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One

“Good morning, baby.” My eyes snapped open faster than Thanos's fingers. I trained my sight onto the familiar ceiling above me, not wanting to see the stranger that I ended up with from the previous night due to my drunken state. My head started to race, trying to figure out what and what happened the other night.

Even though one thing was sure; I entered the clubhouse drunk and then got extra drunk, it was necessary for me to remember who I had hooked up with. so, I would know who I was about to face.

Ugh…who am I kidding? I won’t remember shit. My nightlife is a shitty cycle. Shitty. Shitty cycle.

So, I braced myself to face the man I had foolishly brought into my house to have possibly mad sex with in a drunk state. It was sex I would never remember. It was the perfect type as I don’t exactly work well with feeling ashamed.

My head hurt madly as I sat up, I had to groan loudly and grab my head. It was like a new feeling every day, I have yet to get used to the aftermath of my crazy nightlife. I swept off the huge mass of my long black hair in my face with both hands, grabbing my head still.

Sitting in front of me was an all-smiling, cute kind of Asian dude, probably Indonesian. I would have returned his smile because it was that contagious, but a battle was still going on in my head.

“Good morning, Rose.” Shit. I must have taken up another identity yesterday.

“Hiii.” I tried to sound happy to see him, but my mouth was too lazy to do that.

“I made you a hangover relief juice. It is my Grandma’s special.”

I narrowed my eyes at the green juice pushed to my face. “Your Grandma has hangovers too?” He chuckled, his motion vibrating the bed kind of causing me to feel a sharp tug in my head.

“Ouch. Ouch.” I grabbed my head tightly, squeezing my face to relay the pain I was feeling.

“Oh my, are you fine?” He certainly did not sound Asian.

“Could you maybe not laugh. My head is…” I opened my eyes and looked at the cup in his hand. Not bothering to ask what exactly its contents was, I snatched the cup from his hand and downed half of the content without pausing. When I finally took a break from drinking, I glanced his way and gave him a short smile which he returned grandly.

“You will feel better very soon.” I nodded and decided to look around my room to see what damage we might have caused. But everything was looking neat. Even my drawer was looking very arranged. On a normal day, it never is.

My eyes went to the floor again, there was no sign of discarded clothing. My towel was folded at the end of my bed. With a confused look, I faced Mr. Cute who was still smiling at me like I was his favorite video game.

“Uh…” I paused realizing I still didn’t know his name. Honestly, I am not used to knowing the names of men I wake up to find on my bed the next day. A simple thanks and bye do the work.

As if he knew what was on my mind, he answered. “David. My name is David.”

I smiled again then dropped the half-filled cup onto the little stool beside my bed. “David… Why is my room looking like an unused hotel room?”

“Oh, last night when we got back from the club, you were mumbling something about wishing you had a genie who would wish your room tidy. It was fun to watch you pretend to be Aladdin.”

My eyes widened a bit as I processed what he had just said. “So, we didn’t…have sex?”

He got up and said, “Nope.”

“Huh?” I was so shocked. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. You did say you wanted to but you thought I was gay because I was talking to the bartender. So, you just told me to take you home and here we are.” He put his hands on his waist and gave another grand smile.

“Wow.” I was still shocked. I am breaking my pattern and I am shocked. And David here doesn’t seem gay, or…

“Are you gay?”

“Nope. Honestly, I wanted to bang you badly yesterday, but I just couldn’t do it for some reason.” He shrugged, a pretend nonchalant look on his face.

“Wow.” True to his words, my headache had reduced already which meant it was time to go to work. I tried to rack my brain to remember which day it was Monday, Tuesday? Whichever, I need to go prepare for work. Hopefully, I don’t see a zombie when I look into the mirror.

“I need to go and check what I am cooking.” He is making breakfast too? Aww.

“Would you love to have some?” I nodded in affirmative and got off the bed.

“Wait.” I stopped David who has an averagely built figure was already at the door. He turned and raised a brow,

“What time is it?”

“Uh.. last time I checked it was ten-thirty or so.”

“Oh oka… What?” I screamed. “Are you sure your time is correct?”

“Yes. It should be eleven o’clock by now.”

My eyes widened the more and my head swirled a bit.

“David, I am freaking late for work!” I screamed again and hurriedly took off the cloth I had on yesterday, my bra-covered boobs and naked vagina facing David who I could have sworn groaned. He excused himself immediately and told me to try to hurry.

“Please, pack my breakfast!” I grabbed my towel and rushed into the bathroom for a quick shower. I could have opted to excessively spray my body with perfumes of different brands, but I did not like how I was smelling, I just had to sacrifice five minutes.

In no time, I was putting on blue and silver office check trousers and a blue t-shirt supported by my very comfortable black slip-on. I grabbed my phone and my office bag and rushed out of the room.

“David, is my breakfast ready?” He walked out of the kitchen as I got out of the room, he had a brown bag in his hand and stretched it to me. I thanked him, grabbed my car keys where I kept them, and rushed out of the apartment. It was when I got into my car that I remembered I forgot to tell David to make sure he left before I got back.

