Chapter 1 Elizabeth meets Paul

Elizabeth was really excited for the day because she was starting the first job she got out of college. She was an assistant to the top lawyer in the country, Keith Connard. She woke up got ready, and was nothing but excited to do so, it was not until she left her apartment that she started to feel nervous. Her nerves were quickly put at ease when she arrived at the Connard law firm. She was warmly welcomed by the secretary, Grace who worked at the front, she was informed of where she would be working and was given all her tasks for the day.

Elizabeth was not introduced to Keith. His office was directly behind her desk, so she could see that he was not even in yet, she wondered if she would actually meet Keith. But by the end of the day, Keith had still not come in. Elizabeth was disappointed as she looked up to him and the career he had made for himself. When she finished her work, she said goodbye to the few people she had met that day and went home.

Elizabeth walked through her front door and her phone was ringing, she answered it; it was her mother calling. “Hello,” Elizabeth said.

“Hi sweetheart, it’s mommy calling. I just wanted to know how your first day went.” Her mother explained her reason for calling.

“My first day was great, mom everybody was very nice to me, they trusted me with so many things immediately, and I was just busy all day long. I think that this is going to be a great experience for me,” answered Elizabeth.

“Oh sweetheart I am so happy to hear that, because some of my friends told me that Keith Connard was a horrible person, and even worse to work for, but I guess he is not” Her mother replied.

“Well actually I wouldn’t know I never met him, he didn’t come into the office today. It really doesn’t matter though. I am here to learn from the best so I don’t really care if he is an ass hole. So long as he is actually the best and I can, in fact, learn from him.” responded Elizabeth.

“Will I care! You’re my baby I do not want anyone treating you like crap. If he is mean to you I want you to quit.” Her mother demanded.

“OK mom, I will quit if he is mean to me, but I have to let you go now. I love you.” Elizabeth said.

“OK, I love you too.” Her mother replied.

Elizabeth hung up the phone, and muttered under breath ‘Yea I am not going to quit this job’. She knew from experience that the best way to deal with her mother was to just give in to her and let her have her way. Or at least let her believe she would get her way. Elizabeth put on the kettle and threw some Ramen noodles into a bowl, when the kettle, she poured boiling water into the bowl and left it there to cook as she sat down and turned on the TV.

Her phone rang again she answered it “Mom come on”.

“No, it is not your mom. It’s me, Davina.” responded Elizabeth’s best friend Davina.

“Oh hey sorry, I thought it was my mom again checking up on me. She is worried that my new boss is going to mean to me.” Elizabeth said.

“Oh really she thinks that? That’s funny.” Davina responded.

“Yea apparently her gossipy friends heard that he was a terrible person so now she is worried. Anyway, what’s up?” Elizabeth responded.

Davina answered “Well opposite of your mother I am happy and excited for you, and your first day of work and I think we should go out and celebrate at Lina’s”

“Oh, I don’t know about going to a club tonight. I am pretty tired and I would like to make it to my second day of work, on time without being hung over.” Elizabeth responded.

“Oh come your first day in a law office is a huge deal!” argued Davina.

Elizabeth responded “It’s really not I am just an assistant to a lawyer right now.”

“Yea but that was your choice, cause in your words ‘I don’t care if I am not a lawyer being close to the best will teach me so much’. Besides who cares if you are just an assistant, this is the first step to your amazing career. We need to celebrate, and I am not taking no for an answer. I will go to your apartment and drag you kicking and screaming if I have to.” Davina said with a little attitude.

Defeated, Elizabeth replied “Fine I will go; I’ll meet you there at eleven.”

“Yay" OK thank you, we’re going to have so much fun.” Davina hung up the phone. Elizabeth then hung up her phone.

Elizabeth got her noodles from the counter, then went back to sit on the couch she ate her dinner in front of the TV. At nine Elizabeth reluctantly dragged herself off the couch, put the bowl in the sink, then showered, and got ready.

