Chapter 3 3

It took a lot of looking around before he found a small familiar figure hunched beside a waste bin. He frowned, recognizing the lady in red and began walking towards her.

When he got to where she was, he noticed that she was shaking. He bent to her level and placed a hand on her shoulder and immediately, she jerked upstanding and turned to look at him and lost a footing.

Everything happened so fast, she was falling backwards and Brandon was catching her with his arms around her waist. He catches her just in time. Their position made him see her face exceptionally well and she gasped, clearly uncomfortable with their positions.

He let her go and she stepped back, smoothing her dress.

"I wanted to make sure you were alright" Brandon said, his entire body awed by her beauty.

Alicia nodded and straightened, Brandon stretched his arm towards her so she would feel safe and finally come down from the sidewalk but she ignored his gentlemanly attempt. That's when she sniffled and wiped her at her eyes.

"Were you ,crying?" Brandon asked, dumbfounded.

He didn't know what to do if she was actually crying and decided to cry some more.

More streaks of tears traveled down her cheek and she began sobbing and Brandon lost his breath for a minute.

Brandon got his control back and immediately slipped out a napkin from his pocket and tried to squeeze it into her hand but she declined and instead rubbed at her eyes.

"What's your name?" He asked. He was curious. No woman had ever made him this curious and intrigued at once.

The lady didn't give him a reply. She was silent and still sobbing.

Brandon stood and waited but she wasn't looking like she wanted to talk to him. She was so absorbed in wanting to wipe her tears,

"Why did you run off?" He asked. "Did I scare you in any way? If I did, I promise that it wasn't intentional. I am really sorry."

Her silence was deafening,he decided to use another reproach.

"What's the matt..." Brandon began to say but Alicia walked right out on him towards the highway, walking broke out into slowed running.

Brandon tried running after her but he stopped after running a few meters. He couldn't catch up with her, he stretched his arm out, trying to catch her wrist as she walked out fast but it ended up been sort of a pinch and Alicia cried out in pain.

Brandon tried to rush towards her to apologise for the accident but Alicia increased her step and ran further away.

"I'm sorry. Please!" Brandon called out.

"Leave me alone!" She shouted with her back turned. Brandon again tried to follow her.

"Get lost!" She screamed at him and then ran.

Brandon immediately knew where he knew her from and instantly stopped, turning back instead.

Once he got inside, Lucas who was already drunk to the point of nearly passing out turned to look at him. "Found her?"

Brandon took a seat and shrugged. "I did but she ran away,"

"Your Cinderella," Lucas sang. "She's your Cinderella."

Brandon picked up his filled up glass of burgundy. He gulped everything down and decided he had had enough for a night.

****

The streets were dark and empty and Alicia made sure to quicken her footsteps as she walked towards her apartment building.

Alicia was so tired, she had walked then ran all the way here and worse, with no money whatsoever.

She went to sit on the roof top and stared into the night sky, her breathing ragged from the amount of energy she had dispersed, her phone in her lap as she stared at the screen for a long time, wondering what her fate for tonight was.

Sighing, she placed her face in her hand and sighed. Today was a mess. Today was a disappointment.

Just then, her phone rang and she immediately checked the caller. It was her manager.

Alicia's heart skipped for a moment and she stared down at her cracked screen as her phone rang.

Deciding that she had no option than to pick this call, she swiped the dancing icon.

"H-hello," She blurted out.

"Alicia Fox?" Her Manager's voice came. He sounded stern and his voice was laced with disdain. "Why did you leave? Why did you embarrass my customer? Did you know how much I lost tonight because of you?"

Alicia's heart was beating fast. What if this man decided that he didn't want her again? What if he fired her and asked her never to return again?

"I am really sorry, sir. It's all my fault. I was really nervous as this was my first time-"

"That is not an excuse, Alicia!" He thundered. "That is not an excuse. Did you not have an idea of what you were going to be doing before taking this job? Why should you be nervous? I do not want to see you in my bar tomorrow? Get that?!"

Before she could say anything, the call ended.

The next thing that came was tears. It traveled down her cheeks as she sobbed into the dark night. She had lost the job she thought would take her to her breakthrough. Life was unfair to her. She slipped to the ground and cried for her mother and how things would turn to worse from here. Now that she had no other place to go.

And that was where she slept till morning came.