"Umm, I'm gonna have lunch upstairs."
It was past noon and Alex's face was buried on the documents David gave her this morning.
"What?" She asked, clearly didn't hear a word I said.
"I'm gonna have lunch upstairs. I ordered some food for you, it should be here any minute." I repeated.
"Then why are you having lunch upstairs if you already ordered?" Her face wondered.
"I just, I need to speak to someone."
"Who?"
"Alex, I'll be back after lunch."
"Who do you need to speak to?" She ignored what I said and just repeated her question.
I sighed before answering her.
"Lisa."
I watched her brows furrowed at the mention of Lisa's name.
"Why?"
I contemplated if I should tell her what happened this morning when I arrived in the office. I don't want to give her anything more to think about, I know she won't be bothered by it but still, she knows that I would.
"I just... We're kind of friends and I just want to catch up with her." I decided to lie.
"Should I be worried about this girl?" She said after a while of staring at me.
I chuckled while I walked toward her desk. I stopped in front of it and leaned over.
"No, ma'am. You shouldn't be." I pecked her on the lips before I turned my back.
I didn't give her a chance to stop me and walked straight outside her office.
Our floor is empty which is expected at this time. I walked inside the elevator and prepared myself with the staring my colleagues would give me as soon as I came up to the 10th floor.
As expected, all eyes were on me, the chatter even stopped when I walked toward the carts.
"What?" I told them annoyed, my voice a little bit high.
Some shook their heads, some ignored me and just continued staring.
I grabbed a fruit bowl and scanned the sitting area to find Lisa. She was sitting with Tom along with 2 other girls, not from our department I'm sure.
I walked toward them.
"Hi!" I greeted them as soon as I approached their table. I sat on the seat next to Lisa.
"Hey." Both greeted me at the same time, the other two girls just stared at me.
"Ms. Williams let you go for lunch?" It was Lisa.
"She's on a call." I told her, lying.
"So, how is it to be the girlfriend of one of the owners?" One of the girls shoots right up.
Panic hit me for a second then I realized, she must be referring to Brian and not Alexandra.
"Brian is not my boyfriend, not because it's my obligation to tell you but just F.Y.I." I told her with a firm voice.
"And also, he is a friend from college, his parents know me, just F.Y.I., again." It's partly true, his parents know me by his stories.
The girl who asked me tapped the arm of the other girl and both of them left without saying a word.
"Wow!" Tom uttered, he might not realized he said it out loud.
"So, you guys are not together?" Lisa asked after a while.
"No, we're not, Lis. We're friends, I have said it multiple times already and I'm saying it again. Brian and I are not together."
Lisa and Tom were just staring at me, probably measuring if I was telling the truth or if I was just saying it to dismiss the gossip around the building.
"Okay, we hear you loud and clear... But, how about Ms. Williams?"
The panic hit me again.
"What about her?" I managed to ask despite the loud pounding on my chest.
"At first, you guys were kind of friends, then it looked like she was punishing you or something with the mountain of work she had given you, then on the beach, you guys seemed very close again, I mean, what's her deal with you?"
Tom was just listening intently to our conversation.
I was silent for two minutes, not knowing what to tell her.
"We are umm... We are friends too, but you know, inside work, she's still my Boss, so here in the office, we're umm... professional, but outside work, we're ... friends, yeah, that's it." I have no idea what I was mumbling and looking at Lisa and Tom's faces, I'm sure they think I'm weird or something.
"Anyway, I just feel like I need to clarify my relationship with Brian. It would be shameful if he knew that there was gossip about him in this office, I mean, the guy is great with everybody here, you know what I mean?"
I looked at both of them, hoping I had convinced them enough.
"Yeah, you're right. He is so nice and dreamy!" Lisa looked up like she was daydreaming.
The rest of the lunchtime consists of us talking about something else. Lisa invited me again to hang out with them and the other interns and I agreed.
"Okay, so Friday. There's this new club that opened 5 blocks from here, we're going after work." Lisa said excitedly.
"You know, some interns are dying to know you. I'm sure they will be happy once they know that you and Mr. Thompson are not together." She said and winked at me.
I chuckled at her, just riding whatever she was saying. I like Lisa, she seems cool and very approachable but hanging out outside of the office, I'll just give her this one since I promised her before that I'll join them next time.
"How was lunch?" Alex asked as soon as I opened her door.
"It was okay, chatted about stuff. You didn't eat yet?" The food bag was on the center table, unopened.
"I will, I was just finishing this. By the way, I want to talk to you about something." She lifted up her head for a brief second before refocusing back on the documents she was reading.
I waited for half an hour before Alex was done. She called on David and handed him the documents while I started with the files I was doing earlier.
"You know, I can send those back to the file room and you can go back to your table. I just made you do that so that I can see you all the time." Alex said as she stood up and sat on the seat across mine.
"Don't you want to see me all the time now?" I teased her.
"Oh, I do. I just don't want to waste your time doing that when you can learn something outside."
"Did you think of that when you asked me to do this in the first place?"
"To be honest? No. I was selfish and I was thinking of my need at the time."
There was a long silence after.
"I will still see you every day and you can come home with me after work, we'll go to movies on the weekends, go to the beach, dine out, have sex, a lot of it, and a lot more stuff."
I stopped at what I was doing and gazed upon the beauty in front of me. There was sadness in her eyes when she said those, it was almost like, she was just saying them but she knew that we wouldn't be able to do them.
"Alex..."
"I want to do all those with you, Cara, until there is still time." She said, her voice full of sadness.
"Alex..."
"I have accepted my faith and I know I'm being selfish again but I want to spend my remaining time with you."
Every word that was coming out of her mouth was like sharp knives slicing through every fiber of my being.
"And... I might not see you this weekend, I mean from Friday."
It was my turn to furrow my brows.
"Why? Where are you going?"
The silence was building up tension and I felt nervous.
"I... I'm flying on Friday morning to see my Doctor in London, It's my schedule for Chemo."
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