*Amora's POV*
Continuation of flashback
What a dick, he is!
So with no absolute explanation, he expects me to stay here? That impudent man literally dragged me by the wrist, to his car and lied to me about an urgent matter.
To be fair, I did believe him like an idiot. And... I did unknowingly follow him the entire day with no complaints... Shit, if I did put up an argument, then I'm sure he's gonna say that it's all my fault. Or ask me why didn't I say anything.
All these thoughts wired around as I sharply slid into some kind of red checkered summer dress. Then, huffing, I apprehensively paced around the changing room with my bare feet.
Impulsively, I thought, what's the worst that could happen? Besides, I don't really know if I can trust Mr. Young, so why lock myself up in this changing room? Shrugging my shoulders, I peeped through the slightly opened door and scanned the motionless state of the store. Stepping out, I took a breath of fresh air as the room I was in, was literally overperfumed.
Glancing at the nearest mirror, I was greeted by a woman in a red checkered summer dress that neatly trimmed off at her knees. As I twirled around to tie the ribbon, a reflection of Mr. Young came into view, causing me to twirl back around to confront him. But I couldn't. His face was uninviting and was reserved with a hint of anger hiding behind his grey steel of eyes. Unlike before, his dark brown hair was disheveled and untidily framed his forehead, and at the same time, his entire attire was in the similar state as his hair- His collar, crooked. And his white dinner shirt, creased.
Almost jogging towards me, I hesitantly retreated and backed away, as he continued to close the intimidatingly closed the distance between us. Until I heard a soft thump, indicating that I've officially reached the changing room's outside wall. There was no room for escape as he continued to close down space between us.
With his nose flaring, he seethed through gritted teeth. "Don't you know how to follow instructions? " My eyes failed to meet his as I continued to feel the intense glare that was being beamed to me. He ducked his head to the point where his hair grazed over my forehead. "You're not retarded. You're defintely not blind- You're not deaf either so what the fuck was so hard about following-"
My mouth twitched as I looked at him dead in the eye and barked back. "How am I suppose to 'follow your instructions' when you can't even be honest with why I'm here in the first place." I took a sharp intake of breath while I defensively took a step towards him- Steadying myself at a challenging stance. Then in a lower tone, I searched his eyes and asked. "Why do you hate me?" I poked hard at his chest as I took another step. Everything just boiled down to this and I could no longer keep my composure around this- This man. "Do you hate me so much that you had to ruin my day like this?" I poked harder as I puffed my chest out.
Although it was pretty clear how mad I was, this man had the audacity to not even listen to me. His head was turned to his right and was warily searching for something.
Furiously, I snapped. "We're both adults," I gestured to the both of us. "So if you have a problem, why don't we talk about it like adults?" A few seconds passed and it seemed like my words have not even reached his ears. His eyes darted all over the room as they remained distant yet alert at the same time.
Getting ready to spout actual swear words at him, he suddenly seized my wrist and yoinked me away as he jogged out of the store. What the fuck-
"Oh not this again!" I struggled underneath his grip and attempted to break free. "Look- Why can't you talk to me like a normal person?" I managed to say as my legs automatically copied his. With my eyes, I drilled holes at the back of his head- Which occasionally glanced back and forth to something behind me.
When I glanced back, two buff and hefty men were close behind us. My eyes widened as I realized the handle of a gun, neatly tucked in each of their pants as they continued sprinting towards us.
Fuck- Who are they? I mentally exclaimed as we reached the store's door and left.
Matching Mr. Young's speed, we continued to run while occasionally glancing back to check how close they were.
I exclaimed, "Who are these people? Why are they chasing us?" As we crossed the street and a massive school of urban dwellers swarmed us. When he didn't reply, I almost yelled through the bustling soundscape of the city. "Mr. Young! Please!"
If these were bad guys... What am I supposed to do? Fight them? I couldn't. Doing that would cause unwanted attention, raise suspicions and it could possibly compromise my entire CIA career!
A few seconds of running and heavy breathing later, I continued running a couple of steps in when he abruptly halted underneath the shade of a tree that stood at the entrance of the city park. Hence causing me to be pulled back to where he had planted himself down.
Irritated, I searched for the cause of this sudden change in motion and found myself staring at the hand that held mine captive. He let go as he used his sleeve to wipe off the beads of sweat drooping on his forehead.
As we both caught our breath, a rough and accented voice called out. "There!" A man in his late 30's, dressed in all black and covered in tattoos, stood across the street as he pointed at us.
On the spur of the moment, Mr. Young automatically clasped his hand with mine and began to run into the park. Taking a peek behind me, the man was only a few feet away and was currently gaining on us. Tightening my grip on his hand, I was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of warmth and security.
~~~
Just realizing that I've been running with my bare feet for almost an hour now- I stopped and finally felt the soreness on my leg muscles. Breaking free from his grasp, I felt the sweat on my right hand with my left one and examined the sky. It was now night- How long have we been running? And how big is this park?
Mr. Young walked around as his head darted in all directions. Ignoring all of this, I plopped down on the grass and massaged my legs and feet. And the day couldn't to get any better... Because I just realized that I'm still wearing the dress I tried on.
Fuck. Fuck. Oh no.
