Chapter 31: Chapter 31
"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."
-Albert Einstein-
***
Corentin had been sitting around on his office, spinning the chair and playing with a pen around his fingers, he had been smiling off the air for quite a while now. His mind was long gone from his body and joined fantasy land. Though mostly when he was busy he had no time to play around like that, it had been his life motto to not take everything in life too seriously and often it was important for him to have some break in between his work. This time he allowed himself to place his phone on his work desk, which was something he was not really used to doing.
Yet that day was different. He had been waiting for Clara to text him or give him a call, but she never did, so he used his connection to get her number and it was laid straight on his desk. The number seemed to be relatively unique, he guessed Raphael must have chosen it. He would not be surprised if that man bought her an entirely new phone as well.
"What should I do with you?" He lifted the paper and inserted the number on his contact list, and added "Little Dove" as the username. He did not why he chose the name, perhaps it was because she reminded him of a dove. So pure and beautiful. Dove was an animal that is often used in monotheist religion as a symbol of purity, compassion and peace. It just seemed to fit her perfectly.
Keeping it aside, Corentin had been thinking about her. This might come across as over critical but he was analyzing his emotions and feelings toward her. In the end, he drew a conclusion. He found her rather fascinating, if he was to be honest with himself, it was her beauty that first attracted him, like a saying goes, no one falls in love at the first sight with a beautiful heart, but she turned out to be an interesting woman as well, the way she spoke, how she was able to show her emotions and vulnerability while still remaining proper was an admirable trait, but she was also naive and innocent at the same time, which made for quite a strange combination.
Unfortunately for him, she already belonged to Raphael Desroches, Corentin knew Raphael was a bit possessive over Clara. The signs were way too obvious, even the oblivious could see how protective Raphael was over her. Any rational man would never think of competing with someone like Raphael. Oh, but Corentin was no ordinary man, was he?
As a man, he could not help but feel a slight attraction to her, he was not sure if it was as strong as Raphael's feeling, but what he wanted was to look over this young lady. Why? What would he gain from it? He had no idea. All he knew was how he wanted to be close to her. Yes, it was quite a scandalous desire. It would be his first time trying to get himself close with an engaged woman. Now, he was in no way trying to break them apart, but at the same time, he wanted her. Maybe he was unable to have her physically. Still, he wanted to be close to her.
While he was still in a state of blissful contemplation, there was a sudden knock on the door which shattered his thoughts, straightening himself on the chair, he called for whoever was behind the door to enter. Turned out it was his secretary, Melanie. She informed him that the new employees were starting their work that day and asked him if he wanted to watch over their work. Corentin chuckled at her semi sarcastic question, which he took no offense of. It was natural since he usually would have something to complain about the employees' work. It was better to fix things at the beginning than correcting them when they have started working.
Of course, much to no one's surprise, he refused. He was a bit 'busy' at the moment. He would just see them later. The woman nodded before deciding to leave him alone. Guess it would be her job to get someone to watch over them.
Corentin was the opposite of his father, his father was a natural leader, great in business, had his employees looked up to him, but he was a rather serious man, a boring person to be around with, his sister was similar to him. While their serious nature was what made them thrive in the first place, he found their lifestyle lacking in joy.
While on the other hand, Corentin was a lot more like his mother, carefree and laid back, he was sharp, that was true, a trait which managed to land him the position as a successor to his father's business and it was not purely because he was a man. His sister was too busy with the courtroom she merely had no time to deal with the business side of the business although when needed, she would position herself as the family lawyer. Despite certain criticism regarding his overly chill attitude, he did not want to overwork himself like his father did, he was more balanced.
He closed his eyes and took a moment to relax every inch of muscle in his body. His mind floated over to the possibility he could have with her, at the first glance, it was a dead end, but there had been cases which he has witnessed himself where people who have dated for a while end up breaking up while those who barely knew each other could get married in a snap of moment. There was a part of him that was hopeful, as if he still had a chance with her.
He began to imagine Clara's face, how her eyes looked, those beautiful green eyes staring gently at him, her soft honey hair wrapped in between his fingers as both of them were seated together on a boat in Venice, they were laughing, he held her close to him as she rested her head on his shoulder. A moment just for the two of them. He would confess his love over and over again for her, she would stare at him with her doe eyes, sealing her answer with a kiss. The kiss got deeper and deeper, he ignored the stare of the old grandma who was seated on another boat behind them, all he cared about was the heated moment of passion between him and Clara.
Just when he thought he could daydream in peace there was a knock on the door, he opened his eyes and turned his chair around, he thought it was his secretary again, but instead, the woman who came into the room was an unfamiliar face, he had never seen her before. She must be one of the new employee.
