That night I couldn't sleep. I was amazingly thrilled about putting my first spell and discovering magic within me. I acted like a child that finally learned how to ride a bike without anyone's help. I wasn't sure if I did the spell correctly, but I hoped there was no fine print clause that went along with the spell…
"The boss, that the client mentioned would be all right… right?" I wondered nervously.
I was certain that all my intentions that I tried putting into the spell were pure. I concentrated on healing that person… Too bad that I wouldn't be able to see the results of my freshly discovered magic.
"What if the spell doesn't work…? What if that guy's pain gets worse?!" I started imagining every possible gloomy outcome.
Then I thought about… using the magic on myself.
"What if I could create the herbs and use them as sedatives? I could find out if my spell could actually work, and cool down at the same time!" I decided it would be a perfect solution.
I got out of the bedroom and went back to the shop. Then I took out some lemon balm leaves, placed them in my hands and concentrated on taking all the anxieties away. The herbs started to glow, just like before.
"I think I'm getting better at this!" I grinned.
Afterwards, I made myself a tea, went upstairs, drank the potion, and laid down in bed. The waiting for the herbs to work made me even more anxious than I was before. I started to seriously wonder whether my spell could work in those conditions or not. Yet, after about 15 minutes of drinking, I closed my eyes… and fell asleep peacefully.
I woke up filled with astonishing bliss, I couldn't tell why until I remembered the pieces of the dream I had. It was a strange, but incredibly vivid dream. In that dream, I was… happy. I was loved and I was filled with love. It was a kind of feeling that I had never tasted before, even though I was in love with Nick… or at least I thought that it was love.
The man in my dream was tall, well-built, had broad shoulders, strong arms… I remember being hugged by those arms. I felt safe in his embrace. I remember his scent. It was an intoxicating mix of perfume and the sensation of his skin. I remember his deep, charming, and warm voice calling my name. In that dream, I knew that he was the one that I was supposed to be with…
I couldn't tell why, but I knew it was the man bound to me by a kissing spell. I could feel it with every inch of my body that I was right!
As soon as I realized the meaning of this dream, my heart started to pound wildly. I stretched my mind, trying hard to recover every single detail of this dream… I remember that his hair was black, but… I didn't see his face… I didn't know his name…
"This is sooo frustrating!!!" I shouted, angrily jumping on the bed.
This dream of mine gave me knowledge that moved me a few meters further in a race where I had 100 miles to run!
"Great! Now all I have to do is look for a tall and strong, black-haired guy… Oh, and an important detail – he speaks English!" I felt like my magical research was going nowhere.
I walked downstairs to the kitchen to make myself breakfast and coffee before I went to work. I should be happy because, despite the poor results, I had made some progress, but I was too aware that, from today, I had 18 months left to live if I failed to receive a kiss from the person I had saved. Somehow, I didn't feel like celebrating in the slightest… Of course, my Grandma thought differently.
"I scent magic on you!" she announced happily, as soon as she saw me walking into the kitchen, "You casted your first spell, didn't you?"
"Yes… yesterday I managed to enchant some herbs to reduce pain… or I simply think I did," I laughed, nervously.
"Show me your hands," Grandma demanded, putting her glasses on to examine them.
I stretched my palms in front of her. She looked closely and grinned.
"Yes… it was a very strong spell," she claimed. "I knew you would become a talented witch," Grandma stated, confidently.
I sighed in relief. It was good to know that something I did had a chance of helping someone in pain. That put a smile on my face, helping me chase away the thoughts of my gloomy situation. However, I thought I should tell Granny about the dream I had…
"Grandma, is it possible that I dreamt about that person…?" I asked hesitantly.
"Yes," she admitted, "It might sound cruel, but you are running out of time, so your magic is likely to give you some hints."
"Some… hints…" I smiled ironically, "But I could only… feel him. I couldn't see his face. What kind of a "hint" is that?" I asked, irked.
Grandma burst out laughing.
"Give it some time! Do you really think of dreaming about his name, age, and address?" she smirked.
"Yes! That would help! Feeling loved in a dream only makes me more miserable after waking up…" I sighed.
"You know… Your dream may be a projection of your future, something that is about to happen. Shouldn't you be more optimistic about it?" Grandma grinned and said, "Now eat your breakfast fast, or you will be late for work."
She was like walking and talking sunshine. I admired her ability to find a silver lining in my dire situation. If only I could take over some of her optimism…
I took a deep breath, slapped my cheeks, and told myself one more time that a miracle would happen, and I would be ok. Then I went to work, forcing myself to smile, and building a fake positive aura around me. I walked to the office determined to believe that something good would happen…
"Something bad has happened!" Grace called as soon as she saw me walking into the office.
The expression on her face instantly wiped away the smile I carefully painted and preserved on my way to work.
"Another change in the script?" I asked, laughing hysterically.
"Worse! They broke up!" Grace shouted, on the verge of crying.
"Who?!" I tried to comprehend the situation.
"Amanda and Gareth, our leading couple, broke up in their private life!"