Technically... I didn't steal it if I was forced out of the store... Right? Oh shit.
Sitting down on a small boulder, Mr. Young said. "It's fine. Tyler will take care of it." As he dug his hands into his pockets. Rolling my eyes at him, I crossed my arms and looked away. What? Just because we were being chased for no reason, doesn't mean I'll stop getting angry at him.
He let out an awkward cough and announced. "If you were the owner of a conglomerate powerhouse company- You could only guess the number of death threats you'd receive in a week." He got off the boulder and trudged his way through the short blades of grass to me. "Let alone, a day." He finished as he sat next to me and fixed his gaze at the small lake in front of us.
As I quietly sat, I processed what he was trying to say here and eventually found a great deal of empathy towards him.
Lowering my head, I stared at my feet and apologized. "Look, back there... I'm sorry for snapping at you." I quickly glanced at him and flashed an apologetic smile to him. "But I was confused. And you lied to me. And you were just being a borderline dick-" The moment that left my mouth, my hands shot up to cover my mouth and stared at Mr. Young, wide-eyed.
Oh God, do I want to be fired? Fucking hell.
Breathing through my hands, I mentally prepared myself at another 'Mr. Young' insult and searched his familiar eyes. But he smiled instead. Whoah, what the fuck-
"It's fine- I deserved that." He exhaled as he locked eyes with me and stood up again. "I've been a dick for the past few weeks." Kneeling down in front of me with his arms held out, I furrowed my eyebrows at him and anxiously looked around. But the next thing I knew, I was hoisted up from the ground and was being carried somewhere, bridal-style. My whole body tensed and froze from shock and puzzlement.
As he gently placed me down on a tiny boulder, I couldn't help but stare at him.
Sitting on another smaller boulder, he grabbed both my ankles and placed them on his lap and continued, "And I'm sorry. And I'm sorry for today as well," My spine shivered as his cold fingertips made contact with my feet. Gently twisting my ankle in circles, he said. "I'm not used to..."
What is this? This is a new side of Mr. Young I have yet to see, and for some reason, I'm scared of what this side will unveil.
Cutting him off, "It's okay- You don't have to explain if you really don't want to..." I stared at my feet for a moment. "But if you do want to talk about it, then I'm here. Also..." I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. "You don't have to do this." I pointed at what he was doing.
But nonetheless, he continued with an unreadable expression on his face. He slightly stuttered, "I- I don't hate you... I just don't like you." Wow. Okay. He's being direct and I can respect that- Not everyone has to like me. "You should just pardon me if I come off too rude because," He kept his eyes trained on my feet. "I'm not really used to this."
I retorted, "You're not used to massaging other people's feet?" As I playfully arched my eyebrow as I crossed my arms across my chest again.
Surprisingly, he warmly smiled and replied. "Sure- Yeah." He shrugged as he patted the soles of my foot to get rid of some grass. "Nothing has been normal for the past few years and just recently... I wanted to do something different and actually, physically work with the people I'm supposed to work with." A hint of sadness was evident in his tone and in eyes while his head hung low. "I don't think I've ever said this out loud but I think I'm like this because of my mom..." He stopped massaging and faced the lake, with my feet still on his lap. Taking it off him, he proceeded. "And father."
Silently nodding while he spoke, I did the best I could to listen and digest everything he's saying. Ah, I can sort of understand him better now. However, all these questions keep blinking in my head; What's that supposed to mean? Doesn't he have meetings with people all the time? What does 'physically' mean in that context?
Directing my line of sight to the lake, I spoke in a comforting tone. "I don't know the full story but what you need to know is that regardless of the past, I think what matters now is what you do with the present. And... This is just my opinion of course, but I think you should be more proud of yourself- Because I don't know about you, but if I built an entire company myself then I'd be hella proud of myself and wouldn't treat my job as some curse." Then, clapping my hands, I stood up and announced. "I'm hungry."
[Jackon Young's POV]
Tilting my head in fascination, I watched her wolf down a jumbo-sized hotdog. I started feeling guilty again as I suddenly pictured her battered feet.
Does she have some sort of truth serum with her? Why couldn't I lie to her face? Something about her always irked me. The fuzzy forcefield of warmth would irritatingly grow in range, every time I see her. And it just keeps welcoming me to break down all these walls.
I thought back at what I said earlier... I told her that I didn't like her. In my head I knew what the truth was; I didn't like her for one reason. And that's because I strongly refuse to believe that she's her. It never made sense how someone could look so familiar yet different at the same time. She can't be her. She just can't- The timing for everything in my life has been so shit- She can't just turn up right when I'm about to start this. None of this made sense and I didn't like it one bit.
Wiping her mouth with tissue, I smiled to myself as I spotted her innocently grin when I pushed my tray of fries towards her. My phone vibrated a few seconds later and as I checked Tyler's message-
I lost my appetite.
It read. "Sorry, Young but it's him." Then my phone vibrated again and another message from Tyler came in. "Those shitheads were sent by him and I wasn't even notified."
Present time
Later that day, when I got in the car, Tyler unfortunately disclosed. "I think he's purposely deploying more guards in the field because of Ms. Van Allen."
Well, oh shit.