Do you ever just wonder how different everything would be if that one thing did not happen....?

Chapter Nine: You wish.

Charlotte's POV

Daniel is single. Which means he's free to love again. If he wanted to.

I choked on my water which spilled all over the place and began coughing, loudly. The whole restaurant settled their eyes on me. I smiled nervously and put my head down.

"You okay there ,Char?" Daniel eyed me suspiciously.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." I sat up straight.

"Yeah, where were we?" Cat said, thinking. "Right, so do you have any love interest? You searching?" She asked Daniel, stuffing a fry into her mouth.

He looked at me. Like he was expecting me to say something. I looked elsewhere. "No, no. Not at all." He said to Cat.

"Too bad. If I wasn't taken, I'd totally do you." She put another fry into her mouth and began chewing but almost choked on it when I elbowed her in the stomach. "Ow! That hurts." She looked at me, rubbing her stomach.

Daniel chuckled. "You are? I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

"I thought Char told you." All eyes were on me now.

"Actuall no, she didnt. Char didn't tell us," he pointed between the both of them. "a lot of things."

"What else are you hiding?" Cat asked me. I shook my head as a nothing and put my head down. Again.

"So, what's his name and when do I get to meet him? I'd love to have another person that's not a female in our group."

"Its Zachary. He works as a manager in a bank, he's usually very busy but I'm sure he can squeeze some time out. He'd love to meet you too."

After that, the words stopped flowing and I looked up to see what happened only to find the both of my friends staring at me.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"We've both said something about our love life. It's your turn." Cat said.

"Do you want me to go over the already established fact that my love life is an epic and complete fail?" The corners of Daniel's mouth twitched and I could tell he was holding back a mouthful of laughter. I ignored the idiot.

"Well, what about Dennison. You had a thing for him back then."

"Who's Dennison?" Daniel asked. Confused and something else I couldn't decipher was written all over his face.

"He had a huge crush on Char back in college." Cat replied.

"Dennison was a dickhead. He is not and will never be my type."

"Well, how do you know what your type is if you haven't even had a relationship? You know, my offer from the other night still stands." Cat looked at me hopefully.

"No mom but thanks for the offer." I scoffed. Realising my salad was still untouched, I dug into it and shut the two fools by my sides out.

"She really needs help." I heard Cat whisper to Daniel.

"Obviously. No woman her age should have to live like this. It's disturbing." He whispered back. After a while they both burst into laughter.

Shaking my head, I stood up, not even worrying about the bill or dessert. "I'm surrounded by idiots." I said as I walked out of the restaurant.

I knew I needed a ride back home so I waited by the car. Cat and Daniel walked out side by side laughing, probably at something stupid. In other words, me.

"Where are you going? Don't you need a ride?" Daniel asked her. Cat was walking in the other direction of the car when she heard him. She turned to face us.

"Nah. I came in mine. I have to get back to work anyway. Just came out for my lunch break. See y'all later. Bye." She waved at us and got into her car, pulling out of the drive way and speeding off.

Getting into the car, I buckled my seatbelt and waited for idiot Daniel to do the same. After that was done, he looked at me.

"Where to?"

"Home."

"Do you have anything interesting you're doing there?"

"No, I'm just going to take a nap."

"Gee, you sure sleep a lot." He started the engine.

"Just take me home."

"No."

"What do you mean?"

"I said no. We're going some place fun."

"Sorry to burst your bubble but your definition of fun is my definition of death by boredom." I snorted.

He chuckled and continued. "I don't care what you say. We're going some place fun." He pulled out of the drive way and drove off.

Apparently to some place fun.

                  
                                ————————————

Minutes later, we pulled in to Miller's Hospital. It was a very beautiful two storey building. The colors cream and black made it look more modern than it was. I had only been here once when I was asked to drop something off for Mr Miller.

Getting out of the car and walking into the building, I could see that most of the wards were occupied by patients. The nurses and various doctors seemed nice, smiling and offering murmured greetings as we walked by. I smiled back.

"Good day sir. Hello sir. Sir, how was your lunch?" I heard different questions and greetings in several directions. At first I wondered, who on earth are they referring to? Until I realised it was Daniel. Of course. Who else?

I hated hospitals. The smell was always of urine and drugs, very nauseating but the Miller's was different. Sure it smelled like urine and drugs but it wasnt nearly as disgusting as other hospitals.

