CHAPTER 10

*GISELLE*

"Guess whose back, bitches!" I squealed when I saw my friends on our favorite bar for the first time after a month.

"Wow! You're looking fresh, Gis!" Moira gushed. "I like your tan!"

"I know, right?" I did a twirl before sitting down next to Kamea. "I missed you girls!"

"You should be," Kamea elbowed her, "You just dropped out off the face of the earth without even telling us where you went except to say that you're safe. What did you do? Did you decide to be a nun and hide in a nunnery in the middle of nowhere?" she added with a little smirk.

"It did cross my thoughts, but then I also thought, I'm too beautiful to be trapped in that life, plus my genes are too good not to be propagated," I snickered.

"Yeah? Keep telling yourself that," Kamea responded sarcastically.

She just tittered as an answer. She tried to enjoy the time she and with her friends again. She of course was just faking all the laughs and smile to somehow forget the pain of losing Gian. Looking back, if she wasn't so blinded by her love for him, she should have seen all the red flags. But then again, she saw some signs, but she chose to ignore it. So now she just has to live with the embarrassment and pain of Gian's rejection.

"I like the music, let's dance," she pulled her friends in the middle of the dance floor and lost herself in the rhythm of the music.

We were just about to sit down when a group of men came to our table. I didn't have any plans of entertaining them as I just came from a terrible heartbreak, but then I saw a familiar person among them, Gian's assistant, Kirk.

"Kirk! How have you been?" I elbowed him a little.

Even if his boss was an asshole, Kirk is a good guy. And his become somewhat of a friend to me.

He smiled at me before answering," I was supposed to ask you that. You were gone for a while, I haven't seen you visiting my boss for a while. Where did you go?"

"Just here and there," I answered nonchalantly, "Oh by the way, these are my friends, Moira, Izabella and Kamea." I introduced my friends.

"Nice to meet you girls! These are also my friends, Heinrich and Michael."

Both of us looked at Kamea in concern when she started choking on her drink. The woman in question recovered, and she looked at the muscled and tattooed guy Kirk called Michael.

"What are you doing here? Does my brother know that you're here?"

"I should ask you the same thing. Dopes your brother know that you're here getting hammered?"

"You guys know each other?" both Kirk and I asked them at the same time.

Her friend just sullenly nodded. Apparently tattooed guy is her brother's right-hand man, and her childhood friend. I didn't expect to genuinely enjoy the night now that these guys joined them. I was also looking at both Kamea and Michael, interestingly I could see some tension there. Kamea caught her eye and she grinned at her friend slyly. She just rolled her eye at me.

"Hmm…interesting,"

By Monday, she was already back in the office. In all honesty, I was energized from my vacation. I happily greeted the other employees that I saw loitering around the lobby of the building.

"You're back!" Nellie exclaimed when she saw me walking towards Mr. Tobisa's office.

"Of course! I'm back and ready to face the world again, Nellie!" she did a little twirl, "Did you miss me? Or were you secretly wishing that I just quit this job, so you could take my place?" I teased the frazzled secretary.

"No, of course not!" she vehemently denied, "I was actually missing you so much, Miss."

I couldn't help but chuckle at her answer, "It feels like you're actually confessing your hidden feelings for me." I laughed when the other woman blushed furiously. "I'm just kidding, here's something for you for keeping the office together while I'm gone." I gave her the paper bag I was holding.

"Thank you, miss," she placed the paper bag on her table, "Oh yeah, miss, I think you have a new admirer, there's a basket of flowers waiting for you on your table."

"Oh! Interesting! Whoever could that be?" I laughingly asked her in which she just responded with a small shrug.

I went to my table and true enough there was a lovely basket of yellow roses on my table. I smiled when I saw the card attached to it. It was from Heinrich. I was holding a piece of rose when the door to my boss' office opened and out came the person she doesn't really want to see and her boss.

"Good to see you back, Tagg? How's your vacation?" my boss asked.

"It was actually great, sir. I had a lot of time to think about my priorities clearly," she answered without looking Gian's way.

My boss raised his eyebrows but shook his head anyway, "I'm going out for a bit, take charge for a while."

"Got it, Mr. Tobisa!" I replied before taking a seat.

When the two went out, Nellie came up to her. "Did you and Mr. Gian had a lover's spat? You didn't even acknowledge him, and he looked as if he's waiting for you to greet him as well,"

"Nellie, only lovers have spats or quarrels, we're not lovers, so we don't have any spats to patch." she answered impassively and faced the tasks that she have on her table.

*GIAN*

I saw her first before she even saw me. She was gone for a whole month and I didn't even realize how much I missed her presence in my life. And then I noticed her holding a stalk of flower as well as a basket full of flowers on her table. I couldn't explain what I felt seeing that little smile on her lips caused by just a bunch of flowers.

"Good to see you back, Tagg? How's your vacation?" Rozen addressed her.

That's when she saw us. She smiled at her boss before answering.

"It was actually great, sir. I had a lot of time to think about my priorities clearly,"

She didn't even acknowledge me when I was just standing next to her boss. I willed her to look my way, but she didn't so much as give me a glance. After Rozen gave a few instructions to her, we went out of his office.

"You and Giselle fight?" he asked casually.

"Why would we fight?" I answered almost unconcerned although deep inside I was deeply affected by her dispassionate reaction to seeing me.

He shrugged, "the fact that she wasn't jumping into your arms. Or that she didn't even acknowledge you standing next to me." he replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I didn't answer him and just walked out of the elevator as soon as it opened.