Big Reputation

Chapter 6: Dayna Leah Wilson P.O.V-

Sparks fly and my face catches on a flame redder than roses. I jerk back. My footing wobbles, my knees tremble and my heart soars.

The particular organ also hurts from pumping so much. But like why does any of that matter when the most beautiful pair of eyes search my face for any trace of...what? I don't know, but I stare back anyway.

It feels like forever when Evelyn calls my name causing my eyes to break contact from his very green ones and look in her direction, but I still feel his gaze unmoved from me.

For some reason, it doesn't feel weird to be stared at by him. It almost feels like his gaze is caressing my skin, making me feel wonderful in his presence.

He looks at me like he cares.

It's not weird, it's completely and undoubtedly absurd. It's bonkers and I absolutely have a crush on this stranger. But, as sad as the fact that it is true, I am engaged. My mind crash lands from the absurd fog it was in.

#RealityCheck.

Then I hear the alarming loud music blaring, suddenly a torturous violence to the unexpected silence in the deafness I had experienced a second before.

I'm telling you, illegally handsome men are a danger for you, especially for organs like your ears which become useless at their function in their presence...among the malfunction of other parts.

I swore viciously fumbling for my phone, dying to press pause.

'Are you ready for it? Baby let the games begin, let the games begin, let the games begin. Are you ready for it?'

*cue Taylor Swift's insane beats*

I wanna die at the irony.

My lips part for the well needed oxygen and I take in a deep breath, trying to get through the embarrassment. I feel his heated eyes travel to my lips and stay there. I try to look unaffected while my pulse becomes a tune of drums in my veins. Hopefully I'm the only one hearing the rhythm of my heartbeat.

"Good music." He says in a voice so utterly foreign to me for a millisecond, then it vibrates down my body filling me with a sense of ease and familiarity. Like I've known him forever, it's so strange.

I nod in forced agreement. Awkwardly. Nothing like Taylor's music to break the ice.

Thorne's movement catches my eye. He sticks to Evelyn's side and his every breath seems coordinated to her own. His gaze flicks between her and her surroundings, but he can't take his eyes off her frame for long. He looks captivated and absolutely wide-eyed still.

It's interesting to see such a bulk of a man acting like epitome of a dove for a woman like Evelyn. He makes her look small, not that she is, because she is a beautiful woman, with a smart mouth and an even smarter brain. But him making her look slight is kind of extraordinary sight since there aren't a lot of men who can make her look that particular way.

I hate to admit it, since she is like a sister to me and I want her heart to be kept in glass chambers like I want my own blood sister, Danelle's to be in too, but the both of them do look pretty good together. She shapes and defines Thorne' hard form and he compliments her stature. They look pretty damn fantastic; even I can't even deny it despite my lame irrelevant excuses.

Looks are not everything though. I've learned that at a young age. My parents were careful to teach me morals, but just the basic obvious ones like obedience, kindness and such, so I had to teach myself the other complicated ones like trust and acceptance– such can be learned only through experience anyway. After all the world moves on forward whether you can catch up with it. Like it or not, school taught me that part of life.

Yup, you heard me right. School...sigh.

Meeting people of different morals and various opinions made me want to make my own, and to reinstate the ones I know about. Accepting people for who they truly are is difficult, and so it was my first resolution to be completely accepting when I heard about the discrimination so many people faced on a daily basis.

That's all many too much.

No one should ever be treated anything below what they are. And people truly are the most precious things to have been created. Everyone's value is too much to restrain it with a number, and they should know that they are priceless.

That is also partly the reason why I relish in my work area.

Uncovering people true identity and complex emotion is incredibly hard and when the exterior is absolutely terrifying, remember that it is because the interior is hugely vulnerable.

Use the shell analogy, it's widely heard of if you didn't know about it. Hard on the outside, soft on the inside.

Evelyn looks at me and tilts her head to the side indicating to the unforgettable burning presence merely a few steps behind me. I smile and shake my head. Oh how I wish I could.

Then I walk towards her, seeming suddenly so far away, and I hear the heavier crunch of Alexander's footsteps following my softer ones. And when I reach the new pair of lovebirds, I turn to look at the man who makes my head hurt with such complexity, to find him already looking at me. I wonder if he took his eyes off me since before.

"Welcome to EverHill Dr Dayna," he says and my blood joins the orchestra in my head when he called out my name so tenderly. "Dr Evelyn" he nods at her general direction and looks back at me.

"My name is Alexander Black, if you remember, and I am the official leader of this pac- er land."

Great, another hot CEO dude. Honestly, clichés should remain where they should be (in books that is!) and not in my life.

Evelyn sounds amused when she gives her thanks, probably at my tongue dry and stuck at the back of my throat.

Body Malfunction Alert!

"Please, do come in."

Evelyn walks toward the entrance of the house with her small carry-on luggage in her hand, she doesn't get far though as Thorne catches up to her and takes her luggage from her to help them up the stairs.

I see them go into the house together when Alexander starts "Dr Wilson-"

"Please call me Dayna." I cut him off impulsively to say and I see the relief in his eyes. Probably I'm imagining it, jet-lag-car-lag and all.

"Dayna let me help you inside." I nod my head in agreement and follow this man heading straight probably to my doom.

We walk in through the grand doors, and into the most lavish room that people would normally call a hall. All I could glimpse from the door was the heavenly looking soft sofas and the luxurious chandelier hung on the tall roof of the huge room. The walls painted a perfectly inviting soft shade of red, and the carpet under my foot a contrasting light grey.

Normally, people usually opt for neutral colors like off-white or skin tones as such pale light-duty colors to often have an inviting sort of vibe on their walls, peach and pinks if they're up to it. Seems like this household wants to start off with a bang! A royal look indeed.

