?ALL THE WRONG REASONS ?
?EPISODE ONE ?
Adrienne Miller smiled thoughtfully while sitting in her balcony. She has just finished unpacking her clothes and putting all her furniture in place. Her new ap@rtment is clean and tidy and shows every bit of her personality. From every vase, to every painting and every jar. She just loved it.
She was very tired having spent the rest of day tidying up her new haven, but she was contented. She didn’t ask the help of her friends in decorating.
She has employed the services of an interior designer. She gave them a budget and a contemporary them, and told them that she preferred the colors red, beige, white and brown.
She preferred nature and abstract paintings, and elegant, silver and glas-s vases.
She was quite happy with the results.
She intends to have her friends over in the next weeks and she was proud of the delivery of her interior designer.
She paid her a fortune but she thought that she only nee-d to do it once. And what is an expensive ap@rtment if it didn’t look exactly the way you want it to?
Finally, she was able to mortgage her own place. It was not cheap but it was everything she ever wanted. The area is quite clas-sy and it is just five blocks away from her office.
It has a big balcony, where she has placed four steel chairs and a glas-s outdoor table. It’s got a big living room, a mini bar, two big be-drooms, her own full bath, and walk-in closets.
It was enough for her. It was expensive for a two-be-droom ap@rtment, but the moment her broker showed her this place, she knew this is where she would live.
This is where she might be spending the rest of her life in. And as per her friends, this is where she will weary away her v!rg!nyears.
Yes. She was twenty-six years old and still a vir-gin. She just felt that the time is not right yet. She has a b©yfri£nd.
Although they have been together three years, they do not see each other every single day.
For her, he was a wonderful guy. He was a gentleman. He never suggested they go to be-d together and she was thankful, because she knew that when she does go to be-d with a man, it would have to be an intense experience.
Something she doesn’t want to forget for the rest of her life. So, the moment and
the person had to be right. She wouldn’t go to be-d, just for the sake of losing her vir-ginity.
Her b©yfri£nd, Troy, is going to medical school with her older sister, Kimberly. His parents were friends of hers.
They met at a p@rty. He was cute but not really handsome with his blonde hair, and dark brown eyes. Her friends thought he was plain.
She thought she didn’t nee-d a handsome b©yfri£ndwho will only fool around with
prettier girls.
“Come on, Adrienne.” Her best friend, Yuan, once told her.
“You really should think better of yourself. I think there are better fishes in the ocean.”
Her friends thought that Troy was too plain and too properfor her.
They seem to believe that she deserves someone grander, someone with energy, and more importantly, someone with better looks and a s-en-se of humor.
Troy on the other hand, can’t tell a joke and can’t accept the simple deviations in human behavior. He doesn’t even know that
she smokes like at least a pack a day, and that’s not even
counting the times her boss breathes down her n£¢k.
“He’s like the fireman who will always water your fire!” Her other best friend Jill said. “You have a wilder spirit than you’d like to think.
Having a guy who puts a st©pper
to all these flair that you have will not help you spre-ad your wings wi-der.”
But Troy was going to be a surgeon one day. Her parents were both doctors. And her sister is going to be one as well.
She was the odd one out. So she figured, if you can’t be one, then marry one. And her mother was perfectly happy with her relationsh!pwith Troy. As far as she can remember, it was the only time she made her happy.
She had a broken relationsh!pwith her mother. She never remembered having her love. She grew up with a mother who always takes the side of her elder sister. She grew up trying her best to win her over… even for just once.
But she never did. Not even when she got into the best schools in the country. Not even when she graduated with honors.
Her mother said… oh right, she said, “It’s not a
difficult course.”
She has a double degree in journalism and
mas-s communications. She had a talent for writing. She was the only one in her family that has the knack for it.
Her sister couldn’t put together a paragra-ph together. Her mother couldn’t un-derstand the context of metaphors. She thinks that her father ba-rely has a s-en-se of humor.
Her mother was excited to introduce Kimberly to Troy at that p@rty. But it was she who took home the trophy.
She didn’t even know what she did. She just stood there, looking bored. But Troy couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.
He tried to strike a conversation with her. He tried medical terms, she didn’t know any. He tried sports, she doesn’t pl@yone. Then he mentioned CSI. Ahh… they have something in common.
