Chapter 1
My name is Celeste Maria Sterling, you think at this point in my life I would have kids or be married off with the man of my dreams. Sadly to my mothers expectations I am not; all because I can’t find the perfect match for myself. Let’s just say no man would be caught dead with a woman like me who can’t keep her opinions to herself, and lives in an apartment not too far from a police station. That being said, I was looking forward to finally quitting this God forsaking Job to pursue to be a professional artist and make a name for myself without being able to afford basic materials. On a cloudy Tuesday it was raining like cats and dogs on my way to work and out of grace of the God my best friend who works at the police station as a Detective, she has been more of sister to me than a mere friend and sometimes it’s thanks to her I didn’t end up with just anyone without doing a little digging on them. “I can’t believe you and David didn’t work out, I was sure he was the one girl.” she said with a puzzled look on her face. “The man just wanted to talk about his cats the entire dinner, I almost coughed up a hairball of boredom myself.” I replied with dread.
“I memorized his file cover to cover, he seemed like a good catch for you.”
“Yeah, to knit me matching sweaters along with his fifteen other cats.”
“Fifteen!? He told me he only has four?!”
“He lied, should’ve gotten a warrant to check his basement.”
“Well David was a failure, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna give up on finding a perfect match.”
“Please Val, no more surprise dates, it always ends badly.”
“Just a few more I promise that is it, ok maybe ten more?!”
“Valerie Cara Sawyer, If you set me up on one more date I’m telling my mother the real reason why you don’t visit during the holidays.”
“You wouldn’t?!”
“I would.”
“Fine you win, for now at least.”
“Good, and no need to pick me up after work I'm gonna get an uber, love ya girl.” I replied in a rush of being late, I didn’t get a chance to hear my besties reply upon entering the building with my small puddle tracks. I made it in enough time to catch the elevator, at first I didn’t notice the man next to me until he opened his mouth. “Which one?” he asked, I looked up to him dumbfounded for a split second. “Excuse me?!” I asked rhetorically.
“Which floor?”
“Oh, I’m sorry about that, sixth floor please.”
“What a coincidence, I’m heading there myself.”
“Really? Are you new to the company?!”
“You can say that in a way.”
“Well, let me be the first to say it’s not worth working for a swollen-headed devil.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and stay clear of Mr. Booker, more like booger.”
“I’ll make sure to keep that in mind.”
“Good luck.” I said sarcastically, as the elevators opened to our floor who but himself was there waiting to ruin someone’s day. As I braised for his annoying banter he instead focused all his attention to the man next to me. “My dear nephew Miles, so nice for you to visit our department.” he said in excitement, the guy I talked badly about was his one and only nephew. I was majorly screwed by the side glare of Mr. Booker was giving me. “You are five minutes late, Ms. Sterling.” he said in displeasure,
“I’m sorry Mr. Booker, I overslept this morning.”
“Why am I not surprised, oh right because you think everyone is just gonna wait for you to wake up on time, Ms. Sterling?!”
“No, sir.”
“And do you think we all should just set our clocks five minutes before going to work, is that what you want us to do for you, Ms. Sterling?!”
“No, sir I don’t.”
“Oh what a relief, I would hate to have to fire you because of your incompetence. I’m sure you’re not too tired to do your Job like the rest of us?!”
“It won’t happen again, Mr. Booker.”
“Strike two, If your late again Ms. Sterling I will have no other choice but to fire you, do I make myself clear?!”
“Crystal” I replied, holding back what I really wanted to say. Mr. Booker gave me one last glare before escorting his nephew to his office. I clocked myself in and started my dreaded day. To no avail did the day go by fast enough to hurry home to finish one of my miniature projects. During my lunch break I went to the vending machine to grab me something quick, but all of a sudden my favorite chips got stuck halfway down. As I was about to get ready to kick the stupid machine, Mr. Booker’s nephew showed up as well. “Need any assistance?” he asked, “Give it your best shot, Mr. Booker.” I said sarcastically, he chuckled and hit the left side of the machine four times for my ships to fall to the bottom. He knelt down to get them for me, stood up and handed them to me. “Here you go, Ms. Sterling.” he said, I grabbed my chips from him,
“Thank you, Mr. Booker.”
“It’s Mr. Davis, not Booker.”
“But I thought you were–”
“Oh God no, Mr. Booker is a friend of the family or the family uncle.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Don’t worry, not all of my family is a Swollen-headed devil I assure you.”
“Really funny, why didn’t you tell me that in the elevator?!”
“You didn’t ask, besides the thought was pretty funny, huh?!”
“Well I’m glad me getting yelled at seemed so entertaining to you, good day Mr. Davis.” I started to storm off before I endured another second of his snooty remarks, I couldn’t get away fast enough before he grabbed me by the wrist. “Wait, please?!” he yelled, I turned around and he let go of my wrist. “What?” I replied in frustration,
“I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Well, you did.”
“What I meant to say is, I find it hilarious that people think that I’m related to him. But it’s not funny the way he treated you like that, I’m sorry, Ms. Sterling.”
“Don’t sweat it, It’s not your fault he’s that way.”
“You’re right, But I’m mostly sorry for not standing up to him in your presence.” I almost melted at such a response, before I could answer back my timer on my phone went off and my lunch break was over. I gave him a wave before heading back to work and in return he gave me a gentle smile, before I knew it the rest of the day flew by with ease. As I left from work I was hoping to catch Mr. Davis before he left, but to no luck he already left with his uncle. The rain finally stopped at least; I decided to walk home instead of getting an uber. It was only four blocks away and a walk does the heart good. As I got to the corner of the third block, I heard a loud crash in the alley way I pass by on my way to work. I took my pepper spray and flashlight out and looked for what made that crash sound. Halfway down the alley way I saw a man on the ground, I quickly rushed to him to see if he was hurt. “Oh my gosh, sir are you alright?!” I asked in a panic, he sat up quick and it was like out of reflex he held the knife to my neck. I held still like a statue, I looked down and saw he was holding his left side. The first thing I wanted to do was call nine-one-one, then he lowered the knife and fell head first into my lap from the blood loss. I turned him over carefully and put pressure on his wound to keep any more blood from coming out; I grabbed my phone to call for help when he stopped me, “No hospital ... .just rest…No hospital.” he said in mere breath, I mustard with whatever strength I had and took him to my place. I don’t know why I didn’t take him to the hospital anyway, nor did the thought of him dying on my couch was enough to get me in trouble. When I finally got him in my place without being noticed, I laid him on my couch and went straight to YouTube to see how to take care of a stab wound. Valerie would kill me if she knew what I was doing for a mere stranger, I followed the instructions to the video and thankfully I had everything I needed. When I was finished he seemed to be back to normal, so I took it upon myself to clean up what I could before I went to my bed and clocked out for the night and hoped that the wounded stranger would be gone by morning.
