Chapter 9: Chapter 9: A Second Dead Body

Okay so it’s Friday and I’m walking towards my working place at a fast pace while thinking of a well thought-out plan on how I can avoid Cherry while being discreet about it, because I am still not comfortable enough to talk to her and act like last night didn’t happen.

Oh, and I also have to find a way to limit my meet ups with James; also tidying up this mess that we call hair. My hair has been a pain in the butt since morning; it just doesn’t want to look good. So I had no choice but to do a lazy bun so that I still look decent enough to present myself at work.

I entered the building, took out my badge and scanned with it over the port, allowing me to enter further in to the building. I took a quick scan through the ground floor and felt relieved when I hadn’t caught sight of Cherry yet.

A ping sound alerted me that the elevator had arrived, making me quicken up my pace. I somehow squished myself through the doors before it could close on me. Huffing, I tried to tidy up some loose hair strands that took it up on themselves to plaster on to my forehead.

I grumbled to myself. “I swear I may shave myself bald one of these days.”

I could hear a chuckle from right beside me. Embarrassment went through me when I knew I wasn’t the only one here and that the person in the elevator have heard me grumble to myself.

“That would be such a waste. Your hair is beautiful.” Instantly I looked up sideways, so fast that even a cracking sound could be heard from my neck.

I was met with navy blue eyes. “M-Mr. Moore!?” I sputtered out. I smacked myself in the face internally. Why didn’t I check if anyone was inside the elevator!?

“We somehow keep meeting each other.” He said, smiling while showing his perfect pearly white teeth.

How are even his teeth so perfect?

No time to be swooning April, focus! “Umm which floor do you have to be at, Mr. Moore?” I asked, smiling awkwardly.

“I have to be on the seventh floor.” He said.

I made an imaginary fist bump, happy that I would leave the elevator earlier than Mr. Moore, seeing how I have to be on the fourth floor. I don’t know for how long I’m able to withstand his presence.

I was about to press the button for him when he came from behind me to push the buttons himself. He smirked at my perplexed expression. “You can call me Mark by the way.”

I just shook my head in refusal. “How could I act familiar with the right-hand man of the CEO?”

For a moment, I thought I saw his eyes darken a bit, but it went away quickly. Maybe I imagined it?

“So it will be alright if we got familiar with each other?” He asked, while rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

I nodded slightly, hoping that he might drop it. He slowly crept in closer to me, making me back up until my back hit the wall.

“So, how about we do that? Let’s take a bite together, hm?” He said as he coiled one of my loose hair strands around his index finger.

Baffled and flushed, I couldn’t find the words to use in this situation. Is he flirting with me? What’s going on right now? And how am I still not on the fourth floor!? He smirked, looking at my expression. “You look adorable with a messy bun, or even better said you look…” He paused. “really delectable.” He said the last part in a low, seductive voice.

My legs were shaking, trying not to give out. My whole body was trembling from anticipation, while my mind had abandoned the mother-ship, not knowing anymore what to do.

He grabbed my chin and stared deeply into my eyes. “Dinner?” He asked again.

“I-I-” I was hammering; everything around me spun.

‘I can’t.’

Why the hell can’t I just say that!? This situation is terrible. If Jack even gets a whiff of this situation, then I can kiss my ass goodbye for real this time. But he just does something to me. Whether he is looking at me or talking to me, somehow he’s able to cause a reaction in me and at the same time, I can’t shake this foreboding feeling whenever I face him.

Suddenly, we both heard a ping sound. We both looked and saw that we had arrived on the fourth floor. YES!

“Oh! I have to get off here! Have a nice day Mr. Moore!” I said quickly and got off the elevator.

“Tch.”

Hearing a frustrated tongue clicking sound from behind me, I slowly turned around, but the elevator doors were already closed and the number above the door already went up; showing that the elevator had moved again.

Was it my imagination?

“April!” A colleague walked up to me. “Could you look over some documents for me and see if everything is alright?”

“Yeah sure.”

“Are you alright?” She asked.

“Yeah, of course. Why are you asking?”

“You are kind of a hot mess right now and I mean it literally. Although your hair is a mess right now, your face is also blazing red.” She pointed out.

My reddening complexion only flared up more knowing what she was talking about. My face still hasn’t recovered from my heated encounter with the Mr. Moore.