But while she dwelt on the action and he dwelt on the technicality of the show. He said that some scenes and findings showed there seemed too sophisticated to happen in real life.
Her first reaction was Duh! You think too much! Her impression of him is that,
he’s a dork, a nerd, who thinks he is above everyb©dy intellectually, and he has the nee-d to prove it all the time, in every conversation and every t©pic he discusses with strangers.
She bit her ton-gue to keep herself from retorting, That’s why it’s a television drama, not a reality show, in front of her mother.
Her mother must have really liked Troy, that it doesn’t matter which daughter he asks out. At first, she didn’t know what her mother saw in him.
But she was too bent up on plea-sing her that soon, she found herself enjoying Troy’s company. She did love him.
She wasn’t sure it was really what she wanted but she didn’t have a b©yfri£ndbefore and she was happy to indulge in his attentions.
Since she worked in New York, she doesn’t see much of Troy. They often talk on the phone, but they only see each other once a month, sometimes, once in two months.
Adrienne was looking for that feeling inside her that says
she couldn’t stand a minute without him by her side. That thri-lling feeling that she was supposed to feel when he is in New York for break or when she comes home and knows
that he will be in town too, so she could see him, get her hands on him, get his hands on her… but it wasn’t there.
No wonder she’s still a vir-gin. And she realized, maybe she just isn’t like Jill or other girls she has met, who were enjoying S-x and slee-ping with men on the second d@t£.
Maybe she is old-fashioned and would rather wait and save herself for the right man at the right time. Her friends may think this is hypocrisy, or sour-gra-pping. But what can she
do? She is dead curious about S-x. But she would rather explore it when the time is right.
And the all-too-formal dinner d@t£s she had with Troy, coupled with series of boring medical terms, which sometimes includes t©pics such as HIV and ab-ortion, just don’t set the perfect mood to bring up going to be-d together! And she’ll be damned if she ever makes the first move.
She sighed. She realized that there is much more she could do with her life. There is much more that she wants to do with it.
Getting this fancy ap@rtment is the first step in as-serting her independence and exploring on what shewanted to do for herself.
Troy doesn’t exactly worsh!pthe land she steps on. He doesn’t approve of her job. For him, it too dull to be called a profession.
But she loves her job, and she reckons that she is good at it. For Troy, on the other hand, writing falls short of what he can consider a real job.
She shook her head. She was happy ten minutes ago. Now, she thought about Troy and her mother. Even if she showed them the place she is living in now, they would most likely not approve of her independence.
For her mother, having a place as grand as this, will be a waste. She doesn’t exactly approve of New York, either. She thought it was too temporary. And if one is thinking of having a
family, New York is not really an option.
She looked at the balcony beside her. She hasn’t met her neighbors yet. Her balcony is hvge. It extends from her living room to her
be-droom. She is sharing a be-droom wall with her neighbor.
Not only that, her be-droom window is parallel to his and there’s a hvge platform connecting them. She figured, she nee-ds to keep her windows locked all the time. Otherwise,
if she got a ra-pist neighbor or a serial killer, she’s too easy a prey! She wasn’t happy about it at first. She thought that was the only thing that she didn’t like in this ap@rtment.
But she is hoping her neighbors will be nice. She always thought it would be great to invite and be invited over for dinners. It is always good to feel at home even when you just stepped into the lobby or elevator of your building.
She scanned the steel chairs and glas-s table on the balcony beside hers. It is almost the same as hers. Good to know that she and her neighbor had the same taste. Only theirs
were steel black. Hers was white. She noticed an abandoned bottle of Heineken and an ashtray half full of cigarette bu-tts.
She guesses that her neighbor was not a family. Therefore, no kids. No babies. Not that she doesn’t like kids. It’s just that it’s good to know that no one will complain if she holds p@rties or let her friends sleepover and Yuan decided to pl@yBetty Davies Eyes over and over again.
She put out her cigarette bu-tt and went to her room. She has just taken one step into her room when she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Her neighbor went out. She was staring at a perfectly and gorgeously tanned torso with the perfect set of abs. His
b©dy was muscular, but they weren’t bulging. He’s got perfectly toned slender arms. He was staring at the New York city view, with a cigarette on hand. He was wearing
only a pair of faded jeans. His hair was jet black and even from afar, she can see that his eyes were framed buy long dark lashes.
