Sophie 

His hands. His beautiful, long fingered hands were all over me as we kissed over and over again. His tongue stroking mine over and over again. I could feel his bulge pressing against me in all the best ways as his hands moved down, grabbing my hips and pushing me against him, I gasped against his lips as I wrapped my legs around his waist. And his hands went to my ass pushing me higher against him. As his lips moved kissing my jaw, licking and biting and sucking his way down my breasts. And that’s when my alarm decided to go off. I slammed my hand against the offending device and rolled over in the bed, groaning. It hadn’t been a dream but a memory one that kept showing up in my dreams that set me on fire every time I had it. I sat up on my elbows blinking sleep out of my eyes. As I did so, curly strands of bronze fell in my eyes making me scowl. I pushed myself to the edge of my bed grabbing the cardigan that was draped haphazardly on my desk chair. Slipping my feet into my favorite, nerdy slippers. I shuffled my way into the bathroom which was already warm and humid from my roommate’s early morning shower. I despised morning people. I brushed a hand at the mirror revealing my reflection. Too dark almond shaped eyes, pouty lips and medusa curls stared back at me. I scowled deeply before grabbing my toothbrush and continuing my morning routine. Forty minutes later and I looked every bit the working woman that I was. Perfectly pressed suit, heels and a sedate string of necklaces made up my ensemble as I put on my sneakers. The only hint to my more tomboyish outlook. I made my way to the kitchen grabbing my purse already filled with everything I could need at work. “I need coffee.” I said as I walked into the kitchen taking the ceramic mug my roommate and best friend proffered me. 

“You had the dream again, didn’t you?” My roommate Izadora asked. I scowled into my cup. Iz knew all about my dream especially since she had been with me at club where it had happened. Club, that was actually named Hunter’s Bar of all things. “It was a one night stand. It’s not like I’m ever going to see him again.” I said. “Even though you clearly want to?” Izadora said smirking, as she washed her remaining dishes and stacked them in the drainer. I rolled my eyes and swallowed the rest of my drink. “We have to get to work.” I said sighing. “Yup. We have a meeting with those execs of that non-profit organization, that’s been trying to uplift their image.” Izadora said frowning. “Not that I can remember the name of the organization.” She said. I sniggered. “That’s probably why they need a makeover. Marketing style.” I said grinning as I threw on my jacket.  She scowled as she followed me out the door. Izadora and I had gotten lucky and had been able to afford a two storey apartment in the middle of Bourbon St. 

In the morning there were still the remains of last night’s many street parties littering the streets, and the many vendors and people who ran the city could be seen opening shop, and getting ready for another string of tourists. Already you could hear the snippets of a jazz band in some corner of the street. I loved living in New Orleans, it was a beautiful bustling city that was alive with mystics and believers of the supernatural. I had no idea if the supernatural entities, like Witches and werewolves even existed on earth, let alone Bourbon St. but it did make for an interesting story. And an extraordinary place to live. We arrived at the street car just as it pulled in, and we both jumped in as quickly as possible, another good reason to wear sneakers. I ran a hand through my hair even as the breeze blew of the train blew my hair out of my face. It was one of the main reasons I usually left it open when I travelled, because of my tendency to want to run my hands through my hair. I looked out of the car as the train moved along the rail. I loved watching the town blow by as we travelled closer and closer to the city. Two blocks later and we were walking into work. Izadora took a detour to the breakroom while I went up to my office, I slung my bag on the coat rack that stood duty in the corner of my office and my jacket joined it. I booted up my computer and let it load as I sorted through the memo’s and mail that the in-house courier had dropped off prior to me being in work. I loved that I wasn’t one of the working class people that worked in the wee hours of the morning. I quite enjoyed my beauty sleep even if most of my sleep consisted the dream of my one and only one night stand. It wasn’t even that it had been so great but more to the point of who the dream had been about. Daniel. I had always felt a connection to him even if I had chosen to ignore and deny it all thorough my college years. 

