I stayed rooted in place for a few moments after exiting the room. I needed a few moments to catch my breath and steady my heartbeat, but then I remembered I still had to get to the office to hopefully be able to pick out the accessories for the photoshoot. I hated how Leonard still had such a huge effect on me, no matter how many times I told myself I was over him and that it didn't matter anymore. I sighed and glanced at my watch, work would surely distract me. The watch told me I could still make it back in time. Good. Even though I had made arrangements with Sophia for someone to pick out the accessories instead of me, it was hard for me to trust they wouldn't mess it up to spite me. I still had major trust issues and my work environment was far from fair play.

I made my way out of the building to the nearest subway station and got on. I thought about the interview the whole way back. Even though I didn't want to admit it, I couldn't seem to forget about our little encounter. It gave me such a weird feeling inside. A feeling of wariness, mixed with excitement at the same time. It confused me, and I didn't want to be thinking of him, whatever feelings he gave me, good or bad. Because even good ones were dangerous when it came to him. It was best to feel nothing, as if he was just a random stranger passing me on the street. I had already wasted years of my life because of him and I wasn't going to let him waltz his way back into my thoughts, or worse, my life. I couldn't allow him to be omnipresent. But I didn't think my heart got the memo.

Him not recognising me, stayed on my mind the entire way back to the office, but should that really have surprised me? Over the 7 years that have passed since high school, I had made sure I looked completely different. I had spent a good year building, sculpting, a new me. I had had my hair permanently straightened so it was no longer frizzy, I had changed the color of my hair from a weird pepper and salt kind of shade, to a deep chocolate color. I had invested in fake nails until I had finally been able to kick that awful and disgusting habit of biting my nails and simply started to dress better. I had always been naturally slender, but I didn't know how to buy or find clothes that actually fit me. This part took the most effort, to be honest. I didn't have any idea what kind of clothes I liked and fit me. So I had let my best friend Sienna use me as a real life doll until I knew how to dress myself properly. With her help, my confidence in picking out outfits grew, along with my confidence in general and after a while, the pains of my past grew into distant memories. Most of the time anyway.

Maybe I should give her a call to tell her about what had happened. She would make sure that the door to those painful memories would remain firmly locked.

When I arrived back at the office about 40 minutes after the interview, everyone on my floor was giving me looks. I frowned, I was thoroughly confused and even looked down at my outfit to see if I had a stain somewhere, or if my underwear was showing or something embarrassing like that, but I couldn't find any faults. So I ignored their stares to the best of my abilities and made my way over to my desk where I found the reason for the way they were looking at me.

A huge bouquet of all sorts of flowers stood on top of my desk, taking up most of the free space. I stopped in front of it, examining it like it was a foreign object. I didn't do anything extremely well the last few days, so it couldn't be a gift from the magazine, besides, they would give out gift cards to praise their employees, or an item from the designer closet or something, flowers had never happened before, especially bouquets of this size.

"Go on, look who they are from!"

Sophia's voice pulled me from my thoughts. It seemed she was even more curious to find out who they were from. The curly haired brunette was practically jumping up and down, peeking to see if she saw a card sticking out.

"Hu?" I replied mindlessly.

"I want to know who your admirer is! You haven't even told us you were seeing someone! What has he done wrong?"

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and made a cracking whip gesture. I raised an eyebrow at her excessive behavior.

"I'm not seeing anyone." I simply answered, as my hands hovered over the card I had noticed sticking out of the bouquet.

I reached out and pulled it from the bouquet, discovering something that frightened me more than 'It'.

'I enjoyed our meeting, I hope you will allow me to continue our conversation over dinner tonight. I will be waiting for you outside your office building at six. Sincerely, LC'

"Shit."

I dropped the card like it was some contagious disease, picked up the flowers and shoved them in Sophia's hands.

"Here, you seem to like them, you can have them."

She looked at me like I was some lunatic, which I probably was. I looked around and everyone was still staring at me, more openly now, quite possibly because of my outburst. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down and turned on my heel, walking to the ladies room for some much needed privacy. That, and a phone call.