She met Davina outside the club at Lina’s. As usual, Davina looked gorgeous; she was tall and had the facial features of a supermodel. Elizabeth often found herself jealous of her, as she always made her feel inadequate. She walked up to her and they exchanged pleasantries as they waited in line to get into the hottest club.

“So how was your first day?” Davina asked.

“It was good, just did a lot of busy work. I am hoping to do more soon.” Elizabeth replied.

“Yea I’m sure they will give you more things to do that contain a little more meat, as soon as they realize how amazing and smart you are.” Davina replied.

Whenever Davina said something like this Elizabeth always felt a little better because although Davina was far better looking than her, she always felt intellectually inferior to Elizabeth. Not that she enjoyed her friend feeling bad about herself. She just felt that it made things equal.

So she responded “Thanks.”

They got to the front of the line and the bouncer asked them for their ID because the two of them both looked so young. They gave their ID’s and as usual, the bouncer looked shocked at how old they actually were and let them right in. Once in the club they went to the bar and ordered a drink, they had their drinks in hand and found a place on the dance floor. They both loved to dance and were both great at it. So naturally, they caught the attention of most of the men in the club. However, they were both oblivious to the attention they were getting.

It was not until Elizabeth went to get another drink solo, that she realized she caught the eye of this one guy. She learned this because he came up to her to talk to her. He went close to her ear so she could hear him and he said “Hey, I was watching you from the other side of the club”

Elizabeth was flattered and blushed and said flirtingly “Oh yea why is that?”

“Because I couldn’t help but notice you, you are the most beautiful woman in here, not only that you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” He held out his hand to shake Elizabeth’s “Hi I’m Paul.”

Elizabeth shook his hand “Hi, Elizabeth”

“That is a beautiful name, beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” Paul responded.

Elizabeth smiled at him “You’re good at this”

“It’s easy when you’re telling the truth "Paul said. “Would you like to dance with me?”

“I’d love to.” Elizabeth answered.

Paul took her hand again and led her to the dance floor, where they started dancing together. Davina seeing this came in front of Elizabeth and mouthed ‘Are you OK?’ Elizabeth quite content mouthed back ‘yea’. So Davina left her to dance with Paul, and quickly found a man of her own to dance with. Elizabeth spent the night dancing with Paul, and they had a great time.

Elizabeth decided to leave a little earlier than Paul and Davina because she had work the next day and she wanted to be alert. Davina wanted to stay so she did. Paul tried to convince Elizabeth to stay too. But she did not want to because she knew if she did she would be too tired for only her second day of work. So she gave him her number instead and insisted he calls her. In return, Paul gave Elizabeth his number. He kissed her on the cheek before she left, and she smiled shyly at him again. She went home feeling really happy and feeling really good about herself.

The next day, before she went to work she called Davina to make sure she got home OK. Once she knew her friend was OK she felt like she could get on with her day. She was really excited for her second day now that she knew some of the people that worked with her, and what she was expected to do. She wondered if she would meet Keith today or if he would be out of the office all day again. When she got there he was not there again so she figured she would not meet him today. She got started on her work right away.

Curious about her boss, because he was never there and because of what her mom said, she kept wondering if she should look him up. She thought that she should not in case she met him one day and knew information that she should as a stranger should not know. She did not want to create an awkward situation. Still, her curiosity took over her against her better judgment she searched him online.

She did not find anything earth-shattering. She just discovered his birthday, likes, dislikes, the school he attended for his undergraduate, his law school, and his career highlights.

After another successful hard day’s work, Elizabeth was happy to be at home to relax. The phone rang and she was annoyed. Could she not have one night without somebody calling her she thought? She got up and got the phone.

“Hey.” Paul answered, “How are you?”

Elizabeth upon hearing Paul’s voice was suddenly happy to have been interrupted.

Elizabeth responded “Hey, I am good, even better now. How are you?”

“Good like you, even better now. How was your day?” He asked.

“It was good; they make sure I stay busy at work. How was your day?” Elizabeth returned.

“Good, same sort of thing,” Paul replied.

