176 Sudden Decision

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind that there is always a way out, but as of now, I don’t want to change my clients…” I replied much faster than I thought.

I had not realized up until that point that despite all that had happened, I had never truly thought of terminating the contact with any of my three clients. It was challenging and things would be awkward, but I had always assumed at the back of my mind that I would go back to meet them and work for them.

“Has any of my clients asked to terminate their contract?” I asked.

“Not at all. I’m not sure what happened exactly, and you don’t have to go tell me if you don’t want to talk about it, but it’s probably not bad enough for them to want to terminate the contract,” Justin said before showing me a comforting smile.

“I guess…” I mumbled.

Maybe it wasn’t all that bad…

After spending the whole day just hanging around with Justin in his office and helping him out here and there where I could with some documents, I started to feel very bored. Although it was a good and restful day that wasn’t at all stressful, it also made me feel restless. Spending time in the office didn’t seem to suit my style of working and it didn’t take long for me to miss going out and about. Sitting behind the desk made me feel restricted and I quickly realized that I couldn’t do this forever. Neither could I keep on shrinking from my work and responsibilities.

I took out my phone and stared at the message that Adrian had sent. We were about to go on our trip to the orphanage for a visit. I wondered if that was still even happening after what happened between us. It did occur to me that Adrian might have been quite mad at me. Thinking of it that way, I should have appreciated that he sent me a message in an attempt to reconnect. Justin was right that I should send him a reply. Despite knowing that, I had been putting it off the whole day and that was partly because I didn’t quite know how to respond.

.....

‘Are you free today?’

Obviously, he wanted to meet with me today and I was in fact free as a bird. He sent that message in the morning so maybe he’s no longer free any more today even if I were to reply to him right now that I was free. I had never felt that replying to a simple message could be so challenging that I could practically feel my braincells frying up from the effort.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated in my hand and then a text message notification popped up on the screen. That truly surprised me, and I was thankful that I didn’t drop my phone in my slight panic. The message the appeared on my screen was concise and simple. It was a date, a location, and a time. The part that caught my attention was the part that came after that.

‘I’ll be waiting until you turn up. Adrian.’

“Elena, what is it?” Justin called out to me.

I turned around to see him staring at me with a worried look on his face and then realized that everybody’s eyes were on me as well. That was when I realized that I had practically just jumped up from my chair and caused a small ruckus that drew everyone’s attention to me.

“I…I need to go…right now…” I said as my hands moved to gather the few things that I had laid out on the table before stuffing it into my handbag.

“Wait…where are you going? Elena!” I heard Justin calling after me, but I didn’t have the time to explain.

“I’m going to see Adrian…” I turned to reply in brief.

“Looking like that?” Justin asked as he pointed to my outfit.

“Of course, not…” I replied before winking at him.

Why else would I be rushing?

“Good luck, Elena! You can do this, girl!” Justin yelled after me.

I could hear his words of encouragement in his booming voice trail after me even after I had closed the door of the office behind me. If I rushed back to my place now, I could shower and get dressed up to meet Adrian at the designated place and time in his message. He probably didn’t think that I would turn up, so he was going to be in for a surprise. It wasn’t a good habit to keep my client waiting and I was just as surprised that I didn’t seem to hesitate about meeting him anymore although I knew that the evening ahead wasn’t going to be an easy one.

The place where Adrian was waiting for me turned out to be a members-only private Jazz bar that I have heard of before but had never had the opportunity to visit. Located on a very high floor of one of the most luxurious hotels in the city that is well known for its owner’s passion for music and the arts, the private jazz bar became even more famous ever since its launch a few years ago. I had no idea if Adrian had a passion for jazz music or for the arts like the owner of the hotel or not but apparently, he was a member.

I checked out my reflection as I walked past a wall in the hotel that was conveniently decorated with champagne-colored mirrors. The short red sleeveless dress that I had on fitted and showed off the curves of my body very well. I had thought that the dress might be a little on the too revealing and daring side when I first put it on but then I realized that I didn’t have anything to lose and didn’t want to have any regrets. Wearing a revenge dress when it wasn’t exactly a day for revenge felt quite fun and helped to uplift my spirits. The truth was that I needed a boost of confidence to meet Adrian again.

–To be continued…

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