CHAPTER 30

That night after seeing Zach, I had a very hard time sleeping because I was busy thinking about that encounter.

I closed my eyes and tried hard to sleep but everything I see is his reflection on the elevator walls this morning. I don't like that he still has this effect on me because I was the one who initiated for us to separate. I was the one who lied and I shouldn't be the one taking too long to move on from him.

I thought this was the best for us but it wasn't for me and I wonder if it was the same with him too.

I got really mad with myself that I let him have this effect on me. I feel really mad at myself for letting us come across each other. I cannot explain how much I regret going around the building and entering through the parking lot and letting myself see him again.

I haven't been like this for a while. I only had flashbacks before but the thing right now is more than what I have been seeing before. It's like the first time that I've seen him. I remember myself being like this the moment he talked to me and I feel like an idiot.

I can't. I can't regret my decisions. I've done it already. These aren't consequences of my wrong decisions. These are just because I haven't seen him in a long time.

The next day, I entered through the main entrance because I thought he'd enter through the parking lot but he didn't. I saw him walking through the entrance too. I looked back at him and caught him looking at me. I tried so hard not to show everyone that I was surprised to see him so I walked as fast as I could and entered the elevator.

Did he just coincidentally enter the main entrance for a change or is there something else to it?

I tried not to assume anything and continued working while trying to keep him away from my mind because I am starting to think about quitting my job because of him and I shouldn't. I shouldn't adjust my plan just because I might get more interactions with him in this building.

"So, I found out why she was angry the last time," I heard Carol say without minding who would be able to hear because what she's about to say is meant for everyone to hear. I already knew it was about Leslie the other day. "She got a huge offer,"

"Then? What about it?" I asked her. I don't understand why she was angry about a huge offer.

"And she didn't like it but it was huge but she didn't like it,"

I sometimes find the way Carol speaks weird but this still makes sense. She ended it like that and left me wondering what is the reason why for a few minutes and went back to doing my work on my computer. An update about my desk, I put a lot of stickers on the divider to make it look like mine. I put photographs of my favorite painting on the divider too for design. I brought a cactus at work to put on my desk along with a cute bubble lamp for decoration. I still have a lot to put but I find it presentable right now and it looks just to my taste.

At lunch, I didn't come out of the office and asked Carol to bring me food for lunch from the cafeteria.

I wanted to stay inside the office longer but they didn't let me. Leslie, due to her stress, treated everybody's coffee and I was called to be the one to buy the coffee. Lydia offered me help but I know she was busy making it to the deadline tonight so I told her that I can handle it myself. There are 13 of us and the coffees are put in a box and there will be 4 coffees in a box so I'd get to bring three boxes and an extra cup.

I wonder how I'd manage to bring it all upstairs. But I might need to find it out myself.

I bought 13 cups of iced coffee from the cafe on the frits floor. "Can you bring them all by yourself?" the cashier asked me when she found out that I came alone.

"Y-yeah, I guess," I said and tried carrying 2 boxes in my left hand and another box and the other cup in the right but it just won't work. I sighed and tried to figure it all by myself when suddenly, a girl in black and white corporate attire approached me.

"U-uh, I can help you with that," she offered. I stared at her face for a little longer because I find her familiar but I couldn't remember when and where I saw her before.

"T-thank you," I thanked her and let her carry the other box. She was holding a cup of coffee in her right hand and she carried the box using her left hand. She brought coffee from the cafe too.

I opened the door to our office and let her in. She looked around and adjusted her glasses. "Here, please," I said and put the coffee on a table and she did the same. She seems very shy. She doesn't even look at my face.

I walked her towards the elevator to give her proper gratitude. "Thank you very much," I thanked her.

"Ah-- n-no, it's nothing,"

"By the way," I said and tried to look into her eyes but she kept looking around and trying to avoid eye contact. "Did we perhaps, meet before?" I asked her.

"Uh.." she said and adjusted her glasses still without looking at me. "N-no I guess,"

Maybe I was wrong. I thanked her again and let her get into the elevator before I went back to the office and get my coffee. When I opened the door, I saw everyone looking at me as if they were waiting for me to come back. I tried to ignore it thinking it was just nothing.

"Why are you with Mr. Alfonso's secretary?" Lydia asked me and there I remembered where I saw the girl before and that stiffened me up. "Xhyrah?" I couldn't answer her yet because I was too stunned to speak. Did she know me? "hey," she called me again and made me look back at her.

"Sh-she helped me when I was on the first floor," I said.

"Oh, I thought you knew each other," she said and went back to look at his computer.

Did she know me? Why do I get the feeling that she knew I was his wife? but she didn't get to hear our conversation that time. But she knew me when I entered his office. She knew I know Zach. What if she tells someone about it?