We walked into Daniel's office. His desk was swamped with sheets of papers and documents. I shook my head at the disorderliness. He strolled across the room to sit on his seat, looking undisturbed by the table. I walked towards the table and busied myself with arranging it. When I finished, I looked up to see him smiling at me.

Talk about creepy.

"What is it?" I asked, sitting down.

"Nothing. Just that you'd make a very good secretary." He smirked. Taking a document from the arranged pile, he looked through it.

"You wish." I looked around. The office was even bigger than I thought. There were two sofas at the far end of the office. In front of them was a 42 inch TV. There were pictures of Daniel and Mr and Mrs Miller on the white walls. I remember the exact day the pictures was taken because I was the one who took them. I got up from the visitor's seat and settled on one of the sofas, focusing on the TV leaving the great Doctor Dan to do his work.

A total of ten minutes passed and the office door opened. I looked to see who opened the boss's door without knocking and behold, it was a woman. At first I thought it was his girlfriend because she was gorgeous, with long legs, slim body and blonde hair. Her makeup was heavy, but not too heavy. She looked like she belonged on the runway in Paris. But I noticed her outfit. A plain white button down tee shirt- which was open in all inappropriate places- with a black pencil mouth skirt. Though she didn't look like a nurse. She walked into the office like its nobody's business. Her eyes met mine and for a second, I thought I saw distaste in them. She frowned at me and dropped the file in her hands on Daniel's desk, then walked out.

Curiosity got the better of me. "Who was that?"

"My secretary." He looked up at me.

I walked over to his desk and asked in disbelief, "Really?"

"Yeah. Why?" He studied my reaction for a minute. "Oh wait. You thought- No, Char she's not my girlfriend."

"Could've fooled me."

His lips curved upwards. "Awn, is somebody jealousy?" He stood up from his chair. Reaching over the desk, he tapped the bridge of my nose. "That's cute."

"Of course not." I slapped his hand away. "And don't ever call me cute." I walked back to the sofa and collapsed on the chair. I heard his low laughter. "Why did you even ask me to be your secretary when you already have one?" I muttered not so quietly.

"First of all, I didn't ask you. I complimented you on your secretarial skills. And secondly if I didn't already have one, I'd have considered giving you the job because I like you better." He replied.

I couldn't help but smile at that. He liked me better. The fucker always knew how to make a girl smile.

A knock on the door, brought me back to reality. A young female nurse walked in. "Sir, would you care for a cup of coffee?"

"Sure. Two cups." Daniel said, smiling at her. I turned around to look at her.

"Okay, Sir." She beamed and walked out like he proposed. I snorted.

"Yes Sir. Of course Sir. Certainly Sir. I'd love to marry you Sir. Sir, can I have an autograph? Can I kiss your ass, Sir?" I mimicked.

He threw his head back and burst out laughing. "Comes with being the boss." He said between laughs. I turned toward the TV, not really concentrating. The nurse came back with our coffee minutes later, still smiling at Daniel like he was a lost puppy. Did everyone in this freaking hospital want to jump him?

After serving us, she left.

I waited until Daniel was done with work before leaving. I didn't realise it was getting late until I checked the time. It said 9:10. He packed up, grabbed the keys and we left.

Dropping me off, I got out of the car. Leaning against the door, I looked into the window. "Thank you for today. Even though it wasn't as fun as you said it'd be."

He smiled slightly. "Come on. It so was. You're just too proud to admit it."

"Sitting in your office all day doing nothing and watching women come in and out looking like they want to swallow you? Yeah, right."

He laughed at that. "So you noticed." He said, looking smug.

I blushed. I did notice. Obviously.  I searched for a comeback but nothing came out. "Goodnight Danny." I walked toward the front door.

He chuckled before saying, "Goodnight Charlotte."

"Hey mom, dad." I saw mom and dad on the couch watching ,TV.

"Hi honey. Where have you been all day?" Mom said.

"With Daniel. His office. Good night."

I walked pass and headed for my room. I took a shower. Changing into my jammies and brushing my teeth, I dived into bed.

I was about to drift off into oblivion when it hit me. He called me Charlotte. Daniel never called me Charlotte unless he was dead serious. Nobody ever called me my full name. But what was he serious about? We were goofing off before I called it a night.

I got under the covers, still deep in thought. Brushing away any thing related to Daniel, I drifted off into the night.