CHAPTER 29

Lydia put a drink on my glass while talking to Carol about something. I immediately took the glass after she filled it in half with liquor and drank it. This is my second glass. I listened to what they were talking about while I slowly drink the liquor in the glass.

Everything is loud but I didn't mind. This room was huge. There's a space for karaoke where there is a huge TV and speakers in front and sectional sofas in front of it. At the back of those sofas, you can sit on another set of sofas meant for people who were there to talk and not be part of the karaoke. That was where we were sitting. There are also stairs for the second floor and to think that this was a 'room' but it has multiple floors was amazing. We weren't cramping inside despite renting a single room.

The others were singing and since I have no plan of joining them, I kept myself away to avoid being pursued to sing. Carol, Lydia, and one of our workmates are sitting on the sofas with me. We were drinking hard liquor even though we had all just got to the bar.

Personally, I want to leave. I don't have anyone to talk to because they were all busy talking about something that I don't relate to. So I decided to change seats and go upstairs to see what Terrence was put to but when I walked past the door, I noticed someone familiar in the corner of my eye and when I looked back, I was sure it was the same person.

I paused and was stiffened by the sudden meeting because she seemed like she noticed me too. the glass window within the door was huge enough for us to notice each other. My eyes widened and so as hers.

"Oh my God," I whispered. I didn't know what to do because I haven't seen her in a long time and I still haven't talked to her ever since. The last time was I think, my parents' funeral. She covered her mouth with her hands and if she didn't move her hand to give me a 'come here' gesture, I would be standing there for a very long time because I didn't know what to do.

Even the steps out were shaky because I don't know what to expect with this sudden meeting. "Oh my God," she said. I didn't expect her to hug me right away "I missed you," She said in between our hugs.

"How have you been?" I asked her while hugging her tightly. I missed her too. I have been thinking about reuniting with her this past week but I never got the chance.

"Why didn't you message me at all?!" she asked. pretending to be sulking.

"Shut up, you also didn't," I said and hugged her again. Nobody asked why we stopped messaging each other because we both didn't want to mention that issue between me and her brother.

"What are you doing here? Where have you been this past few weeks?" she asked me and separated our hug.

"I was away for a couple of years, I came back only 2 weeks ago because I got a job,"

"A job? What is it?"

"I am working at GP Team--" I stopped myself but it was too late. I had already told her where I work. I looked at her reaction but thankfully, she didn't seem to know that GP Team is in his brother's building.

"You really got a job? Oh my God, I am just here living, unemployed," she said and laughed at herself.

"I got it a week ago,"

"What are you doing here?" she asked me and tried to peek inside the room we rented in with my coworkers.

"I was with my workmates, " I said. I wonder if it's okay to let her in. But I am afraid that someone might know her as the building owner's sister. I cannot let her in.

"AIRA!" Suddenly, A man called her from another room. The man came out dressed in a black shirt under a leather jacket and faded jeans. He looked at Aira and looked at me wondering who I was.

"This is my best friend, We got reunited tonight," she introduced me and gave me a quick hug. "Her name is Xhyrah,"

From the looks of it, I think I already knew who he was. "Is he your boyfriend?" I whispered to her and she just winked at me. It made my mouth go round. "Since when?" I asked.

"Secret," she said and kissed my cheek. "I gotta go, you have to call me tomorrow," she said. She ran towards the guy who immediately welcomed her into her arms and I was left there unable to speak. Aira is dating someone?

I stopped thinking when I suddenly heard the door behind me open. "Xhyrah?" and someone called my name. It was Lydia who was looking for me. "What are you doing there?" she asked.

"Nothing, I just met someone," I said and went back in.

The night was long but I managed to get home on my feet at 1 am. The next day was hell because I hung over but I managed to call Aira and he told me about his boyfriend.

His boyfriend is 3 years older than her. She said they met in the same bar and they were there last night for their 4th monthly anniversary.

She told me how much he loved the person named Alias. She was talking dreamily and it was the very first time that I had heard him talk like that. In those years that we were together, I never thought Aira could be in love like this.

She has been out playing in bars and toying with boys and I never expected her to tell me that she can see the guy in her future.

I felt a little disappointed because I was left out. I only managed to know the news 4 months after they were together. I wasn't there when they were still flirting with each other and it feels awful that sometimes, I cannot relate to the things she'd say about him because I don't know him.

But luckily, Aira is a person who knows how to get the conversation going and the call took 2 hours for her to introduce her amazing boyfriend to me. She talked about special memories and stuff.

Throughout the conversation, she never mentioned her brother knowing that he was a sensitive topic. And with that, she ended the call and I proceeded to paint the whole day.

