A CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT

Julian Martin sat on the couch, going through a bunch of emails on his phone. He sighed, realizing how much work he had to do. Procrastination was indeed the thief of time, he thought, as he realized that it was his fault that work had piled up this much.

“You will not believe who just called me… Guess who” Abby Martin said as she emerged from her bedroom, clad in pink silk pajamas.

“Who?” Julian asked casually, clearly not in the mood for small talk.

“I said, guess,” Abby said.Text content © NôvelDrama.Org.

Julian Martin turned to look at his little sister, who had a look on her face that he didn’t quite understand. He rolled his eyes and returned his attention to his phone.

“I’m not going to bother about guessing anything,” he said. “Because I have a feeling that you will tell me anyway. You know,… Because it’s you and you can’t be quiet about anything… Even to save your life. I’m not even sure that you can keep secret, so just cut the crap and tell me what it is”

“You are no fun” Abby said and she glared at her brother, but then she smiled because she knew he was right. She would tell him anyways, but that didn’t stop her from picking up a pillow and throwing it at him.

“Well,” she began, “I know you’re going to love this… Do you remember my best friend, Nina Taylor, from high school?… Oh of course you do.. How could you forget”

For some reason, Julian felt his heart beat a little faster at the mention of that name. Abby waited for him to say something and when he didn’t she continued.

“That was her on the phone. She said she decided to leave her dad’s company as she was in this ‘Independent… Starting over again phase’… I didn’t really listen to that last part because I got so excited after she told me she got a job here and she wants to stay with me for a while. Isn’t that amazing? It’s been so long you know… Remember how close she and I were in high school?”

“Yeah I remember,” Julian said. How could he forget? At that time, Nina Taylor was a huge part of his life…. not because they were close friends or in any kind of relationship, but because he spent a great deal of time just thinking about her and getting distracted by her.

“Well, I guess that’s a good thing…. for you. At least you won’t complain to me about being bored anymore and maybe I can finally get some peace” he added, willing the memory to go away. It was embarrassing to think about just how much he’d been into Nina Taylor.

Abby grinned at him. “Excited about seeing her again?” she asked.

Julian gave her a puzzled look. “Why would I be excited?” he asked. “I don’t see any reason why I should be. She’s your friend. She’s coming to live with you… Not me. I mean, of course it would be nice to see her again after all these years, but excited… Is.. Is just not the right word. Why would you even ask me that?”

“Oh please,” Abby replied. “You had such a huge crush on her when we were in high school. Your eyes followed her everywhere. Remember how I used to tease you about it and you made me promise not to tell her? Because you wanted to do it, and I quote ‘on your own time’.. Only that time never came because you were just too shy. ”

Julian rolled his eyes, but also smiled at the memory. It had been a long time ago, but once in a while he still thought about Nina Taylor. She had been Abby’s best friend at the time and he had had a huge crush on her till he left for college.

The problem was he could never bring himself to tell her how he felt back then as he thought she was way out of his league. She and Abby had been cheerleaders while he had been one of the brainy students most people saw as geeks.

Nina was sharp and really good-looking. She had long red hair and big beautiful green eyes, and most times he called her ‘red’ to tease her. In addition to being very good looking, she was intelligent and perceptive, and although she hung out with the Soc crowd, she was open to befriending people who weren’t in her crowd. Julian was so attracted to her but couldn’t never bring himself to say it to her. Why would a girl like Nina even want to go out with him anyways? And besides she was dating some jock guy then. So he had kept his feelings to himself.