My heart almost stopped. I forgot how to breath, and my mind went absolutely blank. I stood there staring at Grace blankly, hoping that my system would restart soon. I felt like someone just decided to drop bombs on 80% of my life.
"Marcus called out an emergency meeting. We should go there now," she stated in a depressing tone.
I followed her there without saying a word, and then collapsed on a chair in our meeting room, still waiting for my brain to work. A few brain cells that remained active started to process our current situation…
In short, Amanda and Gareth played the main roles in "The CEO's Only Weakness". They weren't that popular when the drama started, but they both gained publicity fast. Later, they announced that they were a couple in real life as well, which naturally gave them even more publicity, and raised the drama rates by a lot. Recently, with a more and more boring plot, the only thing that kept the drama going was their relationship, which has now officially came to an end.
"Let's face it… this is a disaster!" Charlotte, too, was aware that jobs were on the line, "There won't be another season for sure! We will all be moved to other departments. Good thing that I made some connections in the meantime…"
"Actually, it's worse…" Marcus stepped into the room coated in cold and gloomy air, "I talked to the higher-ups. The drama production is cutting the drama into 8 episodes, which means we have three more to rewrite in the way we would finish the whole story. After that, I will be moved to talent show production, and the rest of you will be reevaluated."
"Reevaluated? What does it even mean?!" Grace's level of annoyance reached a certain… dangerous level.
"It means that the management will reexamine your abilities to work at the TVM. I heard that the CEO wanted to fire all of you right away, but the general manager pleaded to give all of you another chance…"
All of us looked at each other in disbelieve and frustration. The four of us were hired at the time, and we were working night and day to make this drama work, despite all the criticism and roadblocks. All of us put our blood, sweat, and tears into it, and now someone was going to examine our abilities?! This was more than unfair…
All of us spent the rest of the day and the entire night rewriting the script in a way that our main characters wouldn't meet even in a single scene. No matter how hard it was for us to believe, the former "loving couple" demanded not to see each other until the end of the production… Writing that required beer, a lot of beer.
In the end, we came up with short romances that the male and female leads had with the extras, added just for the three last episodes. In the final episodes, the leading couple reunites… over the phone, so that the scene could be shot separately. Then we placed an ending scene that included a taking wedding scene in a long shot, where the doubles would stage as the wedding couple, and finally a kiss in the sunset without showing faces…
It was around seven o'clock when we finished the last scenes. We were all satisfied with the job well done, but we were also sad, because it was probably our last task together. No matter how different our personalities were, all five of us created a great team…
By the time of our goodbyes, we were completely exhausted, sleepy… and drunk. Marcus gave all of us time to get some sleep and sober up. He alone decided to sleep in his office, and meet us back at 1 PM. Charlotte was picked up by her newest boyfriend, Grace and Sonia took a taxi, and I was dumb enough to go back by bus to save some money.
I got out of the building swaying on my feet. The rising sun was blinding me. I was standing right outside the entrance and kept blinking my eyes, hoping to see something more than a big bright spot… and a lot of colorful, little spots around it.
Suddenly, somebody bumped into me. I swayed, lost my balance, and was certain that I was about to fall. I stretched both of my hands towards the pavement, trying to cushion the fall, but unexpectedly, someone caught me in half, making my upper body hang through his arm.
"Be careful," the person chuckled in a deep and charming voice.
Then he swiftly brought me up, and walked inside the TVM station's headquarters, before I had a chance to thank him or see his face. I only saw him from the back. He wore a dark navy tailor-cut suit, and had wide shoulders. The thing that he left on me was his scent… which I could sense much stronger than usual in my current, unsober state. I wasn't absolutely certain that I could trust my senses, but his scent… it was the scent of the man from my dream…
I was so tired I couldn't remember how I got home, washed my face, or went to sleep in my bed. Fortunately, I wasn't drunk enough not to set an alarm clock. I allowed myself to sleep for less than four hours. I hoped that it would be enough to sober up. My head was entirely filled with flashing images of the man who caught me and didn't let me fall to the ground. Was it possible that it truly was the one person I was looking for? Well… with all my luck, I figured the probability of that happening was around 0.1%. It was far more likely that my drunken senses simply captured the scent of a man. That alone was enough to wake up every hormone in my body and make them start a celebration! There was another thing… Those two words that the rescuer said also sounded familiar… But then again, it could all apply to the probability I had already mentioned. I was way too drained to keep discussing with myself the odds of finding that man inside my company. I fell asleep.
