We move to the new office after a call comes in, and I settle down into my space outside his door, a phone had been fixed on my desk and I look at it, trying at numbers.Then I move to the tablet, all black. Still fascinated by it.I turn it on going straight to Microsoft Office.I was sure the only purpose would be for arranging schedules for Simon, but it was the first time I had one, the first time a gadget like this would be under my control.A call comes into the phone and I pick it up,‘You’ve reached the office of Mr. Valero, how can I help you’, the word sounds sweet on my tongue, ‘It’s me’, Simon’s voice sounds, gruff through the phone, ‘I wanted to apologize again’, I sigh when I hear him,‘And say thank you too for giving me this chance’‘Yeah, got it’, I reply him, and drop the phone.‘I’m pretty sure a secretary is not supposed to hang up on the CEO’, a niggling voice sounds in my head, but a smile spreads my lips,‘Oh, the perks of being apologized to’, a laugh escapes
Lunch had ended, so the restaurant was sparsely filled, since lunch rush was over, Bella had taken a seat close to me, head drawn forward in a gossipy stance.I draw closer to her, not minding the bewildered look on her face, shushing her when she got loud.‘You must be bat shit crazy’, she whispers it this time, still looking at me,A laugh ripples from my insides, seeing her serious face.‘This is not a laughing matter, Tina’‘How could you agree to be friends? You’re the one losing’, she eyes me up and down as I laugh,‘This is not about losing or winning, Bella, it’s about trying to let go of heartache’She still eyes me as I continue,‘I’ve held unto hatred, bitterness for years and it has turned my heart into a black, ulcered mess’, my expression sours for a moment,‘So that’s it, you’re just going to forgive him, just like that’, she raises her hand up, expressive in discouraging me.‘No, he hurt me too much, I can’t forgive him just yet, I’m just giving him a chance to win my
The first few days after the merger were hectic, Simon’s schedule was packed full which resulted in me working overtime most of the time,‘I’m sorry, I know how much you like going home on time’, Simon turns to tell me the moment we arrive back in Trove after a meeting 2 hours away from the company.Despite the fact that he was stressed out from the unending conversation with the young blond woman whose name I learned was Veronica Maxwell,She was the young CEO of the only company that could stand to par with SM and Simon wanted to meet her to make an investment into her new Tech company.The meeting had started with an intense stare down, where they both sized each other up,She finally broke the stare with a smile, brushing back the messy strands of her almost-white hair and stretching her hand out for Simon to shake.They both settled down to steak and wine and as I watched them only one question reigned in my head.‘What was it with rich people and smiling even when they’re raging
The next morning as I stare at my beloved white ceiling, I notice something as changed,Firstly, I couldn’t find that square shaped faded spot on my ceiling, or the sparse streaks of pure white among my ceiling, I look to the side to see the tendrils of dawn that I was once accustomed to, to see it as full blown streaks of sunlight spilling across my bedroom floor.It was a welcome change, the fact that I slept better, I didn’t wake up just few hours after sleeping only to stare, frustrated,It was a happy change I noticed, one that had me smiling as I got ready, never mind the side- eyed looks that Ajax was giving me.Apply makeup on, I notice the bags under my eyes were fading and I no longer needed to apply a thick layer of powder to hide it.It was wonderful, healing my heart, letting go of built up hatred that had lasted six years long.‘Mum, what has you smiling like that’, Ajax finally stops with suspicious looking, opting to confront me directly.‘Don’t tell me you got a husb
Simon’s POVThe day before.‘I find myself smiling more often days’, my eyes were fixed on the screen of a computer, various sections of it, showing numerous footages of different places, in so many angles.‘I think this is my newest addiction’, despite the vast number of footages, my eyes were fixed only on a select few.The ones that had Tina in them.I was in the control room of Bells department store, watching Tina,The statement sounded creepy in my head but it was just hard to resist.The moment I entered, one look from me had sent the security personnel scurrying out.Not that they had a choice, after all I was paying the estimated amount of sales the store made in a day.When you payed close to a half a billion dollars just to spend a few hours in a department store, even the ground you walk on becomes gold.Remote in hand, I enlarge the section containing Tina so that it took up the whole screen.Watching her was me newest addiction,It sounded creepy, even to me, but it was
Simon’s POV I slide into the passenger’s seat as Tina takes the wheel, bringing the car out of the parking lot.Sliding my phone out of my pocket, I unlock my phone sliding to a debit alert from the bank,‘Not that it was a ridiculous amount leaving my account, but the recipient was one that bothered me, or rather who the recipient reminded me of.The debit alert was of the monthly payments going to the private detective I hired to find Sarah,‘Staring at the message, I realized that for the first time in a while, I could admit without feeling guilty that I didn’t even want to find her’I could admit it, without my heart feeling like it was going to tear out of my chest, without that fevered feeling that took me whenever I thought about Sarah.I could finally admit that Sarah was nothing but an annoyance without it breaking me apart.I could see my stupidity, see the rightness in my mother’s words when I thought about the years of our unfortunate relationship.It was hard, admitting
