Meredith woke up the next morning feeling good about herself. It wasn’t love at first sight. She didn’t believe in that. The guy wasn’t even Prince Charming even though the had a princely accent. She had finally stopped saying no and went out. Even if she hadn’t had a decent time with one of the guys there she had fun. She tried sushi for the first time. And although she wasn’t excited to go try it again she didn’t find it terrible, except that weird green paste. She did karaoke for the first time and actually really liked it. The whole event was pleasant. She didn’t have to date the guy she had been paired off with but he seemed like a nice enough person to hang out with again. He was funny, he had interesting hobbies, and he was smart.
She decided to text both Taylor and Jordan the same message:
Thanks for last night. I had a lot of fun. :)
Simple to the point and they both were responsible for helping her have a good time, which she was thankful for.
Anytime Hon.
Taylor responded. And Meredith picked up Dino and danced around her living room for a few minutes as Dino rolled his eyes. She finally put her dizzy cat down on the love seat and headed to the closet to grab something to wear and go get washed and dressed for her typical movie Saturday.
On her way out she grabbed a jacket from her armoire because movie theaters were notoriously cold and she headed downtown. While on the L she looked at her phone app to check the showtimes and plotted out three movies for the day. She had her bag with her and stopped at Dylan’s Candy Store on Michigan Ave. to get some high quality movie snacks and then stopped at Wholefoods for a wrap and headed into the theater around the corner.
Meredith bought three tickets to three different movies. The ticket taker was new so she had to quickly explain and they shrugged and tore all three stubs for her. She heard a ping on her phone and looked down to see Jordan respond.
I’m assuming this is Meredith. lol I had fun too Luv. Let’s do it again.
Meredith smiled as she rode up the escalator into the downtown Chicago theater. She went and got a soda and a bag of popcorn and headed to her first show. The movie had something to do with vampires that lived on the dark side of the moon and came to earth to feed once every hundred years. Meredith liked the soundtrack but enjoyed her Wholefoods wrap far more than the movie. With half a bag of popcorn and half a wrap she headed to the theater bar to wait for the next show.
“Hey, Meredith.” A security guard strolled up to her and said hello. He was an off duty police officer picking up extra hours as a security guard at the theater. She saw him nearly every Saturday. He wore a Black Security uniform with a Security cap. He had a smile with dimples that could kill and muscles on top of muscles. He wasn’t one of those donut loving cops he was rock solid. His skin was olive and his eyes were chocolate. Anyway she looked at him, he was delicious.
“Oh! Hi Aaron! How are you?”
“You know, same ol’ same ol’. What are you seeing tonight?”
“I saw Darker Side of the Moon and waiting to see Fire Cloak and The Passing 3.”
“Oh. The Passing 3 was good. Better than 2 I think.”
“Sweet.”
“You ever wanna watch one when I’m off duty I’ll join you.” He added a wink for extra measure. Normally Meredith would have laughed him off but after last night she decided why not and tore another piece of origami paper and wrote her number on. She handed it to him and told him to let her know when he was off duty then headed to her second movie.
Meredith only had about fifteen minutes between films so she went straight to the next movie. The guard found her and handed her a bag of chocolate covered almonds.
“I noticed you didn't have a bag of these tonight.” He winked at her and headed back out as he called out over his shoulder, “Enjoy the show.” She smiled and did just that. And Aaron was right, The Passing 3 was better than the first or second. She had finished her popcorn and wrap in the previous movie and saved dessert for last but since she had chocolate almonds she saved her Dylan’s for later and ate the almonds.
I’m becoming a gigolo, Meredith thought on her ride home. She didn’t even know what a gigolo was but she had Ben, Jordan, and Aaron all setting up dates with her, not to mention Taylor’s plan to get her hitched to Edward Maxwell in less than a week. Chad was ancient history. And he really was ancient history. She hadn’t seen or heard from him in nearly two years. And now she knew she wouldn’t need to.
When Meredith got home she danced Dino around before giving him a night time snack of leftover movie popcorn. She had saved a handful just for him. Then took a long shower and opened her armoire drawers to find her satin pajama short set that always made her feel extra special then she headed to bed early. She still had an important project to work on Monday and she was going to spend Sunday with her mother.
Meredith avoided the pigeons and made sure she had no loose popcorn in her purse as she headed to the Metra the next day. She would take the train to Schaumburg where her mother lived. Meredith’s mother picked her up at the train station and the went to Yu’s Mandarin for lunch. Meredith really had been craving Chinese food since the sushi left her wanting a little more asian in her life. “So how have you been this week?” Meredith’s mother asked her after they ordered drinks. “I got a big project at work so I have been crazy busy. It’s due on Friday so I still have a lot of work to do.” Meredith looked around the restaurant. She felt uneasy as though someone were watching them somewhere. “Oh! Meri, that's wonderful.” Her mother had called her Meri since she could remember. “Will you get a promotion?”
