Chapter 2 : Surprise

 Chapter 2

Brielle felt the temperature drop by at least ten degrees as she met his cold black eyes. He was standing at least a foot away, his tall frame obstructing the view. Not that he was bad to look at though. Just a bit scary.

"Are you the woman who brought my father here?" he drawled. Brielle shivered at the tone of his voice. 

"If you are talking about the elderly man who collapsed at the park this morning, then yes, I did." she said, rubbing her palms together nervously.

She berated herself for swooning briefly over his handsome, clean shaved face. His attire and height made him look like a male model, she usually drooled over in magazines. Suits did wonders for men, pity so few of them realized it.

  "I cannot thank you enough for your help." he said monotonously, his stony eyes boring into hers. Brielle suppressed a shudder.   

"Really?" she couldn't help herself. "You sure look unhappy about it."

"I am not easily amused. But no, I truly am grateful." he said pulling out a cheque book from his coat pocket. Brielle struggled to keep from running her hands over the smooth fabric. It looked subtle and smart, no doubt it was expensive, just like the rest of his attire and the spanking new Sedan he came in. He's really, really rich.

He looked at her up and down, to earn a dirty scowl from Brielle, before returning to his cheque book. He signed the bottom of the cheque and handed it to her. 

"The amount hasn't been mentioned." said Brielle looking at it carefully. She wasn't going to make the same mistake with documents again.

"I know." he said impatiently. "Fill out as much as you want. One million is the limit. Let me know if it’s not enough."

"Excuse me?" Brielle exclaimed. "Please do not think that you need to pay me for my help. It’s alright if you simply return the amount I deposited to the hospital."

"You are refusing my money?" he asked surprised raising his eyebrows. So, he does have expressions other than sulking.

"I didn't do anything worth that much. It'll be great if you could just write me a cheque for the ten thousand, I submitted." said Brielle.

The man's handsome face clouded with confusion. " Is it so difficult to believe?" thought Brielle.

"This is the smallest amount I've ever written." he said as he wrote. Brielle stared at the gold tipped pen he was using. That piece of stationary alone must be worth five thousand dollars.

"This is the largest amount that's ever been written for me, though." said Brielle coldly. The man was too arrogant for her liking. This was the coldest thank you she had ever received. And she did a lot of kind stuff for people.

"Here." he said shoving it into her bag.

"Hey!" she protested, reaching in to take the paper out. 

"See it later." he said authoritatively. Brielle fumed. Who did he think he was anyway? But she found herself obeying him, despite her angry outburst.

"I'm really late for college." she said. The taxi driver behind her was tapping his watch at her. "I have to go. Bye." With that she got in the taxi, told the driver the address and slammed the door shut.

"Take care." said the unfairly good-looking man quietly as he bent down to look at her through the window. "Thanks again."

Brielle couldn't bring herself to respond as her heart skipped a beat. She stared after him, and he at her as the taxi drove off.

She sighed and took out the cheque from her bag.

"To Miss Gabrielle Dane, a sum of ten thousand only, from Mr. Jack Dixon."

"Jack Dixon? Dixon?" she repeated to herself. She couldn't believe what had happened. She had just met the continent's biggest business mogul, without even knowing it. Now that she thought about it, he did seem a little familiar. She must have seen him in the Forbe's list of billionaires sometime.

She wondered if she should keep the cheque as a token that she'd met him. No, she couldn't do that, she needed to encash the money. Oh well, she may consider putting it for sale at eBay. Someone might just buy it for $10,010! Damn it she should have clicked a picture with him!

"Your stop," said the taxi driver, bringing the car to a halt. 

Brielle extracted all the cash she had and counted out the money. It was already past time, so Brielle had to run all the way to her classroom. The need for cleanliness and food would have to wait. 

She cursed as students stopped to stare at her knowing she looked anything but presentable. She hoped her crush, Zachary Jones wouldn't be disgusted. She skidded across the corridor screeching to a stop at the lecture hall.

Oh, please let the History Professor be late! Or I'll get kicked out again.

Someone tapped on her shoulder, startling her.

"What the---, Rishi Sir!" she exclaimed looking at her Chemistry Professor. "I'm just a little late, got caught up a bit, so much traffic you know."

"Ms Dane, this tardiness has to stop. I'm afraid this is the eighth time you are late this month, and it has only been two weeks." said the stout, plump man twirling his moustache. He was the nicest of faculty members in the university. Always fun-loving and hilarious with a penchant for collecting gossip.

"Yes, Professor." she said bowing her head shamefully.

"All right. No need to feel bad. Now, tell me why are you in the morning news?" said Professor Rishi interestedly. 

"Huh?" was all Brielle could say.

"The reporter was saying something about how a mystery brunette was spotted with Mr. Dixon this morning. Of course, I immediately recognized you. You are my best student after all." said Rishi merrily. "My wife asked me to congratulate you. She wants to know if you are seeing Mr. Dixon. She has a slight bit of a crush on him, I believe."

"Rishi Sir!" said Brielle blushing a deep scarlet. "There's nothing between us. I helped him out a bit, so he was thanking me."

"The reporter said he gave you a love letter. “continued Rishi unbothered.

"It wasn't a love letter; it was a cheque!" she said desperately showing him the paper.

"Oh!" said Rishi fixing his glasses. "My wife will be delighted. She always says 'poor girl working such long hours, always busy, yada yada yada...' He's helping you pay your bills, right? "

"No!" said Brielle. "It’s a long and rather boring story. I'm already late. I'll tell you some other time."

"Hmm I doubt its boring." said Rishi. "Who's taking your first class today?"

"Ms. Stewart." she said sighing. Ms. Stewart was by far the strictest teacher she'd met. "I'll probably not be allowed to enter."

"Nonsense, follow me Brielle." said Rishi. He pushed open the door to the lecture hall and imperially stepped in.

"Professor?" asked Ms. Stewart in surprise. She pulled down her glasses to the bridge of her nose and squinted at poor Brielle who was sneaking in. Amanda, Brielle's only friend at university, waved at her.

"You are late. Get out." Ms. Stewart said to Brielle in a harsh voice.

"Mary, don't be so hard on this poor girl. She has just discovered a new use for carbon nano tubes. We were both so excited we didn't realize time had passed."

"Is that so?" asked Mary Stewart x-raying Brielle for tell-tale signs. Brielle struggled not to laugh and look sincere, as Amanda glared at her. They both knew that Brielle hadn't even begun her research yet and here Professor Rishi was saying she'd already made a major breakthrough.

"Alright." said Mary finally, pushing her thick rimmed glasses back to the top of her nose and returned to scribble on the board. "Come sit down. Don't let this happen again."

"Thank you, Ma’am!" said Brielle gratefully hurrying up to sit at the last row. All other seats had been taken. She waved silently to Rishi who winked at her and left. Brielle checked her phone to see three messages from Amanda.

"Brielle! You chose a brilliant place to sit!

Good luck girl! 

You nail this, and I'll take you to Disneyland."

Brielle had barely time to fathom all this when she realized she was sitting beside Zachary. She froze with nervousness. She had liked him since high school.

"Hey, Brielle?" he said suddenly after a few awkward minutes of note-taking.

"Y-yes?" she stuttered. Zachary was by far the most amazing man she had ever seen. He was perfect in all aspects, caring, kind-hearted, funny not to forget drop-dead gorgeous. And he was newly single.

"Would you like to go out with me sometime?" he asked.

 Click here to read : Chapter 3 : Shock