Anxious to apologize to him (part one)

The hardworking Team Leader only had two hours of sleep that night. But the sleep deprivation was nothing compared to what she had to face the next morning.

Gabe had left earlier than usual and skipped breakfast time with her, a major sign that he was pouting, but she wasn't going to cave in so easily this time around.

The second issue at hand was what to wear to work while she had a cast on her leg. She usually went with blazers and trousers, but she had to manage to wear a skirt today and not look like a total idiot at the same time. "Do I even have one?" She rummaged through her closet and was happily surprised when her hand caught her one and only brown skirt.

"Yay!" She exclaimed excitedly, then frowned right after, "What would look good on top of that?"

After some very long five minutes of trying to find a blouse that would go well with her brown skirt and failing to do so, she searched 'leg cast fashion' online using her phone, and her face brightened right away.

"Of course! A dress!"

She had invested in more than one dress for events like the upcoming Yacht one, so it wasn't that hard to pick the simplest one of them all, it was a knee-length black dress that provided more chest exposure than what she usually wore to the office, so she quickly threw a shawl and a blazer on top.

'Only makeup's left now,' she focused on her eyes more than usual in an attempt to keep people's eyes on her face, not her legs.

Summer gave herself a satisfied nod through the mirror before she wore only one shoe right by her apartment's door. "It's me against the world today!" She muttered with fake determination, hoping it can stick to her true psychology somehow, someway.

When she opened the door, she was greeted with the sight of her neighbor closing his door with the key inside the lock already. 'The world is already winning,' she thought darkly.

Summer decided to greet Zack politely as soon as he turns around and makes eye contact with her, but when he did turn around, his eyes were on her leg and her leg alone. He quickly turned his pale face away from her leg and fled the scene.

"… Right,"

Summer walked and wondered whether she should do something about Zack or just leave things the way they were between them. She didn't want to consciously admit it to herself yet, but she had already concluded that the prophecy was about either Andrew or Patrick.

She paused in the middle of the corridor. "Am I hoping it's one of them? Or is it truly…one of them…" Not having an answer to that, she sighed and continued to walk slowly out of her apartment building preparing herself to find a taxi.

She found one waiting for her.

The driver who leaned on his car was alerted as soon as she got out, his eyes were first on the cast then up until they reached her face, "Ms. Taylor, I'll be driving you to work today,"

"I'm sorry?" He couldn't have mistaken her for somebody else, "Who called for you?"

He scratched his head looking as confused as she was, "A Mr. Gabriel?"

She was touched by the small gesture of care her younger brother showed her, and she fought hard with herself not to forgive him just yet, 'We need to talk about that updated attitude of his first,'

***

The world kept on winning against Summer that day.

She was finally able to sit down for twenty minutes behind her screen without being interrupted by somebody asking about her leg or trying to pass good wishes having already learned the story.

Amongst all the darkness, one bright light shone on Summer's day and made it all tolerable.

"Looks like it will be smooth sailing!" Carol joked as she pulled a chair and sat next to Summer who grinned and rolled her eyes at the same time.

"Seriously, you guys are the best team ever,"

"Of course, we are! You're so lucky to have us!" Carol mirrored Summer's grin, then her face fell when her eyes traveled down to the leg in the cast. "I wish you didn't have to come here today,"

Summer shook her head vigorously, "It was bad enough that you had to be here all night long without me, it isn't the same, even if I was teleworking,"

"Hey, it happens…" Carol trailed off when she saw Summer's eyes checking the screen on her phone every minute or so.

"…Still no news from him?"

Summer cringed, "Nothing," her mouth remained slightly opened dramatically. This was by far, the worst part of her day.

She had made her way straight to Valentine's office as soon as she arrived in the early morning and requested an appointment to see him, but his assistant apologized saying that he was heavily preoccupied and that she'd let her know as soon as there was an opening in the CEO's schedule. It was supposed to be 'soon' according to the beautiful brunette.

"'Soon' is certainly taking a long time to happen..." Summer meant to joke, but her tone was too bitter for that.

"...Honestly, who'd throw a tantrum in front of the fricking billionaire Summer? Huh? You probably showed him something new entirely, this man was born to be obeyed…Not to be blown off by his employee when he was running the extra mile for his cousin…"

Summer sighed under the weight of the heavy yet true words of wisdom, "…You're one hundred percent right, but can't I plead guilty to temporary insanity or something?" She squeaked and frowned at the same time.

"It's all your brother's fault," Carol concluded.

"It's all that Gypsy's fault!" Summer corrected. "I wouldn't have cracked like that if it wasn't for all the building up that came before it…"

Carol had nothing to say to her friend. She was too busy worrying that Summer could have unintentionally committed career suicide because of the way she treated their boss at that hospital. But there were too many questions that didn't have answers which was why Carol wasn't completely sure, 'Does he or does he not have a hidden agenda?' She mused inwardly.

"...This is ridiculous, I'll just go up once more and demand to see him,"

"…I really think you should," Carol encouraged.

***

It took Summer a solid fifteen minutes to do something that usually took her five minutes to do. And the worst part was that by the time she had finally arrived there. The assistant was not behind her desk.

Summer knew that she should wait, she knew that she shouldn't go and knock on the boss's door without letting him know about it first. But she was anxious to apologize, and it was getting in the way of her concentration. She decided to take a few steps in his office's direction and see what her heart tells her to do.

Her heart was silent, but the rest of her body stopped her in the middle of the way. All the straining on her ankle added on top of all the worrying she had to go through because she couldn't apologize had her flushing. She unwrapped the shawl from around her neck and tried to take a long breath to cool herself down. Then she tried to fan herself with her hand to make it quicker.

The silky thing slipped right through her fingers.

Summer watched as her shawl floated onto the floor in an agonizingly slow manner. Once it had finally landed, she made the mistake of bending down and trying to get it while putting her weight on her twisted ankle, the pain that shot through her leg and up until it reached the lower part of her back made her stumble backward and then fall right on her butt.

'Thank God nobody's watching,'

When she looked up to double-check that thought, she saw with wide eyes that it wasn't the case at all.