Believe You Are Worthy

Chapter 1: Play fair – don’t cheat.

It was a beautiful September afternoon, the birds singing happily, weaving through the busy streets of Maryland in perfect accordance with the breeze.

And all I could think about was which unsuspecting human would become their next victim for target practice.

I tossed my long brown hair over my shoulder, smiling to myself at the thought. I returned the keys I had been holding to my Coach purse and swiftly entered Le Crème.

A young blonde waved to me eagerly. I worked my way out the café and onto the porch. A sign marked “VIP only” was quickly whisked away as the waiter recognized who I was.

“Connie!” I lifted my sunglasses and approached the blonde with arms wide open.

“It’s so nice to see you again,” Connie whispered into my hair when we embraced. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Why don’t we sit down first?” I helped Connie to her seat and motioned for the nearest waiter to assist us.

“Two lunch specials, please. And an herbal tea with extra lemons.” I winked at the frightened high school waiter who was so flustered he could barely write down the order.

Dismissing the kid as soon as he left, I turned back towards the beautiful blonde in front of me.

“That bad, is it?” I murmured soothingly, edging my chair around the circular table to sit next to her.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” I gently pulled her mass of luscious curls away from her face, which, at the moment, was still buried in her arms.

Finally Connie lifted up her tear-streaked face, whispering, “Can you believe his nerve?”

“No, no, I can’t… Oh, don’t cry! It’s his loss, Connie. Come on, you know you’re beautiful.” I wanted to punch Tim’s lights out at the moment, putting my best friend through so much pain.

What a moron…

“No, it’s okay. I know the truth. My eyes are spaced too closely together, my nose is too big, and my mouth is too wide. I knew I should have gotten plastic surgery. And liposuction too. In fact, I’m going to make appointments for it tomorrow. Leighani, I’m going to take a 180 degree turn and surprise the shit out of that man.” She sniffed indignantly, pounding her fist into the table and holding her head up high for a total of five seconds.

“Oh, who am I kidding,” she sighed and buried her head into her arms again.

“Oh god,” I groaned. “Connie, get a hold of yourself. You don’t get put on People Magazine’s list of 50 most wanted females in the nation if you need liposuction or plastic surgery, okay?”

“I know, I know,” she sobered up, dabbing her eyes with Le Crème’s napkins.

“That’s more like it,” I grinned approvingly and returned to my side of the table. “Tim’s a bitch anyway. You were never one to cry over a mere man, Connie.”

The waiter came back with our lunches and placed the cup of tea in front of my companion with shaking hands.

“Say,” I eyed the waiter flirtatiously, “are you doing anything of importance tonight?”

“Uh-uhhhhh,” he stuttered out. He was kind of cute, in a schoolboy sort of way. He looked nice with spiked brown hair, and I felt the urge to drag him closer via his dog tag necklace. “Uhh…”

“Stop!” I heard Connie laugh and pretended to be oblivious of the situation when she shot me a reproachful glare. “I’m sorry um,” she glanced at his Le Crème nametag, “Greg. Thank you for your assistance, we’ll call you if we need anything.”

Connie smiled graciously, but the boy was so startled he took a step back and almost crashed into the table behind him in his haste to leave.

After he had semi-gracefully exited, Connie and I shared a knowing glance. Then we burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Oh, it’s fun to act obnoxious at a high-end restaurant sometimes… We joked through the entire lunch, bitching about Tim and catching up on each other’s lives.

“I can’t believe you were seducing a high schooler!” Connie shook her head and chuckled over her cup of tea, her cerulean blue eyes twinkling. The waiter came just a few minutes ago to collect our plates, and I barely refrained from harassing him any further.

“Me?” I laughed, delighted in her renewed humor. “You’re the one with the Colgate smile that had him tripping over his feet to get out of here! Yeah, great going, Connie.”

“Real smooth, I know.” She replied primly and glanced at her watch. She heaved forward in surprise, swallowing her tea too quickly.

