8x featured | A pick your own genre / version story. Choose between a sweet ChickLit love story or a mind-bending Thriller Romance.
When a grumpy billionaire fake dates a sunshine barista to understand how love works, they are forced to face the mon...
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(Oliver's Version)
The void that Oliver kept feeling could not be described in words. It was not like he had lost a part of himself but something felt missing. And he knew why. It wasn't her that he missed. It wasn't the coffee either, considering he had a fancy coffee machine right next to his work desk, always at his disposal. It wasn't the small walk to the café where he would be free of all worries and the consequences of his rash decisions.
It was all of it.
Because in his regular trips to the café, he would steal little moments from life to truly live. A peaceful moment where no one would care about his name or his past. A feeling of bliss with his favourite coffee in his hand and a reassuring smile on the barista's face, making him forget the demons he fought with daily. A recognition flicker in her eyes when she would prepare his order without asking him, as if she knew him and still chose to accept him. His flaws, his habits, his addictions. His stupidity of drinking iced Americano in the dead of an unpredictable monsoon.
This was his escape. It helped him forget. Only for a few moments, but for him it was enough. That's all he needed from life. To live, only if just a little.
But now, those very moments he cherished and looked forward to since he would open his eyes, first thing in the morning, were stolen from him. His day was nothing but a blur anymore. Nothing to look forward to, nothing to live for.
It was as if all his life, Oliver had been running away. Running from his past, running from the cameras chasing him, running from the rumours that would eventually get to him. And he kept falling and failing, each and every time. He was tired of running like water but it seemed like that was his very role to play by being alive.
In the wake of existence, Oliver felt like Cinderella who had until midnight to enjoy, make memories and live her best life. But time would eventually catch up and he would have to leave behind what he wanted to cling onto most. He often wondered why people craved to be Cinderella and live their own fairytale. Little did people know what happened to Cinderella after midnight when she had to return to her old version of hell and live through the same monotony after having seen the true beauty of life.
It's like having lived in darkness all your life; it is comfortable because it helps you hide behind the shadows. Until you see the light once. Because after that, when the lights go out again, the darkness that was once comforting begins to haunt you. In the worst possible ways. That galaxy hair coloured barista - or the coffee shop, Oliver didn't really know which - was this ray of light in his darkness. It was as if Oliver was just a shadow in a faded light and she was a lovely jewel whose shine reflected on him. It made him feel whole. And now when she was long gone, he was coming undone again.
As if his plethora of thoughts weren't enough, he could picture her now. Her eyes, her masked face, her petite figure making its way to him.