We took a seat at said heavenly sofas, and I actually felt my butt be comforted by the softness of it. The ladies did need a little comfort after all the weight they had to carry the entire way here.

Thorne asked generally "Shall I ask someone to take your luggage from the car and to your rooms?"

"Please."

When Thorne's back was turned, Evelyn swiftly confronted Alexander, startling even me with her intensity.

"Why am I here for? I mean, Day here, mute as she is at the moment, is here to treat Noah. What of me? "

Alexander looked evoked and Thorne froze with his back towards us, tensed.

"As a supporter for Dayna. The both of you seemed to be great friends and it didn't seem right to separate the both of you."

"We are great friends, but that doesn't mean that we forever will be together, if you understand what I mean. She has her life and I have mine, at the moment it's within each other, but doesn't have to be that way for the rest of our lives.

"Even though we work at the same hospitals and share bits of the others' job, we do work quiet separately. She's a clinical psychiatrist and I'm an immunologist. We work in different fields of science where in this case interconnects to treat your ward. I've seen your hospital on the way here and I'm sure you have excellent doctors at your disposal, who maybe even more experienced and better at their respective fields compared to us."

"I understand your concern Dr-"

"You may call me Evelyn."

"Thank you. We do have our own doctors at the hospitals and they are good at their jobs but they could never be you or replace your place in Noah's healthcare side of his life at the moment. I also think Noah would be more comfortable working continually alongside with the both of you, seeing that you have played a major role in his healing till the day he was transferred to our support system.

"I do apologize that you have been picked up from your ongoing posts at the Melon Hospital, but it seems like the both of you are needed here most."

Evelyn simply hummed her agreement glancing pointedly at Alexander's answer with one eye partly closed and her lips twisted, and that was it.

Soon, a middle-aged lady came out with refreshments and Alexander's tensed shoulders dropped and his detectable lips curved into a loving smile.

"Magdha, Dayna and Evelyn. Dayna and Evelyn Magdha, our house keeper and my mother's secretary." Alexander introduced her to us. We all smiled and nodded at one another.

Mothers' secretary sounded like a defining position. If his mother needed a secretary, what kind of woman was she? What kind of man was her son?

My eyes were closing and I was drifting off again against my will when Alexander's calm voice broke through the fatigue.

"Do you want to head to your room? Maybe to sleep off the journey?"

Evelyn said "Sounds like a mighty plan! That's exactly what I'm going to do!" and everyone laughed as we rose from the mightier sofas.

As we moved on to my room, I saw the long corridors and elegant painting hung on various red shaded walls. My head was up in a dream when Alexander stopped and I walked into his back. I gasped and his strong hands caught me before I went tumbling backwards. Sparks roared in the most beautiful way possible and I was caught in yet another one of his spells.

My eyes was scanning his face with the perfect shade of olive skin coating his bone structure. His facial features proportioned perfectly on the canvas of his face- his eyes the color of the freshest forest and his lips looking the most desirable ones to caress. Again, that was only the face.

I didn't realize the proximity of our position until someone cleared their throat and I jumped apart from his firm, yet protective hold. Turning around I saw another beautiful woman, looking good for her mature age, glancing at us with the most loving smile on her face.

"Mom!" Alexander answered my unasked question, walking to her to place a kiss on the forehead. And that, ladies and gentlemen, melted my heart. There is nothing better than watching someone appreciate their mother no matter the situation.

The woman looked at me then looked at her son and asked "Is this her?" in a very tender voice to which he nodded and looked at me the way only he can, lighting my cheeks ablaze yet again. She patted his black-haired head, and smiled at me. She walked towards me and put her hands on my shoulders. Looking me up and down and pulled me into a fierce motherly hug. I stood still in her embrace, shocked at her action of hugging a complete stranger.

"You know love, you can hug me back?" She asked. I laughed loosening up immediately and wrapping my limbs around her gently frame. For a frail looking woman like her, she had incapable strength.

We broke from the hug but her hands didn't leave my shoulders. "You're perfect." She said and I immediately looked up at Alexander blushing, who was watching with sensitive eyes. I looked back at her unable to look at him anymore and replied a shy "I'm definitely not, but thank you for the compliment".

"My name is Marida Black, but you can call me Merida." She said grinning.

"Oh I couldn't–"

"I insist."

"Well then, I don't think that I could refuse." I teased. "It isn't proper of me to not introduce myself either. My name is -"

"I know dear, and I've heard a lot about you. Don't you fret now." She tapped my nose lightly and I scrunched it up reflexively. "You must be very tired from you journey. It's probably wise to let you rest for a while before anything else." she winks at Alexander and I laugh.

"Thank you" I reply when Marida opens a door leading to my new 'bedroom' which is more like a huge royal hotel room with its own huge fireplace and all. I gasp in wonder.

The first and only word that comes into my mind is, 'Damn'.

"Do you like it?" Marida asks.

"It's very beautiful. Thank you so much for your hospitality."

"It's quiet alright love. Your luggage is already here, but you can ask me or Alexander if you need anything, anything at all." She instructs and I nod. "Now, I am preparing dinner to be served in a few hours or so. Please make yourself comfortable and take a nap and when its dinner time, I will ask someone to call you and Evelyn to the dining room. Or I will arrange it to be brought here if you're too tired."

"No it's fine. I'll be there."

"I hope you have a good time with us, love."

"You're too kind."

"See you in a few then Dayna." I nod in reply. I catch a whiff of a smile on Alexander's face before he closes the door behind his mother retreating frame.

A flag of long journey waves in my face, and I smile in my adventure to come.