"They are saying right, sweetie. I gave them a chance just because you asked me. Just because of you." He whispered in a hoarse voice and set my whole body on fire.
My body was paralyzed under his spell. His hot breathe was hitting my face and all I could hear was the thumping of my heart. I couldn't understand the meaning of his words but with the intensity he said made my breathing stop.
I stepped back from him, my back pressing into someone's arm. Foot over foot, I stumbled to catch my balance as I descended to the ground. Bracing for my fall, I wrapped my arms around myself. Large hands quickly surrounded me, halting my fall.
Without a thud, my body completely gives in to the person's grip, my hair dangled away from my face, trailing towards the ground. I looked up at the victim and savior, I gasped.
Utterly in awe as James had surrounded me in his arms, I forgot briefly that I'm in predicament. James leaned over me to support my weight. His jaw was tight but wasn't clenched from anger. He looked somewhat relaxed, and his smile had a bemused expression. My eyes trailed up at his natural brown colored eyes, his soft gaze locked with mine.
I immediately regained my balance after realizing that how embarrassing it was for both of us to stand like this in the corner of the avenue. What if someone sees us and make erroneous about us. They already have wrong impression that James is somewhat interested in me.
"I'm really sorry." I said with blazing red cheeks. I rather looked down. His penetrating stare was making holes in my body.
He stared at me while I peek towards his calm and gentle eyes. Nobody could say that he is the same man who used to burn me with his eyes. His eyes always terrified me and now they are preaching peace and gentleness.
"I'm rather pleased to have bumped into you." He almost chuckled, his smile widened.
"Um- I came here to take you inside so that we can discuss about the themes of Mr. Aaron's engagement event." I said before tugging my hair behind ear.
He followed my every move and I felt weird. It was so difficult for me to work with him when he was behaving so odd and awkward.
We both went inside and sat into two chairs. We were separated by the table and it was good distance between both of them. Everybody was busy in their works while Emily and Mark went to office to pick some stuff which would help us.
"Okay, James. Let's start." I said after taking a long breathe. He looked at me curiously. "It's your best friend's engagement and we need to make it special. For that we need to gather ideas on which we will work. It should be unique because this happens only once in your life. You know the first love and all." I told him and suddenly his expressions changed. He looked disturbed and I got worried.
"Did I say something wrong, James?" I got tensed and asked him immediately.
His eyes got teary and he had a faint smile on his face which was telling me a long tale of pain and love. I understood why he was feeling this. I mentioned about first love and I hit his sore spot. My heart ached when I realized this.
Out of nowhere, I held his hands which he placed on the table. He got stiffened out of shock. I looked at him with a smile and assured him that everything gonna be okay. He nodded and tried smiling. He squeezed my hands and I got tingles in my stomach with his touch. I felt sparks exploding from his touch. There was a different feeling that I was witnessing and it was so beautiful.
I untangled my hands from his and retreated my hands back and looked here and there with blush on my face. I wanted to hide from his stare which was penetrating my heart.
"Okay, we need to come up with ideas. He's your best friend and you can tell me what he likes and dislikes so that we come up with a brilliant idea accordingly." I said to him and we both pretended to be comfortable around each other.
"Right! How can I help you in it?" He said with a soft smile.
"James, I told you that I want to know about Aaron's likes and dislikes." I almost rolled my eyes. I don't like to repeat again and again.
"Hey, don't roll your eyes at me." He said in a scolding yet sensual manner. I tried ignoring the latter manner. "Well, how would I know about his likes and dislikes." He said with a irritating tone like it was a matter of fact.
"What?! Are you serious? You're his best friend. You must know your best friend's things." I said with a huff sound.
"See, I'm his best friend not his girlfriend. And it's really hurt to imagine myself as his girlfriend." He said dramatically and I burst out laughing. He laughed along with me.
"You're too funny and dramatic." I said between my laughs.
"That I am." He winked and suppressed his laugh as people starting looking at our way.
We stopped laughing and now we felt a little comfortable around each other. Laughing with him made this awkward situation way too better.
"It's shame that you don't know anything about your best friend." I scowled at him.
"Oh! Madam, you say like you know everything about Emily." He said with frown but it was a childish thing.
"Yes! I know everything about her. She loves chocolates. She had a lot of crushes in past. Her favourite actor is Leonardo from titanic, she loves classic music and parties are her favourite. Above of all, she loves Mark the most." I said with pride. I knew everything about my best friend.
His eyes widened when he heard my list and cleared his throat. I giggled seeing his shocking face.
"You know what? Even Mark doesn't know all of things about Emily." He said and chuckled.
"Yeah but it's not Mark and Emily engagement, it's Aaron and Clara's. So we need to generate ideas." I emphasised the word ideas so that he may take this seriously.
After minutes of thinking and processing of mind, I got a fabulous idea.
"I've got a idea." I said with wide mouth.
"Really? What's that?" James replied in surprising tone.
"The theme will be 'how we met?'" I said before clapping my hands happily. But I saw confusion on his face and I raised my eyebrows questioningly.
"How we met?" He said and pointed towards both of us. I burst into laughing. He got more confused and seeing his face, I laughed even more.
"What?" He said in a raised voice as he was getting annoyed because I was laughing at him.
"James, who's engagement is this?" I said while raising my eyebrows. "It's Aaron's engagement, so it'll be their theme. How they met? Not us." I giggled after replying to him.
"You could have said it clear before." He said before rolling his eyes. And grinned at his childishness.
"So now tell me how they both met? We will gather some of their old pictures from the dating time. We will make a video out of them. Other than that, we will make a couple dance on stage that will be wearing their first date clothes. They'll dance beautifully and it'll remind them of their beautiful memories." I said happily. By the time, I had stopped speaking, James was in amazement.
"Brilliant idea, Alice." James encouraged me with a smile and thumbs up.
"Thank you." I said shyly because my cheeks must be crimson red by then because I'm still shy of taking complements.
"You're more cute when you blush." He said with a chuckle. I got uncomfortable when he said this and bit my lip awkwardly. He followed my movement and I saw the change of emotions in his eyes that I couldn't decipher.
"Um- James?" I snapped in front of him and he came out of his daze.
"Yeah." He said absentmindedly.
"Should I done this idea? So that we may start working on this. I need to talk with my team members and workers about this." I asked him awkwardly.
"Yeah, you may." He said and stood up. "We will meet tomorrow, Alice. I need to be somewhere right now. I hope you guys won't disappoint me and this idea will surely work for both of us." He said.
Both of us? I knew he meant about this event and company but it sounded weird.
I smiled at him as he left. I called my teammates and told them how to execute all the plans and tasks. James sent Mark all the pictures and details about Aaron's life and dating stuff.
James was no one to me but when he was here, I had strange happiness in my heart and as soon as he left, I felt like someone important is gone.
I didn't know whether it was beneficial or harmful for me, but it was a beautiful feeling.
A start of a new chapter of my life.