“Leigh,” she choked out, pointing to her left wrist. “It’s 12:30 already!”

“Shit,” I mouthed quietly to the side. Then, producing a credit card, said to Connie, “You should probably be getting back to the office – I’ll take care of the check.”

“Thanks,” she breathed, “I’m passing a design today for a building worth one-hundred million on property alone. Wish me luck!” she gave me a quick hug.

“Luck!” I called after her as Connie raced back to Johnson’s Designs for her presentation.

Changing moods every other minute - she’s bipolar, I swear. I chucked to myself and gave the credit card to Greg, who blasted off the porch as quickly as his legs could carry him. Poor guy, being taken advantage of by random twenty-five year old fogies.

I detected a movement out of the corner of my eye, where a man was walking quickly towards this end of the porch. Le Crème security guards were chasing behind him, so he evidently wasn’t allowed to be in the VIP area.

That man, I realized with my eyes widening in surprise, looked a whole lot like – Tim! Bastard.

I was about to stand up to give him a piece of my mind, then remembering I was still in a business suit, and in fact my favorite beige one, I returned to my seat. It wasn’t long before he reached his destination a couple tables away.

Confused, I turned to find out what was going on.

A man and a girl were intent in conversation when Tim decided to intrude.

The strange man looked like he was from the matrix, with his black suit, tie, slacks, and sunglasses.

The girl, on the other hand, was probably a whore. Her dress was HOT PINK, barely covering any skin at all. I shivered and looked away for a second in distaste.

By the time I finished composing myself, Tim already got his lights punched out by the matrix man, and the human cotton candy was hovering over him anxiously – drama queen style.

“I told you not to hurt him, Aaron! WE’RE OVER!” she screamed as tears poured down her face. She held Tim’s bruised face tenderly, trembling with worry.

Aaron? I perked up in interest. Could it be…

No. I sighed in irritation and remembered his gelled black hair. No, my Aaron has blonde hair, and would never, EVER, dare to hide his beautiful eyes behind sunglasses…

I bravely sauntered over to make sure Tim would recognize me and have the shame to be embarrassed. Seeing Tim sprawled on the ground with a black eye? Priceless.

“Can I offer some assistance?” I asked politely as the matrix man stormed out of Le Crème.

She was pretty, I guess. Blonde hair, blue eyes, but still not Connie classic beauty. Why would anyone in their right mind pick a slut over Connie? I mused silently.

“Are you Leighani Mikhailov?” she gasped and screamed at the top of her lungs. “OH MY GOD! I LOVE YOU!” The girl dropped Tim’s head carelessly and came to embrace me. Please get off…NOW…

“You are, like, my ROLE MODEL! OH MY GOD! CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH?” she shrieked into my ears. Oh lord…

“Sure,” I bit out, barely managing to hold on to civil manners, seeing as I was so peeved already.

While the girl rummaged through her purse for a pen and paper, Tim groaned and began to roll over. That lousy son of a bitch.

The pink lady went into hysterics again after shoving a hot pink paper into my hands.

“OH MY GOD TIM BABY! Like, I’m so glad you’re okay!” she fanned him with her hands and pressed his face to her cleavage to comfort him, or at least that’s what I thought she was doing…

I needed to leave. The look of disgust must have been apparent on my face because as soon as Tim recognized me, his tongue farted on him.

“H-h-hi, Le-Leighani.” He greeted through swollen eyes, his face bloated like a tomato.

Quickly, I signed the papers and shoved it close to the girl’s purse. I had to resist the urge to laugh out loud, seeing how beaten up he got in a matter of seconds.

Instead, I grinned triumphantly. “Hi Tim. Long time no talk, huh? I have to go back to the office. I’ll see you guys around,” I nodded to both of them. “Best of luck, you two.”

“Thanks,” the girl breathed at me with awe in her eyes, grinning like a fool.

I smiled tightly and walked quickly to the counter to sign my bill.

In a split second I was out of there.