Her breath caught in her throat.
It can’t be! She knew him. He was… the city’s most wanted. The most notorious pla-yboy, so to speak.
Justin Adams.
He was the prodigal heir of Adams Industries. Her father was a steel and mining magnate. Their family is filthy rich but instead of living in the shadows of his father, he was determined to draw his own map, his own future.
He graduated with a double degree in Harvard, straight As, but made his father quite mad when he announced that he will not work for their company right away. Not only that, he
spent a lot of working on his hobby, which is ph0togra-phy.
He works as a freelance ph0togra-pher for the magazine she
is working for. That is how she knew him.
He was a celebrity in blus-h. There is not a single girl in her office who do not drool on him… well maybe just her.
She finds him intriguing, yes. But she doesn’t un-derstand what the fuss was really about. She thought those girls were overreacting. Even her best friend Jill can’t st©p talking about him… like he is God’s gift to women… or finally there was one guy worthy of being called one.
As she stared at his profile, she drew a de-ep breath. Okay. He really isn’t bad. No! She mustn’t kid herself. He is as handsome as the devil himself.
Although, she can’t really say for sure without looking throu-gh his eyes, which
were always covered by a pair of pitch black shades. But right now, staring at his profile alone, along with the toned muscles and the perfect set of abs… she thought that the
fuss could actually be worth it after all.
She shook her head. She didn’t go out of the terrace. Instead, she pu-ll-ed a chair near the side of her sliding door, so she could have a view of him without him seeing her. She watched him thoughtfully. He just stood there. Made some calls for a while. He looked quite serious although she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Then he lighted a cigarette and just stared at the view thoughtfully… the
same thing that she was doing fifteen minutes ago.
After a few minutes, he put out his light and went inside his room. She looked over her window to see him go inside. He put on a white shi-t, gr@bb£d his leather jacket and then went
off. She smiled to herself. She thought she’s going to love her ap@rtment even more.
* * *
She was rushing throu-gh a deadline Monday evening. Jada, her boss was on her back. She was ma-king an article about a newly-opened restaurant in Fifth avenue.
The food was not so great, and the price was not so cheap. The service was a bit unorganized. She ordered for piñacolada, and
twice she was given margarita.
She doesn’t want to be known around the block as a bit-ch
who can shut down a decent restaurant, but she doesn’t want to compromise her professional point of view as well.
She couldn’t concentrate on her work. The music from her neighbor’s house was far too loud, and the fact that he was on the balcony, pla-ying poker with his friends, and she can
hear him laugh makes it even ha-rder for her.
She sighed, and went out to the balcony and lighted a stick of slim lights. She noticed that they fell silent. She felt self-conscious. She took a de-ep breath. She’s a confident woman, and she has a b©yfri£nd. Just because she thinks Manhattan’s rakes are surveying her long legs and her figure is not a reason for her knees to go jelly.
Plus, she is dire nee-d of a cigarette, and she doesn’t want to
smoke inside her ap@rtment.
Her mobile phone rang.
Thank God! She is also in dire nee-d of a distraction now.
“Hi honey, how are you?” It was Troy.
“I’m grood…” She replied.
“What?”
Damn it!
“I’m good. I said I’m good. How about you? How are you?”
“Not too bad. I was out with Kim last night. She is my designated tutor now.” He chuckled.
“She’ll be happy to help you. My mom likes you.”
“And I’m a lucky guy, aren’t I?”
“Hmmm…”
Troy went on about his study d@t£ with her sister and she couldn’t quite concentrate on what he is saying. She’s hearing medical terms, and she doesn’t nee-d to know them. She’s got too much on her head… the awful food and
restaurant, whose existence she was about to end in a few hours, and damn! She can’t seem to get a dark-haired devil out her mind.
She gro-an ed.
“What?” Troy asked. “What are you doing? Are you with someone else?”
“No. I’m alone!” She said. She must have sounded too defensive, because Troy didn’t believe her… and she wasn’t even lying.
“Then you must be going out of your mind! Don’t take me for a fool, Adrienne.” He said sharply.
“I’m not with someone, Troy. plea-se, give me a break. I just remembered this restaurant I was about to close down in a few hours because of an awful review I am thinking of writing and I didn’t want to do that. That’s why I gro-an ed.”