“You are such a jerk.” I said panting, glaring at my project partner. One of them anyways. A project partner who looked completely content lazing on one of the many comfy couches that littered the newly furbished Café that overlooked the pub. The Jerk. Anyone who knows me even the tiniest bit knows how much I detest layouts. Which naturally was all that was left to do in the project. The freaking assignment was due in two hours. I looked away from my partner to gently place my computer on the table. I had walked with it all the way from the cafeteria. It was still open to the project that had been giving me such trouble. I dumped my bag on the floor. I felt exhausted and drained. I warily watched, as Charles Alexander peeled himself out of his chair and swaggered his way over to me. I hate how attractive that was to me. I gestured to the computer, and watched as he bent down and started to type on my computer. I glanced longingly at the brown one seater Charles had just vacated. “Sit down. Take a breather.” One of the guys, a tall Indian boy I’d barely spoken to in the brief times I’ve hung out in the café. The girl that sat beside him also gestured to me and that was all the invitation, I needed. I collapsed in the chair making the people I now sat with chuckle at me. I closed my eyes and rested my arms for a moment of rest before sitting back up and glancing at Charles who was busily tapping away at my computer. “Do you know where Willie is?” I asked Charles, who shook his head at me making me scowl. “This was supposed to be a group project. Yawl were supposed to help.” I muttered darkly. There was a slight chuckle from behind me and I glanced over at the Indian boy who was the one chuckling. “Group project?” He said smirking slightly. I scowled, and ran my nails at the top of my ponytail. My hair was always constantly giving me headaches today was no different. That. Or I was truly aggravated at the situation I constantly seemed to find myself in. “I’m Sophia Singh, by the way, everyone calls me Sophie.” Wincing slightly as my words held a musical tone to it. One of the main giveaways that I wasn’t a complete Canadian. I gave an awkward little wave. The Indian boy smiled back at me and I felt my heart jump at seeing it. His smile lit up his whole face and made my annoyance and irritation fly away all at once. “Richard Whyte.” He said. 

“I’m Rachel, Rachel Thomas.” The girl, a tiny Indian girl who looked so much like Richard they could’ve passed for twins. “I’m Robert Lee.” The redheaded boy who I was currently sitting beside said as he smirked at me. “I believe we’ve met before.” He said waggling his eyebrows at me making me chuckle slightly. We had met before. Several times in fact, he was always in and out of the Café and the pub. The first time I’d met him, he had a tiger tail and paws and was in the middle of the stage singing and dancing to one of the songs in the lunchtime Karaoke Wednesdays. I leaned back in my chair and listened to him regale Richard and Rachel with a story that involved many more people I’d never met. I smiled slightly feeling content for the first time in an hour. And more safe than I had felt in days. A voice in my head that sounded suspiciously like my too wise for her years little sister of mine whispered. I shook my head and glanced away from the group and immediately straightened as Willie, the last half of my project group walked in looking extremely harried. “I am so sorry!” He said making both Charles and I scowl deeply. “Just help him.” I said waving in Charles direction. I turned and saw the three other occupants grinning at me. “Bossy little thing, aren’t you.” Robert said grinning. I shrugged helplessly. “Only when people don’t listen to me the first time?” I said pointedly, ignoring the way Willie’s ears turned red at my words and the smirk that Charles sent my way. I glanced at my phone under the pretense of looking for the time all the while hoping to see a text from someone I should probably not be texting. I felt a mix of relief and disappointment at not having the text which naturally made my levels of anxiety arise anew. Why did everything in my life had to be rife with complications? “Hey, is this better?” Charles asked me. I picked myself out of the chair and looked at the document on the screen. I hummed, before I saved the entire project and glanced at both Charles and Willie. “It’s going to have to be. We have fifteen minutes to get to class.” I said closing down the computer as both Willie and Charles cursed at the same time. I glanced back at Richard and Rachel who was looking at Willie and Charles frenzied movements to get their backpacks and computers while I calmly put my laptop back into it’s case in my backpack. Richard looked back at me and I smiled that smile I knew showed all the dimples I pretended I didn’t have and gave him a wave and slung my backpack on my shoulder and followed my group members out the door. 

 

I’m not a mean person by nature, in actuality I’m really nice. Possibly too nice. But that doesn’t mean I try to go out of my way to please other people. That’s just not who I am. So when Talia and Johnathan asked me why I didn’t post last weeks reading on our facebook group I just blinked at her. I didn’t even create the group. It wasn’t my responsibility to make life easier for people who spent most of their college time inebriated. Maybe if they actually showed up to class during times that wasn’t days they needed to hand things in, they would know when things popped up. I scowled. I was so ready to be out of class it wasn’t even funny. 

I shook my head. It did no good to dwell on things long since passed, and my college days had been over for quite some time. I had been rather fortunate that I had been able to land this job, especially since I had been studying Journalism, not marketing, despite the fact that I was now a consultant Marketer, I was more of the Social media Manager at work. A title that most companies refused to post for the added reason that they didn’t truly believe that they needed social media to make their business run smoothly. Something that a lot of people were growing accustomed in this ever-changing world. Although there were those few individual businessmen that were still very much attuned to the olden ways that were no longer the norm. I rolled my eyes, as I pulled my hair back into a bun and rose from my chair. Hopefully my new clients wouldn’t be older people not interested in the new ways of expanding businesses. 

