Chapter Two

He gave her a sharp look, wondering who this girl was standing in front of him, smiling and holding a white A4 sized envelope. She was quite young and could not be more than 25 years old.

“Yes?” He repeated himself, louder.

The change of tone must have startled her, that she pulled herself together to finally say something to him.

“Hi! I am Mia, the HR Executive of this company. Welcome on board Mr. Burton!” She said it in one breath, as if she was reading it from a scripted dialog repeated over and over again.

Like a junior cadet to her sergeant, she quickly extended her hands, straight towards him.

Politely, he stood up and took her hands. He could feel that there was a slight shiver and it was cold. “O Gosh, I must have scared her”, and suddenly he felt like a big bully and pitied her.

“Why don’t you sit down, Mia? “ He walked behind her and pulled a chair

“Oh. Thank you.” Her eyes twinkle and she looked at him like he had just given her a 12 months bonus.

“Hmm, ok the reason I am here is to pass you your contract” And she slided the white envelope nearer to him. “Here you go, please verify and see if everything is in order”

Henry took the envelope and tore off the cellophane tape that sealed the envelope together, pulled out a stapled 5 pages of contract.

“Hmm.” He sighed, showing a slight disappointment as he read the first few lines of the contract.

“Anything wrong Sir?”

“Yes. There is.” He held the tip of his glasses, pushed it back so it stayed comfortably on his nose.

“My name is wrongly spelled. It’s Henry Alexander Burton as in B.U.R.T.O.N”.

“Hang on! Are you saying that I had typed your name wrongly? It couldn’t be! I always re-checked my work and Mr. Zachary will not sign if it’s wrong” She was flustered and defensive, which irritated him the more.

“Look, Mia” He spoke in an authoritative voice. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I think I would know how my name is spelled”

“O .. ok. Sorry. Err sure I’ll amend it and return to you later” She quickly took the document and the envelope back.

She frowned and studied the contract in front of him. ‘Er .. and anything else Sir?”

He was surprised to see that she was still sitting there, submitting herself to more damaging agitated remarks, but at the same time he was impressed by her courage to be able to do that.

“No. That’s all”

“Oh. Ok then. I’ll come back to you shortly” And she gave him a weak apologetic smile.

He nodded and took back to the earlier documents that he was reading.

Mia walked out quickly from the room. She wished she could just run, in fact she felt she wanted to run away the moment he said he found an error.

“That was so damn embarrassing. Gosh! And what a miserable first impression I have made on myself!”

Firstly, she was at awe when she saw him leaving her speechless in front of him for a few second, and secondly, if that were not enough, she blurted out a very stupid argument, on how his name should be spelled? She was puzzled and wondering what has gotten into her.

She sat at her desk, looking at the document, thinking how she could make it up to him.

Past & Present

What she saw at the reception took her down to her memory lane 12 years ago. His face looked familiar until he grinned. "Oh.My.God!" She remembered him instantly and returned that grin with a faint smile forced between her lips.

'Hi Myara' A nicknamed she has not heard for such a long time. He extended his hand, still smiling.

'Hi Raz' she said, while she took his hands weakly into hers. 'What are you doing here?'

'Oh just some business with Mr X. So, how are you now?' He looked at her studying every inch of her body from top to bottom.

That look made her unconfortable. She felt as if she was going through an x-ray machine and being undressed piece by piece.

'Good. Married with 4 kids' Pretended that she was not affected by that deep, inquistive gaze. 'You?'

'Yeah. Me too. I mean married, but no kids yet. 4 kids? Wow! Never thought you would settled down.. finally. Anyway, this is my card'

He passed her a white business card printed on a not-so-good-quality paper, while she exchanged it with hers.

'Keep in touch!' He passed a quick remark before walking towards Mr. X. His meeting would be starting soon, she guessed.

It was not so long after that before she received a text messaging from an unfamiliar mobile number.

'Hi Myara. Glad I finally found you! Would you accompany me for a cup coffee later after work for old time sake?' Raz.

Myara's heartbeat stopped for a second. It took her quite some time before she managed to type the words:

'Hi. Yes. A surprise indeed, but no thank you. What happened in the past belongs then. I do not wish to bring it back. Let it be, Raz.The past is the past. I have a peacefull life at present and do not wish to create unnecessary chaos'

Suddenly the pain that she had buried back to her mind came flashing in... but this time, she felt ultimate satisfaction as she press ' send' ... revenge is sweet, at times, and she smiled.

Chapter One - The Beginning

It was a quiet Monday morning.

No one was at the office yet. Mia had just switched on the air-conditioning. The smell of the stale carpet fills in the air. It would take some time before the air-conditioner pumped in some fresh air and cools down this 20 year-old building.

Suddenly out of the silence, sounds of footsteps rumbling from the front door towards her cubicle. A 5’4” slim tall lady wearing a grey collared shirt and a pair of black pants rushing with an emergency- red- alert face searching for her good friend.