I cleaned up my desk and walked out of the station's headquarters. My mind went blank. My Grandma kept repeating that we could both live fine from the magic shop's income, but the truth was that the money the shop was giving was hardly enough for Grandma alone… Furthermore, there were months when I used my salary to buy products for the shop to keep the sales going. It was obvious that I would have to look for another job. The weather outside was gloomy… just like my mood. I stopped crying, but I was miles away from smiling either. At least I could tell those people the truth, and I was going to tell myself that it was worth it, even if I had to starve for some time until I would find another way to make an income. I sat on the bench at the bus stop and looked at the grey, cloud-covered sky. Suddenly, I saw a rainbow, out of nowhere. It was strange since the air wasn't humid, and it wasn't raining earlier either. The sun wasn't shining, which made this bow of rainbow
"What did you just say?" the CEO asked with a freezing cold voice. My mind went blank, when I realized he heard what I said. "Are you deaf? I asked you a question," he glared at me. My system began an emergency reboot. In the meantime, I gaped at him in absolute panic. "Were you trying to use that cheap line… to seduce me?" he sneered, looking me up and down. "No!" I shouted, "I mean… you are handsome and all… No! I mean… Mr. CEO is a handsome man, but I would never try… not like that… I mean, no! I mean, Mr. CEO is totally worth seducing! But… I'm not the kind of a person to do that…" I mumbled frantically, praying for someone to shoot me. He gave me a pitying stare, the one you might give to a total idiot. My subconscious slapped its forehead… hard. As a scriptwriter, I desperately tried to find some reasonable excuse for my previous actions. "This scene… I mean this office, and Mr. CEO reminded me of… of a script I write! An
I was standing in a beautiful, spacious kitchen, full of light. The sunrays were gently filling the room, showering it all in a warm glow. It looked like a scene from a movie, or some blissful commercial. I was preparing breakfast with a smile on my face. I felt happy. I took out two plates from the cupboard and served a carefully made omelet with vegetables and toasts. I acted like a happy housewife… a role which I would never have imagined myself in, but in that moment, I was actually enjoying it! I took out two cups and poured coffee into them. "It smells delicious…" I heard a seductive whisper. A man's arms embraced me from behind. It was a familiar feeling. Then he grabbed one of the cups I just poured and took a sip. "I love the coffee you make," he muttered softly. I turned around and saw Samil's face wearing a sweet grin. I pecked his lips. "You should eat while the breakfast is hot," I said with a warm smile. "Yes, Ma'am," he
I had been sitting in the CEO's office for over eleven hours. I didn't dare ask if I could go home at a normal work time. Furthermore, I only left the CEO's office twice. The first time was to get a coffee from the coffee machine in the hall, since he didn't allow me to use his, and the second time was because I had to pee… I was too intimidated by his presence to think about eating, which was a good thing. I couldn't even imagine asking him if I could grab some lunch in the meantime. On the other hand, he kept working nonstop without taking a minor break from the moment I entered his office. He was incredibly diligent about going through tons of documents, making notes, writing emails, and making calls. I started to wonder if he was even human… He never asked me for assistance even once… Maybe he figured out that I wouldn't be of use anyway. It was almost eight o'clock and I had over five boxes of contracts left to go through. Of course, sitting right by my extremel
The merciless alarm clock destroyed my sleep exactly at 6:30 AM. My muscles declared a strike and it took me about 20 minutes to convince them to move. The negotiations were hard. I went downstairs feeling like I had previously been run over by a truck… or a few of them. My Grandma snickered, seeing how pathetic I looked. "I thought that you would be exhausted from working overtime, but you actually look hilarious," she giggled. "Ha, ha, ha… very funny," I gave her a gloomy stare. "Oh, come on! It is funny!" She kept laughing, "You are a witch! You should be able to put magic even in the water that you drink! It's easy. Here… do it with that tea," she handed me a cup. I took it from her, confused. My mind was still asleep. "Think of it as a recovery potion, and drink it. The stronger your intention will be, the more magic you will give yourself," she chuckled. "How can it be that easy?" I asked, being quite doubtful. "It isn't.
I had to admit that working at my own desk, outside of my boss's office, finally allowed me to actually focus on work and remove the image of Samil's naked chest from my mind… partially. My heartbeat returned to normal, I was able to breathe and the best thing of all, I could drink coffee and go to pee without asking for his consent. Apart from my given assignment, I was now acting like a "real" secretary, answering the phone and transferring calls to the CEO's office. For the first time, I found the fact that I had been writing a script for an office romance useful, since I already a basic formulas to answer the call memorized in my head. I just had to remember to say my name instead of the name of the female character that was a secretary in the drama. Some part of me even enjoyed this type of act… I could at least pretend that I knew what I was doing. Writing my suggestions for the contracts was much harder than that. After some thought, I decided to stay true to
“Kass…” I heard Elijah's voice, “Kass!” he repeated louder, “Kaaass!”“Y-yes!” I responded startled.“Did the news, that your boss has a fiancé bothered you that much?” he chuckled.“No…” I laughed nervously.“Liar,” he giggled, “It's written all over your face… You like Samil.”“I don't! I don't even know him well…” I kept laughing awkwardly, taking a step back towards the door.He walked closer to me, smirking. I took another step back, he kept walking forward.“I don't know what it is about you… but you intrigue me,” he gazed at me intensively.I took another step back and reached the door. He got closer and looked me up and down. I stretched my hand back hoping to grab the doorhandle. He noticed how I was trying to escape and sighed.“You are absolutel