Troy fell silent for a few minutes. Then he said, “Are you sure?”
She sighed. Then she put out her cigarette and managed to walk to her living room.
Now, that she knows no one can see her, she found her focus.
“Yes, I’m sure. Come on. Why do you always think I Lwould cheat on you?”
It is true. She always felt that Troy doesn’t trust her enough. Like he didn’t know he was her first and only real relationsh!p. Like he didn’t know she didn’t sleep around in college, and she was nob©dy’s groupie. When she was out with her friends and he can hear the background music, he would always ask her who she was out with, short of asking Jill and Yuan too to swear on dead relatives’ graves that there were only the three of them.
At first, she thought it was pretty sweet that he shows her that he can be jealous and possessive of her because he wanted her only for himself. But recently, it is becoming too much for her to handle. She had to explain every single thing and make headcounts of friends she go out with.
“It’s not that… it’s just… I don’t know. Let’s just drop it.” He said. And then he went on with his medical monologue. She thought she fell asleep on her couch listening to him.
Then finally, he said goodbye.
“Love you, hon.” He said.
“Love you too.” She replied, and somehow, she asked herself if she still meant it.
At the end of the night, she managed to write a not-so-bad review of the place. She highlighted their strengths, the great ambiance and the expensive china, but also mentioned that they could do better to be less angry with spices and salt and a smile on the waiters could raise the ti-ps.
She was proud of herself knowing that she has accomplished all that amidst Collective Soul’s whining in Justin Adams’s be-droom.
The next day, she had lunch with her bestfriends. Yuan works on the building next to hers and Jill’s, and all of them work on flexi-time, so it was quite easy for them to get together for lunch and coffee breaks.
“How was Troy?” Jill asked Adrienne.
She shrugged. “Having study d@t£s with Kim.”
Jill raised her brow.
“They deserve each other you know.” Yuan said blatantly.
“Yuan!” Jill hissed.
“What?” He asked nonchalantly. “They are both boring.Come on, Yen. It’s not that I want you to be jealous or hurt. It’s just that I think you deserve a more exciting lovelife than seeing your b©yfri£ndtwice every quarter and hearing him sing your sister praises! You have been keeping up with this for three years and it’s not good for you.”
“I can’t say I don’t agree with you, Yuan. I mean, come on, Yen! You deserve to have more life! Why don’t we get to that makeover thing! You could use more makeup and clothes h0tter than your square p@n-ts! And for God’s sake!
These are re-ading glas-ses!” Jill said fl!çk!ng on her eyeglas-ses.
“Ouch!” She said irritably. Somehow, her friends have this illusion that she can be h0t and she has a face of a goddess.
Adrienne doesn’t think she is ugly, but she doesn’t think she is fabulous either. She’s got dark brown hair with some red highlights and green eyes. She is slim and slender. She does
take pride in her curves. Somehow, she doesn’t have to go throu-gh the ordeal of dieting and exercising on a strict schedule. She’s never been overweight. She’s never too
thin either. She was well-endowed, according to her friends, but for her, her brea-sts were just the right size. Not small, and not too big either. But she never thought herself to look above the ordinary. She found no reason to flaunt
her features. According to her mother, Kimberly was a beauty. She, on the other hand:
“Well… Adrienne is not ugly. But Kim is the beauty and the br@ins in the family.” These were her mother’s exact words.
If your own mother can’t think you are beautiful, who else will? She was glad that she got Troy’s attention though. And this made her mother extremely proud of her. Maybe that is why no matter how her friends tell her to drop Troy,
she just can’t bring herself to do so. He could be the only achievement she’s ever had, as far as her mother was concerned.
“By the way guys, I saw Justin Adams in the office this morning. What a snob that guy is! I was trying to look him in the eye as we pas-s each other in the hallway, and it’s like he didn’t see me at all. But God! Was he devastating!”
“How could you look him in the eye, when he always had those pair of shades on?” Adrienne asked her matter-of-factly.
Yuan chuckled to Jill’s dismay. Adrienne smiled. “I’m not… I’m sorry. Do go on with your story. I was just being a br@t.”
“There’s nothing more to it. I’m just saying that I saw him this morning. That’s it.
“Don’t try to catch that guy’s attention. You can faint all you want in front of him, and I don’t care he’ll have a care for us mere mortals.” Adrienne said.