I had to finish a painting last night so I didn't get any sleep. I was a little late to work and I got afraid that I might run into Zach at the entrance so I chose to walk around and enter from the parking lot.

And that was the biggest mistake that I made in my entire life.

I walked around and walked into the parking lot while holding my head because it was throbbing since I woke up. I wanted to enter the building by the entrance from the parking lot and ride the elevator to the 12th floor from there.

But the moment I looked up to open the glass door, I noticed someone behind my back. My eyes widened and looked back only to see Zach standing next to me. My mouth goes round and I immediately pushed the door open with my hands trembling but I couldn't seem to open it. I tried again but it was so hard and I couldn't open it.

I was stiffened when I smelled his cologne. He leaned closer to me to open the door. I smelled his familiar scent and it made me stiff. I felt like I couldn't move for a second. I cannot even look at him.

I immediately walked in when I managed to pull myself together again. I walked as fast as I could toward the elevator and realized that there was only one elevator to get to the top.

Fvck.

I stepped sideways to get myself to the corner as he get into the elevator with me. My breathing was ruptured. I have never been this nervous around him before. I pressed 12th and the top floor so he won't need to lean on me again because I was standing in front of the buttons.

"So you're back," he said. I gulped. I wasn't expecting him to speak.

So this is why I never saw him at the entrance or anywhere on the first floor because he gets in through this door in the parking lot. Of course, he owns a car and I should've expected to see him here. If he owns a car and put it in the parking lot, if I expected him to enter from the entrance, he would have to walk around the building. Of course, he'd use this small entrance in the parking lot.

I was so stupid and I cannot explain how angry I am to myself right now. "Y-yeah," I answered.

This is the longest time I have ever been in an elevator all my life.

"Since when?" he asked again. I can see him looking at me while his head is tilted from the walls in front of me. His face reflects through the metallic structure of the elevator door.

"A few weeks ago," When I answered, I saw him look away. he was standing a few steps back. I can see what he was doing on my back.

After a moment of silence and thankfully, we reached the 12th floor and the elevator beeped. I walked as fast as I could away from him so I could disappear from his sight and so his presence disappear from my senses.

I sighed heavily and since I came from another elevator, I get to walk past a comfort room and I went in to lock myself inside a cubicle. "Fvck," I cursed and closed my eyes while I lean on the wall.

I stayed there until I was satisfied. I cursed him inside the elevator multiple times. I don't even know why I was so mad at him when it was me who let this happen. I went out of the cubicle and washed my hands for a moment and went inside the office only to find out that Leslie was in a bad mood.

"What happened?" I asked Lydia when I came into the office and saw Leslie marching from the balcony towards her office.

"Who knows?" Lydia said and looked back to Leslie's office door.

I wonder what that was but it went out of my mind right away. Meeting Zach after a very long time was nerve-wracking. I didn't expect it to be as heavy as that. I wished I should've been more calm earlier. I should've pushed the door harder os shouldn't have gone to the parking lot entrance in the first place.

"Fvcking dumb,' I whispered cursing myself.

"Did you just curse?" Carola asked as if it was the most amazing thing she had ever heard.

"She did what?" Lydia moved her chair backward to look at both me and Carol.

"Xhyrah just cursed," she told Lydia.

"Are you in a bad mood too?" she asked and chuckled. I shook my head immediately.

"I just remembered myself doing something dumb," I said pertaining to what just happened today.

I continued doing my work and even felt very scared to eat in the cafeteria. I asked Carol to buy me something because I didn't want to go out and I used my pending tasks as an excuse though I could just finish them later. Carol bought me lunch and I was very thankful because I didn't get to go out of the office for lunch. At least not today,

Zach must be wondering why I was in his building but he didn't ask. I am afraid that he might find me in his building but that is if he was still interested in me. But I hope he doesn't.

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3rd POV

Zach sat on his swivel chair right after arriving on the top floor which was his office. He dialed someone's number on the phone and waited for it to ring and for the person to answer. He just met his ex-wife after 2 years a while ago.

He didn't expect her to be in his building and nobody told him that she was back. She just called the perfect person to ask about it.

"What?" Aira answered the phone angrily.

"You didn't tell me she was back," he went to the point immediately. Aira paused on the other side for a few seconds before answering.

"Ah, yeah. I met her a few days ago," she answered.

"Did you know she comes to my building?" he asked her if she knew something about why she was in his building earlier wearing corporate attire and a green ID. She must've been working in his building.

"She said she's on the GP team,"

"I see," he said and hung up the call to call his secretary after coming up with another project in a split second.