The Sun and the Moon 2.
Chapter 2.
Lauren took the cigarette and a coffee out to the balcony wearing the bathrobe. While she sat down to enjoy her morning routine, the phone beside her started to beep.
［Carol] Coffee?
It was a simple word with a question mark, but Lauren could understand its meaning. After shaking her head because of Carol’s curiosity, she replied.
[Lauren] You are early. I am having one right now. Come over?
After a long while, there was no reply, and Lauren thought she probably was too lazy to come or busy with something else and went on to the bathroom to shower.
［Carol] I will be there within 10 minutes. Wait for me, darling. 😉
The message came while Lauren was in the shower, and she didn’t read it. After she went out of the shower, wrapped in a towel with her hair wet, and was startled when she saw Carol sitting neatly on the sofa. Her forgetfulness usually made her forget to lock the door, and it was why Carol could come barging in without her noticing. Lauren often does this since she feels very secure in this newly built apartment. Anyone who came would have to use the doorbell downstairs before entering the building.
” Why are you so surprised? You didn’t lock your door and didn’t respond. Didn’t you leave the door for me?” Carol raised her brows and asked.
“You almost scared me to death. I forgot it last night.”
After answering, she went directly to the bedroom to dress.
“You are too careless. Luckily I am the one coming, not a shady person.” Carol yelled while typing on her phone. Carol is her best friend, who is flamboyant and always loves to dress in fashionable red. She always needs to have something red on her, whether her nails, clothes, or bright red lipstick. It was her favorite color, the color of passion, but the person wasn’t.
“Yes, mom. I will remember to lock the door next time,” Lauren joked.
Caroline was trying on the outfit she had just picked out in another corner of the world but wasn’t completely satisfied. She held onto the white shirt while frowning. Today was supposed to be her first day working at the new job her agency found for her. Caroline made sure to wake up on time and arrange her outfit and make-up. She felt nervous thinking of those phone calls she needed to pick up. Her mind was already wondering about what to say and answer.
She cast away the white shirt, picked up the black sweater on the hanger in the closet instead, and was more satisfied. She pulled her jeans on and went to the bathroom to do her make-up. She chose a natural look and felt it was more appropriate, and her beautiful face showed the radiance of a young girl. Caroline was only 24 years old this year, and she rarely used make-up, but due to the critical interview, she would dress herself up a bit to show the importance of today’s work.
The clock ticked to 7:00 AM, and Caroline’s nerves made her uneasy again. She started at 8:00 AM and didn’t want to be late, so she almost stressed herself out of the apartment, picked up her wallet, walked to the table, and fetched the keys quickly while holding her blazer on her arm. At the entrance wearing her black high heels boots, and went out, locking the door. The elevator was on the 5th floor, and she had to wait for it to reach her 7th floor. The apartment she lived in was a rented apartment, and it was rather cramped, with only 30 square meters of space, but that was all she could afford.
Lauren used her coffee machine to make a cup of coffee for Carol. The coffee machine was given to her by Carol on her last birthday. Carol, the barista, said that powder coffee wouldn’t be the same as fresh beans and gave her a high-end coffee machine to brew coffee. While she made coffee, Carol chatted non-stop.
“You should have been there. It was so funny how Christian was making fun of Alisa. I was laughing so hard. I’m not too fond of pretentious people, especially Alisa. How annoying.”
“Why did you even invite her if you dislike her so much?” Lauren asked with one of her brows raised.
“Wasn’t it because of that brat Lenny who nearly begged me if he could bring her? I wouldn’t even think of inviting her,” Carol made a disgusting face to show her strong dislike.
“Aren’t they dating?”
“They are dating, but I have already told him I didn’t like her, but for his sake, I wouldn’t make her embarrassed in front of our friends. So last night, Christian was making the jokes, and it felt refreshing,” Carol said and smirked.
“Sounds like bullying to me. If it’s hard to get along, then be frank about it. I am not so fond of jokes and bullying, and you know that.” Lauren made a statement and gave the cup of coffee to Carol, who leaned back on the sofa like a lazy cat.
“I know, alright. You are so uptight. When are you going to have fun like normal people?” Carol joked.
Lauren sat down with her soy milk chai latte and began to browse her mind. Uptight? She is probably a bit boring when she acts like a strict mother to Carol, but she wouldn’t use the word uptight so frequently to describe her personality.
“Enough with me. Tell me about your business?” Carol said and leaned in for gossip.
“We will have to see next Friday,” Lauren raised her brows, smiled mysteriously, and left Carol in suspension.
The Buddha Bar opened its door at 3 PM, and it was still ample time for her to get ready for work. Aiyla worked as a barista at Buddha Bar, and it was there she met the woman with who she felt like they had known each other forever. Although she felt like that, she didn’t have any explanation for why she felt that way. They only met twice. The woman name Lauren was beautiful with half mix blood Asian and Western.
However, nobody in her family knows that she also likes women. She is open and extroverted, but at the same time, it was difficult to come near her heart. The liking for women was her secret, and only a handful of trusted friends knew about it. She felt excited only to think of Lauren and would love to be beside her more, but she kept the distance since it was too early and didn’t want to be too eager. Besides, she wasn’t ready for a relationship with a woman.
