Chapter 4

After the conversation she had with Ethan, the two did not touch on that subject again, and everything seemed to be just flowing. It had been two weeks since she had been working as his secretary, and in that time, she only had to see him three times, getting irritated each time.

The phone on her desk started ringing, and she answered politely.

"Hi, Rafa, it's me, Kate. I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow morning you'll have some tests for the contract change."

"All right, but why did you decide to tell me now when we could see each other after work?"

"I won't be going home tonight; that handsome doctor I went out with the other day said he's coming to pick me up for dinner, so don't wait up for me."

"I'm so jealous, my friend…" she said with a melancholic voice. "All I want is for someone to call me and take me out to dinner."

"Don't be so pessimistic, you'll find the love of your life soon enough."

"I've concluded that I'm not lucky in that department."

"Don't give up," Kate said cheerfully. "Now I need to hang up; I have to finish some things before I go."

When Kate hung up the phone, Rafaela sighed. Even though she was happy for her friend, she was sad that her own love life wasn't moving forward at all. Sometimes she remembered Tácio and what he said when they last saw each other.

"This isn't a goodbye." That's what he said, yet he never reached out to her.

It had been almost two years since she had been living in the States, and he never even sent her a message.

"Did you hear what I said?" Ethan's voice boomed in her ears.

"What?" she asked, confused, not having noticed his presence.

"I said that tomorrow morning I have a meeting with the new construction company. I need you to give me a summary of all the contracts we have with them."

"All right, I'll email it to you."

"No need, just give me a summary tomorrow morning," he said, re-entering his office.

"Sir!" she called out.

"What do you want?"

"Tomorrow morning I'll be doing the tests requested by the company, so I'll be arriving later."

"Then give me a summary now." He entered the office and slammed the door.

There were only 15 minutes left until her shift ended, and she was feeling extremely hungry. Even so, she grabbed the important papers she needed and took them to her boss's office.

"Here it is." He was seriously analyzing the papers while she couldn't help but notice how handsome that man was.

"Something insignificant," Ethan said.

"What did you say, sir?"

"You said it was insignificant," he repeated.

"But I didn't say anything," she responded, not understanding what he was talking about.

"I didn't want to, but I ended up thinking about what you said about the night we spent together."

Why is he bringing this up again? she wondered in her thoughts.

"What do you want, reminding me of this?" she asked, without showing any nervousness in her voice.

"Because the way you talked to me really made me reflect. No woman has ever dared to tell me that spending a night with me was insignificant."

"That seems to have upset you, sir," she said, provoking him.

"Of course not!" he responded quickly, but his expression said otherwise.

"I never intended to offend you," she continued.

"Let me tell you, many women would do anything to spend a night with me."

With that statement, she felt that, indeed, Ethan had taken it personally because he seemed furious.

"It's good that you're in high demand; that means you won't care what someone like me thinks," she didn't want to prolong the conversation because all she wanted at that moment was to go home and eat something.

"Of course, I don't care." He stood up from his chair. "You're not even the type of woman I usually get involved with, so don't think your opinion matters."

"But I don't think that," she replied.

Even though Ethan had said that dismissively, she wasn't shaken. After all, in terms of her appearance, Rafa didn't feel insecure. She was a woman of 1.65 meters, with long, straight black hair. Her nose was slim, and her eyes were a shade of green. Ethan might say she wasn't his type, but he could never call her ugly.

"I only went out with you because I thought you deserved to learn a lesson about not badmouthing the person who pays your salary."

"Yes, I know, you already told me," she replied calmly.

Ethan sensed that his words weren't having the effect he had hoped for. He wanted Rafaela to become nervous, and offended, but no, she didn't seem to care about what he was saying. On the contrary, she seemed to be mocking him.

"So don't go bragging around just because you hooked up with the company's director," he continued.

"But I never bragged," she said, knowing that Kate would never share that secret with anyone else. "On the contrary, it would be embarrassing for me."

"Embarrassing?" he asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

"Yes, a mere employee like me getting involved with such an important man like you would be very embarrassing. Everyone would say I was hitting on you."

"That's right!" he said.

"That's right," she repeated calmly. "Don't worry, sir, I wouldn't cause that kind of trouble in the company. As I said, if you hadn't brought it up, I would never have mentioned it."

Seeing that Rafaela didn't seem offended, he asked her to leave.

"You can go now; I need to review these papers before I go. I have a date with an important woman tonight." Rafa just nodded and left, leaving Ethan feeling irritated.

As she left her boss's office, she noticed her hands were trembling, and an overwhelming urge to cry had taken over her.

"Why did he have to bring that up again?" she asked herself nervously.

[…]

The next day, she went to the hospital where the company had a partnership and did all the necessary tests for her new role. Contrary to what she expected, it didn't take long, and she was soon able to return to work.

The day passed quickly, and late in the afternoon, she went to make some copies of some documents but ended up running into Kate, who was coming out of the elevator.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised, since Kate worked far from that floor.

"Friend, I needed to see you in person," Kate said with a worried look.

"Did something serious happen?" Rafaela asked.

"Some of your test results came in…" she replied.

"What happened?"

"Rafaela, I don't even know how to tell you this." She touched her friend's shoulder. "You're pregnant." Rafaela's eyes widened at those words. Kate was a big jokester, but at that moment, she didn't seem to be kidding about anything.

She couldn't believe such a thing; the only man she had been with was Ethan, and they had used protection. Even though no contraceptive method is foolproof, it would be very unfortunate if she were expecting a child from someone who, besides not having any romantic connection, didn't even like children.