The damn light was waking her up. Who the crap opened a spot light in the middle of the night. Whoever this stupid neighbor is will regret waking her up in the middle of the night. Her alarm has not even gone off yet and they were waking her up! Jesus, can't they just do whatever they are doing in the morning? She slowly and reluctantly opened her eyes and realized that the light that was waking her up was not a spot light, it was the sun. Why was there sun in the middle of the night? She was completely disoriented. She got her phone and tried to check the time. What was wrong with her phone? Why was it not opening? She looked at her watch instead and realized that even her watch was not opening. What the crap was happening? Did the apocalypse happen and she did not know it? She rubbed her eyes and reluctantly got out of bed. She scratched her head and looked at the clock in her kitchen. See it was just 10 o'clock. Why the crap was the sun out at 10 in the evening?
She scratched her head some more and yawned. She heard a sound coming from her laptop which she apparently left open and charging in the kitchen table. It's 10 in the evening, can't everyone just give her a break? She went to her laptop, rubbed her eyes and saw that it was her boss, calling her, why the crap was her boss calling her at 10 in the evening? Why the crap was the sun out at 10? Why the crap was her phone and watch not opening…. Wakefulness started to make her foggy brain alert. It's 10… the sun is out… her boss was calling her… shit! Shit! Shit! She had a meeting at 9 AM with the stakeholders! Crap! She ignored the call and pretended she did not see anything. She checked her watch and her phone and cursed herself as she realized that late last night her watch ran out of juice and her phone was not positioned properly in the magnetic charger and so instead of charging, it was completely drained. FUCK! She rushed to the bathroom, took a quick shower, brushed her teeth and was done in 15 minutes. She would have to just charge her phone in the car, fucking all nighter! "I swear Sam, if I ever see you in the afterlife I am going to kill you again!" She got her keys and quickly got into her car to plug in her phone.
Immediately, she saw that she had 20 missed calls from her boss in Microsoft Teams. She winced. If she wasn't a valuable member of leadership she's pretty sure she is completely fucked. She opened the app, called her boss and drove quickly to work.
"Where the fuck are you?" was the hello that she got from Adrian.
"Look Adrian, I can tell you a gazillion excuses for why I am late and why I did not answer and some is going to be true and some are not. But do you really want us to do that dance or do we want to just demo the protype to the stakeholders?" Adrian just sneered.
"You're lucky I'm good. I already rescheduled it in the afternoon and gave some crappy excuse about how you got a stomach ache and needed to have the morning off," he grinned and dropped the call.
"What the fucking hell!" She combed her fingers through her hair and realized that she didn't even comb it. She quickly opened her messy glove compartment and searched for a scrunchy. Where the crap was a scrunchy when she needed one. She almost hit the car in front of her as she found what she was looking for. Thank God for reflexes. She quickly put her hair up into a bun and parked at the first parking slot that she could find when she reached her office's block.
Was it a wonder that she wasn't working at one of the restaurants of the Bennets? She guessed it was but really she was not a restauranteur, never was and never will be, to the disappointment of her family.. But she guessed it was pointless to think about them now as they've been gone a long time ago. She wouldn't lie that the guilt of not being the daughter that they wanted to be was heavy on her mind. To the point that she tried to manage one of the Bennet restaurants. But she was not just lousy at it, she was horrible! She had no patience with picky diners and moody chefs. She just did not fit into the world. It was Sam actually who encouraged her to find her passion. She was lost for a while.. with the money her parents' insurance got her, she was able to try out what she really wanted in college. Programming fascinated her..
The ability to look at a problem, dissect it and have a hand in creating a solution for it that is not just cost efficient but time efficient as well was like sex for her. It was exhilarating! And being able to think about the logic of the solution, identifying the best approaches and seeing how people are using the system to help them was just the icing on top. It also appealed to her that with programming, she did not have to talk to anyone when she was writing her code. It was her and her computer and that was just fine by her. So she finished her degree and partnered with a friend who was good in business but not so much in the technical area and they created Intellicore. She was mainly in charge of R&D and right now they were developing this new AI technology that would basically allow you to be your own interior designer, or engineer, or even scientist. All you need to do is have a phone and their app and the world would be on your fingers. Sounds like science fiction but they have been at it for a few years. They're not there yet but what the meeting that she just missed was about was funding. They needed more investors for this and damn you Sam, you just made me miss the meeting.
She looked at her watch, she had about 30 minutes before the meeting with the stakeholders would start. She debated whether to go get a cup of coffee before the meeting or not and opted to just go get some. She needed caffeine with this meeting. Fuck myself! Of all the days, there's a line, she thought of cutting some people, pretending to be an invalid, but thought against it. She waited in line and couldn't help but tap her toes on the floor impatiently.
Mitch could hear the urgency of the woman behind him rather than see it. Her tapping shoes gave her away. He couldn't help but judge her and think that it was all her fault for not coming in early. He could literally feel she was minutes away from asking to go first so he did her a solid and just decided to have her go ahead. Mitch turned and was surprised at his luck. Look who we have here, he chuckled. "Brianne Bennet?"
Bri looked up puzzled. She had no idea who this guy was and have absolutely no time to flirt. "I'm sorry, you must have the wrong person," she mumbled as she pulled her earbuds out and started to put it in her ear as a sign of her lack of interest.
Mitch raised his brow, "really? Even if I let you go ahead of me?"
Bri stopped midway in putting on her earbuds and sighed. "Look pal, I don't know you and I don't know who you think I am, so no thanks," she irritatingly responded as she went ahead and put on her earbuds.
Mitch laughed. "You sure grew up to be a hell of a woman, Bri."
That's it, she's had enough. "Who are you anyway? Why are you acting like we're the closest friends in the world?"
"Seeing as you've spent almost everyday of your childhood at my family home, I'm a bit offended that you cannot even remember me, little Bri."
Bri furrowed her brow, spend almost everyday at his house? What the hell was this guy talking about? The only place she spent almost every of her childhood was the Brown….family…. estate…. She looked at the man in front of her closely and finally was able to recognize his ridiculously handsome face and a mix of green and blue eyes. "Oh my God, Mitch?"
He grinned at her making her hormones jump a little bit in joy. "Finally! Some recognition! I was beginning to be offended!"
"Oh my God! It's been so long and you've been… well, you know. How have you been and what are you doing here?"
He started to speak when he heard her ringtone. "You'd be surprised that I'm around this area specifically because I'm looking for you. But it would take more than a quick chat in a line for the conversation we need to have, so I suggest you take that call and just meet me for dinner later? My treat," again with that grin. My gosh if he kept on grinning at her that way he might just take him to her apartment and have her way with him! How long has it been since she's had any? Far too long it seems.
"Yeah, I have to take this and I'm going to be late for a very important meeting. How bout you meet me at lobby of the building around the corner there at around 6? Ok? Alright, see you later, bye!" She quickly answered the phone as she walked out of the coffee shop without her coffee. He could hear her trying to calm whoever she was talking to down, using words like, I've got this and you worry too much. He wondered who was on the other side of the phone? Was it a boyfriend? He shook his head, they will catch up later.