Snow white

Morning. I ploded out of bed and dragged Darcy to the shower before getting dressed and heading down to breakfast.

The thought of Damien Jaeger made me blush, "Did Damien Jaeger leave?" I asked. He was absent from the breakfast table.

"I'm not sure madam." Sharon replied, "Nobody saw him leave. If he did, he must have left really early as he usually does before."

"Sure." I mumbled and pulled out a seat for Darcy before taking mine.

My mine drifted off to how things would have been only a few days ago. Ella and Stacy would have continued being their spiteful selves. If Damien Jaeger was absent from the table, the kids would have tried to play over their meals or Elena would have been truly ready to make known another fact that she had observed, to her mother and annoy her to the core!

I let out a long sigh. They were far away now, in their own castles like I had told Darcy when she asked about them.

"Mommy, see what I can do!" Darcy cried and I laughed when I saw her stuffing bread in place of her missing front teeth, "I'm a vampire!"

"No you are not, sweetie. Vampires have fangs."

She looked at me curiously, probably wondering what that word meant. I grabbed 2 pieces of fries and pushed it into her teeth, "Now doesn't this look like those sharp teeth they have?!"

I then proceeded to add a little ketchup for special effect.

Darcy grunted and roared, trying to imitate whatever sounds vampires made. I took out my phone to capture her little act of cuteness. I already had plenty of such images of her being cute which she will definitely find embarrassing when she starts wearing her big girl pants.

"I'm a vampire now, Mommy!" She said. Between me and myself, that chubby face of white and rosy pink colours, those cute dark innocent eyes and the yellow bow against the silkiness of her black hair didn't look anything close to a vampire.

A french fry fell from a tooth and dropped on the table, "Totally!" I said with a shriek.
~

"The chart shows a slight raise for demand so I think for now, our fee is set at a good pace. We can increase it by 20 or 30% if our chart can move a little higher before the year runs out, don't you think?" I said, while sitting for a meeting with the staff in the marketing department that I had squeezed into Damien Jaeger's schedule a week ago. How ironic that I was now in his place.

"I think it's a good idea, madam." A staff member concurred with me.

"Or better still, make the change for a new year? We can inform the global market come December." I said, feeling better about this suggestion than the last.

"Alright. This meeting has come to an end then." I said when I was sure that the team was good to go.

I strode out of the conference room on the second floor and made my way to the elevator to get back to my office. The weather was getting colder with each passing day as the start of winter was around the corner. Stopping in front of a glassdoor, I closed the buttons on my white trench coat, covering my white dress of very light fabric which hugged my curves. I was already feeling goosebumps on my skin due to the chillness of the atmosphere.

I added a tint of red lipstick on my lips and had just started patting a few strands of my hair in place when the glass door opened, "Mélie?" A familiar voice called.

"Oh!" I exclaimed and took a step back, caught between surprise and embarrassment, "Ken. What are you doing here?"

"This is my office." He replied, "You've been standing in front of my door for the last 10 minutes."

My cheeks heat up. Then quickly, I cleared my throat, "Well. I should head to my office then."

"See you around."

"I'm really sorry, Mélie." Ken said just as I was about to walk away.

"I mean, I'm really sorry, Mrs Jaeger." He corrected himself.

I stopped and smiled at him, "It's okay, Ken. I wasn't even mad at you." "I know I was kind of at fault by not stopping you."

"You didn't lead me on either." He said, "Sorry about calling you a..."

"Ken, It's fine." I cut in before he could find the word at the tip of his tongue.

He puffed an air of relief, "Thank you."

"You look very pretty today, Mrs Jaeger." He said, "Being a CEO suits you."

I couldn't help but grin, "And you don't look so bad yourself, Mr Benedict." I remarked. He was dressed in a black shirt with a blue blazer atop it, along with a pair of blue denim jeans and black sneakers.

"See you around, then." He said, accepting my compliment with a smile.

"See you." I replied before walking to the elevator, hearing his office door shut close behind me.

After getting out of the elevator, I was walking to my office and humming a tune in my solitude when suddenly, I heard something fall.

Did I leave the window of my office open? I suspected it was my paperweight. But that seemed a little too heavy for a paperweight. A file must have fallen off the shelf. My hand twisted the doorknob and the door flew open.

"Ugh!" A gasp escaped her lips as she stared at me, eyes white as snow.

"Rachael?" I asked, "What are you doing in my office?"

The file she was holding slowly slipped out of her fingers and fell on the floor with a loud thud but the rest of her remained completely frozen.

"What are you doing in my office, Rachael?" I asked again, perplexed. "And why do you look so scared to see me?"

She took a step back as I stepped into my office. Just what was going on? I wondered, still staring curiously at her.