All Chapters of ALMOST HATE, ALMOST LOVE: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

12 Chapters

CHAPTER 1 - Gracie’s pov

I fall down at least three times every week on my company's stairs. It’s not intentional. Maybe, I just have a staircase-attraction charm. Whatever that is. "Do you need help, Clumsy Gracie?" "Fuck off Nick!" I hate Nickolas, I really hate him. We've been working together for seven years now but we've never had a real conversation. That’s just how much we hate each other and always ready to take advantage of each other in negative situations like this. Everyone calls me Gracie, it was originally “Grace,” but I like the “cie” part. It sounds more baddie-like. Nick calls me “Clumsy Gracie,” I don’t know if he spells it as “Clumsy” or “Clumsie.” Oh wait, he calls me Clums too. What a total jerk! We argue a lot, way too much for normal human beings and I always get pissed first. Honestly, most times he wins the argument and I hate him more for it. But at least, I get the most love at work and he gets the opposite due to his offensive, aggressive, oppressive and any other neg

CHAPTER 2 - Nick’s pov

There are two things I love in life. One, Fridays.Two, Trading insults with Clumsy Gracie. Her name’s actually Gracie Gilbert but I don’t even care. Gracie, she’s sarcastic, prickly and looks at me irritatingly like I’m the gum stuck to her shoe. But, I find her interesting, to an extent. I love how she hates me and I love how she knows that I love how she hates me. But I hate how audacious she is, how she tells me “shut up” to my face. No sugarcoating, no fake smiles. This morning, she wore a coat that made her look like Tyrion Lannister. I don’t just get this girl, sometimes, she's pretty dull, other times, she’s scary, makes me want to go home and have a good day.Anyways, I love staring at her cause it upsets her and that’s my favorite part of life, the days I live for.I’m at it again, she sees me staring and walks up to me then hands me a glue. At first I thought the iconic Clumsy Gracie was going to ask for help, not until she opened her fraudulent mouth. “Here, glue your e

CHAPTER 3 - Gracie’s pov

Monday mornings are like chocolates. Little of it is sweet, too much of it are like chocolates with the extra calories.I was halfway through my first cup, scrolling emails and older messages when my phone buzzed. It was a message from an unknown number. I ignore it to finish up and leave for work. Another notification pops up, I frown. Wrong number? I tapped it.A video.I hesitated, but curiosity won and I opened it.Then, my world stopped.It was me. My hair was longer in the video, I wasn't putting on anything, I was dancing with no clothes and he was touching me all over. The bed, the angle, the person, it was me. The one night I wish I could erase from history.It wasn’t just a video, it was evidence, humiliation and disgrace with my face, my body, my shame.The one night I had prayed to remain buried, six feet under.Micheal.My stomach dropped so fast like it was being held. My hands were shaking so bad, I almost dropped my phone. I look up immediately, as if I was commanded

CHAPTER 4 - Nick’s pov

I've seen a lot of jerks in my life, but no one has made me want to smash a phone into someone's face until they bleed to death faster than the jerk who made Clums cry. Gracie’s face was filled with tears when she saw the video. By the time work ended, she was already gone. I couldn't stop her. I didn't want to. She didn't need me breathing down her neck at a time like this. She needed space, and that was exactly what I gave her. Micheal Peterson.The name was like a bad image in my head now. I sat at my desk longer than I should’ve, it was late and everyone had gone home. My laptop screen glowed in the dark as I scrolled from page to page, viewing Micheal’s life like a bad movie. Every new thing I learned about him made me want to punch him all the more.He had an entirely different online presence . I found his contact details after five long hours of search, bought a fake female profile then reached out to him saying I’m a fan who would love to meet him. You see, if you want to

CHAPTER 5 - Nick’s pov

The urge to see her the next morning was unbearable. I told myself it was just to make sure she was okay, but I didn't even believe that myself I drove past her apartment thrice, before I gathered the courage to finally park. Her building looked quiet, isolated but welcoming. For a moment, I thought maybe she left town. Until I eventually saw her sitting on the stairs outside. She tied her hair up into a messy bun, the messiest I've ever seen. She had no makeup on, wasn't smiling, just a book and a plate of dessert. When her eyes met mine, I expected a negative reaction. Instead, she smiled warmly, though it was obvious that she forced it. I walked over, both hands in my pockets. "Hey." "Hey,” her voice was hoarse. I sat beside her, close enough to feel the heat from her body, far enough to not touch her. "You got the apology?" I asked. "Yeah, doesn't change anything though." "It does, at least for a start." For a moment, we just sat there. I'm not good at comfor