I sighed, staring out my executive office window to see the Atlantic Ocean lapping against Maryland’s coast miles away.

A knock on my door snapped me out of my daze.

“Yes?” I asked, turning around slowly.

“Here’s more paper work for you,” Heather, my secretary, winced apologetically.

“No,” I declared incredulously, my shoulders instantaneously tensing up.

“I’m afraid so,” she informed me, adjusting her delicate glasses.

Damn interns…

I heaved a great sigh and forced my shoulders to relax. “Looks like it’s gonna be the third late night this week. Care to pour me a cup of coffee?”

“Sure,” she exited the office silently. Unfazed by the enormous stack of papers, I uncapped my highlighter and pen and got down to work.

“Thanks,” I mumbled as Heather came back with my coffee – straight black, just the way I like it.

“Your welcome,” a deep, unfamiliar voice answered. I dropped my pen in alarm.

“You’re not Heather,” I stated the obvious, looking into his rich green eyes and fighting back the bubbles of laughter forming in my throat.

“No, I’m not,” he smiled and I lost control. Gosh, he was so different now – taller, broader. His once long and unruly blonde hair was contained perfectly at what looked to be four inches per strand. At least one thing remained the same after all these years – he was still as adorable as ever.

“AARON!” I jumped out of my chair and threw my arms around his tall frame, breathing in his warm scent. “YOU’RE TWO WEEKS EARLY!”

He squeezed me tight. “And none too late it seems. Your office is a pigsty! Tsk, tsk,” he reprimanded. “You never learn, do you?”

I laughed and pushed him away.

Pretending to be offended, I bit out haughtily. “Shut up, Aaron. Or I might poison you in your sleep.”

“Stop making a scene out of yourself, Leigh. You know just as well as I do that you could NEVER accomplish that task.” He grinned arrogantly. Handsome devil he was, I had to laugh.

“Besides,” Aaron continued, chucking me under the chin, “you love me too much.”

My jaw dropped in surprise – dare he remember after all these years!? I planted my hands on my hips, speechless.

“We’re leaving! Now!” I crossed the executive floor towards my father’s office, Aaron in tow.

“Oh come on,” he mused, allowing himself to be dragged around. The female employees were staring at him the entire way, and he had the GALL to flirt with them – SHAMELESS, THE LOT OF THEM!

“You know, you probably shouldn’t treat your instructor for the next three months so abusively. It’s just going to come back to bite you in the butt.”

I stopped in front of the president’s doors.

“No, treating your employer abusively is going to get you a bite in the butt from yours truly.” I retorted.

“I’d like to see the day that happens!” he laughed as he opened the door to admit us entrance to my father’s office.

My eyes widened and I bit back a horrified laugh. “You’re disgusting! That’s not what I meant and you know it!” I hissed at him under my breath as we walked side by side towards the secretary’s desk.

He bent down to whisper something into my ear, “You, my dear, are too cute.” He patted my rear end to prove his point. The violation! Red alarms blew up in my head and I would have kicked him, fragile business suit or not, but the secretary had been eyeing our close proximity suspiciously so I settled for slapping his hand away quickly.

Aaron chuckled in amusement.

I shook my head in irritation.

“I could hate you,” I warned after Mrs. Colligen went to inform the president of his visitors.

“As I previously mentioned, you can’t,” he countered lazily.

“Damn it Aaron, why can’t you just let me win every now and then?”

“Well, I could,” he admitted, tilting my chin up with his finger. His voice lowered and his eyes held my gaze effortlessly. I was being seduced and I knew it. I took a shaky breath as he closed the gap between us.

He didn’t speak again until his mouth was less than two centimeters from mine, “But that’d be cheating.”

A/N: Well! Coming back after a little break, eh? I’ve been deciding the right time to “debut” this story and today seems like a good time as any. If I have enough time to work on my story, I should be done before summer! But since that’s not bound to happen… buckle your seat belts and relax, cuz it’s going to be quite a ride! Read and review, folks!

“Before you can win, you must believe you are worthy.”