Karen’s phone beeped beside her and she dropped her laptop on the table to pick up the phone. She wasn’t particularly focused on her work. Her mind drifted continually to her phone beside her, so it was more of a relief to her when it beeped. She unlocked it and it was a message from her Instagram account. She quickly opened it and was shocked to see a message from Jack. She screamed in delight and dropped her phone on the chair. It was already more than five days since she dropped the message and she had already given up on getting a reply.
She picked up the phone again and clicked on the message. It was a simple “Hi”, but it was enough to send her over the edge. Enough to send butterflies flying in her stomach. She sent a response immediately introducing herself. She was nervous. Texting him was something she had just decided to give a try. She just hoped her nervousness wasn’t visible in the way she texted.
“Ya. I already know who you are. I’m not dumb not to go through your profile and photos.” His reply came in two minutes after she had sent hers’. she chuckled at his response as she dropped her phone. He still sounded rude. She could picture that proud smug smile on his face as he typed that. She was at a loss for words to reply. She was still very much surprised he had replied.
“I’m really surprised you replied.” She typed and sent. Two minutes later, there was no response. She waited for five minutes and there was still no reply. Ten minutes passed, he was online but there was no reply. She dropped her phone as her mood saddened. When she thought she could chat with him, he ghosted her text.
She picked up her laptop again and opened her blog. Her last post was already doing greatly on Google search. She had over a hundred thousand reads and over a million impressions in just a few days. The short video she had put up on her Instagram had gotten over a hundred thousand views. This was her biggest post so far.
She remembered Ciara and decided to put a call across to her.
“Guess what” she said into the phone excitedly as soon as Ciara had picked the call.
“You’re pregnant?” Ciara blurted out over the phone and she rolled her eyes.
“Such a kill show!” she hissed and Ciara laughed loudly.
“I am not pregnant.” She repelled. “It’s something better than that.” She added, smiling widely though Ciara couldn’t see her smile.
“What could be better than pregnancy?” her friend joked, making her roll her eyes, her smile still intact. “You have made me really curious, please tell me.” Ciara begged and her grin expanded, stretching across the whole of her lips.
“One more chance to guess.” She replied and Ciara groaned.
“You got a job?” Ciara asked in delight and she huffed.
“No.” she replied and Ciara groaned lightly. She was already tired of guessing. She wasn’t good in the guessing game and Karen knew that.
“Jack finally replied me” she screamed loudly in delight.
“Which of the Jack?” Ciara asked in confusion, wondering why she was making a big fuss out of a common text.
“Seriously?” she asked in confusion and Ciara answered a yes.
“Jack Fucking Antonio” she responded and Ciara Screamed in delight.
“You are not joking right?” Ciara asked, her lips already stressed in a wide smile. She shook her head and when she realized that Ciara couldn’t see that, she muttered a breezy No.
Ciara jumped in delight, truly happy for her friend. “I always knew you guys were made for each other.” She muttered and Karen laughed.
“Please, we are not made for each other.” She responded and Ciara scoffed.
“So, why are you happy about a simple text?” she teased
“Cause he is a celebrity and…” she stopped herself from continuing. She didn’t tell her she wanted to get close to Jack for her personal reasons. She knew her friend really wanted to know, but she couldn’t tell.
“I’ll drop the call now, I’ll call you later.” She squealed, dropping the call. She really wanted to avoid telling her about her little plan.
Three hours later, she was seated on the reading table in her room, working on her laptop. She was reading some articles, trying to warm up for her interview since she had nothing else to do. It’s been three hours and Jack didn’t reply. After dropping the call with Ciara, she had stalked his inbox, hoping he would reply but after thirty minutes without a reply, she finally gave up before he went offline.
She made a little research about the company she was to be interviewed and was impressed with the information she saw. They were apparently one of the largest sports company in the state of California, making over eight hundred million dollars in revenue the previous year. The salary was expected to be about ninety seven thousand annually and it was really great.
“It seems you have been stalking me ayy?” a message popped up at the top of her screen. She minimized what she was working on and opened the message. It was a reply from jack. She smiled. Finally!
“And why would I be doing so?” she typed and wanted to end but stopped. It looked so cliché so she deleted. “I haven’t. Why would you think so?” she typed an pressed the send button. The text marked delivered and few seconds, read. Her heart fluttered. Had he been waiting for her reply?
“How would you explain suddenly stalking my socials and at the club?” he sent and few seconds later, she opened it. She smiled at the contents of the text before replying.
“Coincidence. Don’t you think?” she typed and sent, mentally clapping for herself for coming up with the excuse.
“Let’s make another coincidence happen. Meet me for dinner tomorrow by seven.” He typed and sent. She stared at the text and smiled, Her heart flustering.
“Are you asking me out on a date?” she typed and added some emojis that showed shock. She was pleasantly surprised he wanted to have dinner with her.
“No.” he sent and her face fell in disappointment.
“It is another coincidence.” Another message came in from him and her face lit up instantly. She had thought he was going to cancel the plans. Her heart warmed as she looked at the text, heat slowly creeping to her cheeks.
“Coincidence? Alright. I’m up for that.” She replied.
He smirked as her reply came in. he quickly typed the venue and sent to her, his heart beating loudly against his chest. He couldn’t decipher what he was feeling, but he hoped he made the right decision.
The day was a very boring one so after rounding up his morning workout routine, he settled down to make himself breakfast. He had arranged for his housekeeper to work only on weekdays. She made the meals on week days, though he only ate once in a day. After making himself breakfast and the cleaning staffs left, he settled on the couch in his sitting room with his phone to go through the internet. He suddenly grew this love for social media, especially the micro blogging app, Twitter.
After spending considerable amount of time there, he logged out and logged into Instagram.
Ever since he came back on the app, he had tried to be active, though sometimes he forgot such things existed. He wasn’t a fan of the app neither was he a fan of unsolicited publicity. He scrolled to the message feature and scrolled through the tons of message that was heaped in his inbox. He cringed at the multiple cliche messages, most of them from the female folks. He opened few without replying, laughing at the content and was almost logging out when he mistakenly opened a message.
It was a “Hi” followed by two heart emojis. He chuckled at the message. It was a normal message and he had received over a million of this, but something felt different about this one. He checked the sender’s profile. It was from Karen smith. He checked the Picture on display and it looked oddly familiar. He searched through her uploads and his breath was caught on his throat when he recognized who it was. She was the lady at the bar. The lady who had occupied his fucked up mind for days.
He fiddled with his phone for some seconds, unable to draft a reply. He was a very coordinated man, the more reason he was a CEO of one of the biggest companies in California, but when it came to this beautiful stranger, he always seemed to lose his composure. He stared at the message, a little bit longer than he intended to before typing a quick “Hi” Looking at the text, he mentally slapped himself. He sounded like a high school teenager texting his crush for the first time.
Then something clicked in his rowdy mind. First, she had met him at the club and now she sent a message. What she stalking him?