"She's not coming to work, tell her that when she wakes up. I just know she's going to try to come in once she's awake, she needs rest," my manager said, the moment she pulled me into the office once again. "I don't know what happened, but, I hope this doesn't affect her performance."
I didn't say a word. I, too, knew that Airi would be stubborn and insist on going to the office even though she was unconscious the day before.
Adro sat on her chair, turning it to face her shelf of files, while still talking to me. "Other than that, your projects are turning out to be very successful. Not bad, I should say. You'd do fine with the promotion and at the HQ."
The rustling sound of her sorting through her files sent the feeling of a million ants crawling all over me. I swallowed, hard, trying to push the feeling down, back into my stomach. I didn't look up, even when I was facing her back.
"You should get ready for leaving this city, just so you know. It's a hard earned opportunity, I hope you appreciate it," her matter-of-fact voice, accompanied by pages being flipped filled the room. I could feel my glasses sliding off of the bridge of my nose ever so slightly.
"It's just that, you should tell me, what happened to the latest project with Annabeth Rove. Her agent cancelled her contract with us and disappeared after the shooting. Although I have to admit the shooting was fine, I am quite curious as to what happened that day. After all, you were there, no?" she asked, the weight of the air became crushing in just a flicker of the lights.
Cold water washed down on top of my head, covering my whole body. Clearing out the lump forming in my throat, I pushed my slipping glasses back to its position, thinking about how I was going answer her. I looked up, just for me to notice her eyes were indeed fixated on me. It did nothing but make my heart pump faster, I felt every sweat dripping down the back of my neck.
"Well? Mr. Senikos? What is it?" her calm voice had an impatient undertone, sending me into pure distress.
I knew exactly what happened. And, I also knew exactly what would happen to both Airi and I if I were to tell the truth. Then again, if I were to lie, things would end worse than I had anticipated.
I made my decision. My shaky confidence was exposed in my tone as I started to speak. "That day, in the shooting, Miss Rove, she was incredibly rude to everyone in her crew, me included. Someone had just simply stood up for us, who couldn't do anything in our power in fear that we would lose our jobs and face worse problems. This person has nothing to do with the shooting or the crew. Perhaps they wouldn't expect or wouldn't know what would happen to us, the designer company and her contract with us either. This person had only witnessed the ugly side of Annabeth Rove. That is all."
I spat it all out in a breath, the tension made me forget to breathe. I clenched my hands behind my back, hoping that Adro wouldn't ask anything about 'this person'. I reminded myself that I technically wasn't lying.
Adro just looked at me, hands clasped under her chin. None of us said anything for an uncomfortable amount of time, before she sighed. "Alright, I'm not going to hold you accountable for the cancelling of contract on your behalf, as there is no solid proof that she cancelled it because of you or that incident. So, relax a little. I was simply just curious, as to what had happened that day."
I nodded stiffly.
"You may resume to work now, tell Airi to bring her medical letters when she wakes up. I may feel bad for what had happened to her, but I still need to have the letters for obvious professional reasons," her focus was now on her computer screen.
Thanking her, I left, closing her door as quietly as possible. My legs nearly gave out on me once I heard the soft click of the door, I felt like crying all of a sudden.
Using what was left of my energy, I dragged my body to the bathroom, ignoring all the other colleagues' weird stares the best I could. How I wished Airi was there with me, yet the truth was, she was still in the hospital bed, her eyes were still closed.
Not a soul was in the bathroom stalls as I plopped my clammy body onto the toilet seat, locking the door with my trembling hands. I felt weak, even when I didn't do anything wrong in particular.
My vision was blurry with tears, they were dripping down, falling onto my thighs, wetting them. My glasses fogged up, slid down onto my wet thighs, I couldn't care less to even pick it up. I buried my face into my palms, muffling the sounds of my frantic gasping of air.
I reminded myself that I still had to see if Airi was awake in an hour or so, I couldn't bear the thought of her looking at my tear-streaked face in that state. I couldn't stand to think what Luzien would say either, or Ceb or Vastel, or anyone else at all, actually.
I had no idea what came over me that had caused me to cry. It just happened.
My phone vibrated along with my familiar ringtone. I cleared my throat once again, in hopes of not sounding like I had just cried in the bathroom for nothing, picking it up without looking at the caller. "Hello?"
"Tolmer, hey, I just wanted to call you to just check up on you," Luzien's soothing voice was heard over the phone, he was speaking really softly. "I'm outside of your department, you aren't here so I thought of calling you."
"Why are you even there?" I stood up, ready to leave the stall.
"Are you in the bathroom?" he answered with a question. "I'm coming over. I just have something to say."
I wanted to say something, but it became, "No need, I'm coming out. Just stay where you are. I'll just go to you."
"Okay, see you, love you."
Gods, what is he going to tell me?