“It’s nothing. I had to rush and run this morning so I just need to cool down.” I said as I let her guide me to a place where we could look over some documents.

Yeah, I just need to focus on work right now. Let’s forget what just had happened. There’s no way that Mr. Moore was flirting with me, just no way. Not with this potato sack. He must have been teasing me. Maybe he’s even like that to every female…?

I felt a weird pang in my left chest, causing me to rub it slightly, trying to soothe my heart. What the heck?

“April?” I looked and saw Cherry standing next to our seats. “H-How are you.” She said, smiling nervously while fumbling with her fingers. I could see that she had some dark circles under her eyes.

So she couldn’t sleep after that, huh. Hmph serves her right.

I shrugged. “Good.” I said nonchalantly.

“Can we talk right now?” She asked.

“Sorry, I am a little busy right now as you can see.” I gestured at the colleague, who was waving at her and felt really relieved that I could use this as an excuse to not talk to her right now. I’m not even sure if I really want to at this moment.

“Oh…” she said. You could hear the dejection in her voice. “Then how about at lunch ti-”

“I’ve already promised James to eat with him.” I said quickly, cutting her off.

She scowled disapprovingly. “James? Why with him?” She said with a hint of disgust. Now that I think about it, she never really liked James. She would always complain about how a bad news he was and how I should watch out for me. She just kept saying how she was getting a bad vibe from him.

Those two just never clicked.

“Because he’s my friend, at least with him I know that he got my back.”

She winched. “April, about yesterday I’m really so-”

“Can we talk about this later? We’ve got some things to do if you don’t mind.” I said, a bit annoyed.

Her eyes and shoulders drooped down. “Yeah, sure…” Dejected, she walked back to her seat to resume her work.

I sighed. I looked at my colleague and smiled at her. Acting like what just had happened wasn’t a big deal. “Shall we continue with our work?” I asked.

She nodded, giving me a wobbly smile.

I really hope that this will not be another long day.

…

It was lunchtime, and I was at the rooftop leaning on a small fence bar, gazing at the city view. Normally I would eat at the canteen, but again, that means facing Cher.

I gave out an elongated exhale. Maybe I should just stop avoiding her. I mean, it’s impossible to stay angry at her. Now that I even think about it, they must have been under a lot of pressure because of that woman. Cher and Brandon should have never even been pulled into this ‘family’ mess.

That woman is an excellent actress in playing a victim and being the good people that Cher and Brandon are. They could never leave a person alone who needs help, so if that woman played her cards right, she could make Cher feel compelled to help her.

I should find Cher.

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I was about to leave the rooftop when I saw James enter through the door. We both locked eyes, and he smirked.

“Sugar plumps!” He was running up to me. He was about to give me a hug when he paused in his tracks. “Ah… I can’t give a hug without her majesty’s approval.”

I giggled. “You’ve got that right.” I pushed his shoulder in a joking manner. “Why are you here, though?” I asked.

He pulled out a package of cigarettes. “I was going to take a smoke.”

I scrunched up my nose in slight disgust, disliking the idea of him smoking and exhausting fumes from his mouth that make me choke up a storm in return as I inhale it. I could never understand a smoker’s mind.

He chuckled at my disgusted face. “I said that I was going to take a smoke. You’re here and I know how much you hate this.”

“Thanks.” I smiled, grateful that he was mindful of me. “And I still think that you should quit. I don’t want you to die earlier than you should have.” I said, worried.

He scoffed. “Woman, you’ve got that one wrong. I’ll die earlier than expected if I quit smoking.”

I rolled with my eyes. “Ugh, smokers.”

“Ugh non-smokers.” He said, following my expression. I giggled.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s eating you away?” He asked, nudging me with his elbow. With clouded eyes, I gave a dull laughter in response. “I had a fight with Cherry.” I groaned out. “Well, to be more exact, I just lashed out at her and her boyfriend.”

“Why?” He asked.

“Because they did something which betrayed my trust in them.”

He nodded in understanding. “That’s understandable.”

“So I was planning to talk to her about it today and to apologize for my behavior.” I said. He furrowed his eyebrows, confused. “Why? They did something that caused you to be angry at them. So why do you feel the need to apologize for your outburst?”

