In my haste and anger, I backed out of the parking space without even looking and a suddenly car whizzed passed me. Although we didn’t collide, I still felt the cars slightly bump into each other enough to earn a scratch.
And I had just got this car yesterday!
“Fuck!” I screamed and then punched my steering wheel before getting out of the car and slamming the door so hard that it rattled the rest of the car. I immediately checked the bumper and cursed even more when I saw the scratch.
“Oh my god!” It was a woman’s voice and I could hear the annoyance in her tone when she said those three words. I pursed my lips in agitation at the fact that it was a woman that I’d bumped into. Despite how much of an ass I was to the ladies in terms of romance and dating, Mom still told me to respect women in the same manner I respected her. “Weren’t you watching if there was anyone behind you? Hell, I was even honking to make sure that people knew I was coming!”
She sounded so agitated and incredibly annoyed and the condescending tone in her voice irked me even more but I tried my best to remain calm. But when I looked up, it seemed as if the whole world suddenly came to a standstill and even the background noise of LA seemed to fade into silence.
I’d always known that LA was filled with beautiful women with makeup and knew how to put together a good outfit that accentuated their figure. But the woman in front of me looked beyond compare to any girl I’d seen around the area. Her brown hair was tied in a messy bun, loose strands falling and framing her heart-shaped face and under the sun’s brilliant golden glow, the color of her eyes were like a sun’s kiss brought down to give me warmth that spread all over, almost, almost, kissing off the burning rage inside of me.
“I-,” I was suddenly ready to apologize because her beauty made me want to.
“You weren’t watching where you were going, Julian Hudson,” she said, looking at me with so much disgust in her face that confused me. I wasn’t confused why she knew me, I was confused why she seemed to hate me, “and save that apology for someone who will fall for an empty sorry.”
“What the heck are you talking about?” I demanded, puzzled at the rage that was directed at me when all that ever happened between us was our cars colliding at a very slow rate, for that matter.
She scoffed and then walked back to the driver’s seat of her car. “You’re lucky I don’t have time to deal with you.”
She left me standing right there, angrier and confused. Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning at an alarming speed. Those brown eyes. The coldness of her expression. The anger that was directed at me and the venom in her voice.
Audrey?
2
Audrey
It was too early in the day for me to want to murder already, but then again, Julian Hudson seemed to be an exception. It had been five years since I saw the douche, even though social media kept me updated about him every now and then. But I never thought that we would bump back into each other’s lives like that, literally. And god the way he stared at me! Just because he was a celebrity or an A-lister here in LA, it didn’t give him the right to check anyone out so blatantly the way he did.
Goodness gracious, I hated him.
I loathed Julian Hudson with every fiber of my being and the reason behind it went way back to college. I went to NYU for college and lo and behold, the douche was apparently smart enough to get a slot in the prestigious university. We didn’t have any classes together- thank God- but everyone around the campus knew him.
He had the kind of charisma that knew no bounds but at the same time, he was still enigmatic and it was that kind of allure that drew girls in, despite the countless hearts that he had reportedly broken. Maybe it was the dark curls or the blue and gray eyes that made them want to be with him. Or maybe it was because he was passionate for music and had the voice that made anyone swoon. Anyone but me, although I couldn’t say the same thing about my best friend.
Amber had been in love with Julian and had the notion that she could be the woman that would change him and turn him into a better man. Maybe all the women that Julian had been with had the same mindset but after a few more months of being Julian’s booty call, she realized that she was never going to be the woman meant to change him. It broke her heart and forced her to almost take her own life.
Well…
Maybe I re-wrote that story to make Julian the villain.
“Seething like that only means that you haven’t gotten your coffee yet,” Theo greeted me the moment the elevator doors opened to the floor where my new office would be located. Dad had suffered a stroke two weeks ago and was advised by the doctor to take it easy. In order to ensure his recovery, I had to take over to run the company.
Finch Records was a company that my great grandfather had built when he was in his 40’s. My grandfather managed it when he was around his 30’s and had made it even greater than it already was and it was passed down to my Dad when he was 35. While my Dad was great at managing the business, the business regressed when he made the mistake of rejecting singing a contract with Born from Ashes. Dad did not expect that Julian Hudson’s band would skyrocket to fame the moment they were signed with a label.
It seemed as if wherever I went, Julian Hudson simply haunted my existence.
Theo offered me a Starbucks cup, “One skinny vanilla latte with almond milk for the new chairman of Finch Records.”
Theo and I were good friends in NYU and after graduation, I begged Dad to offer him a position in our company because I knew how capable he was and I knew that when the time came that I managed the company on my own, I wanted to have an employee that I could trust the most. Initially, Amber and I had planned to work side by side in the company but after her suicide attempt, she was sent to Paris to study fashion and design, far away from the people that could trigger her depression.
“Thank you!” I smiled at Theo brightly, accepting the cup and sipping the coffee, letting the warmth hit my throat and warm the entirety of my being. God, I needed a warm cup of coffee after starting the day on the wrong side of the bed. It wasn’t the best start to my morning. I woke up late, the car that I usually drove in had a flat tire and to top it all off, I ran into Julian. Well, his car scratched mine and now I had to head to a car shop to fix it which annoyed me further. All I just wanted to do was to get back into bed and let my blankets consume me into another world that’s more relaxing than this one.
“You know you have a meeting now, right?” Theo said, his voice oddly calm as we both made our way to the conference room.
I let out a shaky exhale and nodded my head. “Yes, I do and I’m late and they’re not going to be happy about it. I already know that, Theo. Please do not rub it on my face even more. But you know, if we consider the scale tipping in my favour, by any chance, the board isn’t here yet, right?”
Theo let out a nervous laugh and shook his head. I could feel myself deflate like a balloon. “They’ve been here for fifteen minutes, Aud.”
There was nothing I could do anymore other than face the wrath of the Board of Trustees. I had been informed by my secretary that the board wanted to hold a meeting with me, regarding the transfer of power. Initially, they wanted my Dad to be a part of it but he with his condition and my mother’s lack of knowledge on how to run a business, I stood here alone.