2

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Present

The traffic in the flat stretches of a particularly woody part of Tagaytay was worse than the last one at the Avenues. It was barely rush hour, and she'd arrived there at the city limits by 4 pm.

If anything, Lyari found the perfect opportunity to check her mobile phone while her car was in standby mode along with hundreds of other trucks and vehicles at the main road.

A quick scan on the status of the city on Google told her they were celebrating a festival on the next day, hence the traffic from the tourists coming from the Metro.

There were a bunch of messages from Sue telling her to call her whenever she was available. Right, she should know why that woman even bothered to message her.

A few rings later and Sue was on the other line.

"Where are you?"

"Take a guess, Sue. I was hoping they'd tell you where I would be going if I'm not at the office right now."

"Is it true, are you really in Tagaytay?"

"Indeed, I am."

"Y-you can't be serious!"

"Makati is not that far from here, why don't you take a bus and meet with me tonight," she suggested, all the while glancing at the rearview for the bumper.

"But, Mr Romero is going to be there... Lyari, what are you up to?"

"I'm just staking my claim on what's mine, I hope you don't mind, Sue." She mentally prepared herself for the strife.

"This is my project, Lyari, not yours. Vladimir promised the contract was going to be transferred to me by tomorrow."

"Yes, but it's not official and you haven't signed it yet, have you?"

"That is beside the point. You are not even supposed to be meeting with my client right now," Sue practically screamed.

"Do we really have to do this? Why are you not here if you're so keen on getting this project?"

"What? And whose fault is that? Mr Romero specifically said earlier he was going to be in Makati, you knew all along that he changed his mind and you didn't tell me."

Some part of her pitied the poor girl, as she was only playing a part in their boss' games. Vladimir was eccentric like that. He wouldn't just hand out clients without competition in his people.

"I didn't exactly lie to you, I think we might have had a misunderstanding with him."

"You think? You're about to get us into a big mess with this, do you know that?"

"Look, it's just either you or me now, Sue. And I'm sorry you didn't get the right information."

"Bullshit, Lyari. This is cheating; I'll make sure Vladimir hears about this."

She was quite confident her boss wouldn't sue her for her impulsiveness.

Mr Chaves' only concern is to not jeopardize this particular project, him informing her about the change of plans first was a hint of his trust in her.

"Okay fine, I'm on the road, bye..."

Well, the worse scenario was over.

The call was ended, and her eyes strayed involuntarily to the passenger seat, taking note of the scattered take out boxes from the last drive-thru. Distractedly, she got rid of them, except for the half-eaten buko she'd bought from a stop over.

Her destination was the Anya Resort Hotel, perpetually dubbed as one of those pretentious hotels at the heart of the city built for impractical rich people who could afford the price of a one night stay which was equivalent to the minimum wage of blue collars in the country. No surprise there, since Tagaytay was made for getaway resorts. The only reason she would dare spend the night there was because it was where the client requested they stay at.

"Room 201, ma'am?" A bellhop asked Lyari after she finished settling the bills with the woman at the counter.

"Yes, thank you," was her tentative answer as she handed her traveling bag to the young man wearing an ill fitting blue uniform on his small but wiry brown frame. He led the way to the elevators, onto the hallways and before long she was already at her assigned room depositing her stuff by the bed.

It was a single room, as she requested, and the windows had a magnificent view of the ocean in the distance.

Because the drive had been excruciatingly long, all she wanted was an equally long bath in the luxurious bathrooms to soothe the aches and stiffness on her muscles. A lifetime of being used to those threadbare accomodations she'd always preferred when at work made her look forward to taking advantage of the brief change of scenery as well as the improved air conditioning.

The temperature must have increased substantially, the humidity close to 80% and her clothes were already soaking.

Taking a bath was the first thing on her agenda, although she wouldn't take that long considering the meeting with Mr Romero was still scheduled two hours later.

A confirmation text was sent to her at around 8 pm, just after she got out of the shower. It said he would be waiting by the breakfast pavilion, complete with a full course at hand.

Whether it was a formal dinner or not, she had yet to find out.

It would still be best to be on the safe side so she'd opted to wear the most understated but professional clothes she brought with her, choosing to wear the cream colored silk sleeveless blouse over a black trouser and paired them with black heels to finish the look.