Richard

I adjusted my tie for what felt like the third time. I hated meetings, especially meetings to plan new meetings. I thought darkly, I glanced around the marketing firm we were currently in, waiting for the consultants to walk in and give us some newfangled way to strum up some more business for my parent’s non-profit. The Wishing tree had been in the family since my great grandparents and while we had always had the support of our most loyal customers, we hadn’t had any new customers in awhile. The last thing anyone in my family wanted was for the company to go under. And now that I had been named the President of the company, a lot of the burden of making sure the company actually succeed, fell on me. I glanced at my father who had his hands in his pockets as he walked up and down a habit he had developed in his college years that he did whenever he felt ancy. “Dad. Maybe you want to sit down?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at him as he turned to look at me. “I’m fine, Richard. Maybe you should stop fixing your tie?” He said pointedly. I scowled as I dropped my hands from where it had been flattening my tie once more. “Mr Whyte?” The receptionist said as she walked in, looking pointedly at my father. Which made me scowl even more. People always seemed to avoid mentioning me. Especially when my tall classic handsome father was in the room. “They are ready for you in the boardroom.” She said gesturing behind her, my father glanced at me once before he followed her, leaving me to scramble behind them. I looked around the building as I walked. I had always admired this building as it was completely made of marble and glass materials. It was every bit as beautiful and striking outside as it was inside. I was so busy admiring the building that I didn’t even notice when we walked into the boardroom. I did however notice the sharp intake of breath, and the exclamation from the two girls already in the room. I looked up and immediately locked eyes on the girl that had been visiting my dreams for the last month, and whose lips I still remember kissing a month ago. My father chuckled slightly. “I see you have met my son.” He said mirth filling his voice. “College.” Sophie squeaked, as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “We met in college.” She said the tips of her ears turning red. I felt my cheeks inflame myself. “Please take a seat.” Sophie said before she gave Izadora a slightly panicked look. Izadora smirked. “We’ve looked over what your company is about, and its long history within the community of New Orleans.” Izadora said jumping into the presentation, while Sophie went over to the far end of the table, where they had many assorted papers. She grabbed a couple of folders, and walked back to the table. “Here are some proposals we worked on, some examples you can look over and take with you, before you make your final decision.” Sophie said as she put down the folders. I looked up at where she stood over the three of us, before she sat down across from the girl Izadora. She looked the same as she did when I saw her a month ago. Maybe with less makeup and more conservative clothes, I observed. I wondered if she still thought about that night too. I shook myself slightly and opened one of the folders. I scrunched my nose. There was a lot about social media in reference to our business. I liked the fact that our company was more community based. I put the folder down and looked at another one, this one also had mentions of social media but went more in detail about how we could use the social media to better impact the community and create events that could possibly cause benefits for both. I smiled slightly as I looked at them. A lot of the events were holiday based, even had a plan that led events all the way from Thanksgiving to New Years. “That was my favorite one to create.” Sophie said softly. I looked up and realized that she was watching me. “What is that?” My father asked. I leaned the folder toward him and watched as Sophie pointed out some of the events with so much enthusiasm that it reminded me slightly of how she had been so excitable in college. I guess some things never change no matter how much time passes by. One thing had changed. She was even more beautiful than she had been in college. More beautiful than she had been a month ago. Every time I saw her I was struck by her beauty and the way she held herself. I wish I could be as confident as she seemed to be. 

Sophie

The last thing I felt was confident. The last person I expected to see today, was Richard. Even if I had woke up thinking about him. And now looking at the plan that had peaked both his interest and his father’s I knew I would be seeing more of him for the next two months. “The plan is to create awareness of your brand by making events that will both benefit and impact the community and it’s inhabitants. As you know New Orleans has often been a site for Tourism in the states. A lot of people from all over the world come to New Orleans to Party and for the culture and even for some of the more mystical aspects of the city.” 

“Or even just to say they have been to the Crescent City. Named for the culture of witches and mystical beings that many writers and historians have claimed run this fair city.” Sophie said her voice laced with amusement. I smiled slightly, “I think we would like to pursue this one, but we will take everything you have made us and confer with the other executives in the company. I said smiling slightly. By executives I meant mom and my brother Ethan who were very much a part of the final decisions as we were. 

“You can reach us anytime, you want.” Izadora said. Sophie made a move that looked very much like she had just kicked her partner in the shins.

“We will.” I said looking at Sophie once more. “It was very nice to meet you both.” My father said pointedly shaking Izadora’s hand and Sophie’s. 

“Can I talk to you? Privately?” I asked, letting my father and Izadora walk ahead of us, out of the room. Sophie stiffened visibly. “There’s no reason to.” She started, her face starting to flush with color. 

“I know I never contacted you after—” 

“It’s not important. It was one night. It wasn’t even that memorable.” Sophie said, ignoring the flinch I made at the word memorable. “There’s no reason we can’t just put it behind us. Anyways if you and your father decide on the Advent proposal, we will be seeing much more of each other. No reason we can’t be civil.” I felt cold as I listened to her speak. Not memorable? I gritted my teeth. “Of course. Civil. Like that night never happened.” I said, nodding once before I turned and walked away from her, once more. Like I’d done so many times before.