“Mia!” She stopped. She was panting, trying to catch her breath.

“Hey, cool down my friend. What happen?”

“Have you met him?”

“Who? ”

“The new Head of Sales. Oh. My. God! He has this look that could make you fall on your knees okay!”

“Every guy in this company would be able to do THAT to you Anna.” I smiled at her, a single 34 year old System Engineer.

She pulled down her shirt with a defensive look and about to justify her statement.“Huh! You shall wait till you see him! You know he is ..”

Suddenly she stopped.

An elderly bald man stepped in.“Err .. Morning Mr. Zachary ” Anna said sheepishly and quickly pacing her way out.

“Morning girls, Mia, have you greeted our Head of Sales, Henry Burton? He is waiting for his contract.”

“O yaa, ya, yes... err I am about to see him.”

“Hmm….” There was a sound of unpleasantness in his voice. He walked into his room and quietly unpacked his document bag.

"Oh dear. Another management level staff has joined in, hopefully not another big headed guy".

Curiosity was mounting up. “Is this Henry as dropped-dead-gorgeous as Anna claimed to be?”Anxiously, she paced her steps towards his room, with his contract in her hand. With the blinds wide opened, the morning sun glares into the room, giving it a sense of life. Yes, after so long this room was finally occupied.

A well-built, broad shoulder man, smartly dressed in a white shirt and blue silk tie, was sitting at his desk wearing a pair of glasses reading a document. The sunlight glare did seemed to distract him, he looked intensed. That must be him!

“Morning, Mr. Burton” she said.

He looked up at her. “Yes?” His front dark hair sweeps slightly across his face.

At that very moment, her heart beat stopped, and blood rushed up to her head. She was numb and for awhile she felt as if she was charmed by a magical spell. Behind those glasses was a pair of charming, glittering eyes.

“God! Anna was right! He was so absolutely breathtakingly stunning!”

And Mia found her soul floating on the thin air as the story of her fairy tale began.

Note:
Dear Readers,
This is an introduction of a book, if you like it please vote yes.

Life is a Fairy Tale

Life is not a fairy-tale, some does say.

But to some, fairy tale does happen. A girl meets a boy, who captured her heart in his special ways.

Who creates an orchestra of joyful songs in her mind everytime she sees a glimpse of him, who without fail giving her goosebumps just by being there.

And the same goes to the boy, who in return makes all the effort to show that he is worthy of her love.

And with that -- they finaly found their soul-mate, for life, until death do them part ... (for some ..)

But to the rest of the human kind, it took nearly a life-time to find their fairy-tale, and in that search, loneliness occupied their heart. And in the desparation to fill in the emptiness, one began to compromise, without them realizing, that they were lying to themselves.

Many had fallen into this trap, but there are still survivors, persistant in finding the ONE.

To my friends E & L, don't put up the white flag yet. They are out there somewhere ...

Crossroads

Life is what you make out of it.

You could choose either to continue living as how you did 20/10 years ago and thinking what might have been if ....

Yes, if. One syllable word that would make you stop, halt and think, leaving you on a crossroad.

A crossroad between the safest way or the road of desire chasing your dreams.

A crossroad between the happiness of your children at present or painful steps but will lead to a better future.

These, from a woman who thinks too much would stopped her chasing her dreams. Until she realize that ... life is what you make out of it.

Santa is coming to town

This is my cupcakes after being 'on-leave' for nearly 1.5 months.

I like my Santa but I think I should have the moustache much thicker

This reminds me of a joke told by my 9 year old son:

Mama, tell me Mama. What goes Oh Oh Oh?

Hmm -- Gosh I don't know Syuk? What is it?

It's Santa moving backwards ...

LOL

Selamat Menyambut Maal Hijrah :)

I'm BACK!

Bonjour!

Its been quite some time since I last baked (and wrote) :)

Now I am back, feeling excited and inspired with new ideas... Nothing is more refreshing than a good holiday ..

As you would have read (or seeing my pictures ehem ..hehe) I went for my graduation in London, and took a slight detour to Paris.

Paris -- a place where I told my friend 'the place where you find peace, where it took all your worries away and as if you have reached the end of a rainbow'.

It's so beautiful, the people are all laid back -- no rush, and you can take your time going from one place to another. Their architecture represents their history and I was amazed of how they have had kept them in good condition after all these years.

Anyway not all are pretty. On our first day, my friend was picked-pocket by a group of young sweet teenage girls. It was so fast! They could even zipped the bag back as if they had never opened it!

She lost 200 Euros + 200 Pounds + 200 MYR -- gosh! Luckily she did not kept all her money at one place. That was the ugly part. But it also witness a true friendship.

One of our classmates had generously extended some cash (on loan) to my friend. Friends like him are hard to find ~ and it all started with MBA - International Business Cohort 10A.

The rest of the stories will be continued later, probably at the pictures I posted below.

Until then, bye.