“Oh wow I can’t believe I never asked this, but what do you do?” asked Elizabeth.

“Oh yeah, that’s alright. We haven’t known each other for very long” answered Paul.

“That’s very true.” Elizabeth said wondering why he evaded the question.

They spoke for over an hour on the phone, at the end of the conversation Paul asked Elizabeth out for dinner on Friday night. She happily agreed to the date. Now, she could not wait for the week to be over so she could go on the date. So of course the week lagged on, as she sat at her desk in front of her boss’s empty office. Finally, it was Friday and the day was so much slower than the rest of the week. She did her work as always, but it seemed to take forever and the hours seemed to have slowed down. She just wanted the day to be over so she could go on her date. It had been such a long time since she had been out on a date, and she was excited to get back out there.

The day was finally over, however, it took forever to get home. She got every red light, and there was a lot more traffic than normal. She felt as though the world was against her. She was starting to believe she would never make it home in time to get ready. She was happy that she had thought ahead and had already picked out what she was going to wear. So she just had to take a shower and put on her make-up.

When she finally got home she rushed into the shower. When she got out she had very little time left so she applied what little make-up she could. She got dressed and looked at herself in the mirror, she was unhappy with how her look turned out. There was a knock at the door so she had to stay as she was and hope that Paul did not mind that she did not look as good as she did the night that they met.

She opened the door and saw Paul standing there. He looked amazing his green eyes bright as the sun with the fitted gray suit he wore.

Elizabeth felt like crap next to him until he said: “You look beautiful Elizabeth.”

Surprised Elizabeth said “Really? Thank you.”

“Why are you surprised? You are beautiful.” Paul said.

“I am surprised because I did not have a lot of time to get ready my makeup is crap all I did to my hair was brush it”

Paul cut her off “You don’t need makeup and a fancy hairstyle to be beautiful.”

Elizabeth blushed, and then said, “You are so unbelievably sweet.”

“I am not being sweet I am being truthful,” Paul replied.

“Well, it is still sweet.” Elizabeth said.

Paul saw this as an opening and leaned in to kiss her. Elizabeth leaned in to meet him and kissed him back, she was taken aback at how amazing the kiss was. He kissed her softly and was very skilled at it. It was all she could do not to take him to her room right then and there. Fortunately for Elizabeth, he pulled away before she could lose control. As he did so he was smiling at her, he then grabbed her hand to hold then led her out of her apartment.

Paul took her to a five-star restaurant, and the food was delicious. They talked all night long, about love, life, their childhoods, and anything else they could think of. Paul’s parents were in love from the day they met and we’re still together. He talked about his friends, his school, his prom, his past girlfriends, he left nothing out. In return Elizabeth told him about her parents and their ugly break up, about how she was always moving based on what her mother could afford, so she had many different schools which made it hard for her to make and keep friends, and how she went to school to be a lawyer so that she would not be stuck in the same pattern as her mom.

Once they were finished with dinner they shared a dessert they had just learned was both of their favourite, chocolate lava cake. At the end of the evening, Paul took her home and walked her to her door. Elizabeth turned to him and couldn’t resist him, so she grabbed his shirt and pulled him toward her, pulled his head down to hers, and they kissed again.

After the kiss, Paul backed up a little and looked at Elizabeth knowingly. She could tell that he wanted her to ask him to go inside. Since she knew she was not ready for that step.

She quickly quipped “Thank you for tonight, I had a great time.”

“You're welcome, so did I.” replied Paul.

“Goodnight.” said Elizabeth.

“Goodnight.” Paul said back.

Elizabeth unlocked her door, went inside and closed the door behind her quickly as to not give Paul the wrong idea. She looked through the peephole at Paul and saw that he laughed then turned around and walked toward the elevator. Elizabeth smiled in amusement at that.

