While we were at the restaurant, I sensed something familiar, but it was weird how it happened. It was like they could read our minds, but I also noticed they were looking at Mica as well, not in a friendly way. I didn't say anything, I just went along with it. I didn't like him paying for it though I didn't stop him. I was full, but I told him I wanted something sweet and I took him to a shaved ice place. I wasn't mad, but I wasn't happy either when he wanted to pay for that as well so I stormed off.
He kept calling out my name several times, but not long after I stopped I felt something knock into me on the back of my head, Mica had crashed into me like a ton of bricks. With lightning reflexes he caught me whilst keeping his balance. There was a moment, when I felt his breath, though our lips never touched.
He walked me back to my apartment. We exchanged gazes as I opened the door. I leant in slightly, but not before I noticed him leaning in first. I felt the moment but I broke it by saying "It's getting late. Thanks for dinner and I will see you at work in the morning," I closed the door behind me, but when I looked through the peephole he was gone. That's when I knew my head had it wrong, but my instincts were right about him. He was not a dangerous vampire.
Although there was something a bit off about him, he didn't seem like the typical bloodthirsty monster I read about, he was calmer and nicer and generally wanted to help me.
I replayed the night in my mind over and over again until the early hours of the night. I managed a few hours of shut-eye, but I still woke up groggy. I jumped in the shower and gradually felt better. Because of how casual work was, I had been choosing casual outfits. Seeing that I was presenting I decided to make more of an effort and go smart casual. It was the middle of summer so I wore navy blue chinos with blue loafers and a pale yellow shirt with a blue blazer and obviously I wore my obsidian necklace.
When I got into work, the fake looking receptionist in the lobby glared at me rather than smiled, she'd been doing it for a while. I wanted to confront her, but I thought to myself why should I ? It's what I'd been wanting her to do. So I looked away from her and headed straight for the elevator and up to the eleventh floor. I placed my bag on my workstation and collected my samples and designs from the safebox and headed up. Suki came in as I headed up.
"Morning Suki, I can't stop, I have to present my designs to Mr Astello" I quickly told her.
"Morning FuXi, don't let me stop you, we can catch up later. Good Luck," Suki greeted.
As I entered his office, Luca was ready to guide me in and gestured for me to sit down but Mica had already looked up and waved me in whilst he was on the phone. As I patiently waited for him to finish his call, I placed the samples and designs in front of him on the table with written annotations for each design to allow him to study them. When he finished the call, I wasn't getting a lot out of him, it was mainly nodding and hmm's and setting aside all but one design. He looked up at me and I got nervous.
"FuXi? Do you know why I specifically asked you to work for me?" he asked, almost intimidatingly. I just shook my head.
"No sir," I eventually let out.
He gestured to my designs and samples.
"This is why. You are always so thorough and neat. Your sample mock ups are so precise. Your elemental design, what made you think of using flame and water?" Mica asked.
"Well it took some thought, I mean I know I have changed the original brief you gave me slightly but I had ideas that wouldn't stop. That's when I thought of the yin and yang symbol. I thought 'why stick to one element when I can use two,' that's how I came up with flame and water. After all there is only a thin line between love and hate. Bringing these two elements together can symbolise becoming one. '2 become…'," I explained.
…1," Mica finished. I also felt a strange energy surge, but it was the good kind.
He sat back in his chair without saying a word and beamed at me.
Soon as I was back in the workshop I was going to start working on it, only to realise I hadn't eaten. So I went to lunch with Elle, Suki and Nick and they couldn't stop talking about my elemental design and how much they loved it. I was trying to be happy, but something came over me, I just couldn't stop thinking about Mica. I tried to ignore it but it kept flooding back ten times as strong.