Whoever was up there writing Adrian's fate was surely a sadistic bastard. Some mother fucker who just can't see him at peace and has to put make sure that he is always miserable.
That's what Adrian thought as he came to the washroom and splashed cold water on his face. Oh, how he wished that today he had missed the office. He should have taken a leave of absence or made an excuse, or he should not have attended the damn meeting at all.
He also wished that Harlan hadn't seen him in the crowd, but the way he looked at him and the way his facial expression slightly changed were enough to tell Adrian that Harlan had seen him. The changes on Harlan's face might not have been noticed by others, but Adrian did, and he was anything but happy about that.
He stared at himself in the mirror feeling rather unhappy and not so confident about how he looked, he looked so pale and malnourished with dark circles under his eyes.
He sighed as he took out his handkerchief and wiped his face, and as soon as he removed the handkerchief from his face and opened his eyes, he nearly jumped when he saw Harlan standing right in front of him staring at him.
His heart missed a beat, he blinked before realizing that Harlan really was standing before him.
Adrian felt flustered and didn't know what to say, the two stood there without saying anything and finally when Adrian couldn't take it anymore, he broke the eye contact and folded his handkerchief kept it in his pocket and tried to walk past Harlan.
"I see it is really you." Harlan spoke.
Adrian stopped at his place while Harlan turned around and smiled, he walked ahead and came in front of Adrian, he looked at Adrian from up to down and smiled, "well I didn't really expect to see you here. For how long have you been working here?"
Adrian was speechless, while Harlan said, "your boss just asked you something are you not going to answer me? Where are your manners?"
Adrian finally found his voice and spoke, "two years."
"Two years, I see." Harlan smirked and said, "I hope you are not stealing from the company, are you?"
That really stung, Adrian clenched his fists and his jaw became stiff and Harlan noticed that as he said, "I was just kidding, no need to get angry. Since I am the new boss, I have to make sure that the company's is not under any threat, right?"
Adrian nodded, "you can rest assured sir, I am not a thief."
"How would I know? You know Adrian, I don't trust people easily, the last time I trusted someone I ended up losing a kidney." Harlan lied, but he didn't miss the way Adrian's body became tense and his facial expression changed. Harlan can see the guilt and sadness in his eyes.
"I also lost something very precious to me, I never really recovered from that betrayal so you see I have major trust issues, this is the reason I can be rather hard on the people around me I hope you will understand."
"Sure sir. I'll try not to make you worry." Adrian replied but he didn't look at Harlan, he just wasn't able to look at him in the eyes.
"Don't you think when you are talking to someone you should look at them?" Harlan spoke.
It was so hard! Once upon a time Adrian found Harlan's eyes beautiful, so beautiful that he would love to stare at them and he could stare at them for a whole day but now it was so hard to even look at his face, but Adrian somehow gathered the courage to look at Harlan again.
"I will work hard and not cause any trouble sir; you don't have to worry." Adrian said again, "if there is nothing else to say then may I leave?"
"Oh sure, you may." Harlan said as he moved to the side, "I am sure we'll be seeing each other often from now on, let's work hard."
Adrian gave a nod before he walked out of the washroom and as soon as he was out he took a deep breathe.
How will he survive here.