Two

                                    

                                          
Warning: Long chapter but totally worth it. My favorite one. 
                          
Next day at work, as I'm crossing the art lobby, I trip over something and fall straight on my butt. I look around the floor to see a pair of shoes lying around as the reason of my fall. A pair of shoes. 
                          
I'm still on the ground, staring at them when a very casually dressed guy-jeans and a black tee-comes to stand beside me and sees me shooting daggers at the shoes. He is barefoot. 
                          
Of course he is. 
                          
"Oh, I'm sorry," he gushes and offers a hand to lift me up. I take it and stand up, dusting myself, and tear my eyes away from the shoes to stare at him now. 
                          
"I left my shoes here and forgot," he continues. 
                          
"Who leaves their shoes in a museum lobby and forgets?" I'm more shocked than anything else. 
                          
He runs a hand through his brown hair and I see how beautiful he is. Like, all cheekbones, jawline, forehead, blue eyes kind of beautiful. 
                          
"Uh, I do," he replies sheepishly. 
                          
"Shoes?" Incredulous shock. 
                          
"Shoes." 
                          
"I mean, what?" 
                          
He sighs. "Look, I'll just pick them up and be out, okay?" 
                          
Before I can reply, he does just that and I'm left there wondering Shoes? 
                          
Out of freaking nowhere, Hannah, Eva's secretary, appears beside me. I get a little startled but compose myself. 
                          
"Evelyn is looking for you," she informs me. 
                          
"It's Eva," I mutter and go in her office's direction. 
                          
However, Eva herself is not there. Now I wish I had asked Hannah : Evelyn is looking for me where? 
                          
I sigh quietly and turn down the corridor towards my office. As I open the door, I give a little shriek seeing her plopped down on my desk. 
                          
Third startlement in the span of fifteen minutes. I'm done for the day. 
                          
"No need to yell, Charlene. It's just me." Her voice is a little different than usual, and somehow because of that my attention goes to the blood red of her lips. She looks more stunning than ever, forming words in a sultry voice with those lips. 
                          
"I went to your office to look for you," I say, not quite meeting her eyes and move behind my desk. 
                          
She doesn't reply to what I said and goes on, "Your office is so clean." 
                          
"And that's a bad thing because . . .?" 
                          
She jumps down from the desk and stands there, not quite bouncing but not still either. "Whoa, you're testy today." 
                          
I just sigh and tuck my hair behind my ears. "I'm just tired, I guess. Sorry. Do you need anything?" 
                          
Her eyes look sparkly and I'm guessing that's a mischievous sparkle. "Well, you see, I don't always ask for what I need."
                          
Despite myself, her intentionally convoluted words entrap me, as always. 
                          
"What do you mean? I don't understand." 
                          
"Don't you?" Her eyes rake all over my face, from my hairline to the tattoo beneath my lip, and even though I try to block it, it still feels like the caress of a feather. 
                          
Eva sighs once-we do that a lot around each other I'm realizing-and her grin grows wider. "Okay, I came here to ask if you have any plans this evening?"