The Playboy's Misfortune

12: Magic Words

"All love ever does
Is break and burn, and end
But on a Wednesday in a cafe
I watched it begin again"

~-~-~

The sun had been up for a long time and I carried the last boxes inside the house. It was for a brand-new villa and the owners who were newly weds, wanted to move in as soon as possible.

It was me, Jim, and Chase this time because the couple had a lot of heavy things. Chase and Jim were upstairs while I was downstairs with the annoying lady. She was older than Chelsea, about thirty-five. I already despised her as she kept gawking at me most of the time.

"Could you maybe move the cupboard to the left?"

Without replying, I did as she wanted but she seemed dissatisfied again. She stared at the box for five minutes, "No, the old one was better. Could you move it back?"

I gritted my teeth and moved it back for her.

"Oh, that cupboard just doesn't fit there..." she groaned, "Why don't you move it near the TV stand?"

I glared at her now, and she grew startled. To my relief, Jim came down the stairs right then and patted my back saying he'd take over. My phone was buzzing in my pocket too and I stepped outside to answer it.

"Mr.Xander, I'm calling from Jeffrey Campbell's office."

"Have you fixed the date?"

"I sent you the details last week over text and you were supposed to meet with Mr.Campbell yesterday. But you didn't show up, Mr.Xander. It's an offense to make fraudulent appointments and-"

"Hold on, you texted me?"

"Uh... Yes."

"I never got the text," I mumbled.

"There hasn't been any mistake on my part."

"I'll call you back," I hung up and scrolled through my texts—all of them were shopping lists from Chelsea. I thought of checking the recycle bin and behold, someone had deleted the text.

This was my last chance at taking back my company, and somebody was trying to ruin it.

It could be the same guy who hacked into my computer

Or...

It could be someone close to me who purposefully deleted the message.

If it was the hacker, he wouldn't leave any trace.

The only person who had access to my cellphone was Chelsea.

But I had no idea why she would do something like this.

It made no sense...

I called the lady back and she kept telling me about the consequences of booking a fake appointment. "The message was accidentally deleted. Fix me another appointment, I must talk to Mr.Campbell."

"He isn't free for a long time," she retorted over the phone. I honestly hated his PA.

"This is very important!" I was starting to lose my patience.

"I'll see what I can do. Goodbye, Mr.Xander." She hung up.

***

The fact that Chelsea could have purposefully deleted the message kept bugging me for the rest of the day. I didn't understand what her motive was, but it made me very mad.

Still, I remembered something that Jim once told me: "There's always a reason for everything."

But she had no reason to do this.