A LEAP OF THE EARLY BIRD

If he wasn't crazy about her already..

Can Divit considered himself an educated man. Not just a smart man. He understood quite well the difference between knowledge and the use of that knowledge. He understood the difference between possessing a gift that set someone apart from everyone else, and putting that gift to good use. But most importantly, he knew how to recognize that gift or talent in others. And the more time he spent with Sanem, the more it was becoming apparent that she possessed a gift of imagination and intuition, which were not smeared by ambition. That's why he found being close to her so refreshing.

She was different. There was no question about it. What he did question was why was it so hard for her to admit how talented she really was. She blew him away at the meeting that day. Not that he did not expect great things from her. What surprised him was the fact that the writer employed by their agency could not come up with an idea of his own, so he attempted to use Sanem's idea. Use it as his own. Pass it as his own. He did not know what angered and bothered him more about it. The fact that the writer was willing to lie and present Sanem's idea as if he thought of it himself, the fact that Sanem was too afraid to admit she came up with the idea, or the fact that Deren was not willing to acknowledge that it was Sanem who thought of the campaign's storyline. Whatever the case, or maybe the combination of all three, gave Can's gut a nudge. Sanem needed a chance. And he would offer her one. Whether she was confident enough in herself or not...

And he was not mistaken. Because he knew he wouldn't have been. She outshone everyone in that meeting. All he had to do was sit back and watch her. At some point he forgot to pay attention. All he could concentrate was her eyes, as they sparkled because she finally let her ideas speak for themselves. She had a passion in her words. The more she spoke the more confident she became. The more confident she became, the more Can saw how beautiful she was becoming with that light beaming out of her. He could not resist gazing at her. He only stopped because she realized that his full smile turned into a frozen suspended smirk accompanied with a gleam in his eyes. He realized she knew he was hung up on looking at her. Just as he thought she could not have shined anymore, she admitted to her gift of a photographic memory. And as a result blew Deren away, which made him enjoy the moment all the more. In a perfect comeback, Deren assigned a part of the campaign to Sanem. And that made Can almost burst out from laughter. She got what she did not ask for. And now she was stuck with it. For good.

In an effort to make things more enjoyable, and more interesting, Can surprised them all and announced that they would all work on the campaign in the evening at his house. Including Sanem. He added that little bonus while he was leaving the conference room. He needed to make sure she would not see his face when he said that. He was sure she wouldn't let him get away with it if she saw his full-blown satisfied-ego smirk. Because it took him all the way to his office to ease that smirk off his face...

Technically, it took him all the way back to his house to finally get that smirk off his face. But by then he began to miss her. The fact that he missed her did not bother him that much anymore. He grew used to thinking so much about her that it felt as if she was there with him. To pass the time whenever he thought of her for too long, he would listen to music, or read. Or both. There was something within the world of the written word that captured his wounded soul. It caressed the broken pieces of his shattered heart. It made him forget. It made him feel as if the words could penetrate into his mind and mend those broken pieces if only by little. That is why it meant so much for him to know that Sanem dreamed of writing her very own book. Because she understood that written world...

He was still reading his favorite book when everyone else had shown up. Along with Sanem. In the back of the group. Always in the back, but never the last one. And she surprised him again. But this time, his heart felt it first. She noticed his book, and could not help herself from lifting the book. Of course she knew it, she would have. His heart pounded in his chest and sounded off in his head that he should have known that she would love reading books too. She knew every line of the book by heart. Her words describing the book did not affect him as much as the way she said them. She whispered those words. The velvet way in which she spoke just then caressed him more than the words he just read in that very book. A man could never admit to getting goosebumps, so neither would he.

They sat down to eat. And he could not help but be completely smitten with her. If he wasn't crazy about her already, he'd swear he'd loose his head for her now. She was faced with the most difficult task of eating sushi. Or attempting to do so. With sicks. Chopsticks. He was falling for her harder than she was trying to make them work. He never thought of her as cute. But that's what she was just then. Cute and determined. And it drove him crazy. The harder she tried, the harder it was for him to ackowledge that there was anyone else beside them at the table. Even with Deren trying his patience by feeding him sushi he obviously would not have picked himself.

A thought crossed his mind that her attempts to eat sushi also made her beautiful. If that were the truth, then he would not even know what to call her when he took her chopsticks into his own hands and suggested that they both eat with their hands. Her eyes burst out with the light of so much gratitude and affection that he nearly choked. If it wasn't for others by the table he would have gathered her into his arms and held her close. But that was not the time nor place for it. So they ate and worked until their creativity burned out.

As the others rested together, Sanem left the group and sat by herself. She felt like an outsider, and he could see it hurt her to be treated as such by Deren. So he followed her. And could not help wanting to sit closer than she permitted so. He finally asked her, straight out, with no way to run, why she had changed her approach toward him. What made her shy away from his presence? Why was she afraid to stand or sit close to him? And the answer he received made it perfectly clear. Polen. No more, no less.

And here, in her eyes he saw her for who she was. She was beautiful, delicate, and vivid. She was confident enough in herself to stand up to him, face to face. Yet she was so fragile and pure that she was afraid to give her heart away to him because she thought she could never measure up to his past with Polen. Because that was what Polen meant to him. She was the past. The fact was that Polen stopped even existing to him the moment his heart opened up to Sanem. Because it only opened up to Sanem. Only to her...