five

CHAPTER - 5

"Holy crap you're tal!" she said, laughing. She brushed

loose hair behind her ear and looked down at the

broken glass on the ground. "Tm sorry. You probably

hear that like all the time."

He laughed, too. "Yeah, being nearly six-foot-five leads

to those kinds of comments."

Her lips curved into the most beautiful close-lipped smile he'd ever seen. "Being five-feet-tall gets you the exact opposite comments if it helps at all." Her saucer green eyes reminded him of the forests he'd explored; dark and earthy but also invigorating and dangerous.

Her smile turned as she bit a small part of her cheek.

"If you point me in the direction of the broom, I could help you clean this."

"How about I walk you there and you can tell me your name," Joseph said, avoiding the glass as he gestured

her towards the back room.

"Oh, I'm Prerna. The new girl. Obviously," she said, shrugging her shoulders and showing him her name badge.

"I'm Joseph, the shift manager. I wasn't told we hired anyone," he said, reaching a hand over.

They awkwardly stopped while they shook hands.

She smiled again, this time showing her straight, bright white teeth. She was beautiful; as beautiful as a person could be. He'd never seen anyone as captivating as her. It was the same feeling that

blossomed over him when he looked out over a cliff

and saw the fantastic world beyond it. "It's nice to

meet you, Prerna."

He enjoyed saying her name. It rolled from his mouth in a single fresh breath.

"It's nice to meet you, too. I kind of just got hired last night." She pointed ahead to the door leading to

the backroom. "Is the broom in there?"

"Yeah, but the opposite way of the freight." He refocused and led the way.

They passed by Mecca running around like a madwoman in the stockroom, then stopped in front of the cleaning supplies. He gestured to the smaller broom with an attached dustpan. "This'll work best,"

he said, grabbing it.

They went back to the broken mess and bent over it together. She held the dustpan on the ground while he swept the debris in.

"So, are you new to this place ?" he asked.

"Yeah, I have a friend who moved here and well, he

convinced me to come out here, too."

"A boyfriend?" he asked as nonchalantly as possible.

"No," she said, her mouth twisting into a grin. "Not a boyfriend. Not even close. He's, um, not my type and, well, I'm not really his either"

"I can't imagine that," he said, immediately regretting it. "I mean, you just, you seem nice and well, I just..."

She stood with the full dustpan, smirking.

"It's okay," she said. "Thank you, I guess." She lifted the dustpan and asked, "Where do I dump this?"

"BOx," he said quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by that."

"You're fine," she said, dumping the broken bits. "I

promise."

They stood there awkwardly for a moment, not looking at one another.

"I'm going to go put this stuff away and then get back to work," she said, taking the broom from his hand tenderly. "It was nice to meet you."

"Yeah, you too. If you have any questions, let me

know."

"I will," she said as she backed up a few steps. She

"I will," she said as she backed up a few steps. She turned around and as he began to turn around, mortified by his stupidity, she turned on her heel and said, "So, um, actually I do have a question."

"What's that?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Joseph sped to Jenn's, making it there in twenty

minutes. He'd been to the mansion once before and

It'd been a terrible experience. Jenn had been rude and cruel. In response, Joseph abandoned Prerna in a moment of anger. His relationship with her never fully

recovered.

He pulled over to the small speaker box in front of the large wrought-iron gates. The automated British voice asked him to identify himself, so he cooperated.

After a few seconds, the voice instructed him to look

at the red dot on the screen. Security at the party had been intense, but he'd assumed that was due to Jenn's business. He'd never imagined the boy-genius was always overly cautious. He blinked as a thin red line scanned down the length of the box, and a copy of his face appeared on the screen. It then instructed him to scan his photo I.D or license. Irritated, he pulled his

license out of his wallet and scanned it.

The words 'Identity Confirmed' spread across the screen in large black letters over a green background.

The gates opened and a countdown began on the screen. Joseph pressed the gas on the car, jolting the car forward, and he parked by the large fountain in front of the fifteen-foot-tall metal and mosaic glass doors.

As he stepped out of his car, he gaped for a second time at the largest house he'd ever seen. It'd been nighttime the last time he'd visited, but it was apparent that this home put the term gargantuan to shame. It extended beyond his sight on both sides, with the gPrernages off to the left. It was an off-white stucco painted mansion, with ceramic brown roofing and shutters. Along the front of the building were tall, trimmed bushes lined by a cobblestone driveway that seemed to go all the way around the house.

He walked up the few stairs to the entrance and

examined the doors. He hadn't had the chance last

time as he and Prerna had been rushed through security.

The mosaic glass was so thick he couldn't see anything through it. Was it bulletproof?

He knocked on the door. While waiting, he pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the time. It was

9:02. He was late.

"You're late," Prerna said as she pulled the door open and eyed Joseph.

"I know. I'm sorry,"he responded with a soft voice.

Her bare feet passed the threshold as her right hand gripped the metal frame of the door.