Walking into the bathroom, I checked all the stalls first, to make sure they were empty. This conversation needed to remain private, at all costs. I couldn't afford to have my private life all over the contents of the magazine. After I was sure no one was there, Iocked the door for good measure, so no one would be able to enter. Finally satisfied with the amount of privacy, I retrieved my phone from my bag, entered the stall the furthest from the entrance door and phoned my best friend in the whole wide world, the only one that could ever help me through this and give me the appropriate advice for the situation, Sienna.

It took quite a few rings for her to pick up, while I was trying to hurry her up mentally by chanting 'pick up, pick up, pick up'.

When she finally did, it sounded like she was in a hurry.

"Hello?" came her greeting.

I bit my lip, unsure about this, if she would even have time to calm me down.

"It's me, Amy."

"I know hun, I have caller ID."

"Yes, right, of course. I - Uhm."

"Spit it out Amelia, what is it?"

"I saw Lennie today, I had to interview him."

The nickname burned my tongue, but it sounded so natural at the same time. I heard shuffling on the other end of the line, I had her full attention now and her voice sounded a lot clearer now. She must have had me on speaker before. Shit, I hoped no one we knew was with her.

"What?! What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I know. He didn't recognize me, and I don't know."

My voice wavered, I wanted to stay strong so badly, show I didn't care, but I was so afraid of breaking down and I knew I was fighting a losing battle against my tears. I never had to put up a front with Sienna, I knew she would always have my back and be there, so my walls were never up around her.

"Shh, Ames, it's okay, he's nothing to you anymore and he can't hurt you. You're so much stronger than you were. Tell me more."

"So, I didn't know it was going to be him, but when I walked in, he didn't recognize me, he was very friendly, charming even. I hated it, but I managed to survive the interview without crying or yelling at him."

"See, you are okay, good girl"

She praised me and I felt like a dog. I let out a dry chuckle at that, imagining how she would look right now. I hated that she was so far away.

"Wait, that's not all."

"Okay.." came her hesitant reply.

So I told her about the bouquet and the note.

"I'm pretty sure he really didn't recognize me, so what's his deal?"

It stayed silent on the other end of the phone, for so long that I was afraid she had been disconnected, until she laughed. She laughed!

"It isn't funny Sien, I'm having a real crisis right now."

"Yes it is, Ames, and I'll tell you why."

I frowned, I really didn't see how this was so funny to her.

"He didn't recognize you, you say?"

"Yes, I already told you this.." I replied, getting impatient, because I didn't understand where she was going with this.

"Shush, be patient with me." she scolded. "So, go to dinner with him, woo him. Then make him feel what you went through all those years ago. It's time to get even."

My mouth popped open at the sinister tone in her voice. I had no idea she was so vengeful, but I liked it.

"Can I do that?"

"Of course you can, it will give you a feeling of empowerment to be able to be the one to shut him down this time, to lead him on, to then crush his feelings like he did with yours. Give him a taste of his own medicine and all that jazz."

"I don't know Sienna, that sounds like a lot of work."

"Amy, I'm telling you, this will be perfect. I'll help you with every step of the way, you can always call me for advice, we'll make him pay honey."

I thought about it for a few more seconds and found myself warming up to the idea. Yes, it would be extremely difficult, but it would feel so good at the same time. I just had to keep my head in the game, and play him harder than he had ever been able to play me, although that would be quite the challenge, seeing as he had completely broken me. Shattered me, until I thought the pieces were beyond the point of repair.

"I'll do it." I decided.

"Good, now what are you wearing?"

After another ten minutes, where she practically guessed I was wearing - in her words - an uptight outfit, she convinced me to ask to borrow one of the dresses in the designer closet, so I would look drop dead gorgeous, and to ask the stylist for a little touch up on my make-up. We then said our goodbyes and I hung up, exiting the stall and looking at my reflection in the mirror.

My blue eyes shone with determination, although they were slightly red brimmed from keeping the tears at bay. As I looked at myself, I felt an odd feeling of empowerment surge through me, I was determined to finally be a player in his games. No, not a player, but the puppet master.