CHAPTER 6 - Gracie’s pov

I don’t know how many hours we spent making out and doing adult stuff but it went on and on. Wait, I don’t mean we went several hours non-stop. C’mon, we’re not machines. Even machines overheat from overuse.We took breaks at intervals, talked about high school and life then one of us turns the other on again and the circle continued.Maybe I never really hated Nick, I just hated our first encounter together after we met again years later.The morning after the kiss was my favorite morning in a while. For the first time in years, life felt okay again. I pinched myself to be sure it wasn’t a dream anf guess what? It was real, Nick was still on my bed.“Nick, we should get ready for work,” I said, shaking him awake.“Just five more minutes, Clums.”I smiled.Wait, did I really just smile? He called me Clums but for the first time, I didn’t find it annoying. His voice was infact very romantic, hot. Very hot.“Okay, but just five minutes!” I said, trying to be romantically-serious.“Mhmm

CHAPTER 7 - Gracie’s pov

If happiness was a person, it’d have been me this morning.Actually, scratch that.If happiness was a person, it would probably leave wet towels on the bed and forget to zip up.I’m happiness. Well, just for this moment.I was still deep inside my head when I left the house, I forgot to put out the towels and didn’t even zip up until a Good Samaritan helped with it.On a normal day, I’d have been wondering how many people saw my inner wear or if anyone did, I’d be dying of embarrassment and won’t want to walk that path anymore. But today, unlike every other day, I was too excited to care.The drive to work was unusually shorter or did I drive faster?The traffic seemed longer but it didn’t annoy me.The radio didn’t irritate me either, I even vibed to a song.An old lady scratched my car with her shopping cart outside the parking lot but it couldn’t ruin my mood. Life was good. Or at least, life felt good. For once.I stepped into the building feeling lighter than I had in years, hum

Chapter 8 - The new girl.

My day started out great, until seven o’ clock, that’s when I woke up.Morning came like Nick did in bed, but time flew like he did after our first encounter.I put on my not-so-short, short red dress, perfect heels and the perfect bag to go with it. Before you wonder if I’m dressing to bring a man back to his senses, I am. The drive to work today didn’t piss me off much, except the old lady that kept honking her car when there clearly was traffic.“Is this a fashion show, miss?” Came from behind me, an unfamiliar voice. I turned around to check who it was, saying my sarcastic reply for if it’d be an ugly person. Well, better luck next time, it was an Angel.“And who the fuck are you?”“Emily Casanova, your new colleague,” she said, stretching out her arms for a handshake.“Nice to meet you, Emily Cassava…”“It’s Casanova.”“It’s a work place, not a fashion show.”“Then dress like you’re coming to work. Pretty sure every other person thinks you overdressed but not for work.”I turne

CHAPTER 9 - Nick’s pov

I made a mistake.Several mistakes actually.The first one was jumping in to help her out of that situation. Not like I didn’t want to, but maybe, I should’ve asked her first.The second one was kissing her.The third one was discovering that every teenage fantasy I’d ever had about her was less impressive than what really happened.The fourth and most recent mistake?Going to work the very next morning.A smart men would’ve called in sick, a genius would’ve resigned.Gracie calls me stupid sometimes, maybe she was right all along.So there I was, at work, pretending to function, pretending I wasn’t replaying the previous night every sixteen seconds.Pretending Gracie hadn’t done something to me, like her laugh wasn’t permanently stuck in my brain.Pretending I hadn’t…well, pretending a lot of things weren’t going through my head.The worst part?I couldn’t even look her in the eye, because every time I tried to, my brain stopped working.What if this isn’t the right time? What if I g

CHAPTER 10 - Emily & Gracie

People say I’m pretty annoying, I tell them thank you and leave out the ‘annoying’ because I like to focus on the positives.I got to work early today, not to see Nick, ew.Okay fine, I couldn’t wait to see if even though I knew the outcome wouldn’t be different from yesterday.“You’re early today,” he said as soon as I stepped in.“Not today Satan, I don’t want to burn my calories talking to you. I’m trying to gain weight.”He laughed and I also laughed inside of me. I’m so funny.“I’m not in support of you gaining weight.”“Whoever asked for your support?”“Clums, did I do something wrong?“You ever done anything right?”There was a brief silence, I was almost feeling guilty but remembered that he started it first. “You’re really mean for no reason,” he said and i was seriously pissed.“Are you always such an idiot or do you just show off when I’m around?”“You think your presence is something?”“I know it is.”“You see, Clums, you’re too delusional.”“At least I’m not stupid.”He

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