Corentin felt violated, a new employee dared to enter his room without permission. He put down his pen and moved his body upward, asking her in a bold tone what her business was. The woman stood with her hands clasped together downward below her stomach, she looked a bit nervous.
"I am sorry to disturb you, my name is Giselle, and I am the new employee here. I was wondering if I could speak to you directly?" Corentin was annoyed, but he did not want to ruin his mood, there were still a few hours before office hours ended, thus he called Melanie and the woman entered room. He faced Mel with a straight face, motioning his hand toward Giselle.
"Help her familiarize herself, I'm busy." Giselle was about to protest but Melanie did as he asked her to, touching her shoulder, she asked Giselle to go back to her office. Mel was aware her boss was not in the mood to be disturbed, she feared for the sake of the new woman.
Giselle bit her lips, she wished to complain but was unable to talk back. Cause she had no intention of getting fired on the first day for annoying her employer. She had no choice but the retreat herself. What an arse.
After both woman left the room, Corentin took a seat and sighed. Why did everyone have to ruin his mood that day? He just wanted to have a moment of fantasy. Because reality did not always live up to his expectation. He started to think back of his past luck in romance. He had dated several women before, there was one lawyer's daughter which he did love for a while, but their relationships only lasted for four months since she became too possessive and demanding toward him.
Then there was a bikini model who he dated because he wanted to know what it felt like to date a model, but it only lasted for a month because it turned out she worked as an elite escort at night, lastly was his longest relationship, which lasted for over a year, she was a really nice and intelligent woman, who was a journalist, but the last few months before they broke up because she turned out to be a crazy psycho who bagged him about matters which he had little intention of caring. That's too much media brainwashing for you. He swore to never date women like that again.
Those women had definitely taught him some lessons in life, but Clara, he did not know what it was about her, but he felt like she was different, she had a genuine kindness which radiated from her. He wanted to know so much more about her. He decided to pick up his phone and started to add her contact.
Meanwhile outside, after leaving his office, Giselle walked along with Melanie she showed her space in the office room filled with around fifty people working on the area, Giselle was shown her desk, there was already a clear desk with glass cover and a computer.
"If you have any question, you can ask your colleague, I am sure they will be happy to help, now if you will excuse me I still have some things to do." Melanie states before walking away. Her steps were stopped by a question from Giselle.
"Is he always acting like that?" She asked.
"Like what?" Giselle leaned back on her chair and tied her hair up.
"Acting like an arse." Melanie chuckled and removed her glasses. She approached the young woman and leaned both of her palms on the desk.
"No, he is probably just doing something important and you came on the wrong time. Don't worry, he is usually rather nice, just, try not to piss him off, just so your work well and all will be fine." the older woman suggested. Giselle nodded her head. She found her new boss to be quite attractive, but his attitude was such a turn off for her. If he was indeed nicer than her first impression of him,
***
Corentin found himself unable to resist texting her any longer. He started with a simple Guess who this is, hoping that she would not mistake him for a random creep. He waited for her to text back and did some work papers when his phone notification rang, when he checked it, it was from her. Clara appeared to notice him right away, he only put half of his face on the profile picture but she instantly knew it was him.
With a stupid grin on his face, he asked her how she was doing. To his surprised, she replied to his texts quite fast. It seemed she was having a leisure time of some sort, because she was not the kind who would be on her phone at all time. He wondered if Raphael was yet to be home. He low key had a slightly sinful intention toward Clara, but if he acted upon it and Raphael found out, Clara would definitely suffer the consequence and it was the last thing he wanted for her.
They texted for around thirty minutes in between replies and him finishing off his work, before he offered to meet up with her.
On the other side, Clara was laying on her bed after varnishing her latest painting when she received the text from Corentin. She was doubting whether or not she should accept his offer, because she had promised to go out on a date with Raphael that weekend, she looked at her schedule and tried to find a time when she was free and settled on Thursday, however she wondered if Corentin would be available at the time as it was a business day.
Corentin, who was eager to meet her, emptied his schedule that day and cut his work hour off only after lunch, but he asked her to come to his office beforehand, it would be easier than picking her up from Raphael's mansion which would probably be guarded tightly. He texted her his office address, although he would send it again to her on that day in case she forgot or did not write it down somewhere.
Just like that, the two were settled to meet for the third time, and Corentin could not be happier about it. He marked his office calendar on Thursday and input the schedule on his phone's reminder app as well as his digital calendar.
I cannot wait to meet you again.