No. I can't tell anybody about it. I was quite glad that my face wasn't leaked and as far as I know, the GP team moved here just a few months ago. That means they weren't here when the announcements happened. But no one seems to know something about me being an executive's ex-wife.

Come to think of it, did I even see an article about us separating? If there is and I didn't see it 2 years ago, it must've been taken down or got buried by a lot of new issues.

But it doesn't matter. If that girl knows anything, then I might as well just talk to her and tell her not to tell anything to anyone. If I see her again,

Time has passed and it is now time to go home. Before we went out, we stopped by the cafe to drink coffee before going home, I wasn't expecting to see him again today. I wished he could've gone home already when we stopped by the cafe for minutes but I saw him walking from the entrance with his bodyguards following him as he walk through the crown in the lobby as if he was walking on a runway with his hands slipped into his pockets.

The tension wasn't the same as this morning since I wasn't alone as I walk with my co-workers towards the exit and I already knew that we'd walk across each other because he looks like he was coming back inside.

I can sense his gaze on me already but I tried my best not to look at him again and looked the other way but then I realized the gaze that I feel wasn't only coming from him. I looked up to his tall bodyguards whom I had already seen in the past. His bodyguards look young and tall but he was taller than some of them. there were 4 of them with him right now and all of their gazes are on me including his.

I tried my best to lay low and walked beside Carol to avoid anyone thinking they were looking at me. When Zach disappeared from our sight, Lydia looked back and looked at Carol and me. "Hey, They were looking at you," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked as if I didn't know.

"All of them," she said.

"Who?" I asked to add more justice to my lies.

"Executive Alfonso," she said and I pretended that I didn't see anything. I can see Carol's gaze on me the whole time I was trying to shake Lydia off from thinking that they were looking at me. I glanced back at her and she looked away while adjusting her glasses to stop them from falling.

We continued walking towards the exit and luckily, I got to stop Lydia from talking about it.

The next day, I heard Lydia and Carol talking about Zach. Since I sit in between the both of them, I am clearly aware and I can clearly hear what they were talking about but I tried to pretend I wasn't listening. It was after lunchtime and since I get to eat my food after they eat their lunch in the cafeteria, I eat lunch late. I was eating when they started talking about him.

"I heard he owns a lot of properties," Lydia said and I continued listening while trying my best not to get caught. It was given that he owns a lot of properties when he was a businessman but with his age and with how many years he has been in this field, it is impossible for him to own a lot.

"This building, for example, is huge, and he owns it," said Carol, "I heard he owns a race track,"

A race track? What the hell is he going to do with a goddamn race track?

"He started with a failing hotel business. It was started by his family but it was failing and he took over it and it multiplied within months,"

I see so that was where he started.

"And he did that a few months after graduating,"

"Woah, that's amazing," replied Lydia.

"Yeah, and after a year, he owned this building but still managed to keep the hotel business growing. And after 4 years in the industry, he now owns bars, casinos, resorts, and a freaking restaurant,"

"Wait what--" I couldn't help but enter their conversation, "How could he manage to own those things after 4 years? That was clearly impossible," I said. Even I, myself, cannot believe that he could do such things in a span of 4 years. I knew he had a lot of money but I didn't get to know about the resorts, bars, etc.

That is clearly impossible!

"What do you mean? He already did," Carol said, "He managed to catch up to his parent's level after 2 years and even surpassed them,"

"He can't do that," I said.

"He already did," she laughed and showed me an article on her phone that I didn't even bother to read. I ignored it and continued eating as they continued talking about him too.

"Even businessmen 30 years in the industry were coming to him to ask him what was his secret and he said he also doesn't know,"

"Oh, everyone would be happy to have him," said Lydia while acting as if she was imagining being with him in her mind.

Well, for me, you would truly be happy to have him as your husband. I felt the same too but at that time, we weren't so sure about our feelings and we separated. I wonder where I would be right now if I didn't separate from him.

Will we have kids right now?

"He was an asshole at college," we were surprised when we heard Leslie talk from the back. I looked back and saw her walking toward our table while holding her phone. She just came back after a call and she obviously heard our conversation.

"You knew him?" Lydia asked her.

"Well, yeah, I knew him in college, he took the same course as my friend. he was an asshole. I even got a hard time pulling strings just to move into this building because of him," They knew each other. I didn't know that they knew each other. Then, he had met Zach before me.

"What do you mean?" Carol asked while adjusting her glasses as she move her chair around to face Leslie.

"I never liked him before. As I said, he was an asshole," she said with finality in her words. "And she gave me a hard time because I sued to fight him a lot in high school and college,"

Highschool and college? they must've known each other for a long time.

What does she mean asshole? "Don't even think about dating or marrying him," she said. She gave me a mysterious glance and walked into her office.

What was that glance about?