Simon’s POVThe next morning comes with the realization that I’ve developed another addiction, as I stare out the window of my hotel room at the restaurant across the street,It had been hard to keep my eyes away from it, since the time I discovered that Tina visited frequently,Despite knowing that she could not be there, seeing as it was early morning and she would be making her way to work by now, still I couldn’t take my eyes off, hope turning me stupid.With a shake of my head I remind myself that I would be seeing her at work and I should probably get moving before I get late. On my way out, my phone rings in my hand as I try to place it in my pocket,From the caller ID, I see it’s the detective and I pick it up at the second ring,‘What is it, any news on the background check’, impatience rings in my voice as I speak to him.‘Not that Mr. Valero, I know you told me to stop looking for her, but she just popped up on my radar’, I take in a deep breath, frustration filling me up,
Another tired sigh rack through me and I run my hands through my hair, turning back to my office, walking in and heading to my desk,‘I hope Tina got home okay’, ‘Don’t walk away from me’, as I passed by Sarah on the way to my desk, she spits, glaring at me.Scoffing, I continue my journey, plopping down onto the chair, leaning back and looking at her in impatience.When she doesn’t speak, impatience gets the better of me, ‘What do you want Sarah’She jumps up immediately at my words, stomping over to my table, ‘You’re finally talking to me, right, you’re finally looking at me’, she bites out, staring at me through narrowed eyes,‘When I got in here, you didn’t even look at me, you couldn’t show how much you missed me, you didn’t even try’, she voice rises as she talks and still I look at her with that slight purse of lips,‘I missed you so much I couldn’t even breathe and yet you can’t even show me you love me’,‘Instead you only have eyes for her, you behaved like I didn’t exist
Then I’m marching away from him, stomping back inside, away from cool evening air and the ellipse pool that reminded me of our stolen moments together,With relief I find that Simon doesn’t follow as I hear no footsteps from behind me.As I move back up the stairs, my stomp gradually reduces into a walk, red clearing from my vision,My shoulders are slumped again when I get to the room that had my son in it,Unbelief crowds into my head, realization dawning on me.I push open the door, to see Ajax occupied with one of the numerous action figures on the shelves, ‘Let’s go home', his face falls, but he gets up, lifting toy Spiderman with him,I walk in, picking up his bag, and hitching it on my shoulder then I hold his hand in mine,‘Aren’t we going to say bye to dad', Ajax pauses and looks up at me as we walk out of the room,‘I said bye to him already’, I pull at his hand and he follows nodding.We walk down the stairs and my heart stops when I see Simon standing at the foo
‘Your son', I scoff loudly, repeating his words.‘And what gave you the notion that he your son',‘What makes you so sure', my soles scuff tiles as I start pacing the length of the yard, letting some of my pent up anger leak out through my steps,‘Really Tina', he calls my name, and the displeasure in his words match mine,‘Are we really going to sit here and debate Ajax's paternity’, his voice is gruff, dropping lower with each word,‘He’s not', I shake my head from left to right as I pass Simon’s front repeatedly in my pacing,‘You told him yourself’, it rises again, ‘Ajax confirmed it', he grabs my hand again, forcing me to look at him.‘Even a child!!’, his face is all hardness, jaw clenched and grinding, as he punctuates the word,‘Even a child can see that we're father and son', his voice is gruff, as he finishes and his eyes darken, stormy orbs in a face of fury.I try to turn away from him, to turn away from his fury that infuriated me further, and continue pacing.
The door swings shut behind me, The noise of my sneakers hitting cement as I rushed along the driveway echoed in my ears,Drowning out the sound of the grass swaying gently in the evening breeze, louder than the sound of birds chirping from the trees,I side step the water fountain without so much as a glance at its sculpted glory,My eyes rests on those large double doors, that separated me from my son, willing it to disintegrate,Instead it does something different, swinging open, parting slowly, revealing Simon as I stomp up tiled steps.The large smile on his face was nonexistent to me, his arms open wide in greeting a momentary confusion as I sidestep him, pushing into the mansion, My heart was beating too fast in my chest, my footsteps echoing too loud in my ears for me too even regard him,To even do the simple task of asking his reason,So I ignore him, turning laser-like focus on finding my son and getting out of this largeness that had me feeling like I was drowni
Air got sucked from my lungs, like I just received a strike to the gut,‘No', I shake my head as my grip on my phone tightens,‘That can’t be true', my head keeps turning from left to right in unbelief as the click of the call ending sounded.I take the phone off my ear, bring it to the front of my face,‘That can’t be possible’, my brain felt waterlogged, my ears clogged as the noise of school children fades out.The only sound around was my heart, beating like the tick of a clock, resounding in my ears, echoing in my head,‘No', I shake my head again and call his school teacher,‘She’s probably mistaken’,‘There was no way he could be with Simon', My fingers shake against my screen as I scroll through my contacts,The first call goes to voicemail, ‘Pick up for Christ sake’, I swear under my breathe, dialing her number again,‘Could it be Adam?’‘But he would never refer to himself as Ajax’s father’, my mind swirls as the phone rings on, no sign of it being picked up.
