CHAPTER NINE | ANGRY BIRD
Six years ago.
Cake, check. Balloons, check. Gifts, check.
Sierra ensures she has everything needed to surprise her boyfriend, Eric. Today is her long-time boyfriend's birthday, so Sierra thought of surprising him. Eric loves surprises, especially the ones she pulled off. She is an expert in these things, so everyone who knows her knows what she does.
And before Sierra could forget, she prepared another thing that Eric would love.
Basque Burnt Cheesecake!
In addition to the cake she was carrying, she was the only one to eat. Eric prefers cheesecake that she made herself. Sierra was even more excited. That's why she opened Eric's apartment and entered there. She didn't say she was coming because Sierra wanted to surprise Eric.
When Sierra entered the apartment, she was exposed to the scattered clothes on the floor. Eric worked three jobs a day, and understandably, his house was a bit messy. They rarely see each other because she does something when he is not busy. Sierra understands everything because the whole family depends on her boyfriend. She had loaned him several times to avoid getting into even more enormous debt.
Sierra is your girlfriend who will give everything to the person she loves.
Sierra put down the bags and picked up the clothes scattered on the floor. She just put it on the couch and then picked up the gift she was carrying again.
Sierra went straight to his room and shouted, "Surprise -" she stopped and stared at the two people who had just finished having sex. The woman next to Eric immediately covered up, but it was too late because she had already recognized her.
"Sierra, let me exp-"
"Save it, Eric. I saw enough, and you don't need to explain it. I'm not blind. I can see that you skewered our best friend." She threw the cake she was holding, and they couldn't avoid it. She was about to throw away the cheesecake, but she remembered the effort in making it. "We're done."
Sierra was almost gasping for breath when she woke up in the middle of the night. She quickly got up and immediately noticed that she's covered herself with sweat. The betrayal haunts her again after she crosses paths with Eric in the office. She couldn't stop crying when she remembered the bitterness that bubbled out of her chest. That's why she got hitched to her boss six years ago.
"Mommy?" Sierra looked at the small voice that woke her up. She turned to the source of the question and immediately hugged it. "Why are you crying? Bad dreams?"
She nodded. "Yes, baby, I have bad dreams." She slowly lay down again with his son. Zeke put his two hands on her cheeks. "Go back to sleep, baby. Mommy has to get ready in a while."
"I'll take away the bad dreams first. Close your eyes, mommy, please?" She followed her son and closed her eyes. She smiled when she felt him kiss her forehead. "It's gone now, Mommy,"
"Thank you, my love."
Zeke closed his eyes after she also kissed him on the forehead. Her son serves as her stress reliever, and now she is still haunted by bad dreams. She hugged Zeke tighter until Sierra fell asleep again.
***
The following day, Sierra carefully waited outside her house for her boss's car. She also arranged for his shortlist to be displayed only with the iPad. Aside from the company mobile phone, Sierra also possessed an iPad so she could carefully plan Mr. Fritzgibbons' schedule. It's good that Dahlia took Zeke early so he and his boss could avoid a sudden meeting. Sierra was not yet ready to introduce Zeke to his Dad.
Then maybe when he's older and understands better.
She looked at the car that honked at her and quickly climbed into the back seat when it stopped.
"Good morning, sir! Here is your coffee and your sudoku." She greeted her boss kindly and handed over the coffee and a math game he was playing.
"Where did you get this coffee?" he immediately asked her.
"I made it." Sierra noticed that Mr. Fritzgibbons and Dickie had eye contact through the rearview mirror, and she got it. "It has no poison, and I didn't spit on it," she assured the guy. His boss drank from the paper cup after confirming it was indeed poison-free. "I also made one for you, Dickie."
"Thank you, Sierra."
"Welcome!" She was about to go back to organizing the shortlist but was stopped again when her boss spoke.
"Bernadette said you have a son," she immediately looked at her boss. "How come I didn't see him whenever we're fetching you, Ms. Jimenez?"
I thought it was something I could worry off all day, what the hell... but I got a little nervous there, she said in his mind.
