There Are Always Better Days 1/?
Author: Saga 'sagaluthien' Chriztine
Rating and warnings: PG-13
Word Promt: #80 Breath
Progress: 10/100
Word count: 1595
Betad: A friend
Author Notes: Even if Orlando isn’t much in this first chapter he will slowly get in more and more.
Send feedback to: crowesaga@hotmail.com
Table: http://sagas-stories.livejournal.com/16122.html
Summary: Carolyn works for a magazine and after a miss she is sent to do an interview with Viggo Mortensen. Sadly it isn’t her best day. Everything seems to happen to her.
Chapter 1
Carolyn asked herself if this was something that always would come back to her. It was a terrible day. She sure had woken up on the wrong side of her bed and if it was as so many other times the day wouldn’t turn out well.
It began with that the alarm never going off, so when she woke she was already late. In her hurry she managed to knock over her tea and burn her thigh. Hurrying back to the bedroom to change her skirt she stubbed her toe with the bed. Jumping around on one foot until some of the pain subsided. When she could finally stand on it she quickly changed the skirt.
Then as fast as possible she got out the door. With her breath in her throat Carolyn sprinted to the bus station. Of course she had forgotten her monthly ticket and had to pay the fare. Sitting down to get a grip of herself, she started to study her stockings. It didn’t surprise her at all when she noticed she had a run.
Finally arriving at work she was immediately called into her boss.
“I have received numerous complaints on your latest article. You know that I don’t tolerate any complains. What is your suggestion to correct and make it better?” Rosemary told her with the said article lying in front of her.
Carolyn couldn’t understand the critic, since she thought it had been perfect. “What was the complaint been about?”
“According to them you gave incorrect facts and the sources you have given credit to are old or don’t even exist. I have spent the morning looking them up and sadly the complainers seem to be right. I will give you another chance to make up for this, but if it occurs again and you give untrue facts or wrong sources you are out of here.”
“Yes, Ma’am. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to give an interview today. It will be at the Dorchester Hotel at one o’clock.” Rosemary looked at her watch, “It’s in forty minutes and then I want the interview written out and on my desk by six.”
She gave Carolyn a folder that had been lying beside the magazine. “Here you have some information about the person and you will need to add more.”
Carolyn took the folder and said thanks and if she wanted to be on time for the interview she had to leave at once.
Arriving at the last minute she didn’t have time to look around her so she missed the guy coming towards her with a mug of coffee. They collided and the contents were splashed over her blouse.
“I’m so terribly sorry. Let me help you.” The guy said and started to drag her to the front desk.
He was given some napkins and tried to dry it up. Frustrated as she was, after a few moments she pushed his hands away. “Please stop, I think you got most of it and if you continue you’ll only make it look worse.”
He stepped back and watched her. She was right and it had become a big smear and very visible on her light blouse. When he saw that her jacket wouldn’t cover it and that she had a hunted look, he guessed she was on her way to something.
“Do you know what? To make up for it, you can borrow my jacket.” He said already starting to take it off.
Carolyn looked up and was taken aback. There was something special about the guy in front of her, but she couldn’t grasp it. She was speechless and only took the offered jacket. She put it on and when she looked up the guy was on his way through the door.
Surprised and accepting it as yet another thing of her already screwed day she turned to the clerk and asked where she was supposed to meet Mr Mortensen.
“Take the elevator to the third floor and then go to number 309.” He kindly informed her.
Carolyn took the elevator and went to the room. Before she knocked she tried to fix her clothes. She had buttoned the jacket to hide the coffee spot.
Almost immediately the door was opened. She hadn’t heard him and when she looked down she saw that he wasn’t wearing any shoes.
“Good afternoon, Mr Mortensen, I truly apologize for my late arrival. I had a little intermezzo on the way here.”
“That’s alright, Miss. Let’s sit down.”
She followed him to the sofa and chair that was in the middle of the room. On the way to the hotel she had skimmed through the folder and learned that the interview had to be concentrated around his art and the latest book rather than his filming. Carolyn was little star struck since he was one of her favorites, and wasn’t sure where to begin.
She wasn’t happy at all that she hadn’t get time to really prepare, absolutely not a day like this. She felt this was doomed to fail her. Deep down she didn’t really like the place she worked at and especially not her boss Rosemary. So in some way she wasn’t that surprised she got a tricky assignment to accomplish. Stubborn as she was she wouldn’t try to make a bad job. She really wanted to show her that she was capable of writing the article that was asked from her.
“Excuse me Miss, but sadly I haven’t all day to be interviewed by you. What is it you want to know?” His question drew her from her frozen state.
Carolyn took forward the paper she had jotted down a few questions on and thought they were as good as the others to begin with. After the first question it seemed to go well. Though half through the interview she was so taken by his voice that she forget to write down what he said.
When almost an hour had gone by, Viggo raised and stated that the audience was over for this time. Carolyn quickly collected her papers and thanked him for taking time for her.
When she was about to leave he stopped her by asking, “Do you have a copy of Linger?”
“I haven’t had time to buy it yet.” She answered with looking down at the carpet. In the next moment she was holding a copy of it.
She looked up at him as she suddenly remembered one thing. “Do I have your permission to quote and use any of your pictures?”
“I think that was already taken care of when this meeting was set up.” He looked at her and continued, “Would it be anything you can write to Perceval press.”
Carolyn thanked and walked to the elevator. Turning around hoping to get a last look at him, but he had closed the door.
On the street she looked at her watch and cringed as she thought the time went all too fast. On her way she stopped to buy some Chinese food to eat as she worked on the article.
The interview had turned out well, so she hoped that the bad luck seemed to have been following her so far had turned. It had been too much to hope for.
One of the boxes was leaking and she spilled even more on her already ruined blouse. She could be happy that it hadn’t gotten onto her papers. Usually she would have eaten during her writing, but she didn’t dare to stretch the destiny more and hurried eating before she sat down.
When Carolyn started the computer she almost expected it would stop working, but to her relief it was behaving. She was left alone and could work on the requested article.
Actually sitting down and write was the best thing she knew and it always made her feel so good. To put words together had never been difficult and she thought she was good at it.
There were a few things she had to look up and to her delight it went fast. When she was finished she read through it once and couldn’t see anything that could be to her boss displeasure. She hit the print button and went to get the paper to leave them on the Rosemary’s desk.
Seeing that she made the deadline made her smile, finally something that went her way that day. She hadn’t expected her boss to still be at her office, but tried not to show her surprise. She went to her desk and put the paper down and then turned to leave.
“Where do you think you are going? Carolyn you’re not leaving before I’ve read what you’re written.”
Carolyn sank down in the chair opposite her boss and hated that she had to be checked up by Rosemary. She sure had to sit and feel the agony. Not one sound escaped her lips or any expression showed on the elderly woman.
“Except for a few things that the editor can fix this look good.” Rosemary finally said. “You can go and send the text to the editor and we have to see later how it will be taken by the readers.” With the last she let her face show some smug, like she already knew something.
Carolyn let her breath out, which she had been holding. She rose to leave.
“I hope you weren’t at the interview with that blouse.”
“I was, but then it was clean.” She said and hoped her boss would never know the truth.
Next chapter