By the time it was lunch my head was on a spin, on a whirlpool of frustration, I sat still, my hands folded in my lap,but my heart was on fire, my mouth burned like I was chewing on hot gum.The heat bled onto my palms, drawing sweat, that I wiped repeatedly against ash-gray pants, ‘At this point, I will never be able to tell him', I mused as I stared at the dark streaks my hands created, the creases from repeatedly fisting it's fabric in my hands.‘If only he didn’t smile those face splitting smiles whenever our eyes met’‘If only he didn’t look at me with such affection in his eyes'‘Maybe it would be easier to tell him if I wasn’t risk….’,‘Where should we eat today’, my musings get interrupted and I look up at him.We’d been so absorbed with each other the last week yet anytime my eyes met those ones shining with affection, a wave of unfamiliarity courses through me, a war between elation and fear ensues.‘Let’s just order in', I hide my surprise, the battle raging in
Time moved slowly, sluggishly, like my heart,It's sound, a turbid rhythm in my chest, like wading in mud water, dragging my head through varying degrees of shock,Of all things I anticipated, expected, planned for, this was the least of them.I didn't even think it possible, it was not a scenario I saw happening, My eyes watch, sluggishly, same as my heart at the teardrop that track Ajax's cheek trailing onto his lap.‘He's dad, isn’t he?’, he says it again, and my head rears back in a whiplash.The fact that he repeated it, a statement this time, proved the extent of the situation, it was a testament to how much of a mess I was in.‘Why is he not here with us?'‘Did he do something bad?', ‘Is dad a bad man?’, with each question, his voice raises, bordering on hysterics, fat tears rolling down his cheeks.‘Why don’t you want me to meet him?', he asks again, yet my mind travels, trying to pinpoint what could have given it away,I had been very careful to never mention the
For a moment I considered coming clean, telling him the truth of a son he never knew about, but the fear in my heart was stronger,So I chew slowly, bidding my time to formulate something believable, something that wouldn’t allow the serious expression his face had taken into something darker.I tried to formulate something that would allow me to keep this warm bubble we had built around ourselves,A bubble I was not keen on letting go off so soon.My head was a mess, strung between telling the truth and fumbling for lies,I had thought I was over this, relief had filled me when I found that he didn’t hear Ajax’s name fro Lisa's lips.I finish chewing and keep the smile on my face, deciding on the easy way out,‘He’s no one you should be bothered about', it was hard, dismissing my son as someone unimportant, yet it was easier than risking him taking Ajax away from me.I hoped it would be enough for him, my reassurance would be enough to quell questions he was suddenly keen on
Relief floods my insides and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in as the bell jangled, signifying their exit.‘I’ll be back in a minute', standing up, I head to the table they just left, clearing the pile of coloring books and crayons.Head chef had been so nice, allowing Ajax and Lisa in the restaurant for as long as they liked, but it won’t be fair to hog a table after they were gone, so I clear them up heading to the back room and placing them with Bella's things.I catch a glance of Cathy’s befuddled expression as I enter, knowing she would have pelted me with questions if she wasn’t attending to a customer.Stepping out, she’s done and I take a deep breath waiting for the maelstrom to begin.‘That’s Simon Valero right, theee Simon Valero', she draws closer to me and I stare, patiently nodding as she fires,‘Only son and child of Alicia Valero?, heir to SM group Simon Valero?’, her voice pitches with the last question and I finally use my words.‘Yeees', ‘To
‘You know you have to stop looking at the door whenever a customer walks in, you’re no longer a waitress', the sound of Bella's voice trickles to me, sounding at the back of my mind,Her statement was inconsequential in comparison with the drop of my heart to the pit of my stomach, the look of horror making a home on my face‘You're a…..’, she trails off as she follows my line of sight to the source of my predicament,‘Uh oh!’, she exclaims,Simon had walked in and was currently looking about the restaurant, a relaxed air about himI drop my head between my hands, hiding behind my hair, hoping he hadn’t seen me.‘That’s very fruitless, he has seen you already', I glance up again and my eyes meet eyes that lights up immediately they meet mine.‘What in the world is he doing here?’, I whisper yell, asking Bella and she shrugs,I quickly smoothen out my face, wipe horror off it as I face a smiling Simon sashaying towards me.My eyes turn towards the corner where Ajax and Lisa we