Chapter four

Drego

"I'm quitting." Nichole said again, handing me her resignation letter.

Aside from the fact that she'd sprung this on me and made no indications before now that she would do this therefore surprising me, I couldn't make myself stretch my hands and accept the piece of paper that would ensure she no longer had to be in my company.

Nichole dropped the piece of paper on my desk.

I watched her expression for a clue as to why she was doing this, but ended up derailing. As always, Nichole was looking impeccable in her plain red top tucked into a knee length black skirt with a slit running from the side up to the middle of her thighs. I couldn't help but notice her curves were extremely pronounced today.

Unlike other days, Nichole was wearing a shouty red lipstick and it accentuated her lips… too perfectly. I could have sworn that the last thing I wanted to notice was her lips, but I found myself wondering how far I wanted to go with my thoughts.

Four months ago, she didn't look this good. Her dress sense has always been on point, but Nichole wasn't this… curvy. She'd added weight, and it looked damn sexy on her.

"Thank you for everything." She said when I continued to stay mute.

"Why are you quitting?" I cleared my throat, regaining some—If I had any left—of my dignity.

"I got a job somewhere else. A better offer."

She was lying. If there was one thing about Nichole that I knew in the three years she'd worked here, it was that she had loyalty. Unadulterated loyalty.

I'd seen it…

"Who poached you?"

She hesitated for a while, then answered. "Cartier. They've been having problems with customer care as you must have heard, and they think I'm the best man for the job. Especially since i improved your services to over eighty percent success rate in three years."

I nodded. Nichole was indeed competent.

"I'll double whatever they're offering to pay you. No. I'll triple it."

She blinked. She had obviously not expected my reaction.

Nichole was good at what she did and losing her would be a big loss for me. But more than that, I didn't like the impromptu decision to leave so suddenly. It didn't sit well with me for some reason. She was one of the few employees I trusted. So I needed her to stay. For the sake of the company.

"So, what do you say? Will you stay?"

"Mr. Ricardo, I really don't think it's a good idea."

"Why? Did someone in the office offend you? Did a customer say something you didn't like?"

Even though it was very unlikely that these petty reasons were her reason for quitting, I asked anyway. Nichole stayed quiet for a while. Like she was contemplating her next choice of words.

"If there is a problem, you can tell me, Nichole." I said to urge her.

"Really? Can I really tell you?" Her demeanor had changed. There was ambiguity in her tone and Nichole has never been the type to mince words. Or at least that's what I thought.

Though I wasn't very sure what was happening at the moment, I gave her the go ahead to speak her mind. If there was a problem, then I would make sure to fix it.

"It's you. The problem is you."

I was caught off guard. "What do you mean?"

"I think I'm in love with you." She chuckled grimly, closing her eyes tightly. She opened them almost immediately. "At first I thought it was just a silly school girl crush, you know, like in those novels Christine loves to read and shove in my face, the ones where you can't get your boss out of your mind because he's so gorgeous you could die? But I've had this crush for three fucking years and it's doing stupid crazy things to my mental health. I wanna leave before it gets worse. I can't stay here if I want what's best for me."

I was too stunned to speak. Was this a joke? Was this her way of forcing me to let her go?

"Is this a joke?"

A small sad smile broke on her face. The light in her eyes still twinkled, but they were getting dimmer as she spoke. "I used to think the same thing. I used to wish it was. How can I like a man who clearly told me he'd given up on love? Three fucking years of wanting the same person. It has to be a joke right, cause how else would it make sense?" She said hysterically.

The more Nichole spoke the more confused I was. What did she mean? Nichole and I have never had a conversation that wasn't about work. Nine times out of ten, our conversation was strictly professional. We'd never even joked about love. In fact, we never got near that border.

"I'm confused, Nichole. What are you saying?"

"It's frustrating right? To not understand. That's what I've been feeling for three years. Utter confusion. I kept asking myself, what is wrong with him? Why doesn't he remem—you know what, never mind."

"Wait… explain yourself. Are you doing all this, saying all of this just so I'll accept your resignation letter? Is this what this is?"

Nichole sighed. She stared at me for a while, different emotions adorning her small facial features. This was the first time in all the three years she'd worked here that I actually saw her.

"I'm quitting. And you can't make me stay. Goodbye Drego."

Just like the way she walked into my office, she walked out.

***

Reid handed me a bottle of beer, his own bottle almost empty.

"What's that look? We're finally gathered together after a long time and you seem out of it." Reid tapped my shoulders. "Does this have anything to do with work? You know the rules man."

"Nichole quit." I said, taking a sip of my beer.

We sat down on our table, Cesar and Tammy looking immersed in whatever they were talking about.

I felt I was doing a great wrong by bringing up work here.

The guys and I, we haven't sat like this in almost six months. This gathering was what we did to stay in touch. Ever since our high school days, we'd promised to remain best friends no matter what. At first it wasn't easy. Taking over our family businesses and doing different things had caused us to drift apart, but after we understood the rhythm of the business world, we found our way back to each other.

Our gathering had only one rule. Never talk about work. And here I was, unable to think about anything else except the incident from this afternoon.

"Nichole quit? I find that hard to believe. What did you do?"

I eyed Reid. He smiled when he saw my face.

"C'mon man. It's just a question. It doesn't mean I think you did anything to her."

"That's one stupid question. What could I possibly do to her?" I frowned at him.

"I don't know. Maybe a long list of what bosses do to their employees would give me a head start in the guessing game." He said sarcastically. "I already told you my statement does not imply that you did something to make her quit. I asked because Nichole would never quit."

"Well, she did. And she said the strangest things too."

"Like what? Like she was in love with you?"

I stared at Reid.

"Don't look at me like that. Only you wouldn't know that Nichole had a crush on you."

"You knew? Why didn't you tell me then? What kind of a friend are you?"

"Cesar, Tammy, remember Nichole?"

Cesar was the first to raise his head up, "Nichole? You mean the hot one that works in customer care?"

"Yeah, we remember Nichole." Tammy said. "Unfortunately, she only has eyes for this loser." He added.

"You guys knew?"

"Told you." Reid said, a decent 'I won' smirk on his face.