Aiyla went to the bathroom and changed into short pants and a top. The summer weather was sunny and cool in the morning, and she felt nostalgic to wear a dress, but she couldn’t because of work since they have a uniform at work. So instead, Aiyla opened the closet, took out her jeans and a white shirt, put them aside, went to the refrigerator, and took out a carton of apple juice and food to make breakfast. It was a quiet morning, and nobody would disturb her since today was early Monday. She lived alone in the dorm with a kitchen and bedroom in one space. It was a luxurious deal to get an apartment at the dorm for herself alone instead of living with others. She liked it because nobody would disturb her, and she would not bother anyone if she got back at night after work.
The clock was precisely 08:08 AM when Aiyla saw the time displayed on her iPhone. It was the first time she had experienced the digital time displayed so specifically. Aiyla had an intuition that something was about to happen but couldn’t pinpoint it. Sitting at the table, she started eating her breakfast and reading a book.
Aiyla was still a student with a part-time job, majoring in science and bioengineer. Her father had strict requirements for her and taught her to work hard for things she wanted. Therefore, the responsibility for working hard in her study was on her, not wanting to disappoint her father. While eating breakfast, she read her book attentively and didn’t notice her phone vibrating.
［Lauren] Good morning. 🙂
A simple greeting lay in her inbox.
Caroline sat in front of the computer, flickered with her phone, and browsed through her phone out of boredom. After not finding anything interesting on her phone, her eyes looked around the room and finally landed on the plants near the entrance, thinking she would water them later. Her new job was as a receptionist. It was related to her previous job. The agency she worked under helped her a lot to find a job she was good at, and even though the dislike of talking on the phone was intense, she felt it was a leisure job. At least she won’t need to speak for hours on the phone with the same client. Her anxiety about talking on the phone has been severe, but it went more smoothly after forcing herself with a job related to answering the phone. Although she still didn’t like to chatter on the phone at normal times.
After she had looked around for a week, she finally looked at her phone, which said 11:11, and sighed. It was nearly lunchtime, and she felt bored out of her wits, but someone came to help her watch the phone while she went for lunch.
“Caroline, right? You can go for lunch now. I will take over until you come back,” the coworker said. Although the coworker looked very young and wore gold-rimmed glasses, it made her look capable and intelligent, and she wondered if she would fit such glasses herself.
“That’s great! Thank you, I will be back soon,” Caroline cheered and pulled the phone from the charger, ready to go.
She didn’t bring lunch, and luckily they have a canteen here which was good enough for her to buy a salad. The money in her bank account would last at least half a month before the next salary so that she could splurge for a good lunch today. Sometimes she loved to pamper herself. That’s what her elder sister taught her. She got all the love she couldn’t get from her mother, Caroline would get it from her elder sister instead, but that didn’t mean she didn’t crave motherly love from her mother.
She paid for the salad she had mixed in the box and moved towards an unoccupied table. Sitting down, she could hear her stomach growling, and she felt embarrassed for a while, being self-conscious. After her first bite, a guy from the same company came, stood 1 meter away from her, and asked to sit down. Caroline has forced her anxiety down. She doesn’t do good with men but felt it was rude to decline him from sitting at the same table. Caroline resigned herself and nodded toward the guy, and when he got the green light from Caroline, he sat down happily. She bowed her head and kept eating her salad without looking up, but she couldn’t block the guy’s chattering.
“Are you new in this department? I haven’t seen you before,” he said while looking at her greedily.
“Oh no, here it comes!” She thought to herself.
“Yes, I am new here,” she answered hastily, wanting to be finished with her lunch.
The guy noticed her reluctance to speak, swallowed what he wanted to ask into his stomach, and started eating his lunch earnestly.
Caroline breathed a sigh of relief when the table was quiet and continued eating. Someone came again to her table, but it wasn’t because of her, but the guy sitting opposite her. And she felt the person was her saving angel, and the atmosphere wouldn’t be so awkward because of his presence.
When the second guy was about to say something to her, the first guy bumped him with his elbow and motioned him not to speak, but he didn’t notice the kind warning and opened his mouth to greet her.
“Are you the new girl working at the reception?” He asked with joy, and Caroline became uneasy. Her mind would always think these men have ulterior motives, and her stomach is churning. But since he was an angel a moment ago, she felt obliged to answer. Even if it’s a usual greeting, she will cringe that they don’t know each other. But again, she forced herself to look normal.
“Yes,” she said and nodded.
“Welcome to our unit! What’s your name?” The second guy asked with a cheer.
“Caroline,” Caroline answered and was done with the last bite of her lunch.
“Caroline is a nice name. My name is Frank. It’s nice to meet you, Caroline,” He smiled again and was unaware of the second warning of the coworker beside him when Caroline looked at her phone.
“Yes, nice to meet you too, but I need to get back to work. You guys eat slowly,” Caroline said and packed her things. She needed to get out of this awkward situation because she didn’t intend to speak, only quietly eat her lunch. So even though Caroline still had 10 minutes to spare, there was no intention to sit behind and chat. Both of the coworkers looked as she packed away her things and went away.
Rounding the corner and out of the building, she took a mouthful of air and felt relieved. However, she would like to have a cigarette now and did so. Another thing was she craved to have a puff of weed right now but had to wait after work to do it. It was something she would often do during her free time. How dangerous it would be to be addicted.
