7 Trip down memory lane

While shooting me a stern look, his mouth parts to ask me another question. "Hey… Do you still remember the 'Omurice Mama' that was close to your parents' house? You know, the time when we dated back in the day. Just before you had to move to Laratié? Do you recall when we..."

... Oh.

My mind comes to a sudden halt.

I'm not liking where this is going.

Unfortunately for him, this kind of trip down memory lane does not 'stir' the memories in my head in the right way. Not because we had a destructive OR toxic relationship. It was... well, it was great.

Still, while it didn't last long, it was still real. We were extremely sincere with each other.

We did our best and worked with each other through our relationship's ups and downs.

We DID fit, almost like two peas in a pod.

We HAD excellent compatibility. We could have done almost anything together, and we always found ways to make our dynamic work.

We WERE both fortunate if that wasn't obvious enough.

I'd be damned if no noticed all the past tenses I've been throwing out yet so far?

That's right. It was ALL in the past.

We were kids who did not discover a lot about ourselves yet. Never mind the world and how other people are like, even how they interact!

I do believe everyone has a 'core' self that changes with their environment and molds into how we react and deal with specific situations.

So the fact that some people say 'People change' is both correct AND incorrect to me - if that makes any sense whatsoever.

There's a reason why my marriage broke down, and I'm just not confident about what he'll think of me now.

There are many things at work when it comes to relationships.

People seem to underestimate how complex they are, not only to maintain but to have an excellent symbiotic system happening between two, might I add, VERY different individuals.

We haven't even tried working together yet!

What is he thinking? What is he expecting from me, exactly? It's not like he believes that I came back for him or whatever, right?

There WAS a time... a LONG time ago when I did consider uprooting my life over there to come back to Uiso. But that stopped though when I got doused with a cold bucket of reality.

I came to accept it was just the natural order of things, so I went with the flow and did my best with what life has handed to me.

I'm not saying I changed THAT much.

HOWEVER, to him, who has nothing BUT my past self to go on. The change most likely is going to be too much to take.

All I can do in response is to give him a marvelously unreadable stare. The longer my stare goes on; the more uncomfortable Jett seems to be.

It's a stare that sneakily looks empty on the outside, but within the inner workings of my brain, only one thing rules it: Fear.

It's impossible for him to read because there is absolutely NO logical reason why I would ever feel that way towards him.

*****

After letting my mind run wild for a little while, I start to feel tired, and my brain reluctantly comes to a bit of a standstill.

...

...

No.

Wait.

Why was I freaking out so much for? What am I so afraid of?

We don't have anything between us right now, nor do I intend to start a serious relationship with him or WHOEVER right now.

This is purely business!

He's my mentee!

He needs me to train him to become an outstanding celebrity manager! We're going to be SO busy with just that already.

If that wasn't enough, I have my shit to handle too. While I'm still in the same company, this is NOT the same branch I was working at. Every single location has its own set of rules and working environments as well. Besides, I'll be managing different celebrities. Including them, we all need to adjust to each other too.

Now, all I have to do now is to focus on ALL that. Then I'll be one busy mofo. Too busy to care for anything else, hehe!

After that long war that waged inside my head, I turn my head towards Jett, who is looking quite puzzled now.

"Ready to listen to me now? I wasn't sure about how long that was going to go on for. I was starting to wonder if you still remembered I was here." He teases.

"What are you saying? Well, we do have a lot to do still. I was doing lots of planning and was going over a lot, and do I mean a LOT of things. Do you know who you'll be managing?"

Jett looks a little miffed. He glances at my hand that's currently on the table. He then moves to drape his fingers on top of mine. "Did you even hear what I said, Rysia? I kind of w---"

I let out a chuckle. "What are you doing, Jett?"

"Yes, I heard what you said."

"Sorry, but there's too much to do. I also have something on tomorrow night, so I would like to get a lot of things out of the way as soon as possible."

"But... maybe you got other things to do since Honey never said that today's officially the first workday."

Without giving him a chance to talk at all, I keep going. "I'll let you go then."

"I'm pretty tired actually, having just arrived, well, moved across countries and all."

"I might as well just go to sleep soon and have an early start tomorrow."

"When you can, though, please let me know the names of who you're going to be managing."

"You can e-mail me their contact details, attach their profile data, and all that. Just phone me if there's anything work-related that you need, alright?"

Taking a hint, he stops his attempts to talk about the past. "Well... I'll be managing one guy to start with... I'll give you all his details when I get on my computer tonight. Let's just finish dinner then." Jett says weakly.

"Perfect."