I Dare to Love and be Loved

The One where she was called, "Bebe Girl"

VIN

So I decided not to reply to Em this morning, I wanted to call her bebe girl in person, haha. I laughed to myself, she's so cute when she rolls her eyes on me.

As soon as I arrived in the office, I conducted a quick huddle to my team in the corner of the bay. I didn't bother bringing them on a conference room, we are used to do it this way. I sit on my table and talk about work for 10 minutes good, and went to our normal conversation about how we would spend our off, where to eat later, when suddenly I noticed that girl. She wore a plain lose black shirt, a cap and glasses. Is that Em? I asked myself. This girl never fails to surprise me. I got hard as soon as I see her eyes, those eyes and that messy hair.

"Bebe girl!" I shouted, but she never look back. "She ignored you," John said. "She probably didn't hear me", I argued.

"Well, that's the first", John said while clapping and laughing which caught the attention of my team. "What's first", Dian asks. "Boss Vin got ignored by a girl and you didn't see his face when he called her, Bebe girl. He's too excited", John explains.

"You'll see.", that girl will call me bebe boy. I told myself.

After Em has ignored me, I still went to her office and brought her coffee. She looked extra pretty today because she didn't bothered to look pretty. I love that she wore her big glasses, I can now see the real color of her eyes.

"Bebe girl", I grinned. "So you're the one that texted me", she said in a mono tone. There she goes again with that attitude. She didn't bother to look up, her eyes is fixated on her laptop.

I bet this coffee would change everything. "Not a good morning, bebe?, I think this coffee would help."

It worked, she smiled at me. That genuine smile. It tickles me a little, and I hate that I sounded gay.

"Did you read the invite?", Em asks. "What invite?," I said. "We have a town hall meeting in 30 minutes to announce the transfer of the five teams from sales to customer care", Em explains.

She stood up from her chair with her coffee and cigarette on her hands and said, "Let go". She started walking out of her office and didn't bother to wait for my response. I followed her, while walking, I send signals to my team that they should start logging in and I'll be back. They knew what I meant.

We went to the smoking area, Em has the quiet vibe and I never know if she's in the mood to talk or not. This is what she meant with "the Em" and only Ed would know. By the way, where is Ed, that's something I could ask without sounding too desperate to talk.

"Where's Ed?", I asked Em. "He'll be here in ten", Em responded without looking at me. "Did he text you?", Oh my God Vin, don't ask the obvious.

"Nope", she responded quickly. "I have him added on my find friends so I could locate him any time", she says smiling. I laugh and said, "that's invasion of privacy Em, did he know?", I asked.

Em replied while looking around, "Nope, he don't. Well apparently, you can add anyone that uses iPhone and all they have to do is accept". "I know that, I worked for Apple too, remember?", I teased.

She rolled her eyes at me. I love it when she does that. Em's right, Ed arrived ten minutes later.

We all went upstairs after twenty minutes and everyone is already gathered around for then town hall meeting. Rizza with two more operations manager are on the center discussing about the transition of the five teams, she looked around and saw us on the side. She started introducing the new supervisors including me. The teams applauded and she announces that three teams will be joining Clark's cluster, while the two will be joining Evan's cluster. That means I will be under the same cluster as Em's, that's probably the reason why I was asked to shadow Em.

A week has passed, I worked closely with Em almost half of the shift. I joined her team huddles and all her weekly meeting with the the cluster. I was surprised that she facilitates almost all of the meeting instead of Evan. I learned that Evan was her previous supervisor and they're both comfortable in each other. Evan let's Em do almost 80% of a manager's job, while she still handle her regular supervisor role. She's a superstar without even trying. She's completely a different person when she's at work, she tries her best to smile and laugh at everyone who tries to get her attention. When we're alone, she shows her true side, the Em. She doesn't bother to make an effort to make me comfortable or welcomed, and I love that she does that to me. Only me.

Ed and I were in the pantry and I took the opportunity to ask Ed what happened to Em and her ex. Ed has that look where it seems that he is happy that I'm interested at Em. I guess everybody would if they got a chance to spend time with her. Ed started telling the story, "So Em had a long-term boyfriend, like most of her teenage years she's with Jake." Jake. I repeated the name in my head at least ten times.

I asked Ed how the relationship ended, but he didn't give me anything. He said that would make Em kill him. Em has a very private life in the office, nobody knows anything except Ed, and I think Evan. One of these days, I'll get Em to talk to me. "If you want Em to start sharing things about her life, you need to get her outside this office. Don't forget a beer.", Ed explains while laughing.

"That would be easy," I said with full confidence. "Don't get your hopes up, she wouldn't join anyone outside the walls of this building except if we were outside smoking, or if Evan or me will join," he said.