Elizabeth had carved out time to spend Saturday with Davina. She was really excited to have her girlfriend to talk to about her date with Paul. She took a taxi to Davina’s place then Davina drove them to the mall. Elizabeth did not care for shopping too much but it was Davina’s favourite past time. So, every now and then Elizabeth would go shopping with her because she thoroughly enjoyed spending any time with her best friend, Davina. Now that she had this new job she knew would take up a lot of her time. She wanted to make sure she would always include Davina in her life.

The only part of shopping she did like was when they went to the food court for lunch, because there they always discussed their lives with each other. At the food court, they sat down with their lunches.

Davina asked knowing that Elizabeth would want to talk “So what’s new?”

“Well I went on a date with Paul last night.” replied Elizabeth.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. How was it? And who is Paul?” Davina asked.

Elizabeth laughed at Davina’s confusion “You said that you forgot like you knew what I was talking about then asked who Paul is. The date was great, and Paul is that guy I was dancing with at the club Monday night.”

“Oh, that guy you met from Lina’s. Oh, yea he was hot” Davina said, “And to think you didn’t even want to go out.”

“Yea he is gorgeous. I don’t even know why he likes me, but I am going to ride it out until he realizes that he is too good for me.” Elizabeth said in a joking tone but was seriously worried.

“Oh my God, Why do you do that? You are a beautiful and intelligent woman. He is not too good for you if anything you are too good for him. I wish you knew you were beautiful.” Davina responded.

“Well thank you.” answered Elizabeth.

“So what did you guys do last night?” Davina asked changing the subject.

“He took me to a very nice restaurant and we just talked. It was amazing. We talked all night long. We were already so comfortable with each other.” replied Elizabeth.

“Oh, that’s nice. It is so good when you find someone you are that comfortable with,” said Davina.

“Yea it is amazing how at ease we are with one another. When I talk to him it is like I have known him forever. I have never been this comfortable with anyone like this before. It feels kind of weird, but like in a good way.” Elizabeth said.

“Oh wow, that is so good. I am so happy for you.” Davina voiced “I am so happy that you are dating again. After Eric, I thought that you would never date again. I think it is good for you.”

“Thank you I am happy too, it’s been a while since I’ve dated and I wasn’t even looking.” said Elizabeth.

“It always happens when you are not looking.” Davina responded.

“Yea it probably is good for me to be dating again.” Elizabeth realized aloud.

“Oh no, it is most definitely a good thing for you to be dating again.” Davina stated.

She got up took their garbage put it on the tray and said: “Let’s get back to shopping.”

“OK,” said Elizabeth reluctantly. Davina threw the tray in the trash and they continued shopping for the rest of the afternoon.

When Elizabeth got home she was exhausted, she fell asleep on the couch and missed it when Paul called her. She heard the phone but she refused to wake up even when the phone ringing made her open her eyes for a second. When she woke up she saw that there was a message on her phone, and she checked it right away.

She learned that it was Paul when she heard the message that he left “Hey Elizabeth, it’s me, Paul. I was just calling to let you know I had a great time last night and I hope we can do it again soon. Give me a call-back.” he paused then added "I think I really like you, and I am really happy about this.”

Elizabeth smiled; she saved the message and called him back right away. The phone rang a few times before Paul answered “Hello.”

“Hi, I got your message, and I agree.” Elizabeth said.

“Oh yea what do you agree with?” asked Paul.

“Everything, I had a great time to I want to do it again. Also I am also really happy about this.” replied Elizabeth.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” asked Paul.

“I am going out with you.” Elizabeth responded.

“Great, I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning.” said Paul.

“Sounds good.” replied Elizabeth.

” I don’t want to hang up yet.” Paul said.

“Then don’t” Elizabeth replied.

So they stayed on the phone talking for hours. Filling in the blanks from their dinner, discussing what plans they had for their futures, what their dreams were, and all of their favourite things. They discussed their favourite movies, shows, authors, vacation spots, actors, and musicians, anything they could think of. They both had a burning desire to get to know each other as much as they possibly could. By the time they hung up Elizabeth felt like she had learned everything there was to know about Paul and worried they would have nothing to discuss tomorrow.