She tried to tell her friends that Justin Adams lived across her, but then she decided not to. She didn’t know why exactly. But somehow, she remembered how excited she has been to go home just so she could prepare some nachos
while she sit on her sp©t in her room, just beside the sliding door, when she can watch Justin in the balcony smoking, doing nothing but stare at their New York view.
She has been doing that for a couple of days now. She doesn’t know why she found it exciting. She sounded like a lunatic! But it is not everyday that she does something out of the ordinary. Something exciting and out of the propriety.
Justin sleeps until twelve noon time on weekends. On weekdays, she finds him busy on his cellphone long before she was up. He will be in when she comes home by seven
in the evening, sometimes he has his buddies in his place, pla-ying poker or just simply drinking and smoking in his balcony. Oftentimes, he will be out by nine in the evening, and there were times she would re-ad a book until he comes home around one in the morning, sometimes later than that.
He would smoke in his balcony, take a shower and go to be-d. He takes a shower more than three times a day. She knows because she often sees him parading around his
be-droom with just a towel wra-pped around his w@!st. Then she would see him in his balcony with his hair still we-t from the shower.
She smiled in her desk. She stared at her l@pt©p and decided typing. Soon she found herself composing a plot.
She drew a picture of him with words. Her rebel was a dark-haired knight, who was a duke banished himself from his inheritance and his legacy to escape the gallows of his
monopolizing father. Her heroine was a red-haired princess, the second daughter of a king to a maid, with an evil queen stepmother and charming but vile stepsister.
She juggled between writing her novel and writing the work stuff. She was progressing on her novel even during office hours, she even missed the coffee breaks she usually have with Jill and the other girls in the office. She figured, she can do away with more Justin Adams talks. All the information she nee-ds about him for now is a balcony away, from her at home.
She was in Chapter Three. By then, her raven-haired rebel had alre-ady met each other for the first time, in a ball they both went to, where her Princess disguised herself as a lady’s companion of her dear friend.
She sighed. Her eyes were tired but her mind was still reeling with words to add to her novel. She decided to stretch out a bit and stood up from her seat. Her eyes caught a dark-haired figure walking in the aisles towards to
Jada’s room. He was wearing a pair of Oakley shades and a leather jacket. For a while, she thought he looked her way and an eyebrow sh0t up.
She blinked and when she looked again, he disappeared into Jada’s room. She took a de-ep breath. She must be out of her mind. The
last thing she wants is to be obsessed with a guy who is alre-ady being obsessed about by half of Manhattan.
She continued to work on her novel when she went home. All the while, she is sitting beside her sliding door, looking over at Justin’s balcony, watching him. He was inspiring her writing. She has molded her character perfectly in his image.
“How come Justin Adams doesn’t have a girlfriend?” She asked her friends when they had coffee later that night.
Jill shrugged. “He’s too snob.”
“I think he thinks no one is worthy of him. One must be royalty first.” Yuan said.
Adrienne raised her brow. “What is he doing in New York then? He must go to England if he wanted to meet some royal girl.”
“Well, we know he is constantly available. He’s d@t!ngaround. He has been seen with models, and some members of the elite clas-s. His name won’t be linked with these girls
for more than two weeks. He would then walk out. He would be gone. After two weeks, he’ll be seen with another woman of higher clas-s and the same will happen.”
“He is a pla-yboy. He can’t commit. Like he dumps all these women after two or three d@t£s. Then he would move on to the higher mortals.” Jill said.
Adrienne sighed. In her mind, she thought about her novel.
“Maybe that is why he was known to be as a rake. He doesn’t commit. And yet we know he doesn’t go without a woman for long. He just… drops them so soon.” She said.
“Well, you know he’s the ultimate commitment-freak!”
“But he won’t stay uncommitted for long. Guys like Justin Adams must alre-ady have been engaged to someone by his father. Maybe that’s the reason why he doesn’t want to go back to his family.”
An idea formulated in Adrienne’s mind. Her dark-haired knight would have a betrothed somewhere that her heroine wouldn’t know about. That would pres£nt a very interesting conflict in her novel. She smiled at the thought.
“She must be royalty or an heiress. These would be the type of girls his father would have in mind for him.” Jill said.