Meredith spent all day Monday with Karen in the meeting room with their laptops going over the ad campaign and adjusting and perfecting their designs. Mr. Hubert kept walking up to the glass window and just watching them without coming in. They knew he was anxious when he kept pulling out his mustache comb and running it through his mustache over and over. It just added to the creepy effect he was creating, which wasn’t helpful to their concentration.“Even if they don’t see this as amazing I’m proud of what we have going here. It truly is amazing.” Karen told Meredith as they looked at the preview on the screen. “Choosing to go with the more risky font without a backup is a bit of a gamble but it allows us time to perfect it rather than split between two projects essentially.”“Exactly. Mr. Hubert wants us to wow
Meredith showed Jordan into her apartment with a giggle. She had promised to show him her origami collection since he showed her his photography. He had phrased it: “I show you mine so you have to show me yours.” “I don’t know how my cat Dino will take to you but it seems like he is giving us some privacy. Not many places to hide in this small apartment but leave it to a cat to find a place to vanish to.” She said as she pulled the large hat box down from her armoire and bent down to set it on the coffee table. It took up most of the table. “Nice box.” Jordan said in his slightly slurred British accent with a smirk. He had a double meaning as he had been checking her out from behind but it went over her head. “Thank you. I got it a a thrift store. I thought it would be perfect for my origami.” She opened the box
The next day Meredith met Karen, Greg and Mr. Hubert in the meeting room and they went over their ad campaign. Mr. Hubert sat for thirty minutes not saying a word just scrutinizing it in every way possible.“And you didn’t make a backup?” He finally asked.“No, sir. We thought it would better to risk a gamble on having more time to refine and polish one rather than work on two.”“That was a good idea. Had anyone else done it I wouldn’t have agreed but the two of you are something else. Great work indeed.”“Thank you, sir.” Meredith and Karen said in unison while Greg nodded in agreement.“I want the three of you to spend as long as possible with the printers to
Meredith was woken up by a very loud alarm that Taylor had set by the bed. She groaned and rolled around but she knew she had to get up because the big day had finally arrived. She padded out Sarah’s bedroom and into the the living room following the smell of coffee into the kitchen. “Morning!” Taylor said as she flitted around the kitchen and paused to hand Meredith a mug. “I made a light breakfast just in case you’re nervous. Also don’t want you bloated or anything when you’re supposed to look sexy.” “Thanks.” Meredith responded grumpily, half sarcastically and half actual gratitude. She was actually kind of hungry she had forgotten to eat dinner the night before. She finished pouring her cup of coffee and adding three spoons of sugar with a splash of two percent milk while Taylor set their dishes on the other side of the island in front of two bar stools.
Meredith stepped onto the elevator. She was wearing platform nude pumps, a very sexy high-waisted black pencil skirt with a gold zipper that traveled up the back, a cropped short-sleeved red satin blouse, and a very confident smile. Her hair and makeup had been done to perfection and she was, as Mr. Hubert had put it earlier, “Wow.” Across from her in the corner of the elevator one of the three Maxwell brothers stood leaning slightly against the wall. He wore elephant grey derby shoes, a solid blue three-piece suit with a skinny grey tie tucked into his vest, his dark brown hair was parted on the side and buzzed short around the sides but long on the top. His clear green eyes looked the color of mossy but with the clarity of an emerald. His jaw was clenched as though he were deep in thought and he wore a five o’clock shadow across it. Meredith had been
“Your late.” The David told her. “Sit down.” Meredith glanced into the corner office, along the side wall closest to her was floor to ceiling black shelves full of books and a few shelves had room for awards and framed event photos. Against the back wall she noticed as she walked across the room was a large framed abstract painting in bold colors and below it was a dry bar with an assortment of liquor bottles and glasses. The other two walls were floor to ceiling windows looking out over the financial district of Chicago. There were potted plants in each corner, two modern grey arm chairs sat in front of a large black desk with a iMac and and mouse to the left and a macbook pro in the center of the desk with a small stack of papers to the right. The David sat in a black leather chair as he frantically typed something on his macbook pro. Meredith sat down in one of the grey chairs in front of his des
“You’re Mr. Maxwell, my boss.” She wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that. “There are several Maxwells. Which one am I. I’m obviously not Edward Maxwell because you already had a meeting with him earlier. What do you refer to me as?” “Honestly?” “Preferably.” “A David.” Meredith responded and the David smirked but other than that he made no signs in the positive or negative towards her remark. The server arrived with some sort of artichoke dish and then left again. She didn’t wait for proper etiquette and began to eat. “Well you obviously know about the fan club but are not part of it. That’s a plus.” “Knowing about the fan club?” She asked between bites.