“It’s because I didn’t even bother to listen to their side of the story.” I said. “We grew up with each other so I know how they are and I know they would never hurt me like that on purpose.” I said confidently.

“Did nobody tell you to not put your trust like that in anyone?” He asked.

I scoffed. “That’s why you’ve got no other friends.” I said.

With clouded eyes, he stared at me while giving me an eerily smile. “Exactly, because if I had any other friend and if they ever betrayed me; I would never forgive them,” He said. “Never.”

“What?” I asked.

His entire demeanor suddenly changed. His eyes bored through my eyes, not letting me look away from him. “If someone betrayed my trust, not only would our friendship be over, but I would make sure that they would wish that they weren’t born.” he said forebodingly while he chuckled lowly.

I felt a cold shiver run over my body. My gut was yelling at me to run away, but I couldn’t. It felt like something nailed my feet to the ground, halting every bodily movement.

“That sounds a little morbid, don’t you think so.” I chuckled awkwardly.

Like how quickly a night changes to day so did his whole demeanor. The scary vibe that he just oozed out was like boiled water evaporated in to thin air. “I was just playing with you sugar plumps!” He said playfully.

I laughed, relieved. “You’ve got a foul taste in humor, James.”

“I may have a foul taste in humor, but I’ve got a fabulous taste in people.” He said while gliding with his tongue over his lips.

“James, no, bad James. Don’t be so disgusting.”

He laughed. “It’s called making love, sugarplumps. You should try it sometimes.”

I gagged in response, and we continued to laugh.

“But on a real side note you can be mad at Cherry. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you were in the wrong, apologize. However, don’t let them walk over you by pulling the victim card on you.” He said while patting my head lightly.

He’s right, but they would never do that.

A creaking sound from the door made us snap our neck in that direction. Standing at the entrance was Cherry. When our eyes locked, she gave a timid smile, but the moment she noticed James standing next to me, her smile fell and a grimace quickly replaced it.

Wow, she really doesn’t like him.

“I thought you were here, so I came looking for you. Can we talk?” She said.

I wore a faint smile. “Yeah, we can.”

She smiled, relieved. She quickly glared at James and made a coughing noise, catching his attention. He looked at her, smiling politely.

“If you don’t mind, could you leave us alone?” She said.

Surprised by her attitude, he just smiled and said ‘okay’ as he took his leave, but before he left, he whispered into my ear. “She really hates my guts, doesn’t she?” I just laughed and waved him off.

When we didn’t catch sight of him anymore, I laughed some more. “If looks could kill, he would have already been killed a hundred times.”

“He just gives me this nasty vibes.” She said, still glaring at the door where James left through.

I gasped mockingly. “Are you slut-shaming him, Cher? He may be nasty, but there’s no need to hate on him like that.”

“No! Of course not. I don’t care if he had slept with the entire company. There’s just… really something off about him.”

I laughed. “Okay, okay, calm down woman.”

We both laughed. As we continued laughing, I noticed that Cherry’s laughter had died down. I looked and saw that she was looking at me with a serious expression.

Oh, right… we had to talk.

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to come out of her words.

Geez, since way back, this girl found it always difficult to apologize, so I was the one who mostly would apologize. But when she knows she was the one in the wrong, she would try her hardest in her own way to apologize just like right now.

“I’m sorry, I really am. No matter what, I shouldn’t have talked to your mom about your life knowingly about how she had treated you. She just sounded so pitiful it sounded like she was suffering and that she was really trying to make amends.”

I sighed, crossing my arms. “Yeah~ she’s a superb actress.”

I took Cher’s hands into mine and smiled apologetically. “I’m also sorry. I shouldn’t have lashed out at you like that. I should have known that that woman would do something like that knowing how kind you are.”

She shook her. “No, still… I am sorry. Are we good?”

“Were we ever not good?” I smiled.

We gave each other a tight hug.

Suddenly, the alarm went off. Still hugging each other, shocked and confused, we looked around to see what was happening.

I could hear the static noise of the intercoms, followed by a throat clearing noise. “Please evacuate the building calmly. There’s no need for panic. Everything is under control.” Just like that, it repeated itself a few more times.

From where we were standing, we could see people leaving the building, forming a vast crowd. Far in the distance, we could hear the sirens of the police cars.

Cher and I both looked at each other with dreadful expressions.

And I mouthed-

“They found another dead body.”

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