Her heroine’s stepsister! Adrienne’s smile went wi-der. She can’t wait to go home and start writing again.
They went home around twelve midnight. She got inside the elevator and pressed her floor number. The door closed and after a split second, it opened again.
She sighed in annoyance. Just then, a dark-haired guy entered the elevator. Her breath caught in her throat. He smelled of aftershave. Musculine and fresh. He was still wearing those damn shades! She wanted to know what the color of his eyes are. She has drawn out his character in her book, and left out her rebel’s eye color. She pushed her glas-ses up her nose. He was a snob. She must be a fool if she thought that for a moment he looked at her in blus-h.
After two weeks of seeming like a stalker of Justin Adams, she was halfway throu-gh her novel. She found time to make it throu-gh her articles. She was in the middle of a conflict between her rebel and her heroine when she got a call from Jada. She rolled her eyes.
,
“Can you come to my office, darling?” Jada asked sweetly.
She gro-an ed as she stood up her seat.
What does the Devil in Prada want now? She thought.
“What is it?” She asked her as soon as she stepped into her boss’s room.
She handed her a ticket.
Gypsys: An enlightening. Come join us in our grand opening.
“What is this?”
“A new trance or whatever bar. They are opening tonight.
I want you to check it out. Since you are our events and features editor, and I can’t possibly go, darling. Unless I can salsa in there.”
“And you think I would enjoy going to a trance bar?” She asked. She looked down at the one ticket in her hand.
Exclusive Gathering. It says.
“And I have to go alone?” She asked more irately.
Jada raised her brow. “Well, that is all the ticket I can get.”
“Or this is all that is left?” She asked un-der her breath.
“What is it, darling?”
She shook her head. “You don’t expect me to dance, do you?” She asked.
Jada shrugged her long straight hair off her shoulder. “Well, I expect you to say something about the bar, the drinks, the crowd, the music and the dancefloor.”
“You mean, I will dance alone since you only gave me one ticket and I cannot purchase another one for one of my friends to join me because the event is exclusive for invitees
only. So you’re telling me, that I nee-d to say something about how the music sounds from the dance floor, and how glaring or discreet the sp©t lights can be if one wants to make out in the middle or corner of it, and for me to be
able give a professionally accurate opinion in my review, I have to dance… alone?”
“You will if you have to.” She said.
Adrienne rolled her eyes and turned her back on her boss.
“And Adrienne dear.” Jada called.
The thing about Jada is that she can be a bit-ch to the other employees, but Adrienne has her ways with her. Jada nee-ds her more than anyb©dy else, since she is the only one she
trusts enough to come to the meetings, appointments and interviews that Jada should be doing herself.
Adrienne let out a sigh before turning around to face Jada again.
“Yes?” She asked.
“If you will dress up tonight the way you usually do, you will be dancing alone.”
Her brows sh0t up and then she looked at herself. She was wearing a beige square p@n-ts and black turtlen£¢k. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and she was still wearing her re-ading glas-ses.
“What type of bar is this anyway? I’m not going to a str!p bar, am I?” She asked irritably.
Jada let out a sultry laugh. “No, darling, no. I will have Jacob s£nd something for you to wear tonight.”
“It’s really not necessary.” She said.
Jada shook her head. “Come on, Adrienne, darling. I don’t want you to look like you just went there to write an article
about them. I want you to blend. Trust Jacob’s taste darling.”
She rolled her eyes again and dashed out of Jada’s office, shaking her head. In her haste,she ran straight into a ha-rd
surface that smelled familiarly masculine and fresh.
“Hey, easy.” He said, and she felt a strong pair of arms wra-p around her w@!st to balance her.
She stared up and found herself staring at a devastatingly handsome face that made her knees instantly turn to jelly.
Good thing, he was still holding her. Otherwise, she knew she would have coll@psed on the floor. His brows sh0t up and his l!pwas half-curved in amusement. That brou-ght her back to reality.
“Sorry.” She said curtly and then she pu-ll-ed away from him and walked towards her desk.
She was thankful that she could still walk a straight line. She was shaking and she realized that all her nerves have spun back to life the moment her b©dy t©uçhed his and his
arms went around her.
She didn’t look back. Had she done so, she would have seen that he followed her with his eyes, smiling sheepishly before he shook his head slowly and then entered Jada’s room..
Tbc