Downstairs, she was led to the hotel restaurant by the people working at the lobby, where she found him sitting alone by his table at the corner of the Pavilion near the shimmering pool area.

Mr Romero turned out to be quite a genial gentleman, although his appearance wasn't what she'd normally expect of a man of his caliber. He looked to be 30 in his age or thereabouts, and very immaculate in the gray pants and crisp white shirt he wore.

According to Mr Chaves, he did a bunch of businesses around Asia, meaning that he was quite successful.

"Miss Sage, is it?" He asked as he shook her hand in a firm grip. She couldn't help but notice the way his muscled and tanned brown arms complimented the rolled sleeves of his shirt.

"Yes, you can call me Lyari, since we're going to be working together," she answered, feigning her most professional smile.

"Alright," with a smile of his own, he gestured to the reserved table where he was just sitting at a while ago, "please, let's have a seat, Larry."

"Um, it's Lyari," she corrected him, getting ahead of herself.

He laughed good naturedly. "Sorry, my bad. That's quite a unique name you have there. You can call me Chase too, if you want."

The client was charming, she had to give him that. Girls must be falling all over this guy.

"Sure. I must say that I'm really honored that you chose our firm, Chase."

"Well, Vladimir has quite a reputation in the capital for his firm. But I'm sure you've already been briefed earlier about us and why we chose you."

"Yes, aside from the fact that Mr Chaves thinks very highly of you too."

Chase merely smirked at that, though the way his dark eyes gleamed with an amusement that was uncalled-for was a different matter. The man seemed to find her words funny.

"I also brought my papers if you'd like to take a look at it now. These are some mock-ups of what I do on renovations."

Chase obligingly took the folder she handed to him, however he didn't look through it like she expected him to and only laid it on the table beside his arm.

"We'll get on with that later, Lyari. We are here to have dinner first, and I'd like to know more about you and your experiences."

"Alright, what exactly do you want to know?"

"Well, an account of your recent achievements, if you may."

"I... my achievements?"

A waiter approached them, offering to fill their glasses with chilled champaign.

She's never had wine in months, her brief vacation in their Province didn't help with the fact that she was practically struggling to adjust.

"Oh, I'm guessing you're one of the top contenders out there, and you must have proved yourself quite well. May I ask what happened to the other female contractor? I didn't catch her name when I was talking with Vladimir."

Lyari didn't quite believe what she was hearing. Could he know...?

"Her name is Sue Ledesma, she wanted to replace me in this project," she replied with a tight smile, deciding it was better to come clean "there was some minor misunderstanding in our firm, but we've come to a compromise about it earlier and now I'm here as originally planned."

"I see then, so there would be no change of plans or anything anytime soon ?"

She shrugged. "I hope so, considering there is none at the moment."

Chase nodded thought fully. "I respect that you must have had your own reasons, and I can just imagine how tight the competition is in your group. It must be tough."

"It certainly is," she agreed noncommittally "but we're friends actually, both just doing our own jobs."

She didn't have to add that money was also the main reason she was here.

"Well, I'd say cheers to that, Lyari."

The food they ordered later on arrived and they proceeded on with dinner.

Eventually after two hours, they parted with the restaurant and were soon off to the small but classy business gallery of the hotel where Lyari did her brief presentation about renovations.

Chase seemed impressed and barely made any comments as he listened, which Lyari took as a good and bad sign. Good, since he approves of her work in the first place. But bad because he wasn't telling her any additional details she should know about the property she was going to work on.

They moved on to the entire project matter where they negotiated about how long the design process takes in every aspect and nothing else; the budget wasn't a problem in the least, the specified time for the construction of the renovations to begin a few months later and a lot more.

They exchanged copies of the mutual preliminary contract.

Chase read through the crisp pages thoroughly then signed. Quick, clean and easy. And they were done with the first part of the agreement.

"So, what do I need to know about the property firsthand?" she asked him.

"We shall see, Lyari. I must have to consult with some friends before I start making suggestions, you know," he said, raising his wide shoulders in a shrug.

Though confused, Lyari forced a smile. "Okay..."

"That should be it for tonight, tomorrow we'll discuss some more about the next agenda. And don't forget to prepare your things for the ride back to the Villa, we should be out of here by 8 am in the morning."

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