But that was the least of my issues. I roughly backed my car out of the garage, feeling thankful at that moment that my apartment was on the ground floor. Immediately I joined the busy roads of Manhattan, I found myself driving very fast and rough through the shortcut to my workplace. Thankfully no police were on my tail, so when I finally made it to my destination, I did not have another reason to be held down.

I grabbed my stuff and ran into the two-floor building. I could feel eyes on me as I raced to my station hoping within me that my friend was again able to cover me and that my boss wasn’t around. I finally made it upstairs and to my station, panting really hard.

I placed my hands on my desk, leaning on the wall afterward to get myself to relax. I slid down the wall gradually until I reached the floor and I sat there for a while.

“Grace is that you?” I heard the voice of my partner, Samantha call from her seat. Unable to answer her as I was still trying to achieve normal breathing, I managed to raise my right hand to answer her. In no time, my blonde workmate was crouched in front of me, a bottle of water in her hand against my mouth. I gulped the water so fast, that Sam couldn’t help but amusedly watch me.

I finished the whole bottle, let out a satisfied sigh then motioned to the boss’s office to ask if he was around.

“Grace, I am afraid the boss won’t be lenient with you this time around. He has been waiting for you to submit your work and because you were not around, he started to swear that he would fire you. I tried to cover you but I couldn’t. I …”

Her voice soon became very, very distant as I dejectedly went into my little word of thoughts. The moment I dreaded so much was here. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I get fired. I sort of deserve it.

With lumps of emotions stuck in my throat, I came back to reality and looked at Sam who was looking at me worriedly. She placed her hand lovingly on my shoulder.

“Grace, I know the past few weeks have been rough for you. But the lifestyle you chose to get over it is sort of destroying you and I don’t like seeing you this way.”

I was about to reply to her when I heard the firm voice of my boss shout my name. I hurriedly got up almost falling in the process if Sam hadn’t reached for me on time. I dusted the back of my trousers and nodded at Sam who wished me good luck. I did need it at this stage.

“Miss Sands! Where the fuck is your ass at?” Ohh. He is madly angry. Shit.

I rushed out of my office and headed to his, jamming into someone in the process.

"Hey! Come on!" the person exclaimed, hands raised in protest.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," I repeated as I resumed my rush to the boss's office. When I arrived, I took a moment to catch my breath; then I pushed open the glass doors separating us.

"Good morning, sir," I greeted the figure behind the large wooden desk, which had papers arranged on one side, a laptop in the center flanked by two frames, and his phone lying just beside the laptop. As he adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose, his blue eyes met mine. I knew I was in trouble; his face was calm but conveyed the deepest anger.

He stood up, pushing his chair away forcefully. Running a hand through his hair, now streaked with strands of silver, he pocketed his hands in his suit trousers and walked toward me. Stopping about two meters away, he stared at me as if trying to read my thoughts. Unable to meet his gaze, I looked down at the white tiled floor, wishing he would just say something—anything.

A heavy sigh broke the silence, but he didn't speak right away. After a few more seconds, he did. "Look at me, Sands." Slowly, I raised my head, biting my lower lip to prevent myself from breaking down as a slight headache began to form. "I'm afraid you've taken it too far, Sands," he said with unsettling calmness. "The last time you were late, you said it wouldn't happen again. You've made that claim nearly ten times in three weeks, which is unimpressive for a top employee like you." He blinked furiously and exhaled deeply before continuing.

He stepped back further, walked to the window, and gazed out, probably at the park. "We had a board meeting today, and I was supposed to submit the work I assigned to you last week, but you were nowhere to be found, and neither was your work." He turned to look at me again. "I'm sorry, Sands, but we can't condone such behavior. The board members have asked me to... fire you." He whispered the last two words as though he disliked saying them.

I exhaled the breath I'd been holding, my body trembling slightly. Unable to provide any reasonable response to his implied question about my well-being, I simply nodded and walked out of his office, feeling an unusual heaviness in my chest. Dejected, I reached my desk and slumped into my chair. Samantha approached, and when she reached my desk, I looked up at her with a pout, tears threatening to spill.

"Oh, Grace. I'm so sorry," she said, her chocolate-like scent enveloping me as she leaned in for a full hug. Then I started to cry, lamenting my current life situation and recalling the struggles from nearly two years ago, which only intensified my sobs. Sam cooed soothingly, stroking my arm.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," she murmured.

"Why are you sorry? I brought this on myself," I sniffled, crying into her chest. Eventually, I composed myself, wiped away the tears, and told Sam I was fine. Though her expression showed disbelief, she released me from the hug. I took my bag, retrieved the work I was supposed to submit, and placed it on my desk. After grabbing my phone, I stood up to face Sam, fighting back a new wave of tears.

"Thank you so much for everything, Samantha. But I should be on my way to fully start my first day of being jobless," I said. She gave me a sad smile and a brief hug.

"I'll send your stuff over later; just go home and rest," she advised. I nodded and headed for the door, but she stopped me by grasping my hand. "You need to stop those meaningless night outings; they're killing you, Grace." I sighed heavily and nodded again. She squeezed my hand comfortingly before letting go.

She reiterated that she would send my things later, and I left the room, stepping into my altered life, feeling more like the zombie I had feared seeing in the mirror earlier that morning.

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