped back, running his right hand over his mouth as he said, “You’re all good.”
Thanks, assface, as if I didn’t already know that.
However, I didn’t miss the lust in his eyes.