"My friends are fetching him early for daycare. It's a preparatory class for a six-year-old kid." She continued what she was doing, and when she finished, she handed it to her boss. "I'll set up the conference room when we arrive. The Malaysian investors want to meet concerning the hotel franchising project you proposed before I came in."
"Great. I've been waiting for their feedback for almost a month now."
"Well, they did give us feedback with a meeting, sir." Silence enveloped them both again. In her few days of working under Mr. Fritzgibbons, she can say that today is his best mood. "Can I ask a question, sir?"
"Fire away as long as it's about my personal life,"
"Why did you ask about my son? That's more unlike you, sir."
"What's more like me, then?"
Will she tell her boss what's on her mind? But she remembered the character from the game Zeke was playing earlier. "You're like an angry bird. The red one with thick eyebrows."
Sierra heard a chuckle in front of them. It came from Dickie, but she just ignored the driver. She then turned again to Mr. Fritzgibbons, and his forehead was already frowning, so she was silent until they reached the company.
Mr. Fritzgibbons went down first, and he and Dickie followed. Sierra is puzzled by her boss's behavior. One minute he's friendly, then the rest is touch-me-not again.
"Great coffee, Sierra, and the red angry bird that got me," Dickie said,
Sierra doesn't know if she will be happy too or if she needs to pray the Our Father for a peaceful end to this day. She still wants to go home alive for her son.
Lord, help me!
***
Sierra was on all her feet the whole day. She felt that his body was about to be separated into two. She attended every meeting her boss had all day with one hour break, but she was still not far from him. She almost didn't realize it was time to go home due to her head workload. She didn't send Dickie because she was about to go to the grocery store to buy her mother's milk and Zeke's other stuff.
It would be embarrassing for Sierra to use her boss's car as a personal errand vehicle. They will see each other tomorrow, so it's okay for her not to go home with them. She's a little afraid that she might even dream about it, which would be even scarier.
It didn't go well since she said her boss looked like the red Angry Bird in the game. Sierra feels like her boss is tripping her again.
That one is too crooked, she said in his mind.
"Sierra!" A female voice called her name and immediately hugged her tight. She was not instantly getting used to unknown people hugging her all of a sudden and did not know how to get the woman away from her. When the woman loosened her embrace and went up, she only then recognized her.
It was Mildred, her best friend. Or should she say, ex-best friend?
That best friend that Eric caught her flirting with six years ago. What does she do outside the Fritzgibbons Corporation?
Would be...
"I'm here for Eric. We'll pick him up," she gestured to her still-small belly. She was hinting that she's pregnant now and her ex-boyfriend is the father.
"O-okay. I'll go first," she said.
"Are you still mad at me? Can we forget the past and start over again? I'm planning to meet you with Dahlia and Kirsten, but I saw today. I think my baby and I were lucky today."
Well, I'm not, she wanted to say but couldn't do it.
How could she talk to her like nothing had happened to them?
Six years ago, Sierra was devastated, unable to move and take care of herself because of the misery she'd experienced. Ultimately, she did everything to forget; that non-crying show also made her happy. Does she know how many pints of ice cream she had consumed before? They know nothing because they are both selfish. They chose to break a perfect heart and threw everything away.
"Look, Mildred, I am happy to see you happy, but I don't think I could forget that even if six years have passed. You betrayed me and made me a fool when I asked how Eric was while you two were on an out-of-town trip. I didn't know that what you were working on at that time was him. You made me both look stupid and a loser back then. So, tell me now, how will I go to forget that, huh? Tell me, Mildred! Tell me!"
"Stay away from her, Sierra!" A baritone voice shouted and suddenly pulled her hand away from Mildred. That forceful pull made her lose her balance, and she stumbled onto the concrete floor. "Are you nuts? She's pregnant, Sierra!"
Six years ago, a scene like this happened. When she caught them in bed, Eric protected Mildred from the cake Sierra threw at them. Now he pushed her, thinking that she was hurting her old friend. Sierra couldn't help but ask in her mind, why is she always the one in the wrong?
Why is it always like this? Why?