~~~ CHAPTER 21 - THE BOSS ~~~
With his long sleeves rolled up in his arms, Nigel helped me do the dishes. The washing area in the kitchen was too little a space for two persons so that the both of us stood side by side like we were literally breathing the same air. Every now and then, our arms touched each other, hands collided accidentally, and bodies rubbed producing electricity volts in all parts of my being. It made me shudder and prickly tingly in the skin, yet... why the hell was it so damn gratifying?
"That dinner was awesome, princess," Nigel spoke softly in my ear as I was about to open the door to my bedroom. He walked with me in the hallway after we made the kitchen immaculately pristine.
Anything for you. I wanted to say but for some reason I couldn't open my mouth. I was too overwhelmed with every thing that happened during the whole evening. However, I managed to give him a wonderful smile.
In times like this when there were just the two of us, not fighting and not dissenting each other, I could feel my heart getting bigger and bigger. I was glad he was starting to open up to me. Maybe, he really did love me... just like what Kara said. Maybe, all I needed to do was wait.
"I'll be out of the country tomorrow," he broke the news as he grabbed my right forearm. "Do you think Suzana will be here by then?"
Out of the country?
"Until when?" I asked feeling lonely.
"Can't still tell when. It depends," he squeezed my arm and I jolted. "Will Suzana be already here tomorrow?"
"Yeah, she said she'd be absent only for today. She promised to be here tomorrow morning," I relayed what Suzana told me in the phone.
He let go of my arm and brushed his fingers on his hair. We were still standing and facing each other in the hallway.
"That's good then," he muttered within his breath.
"Yeah," I also muttered. "So, what time is your flight?"
"Very, very early tomorrow."
"Okay," I said putting my right hand on my chest. I was still surprised of the fact that we wouldn't be seeing each other for a couple of days.
"I need to go get some sleep now," he said not moving. He was supposed to go to his room now but he was still standing and looking at me... surveying my face?
"Y-yeah, okay," I spoke waiting for him to go into his room first.
Finally, he turned around so his back was facing me. His hand was on the verge of grabbing the doorknob leading to his room.
"Wait---" I called Nigel out.
He faced me again. His right brow was raised a bit, his hands in his pockets.
How about a goodnight kiss, Nigel...
"Good night," I said instead.
He smirked and spoke, "Good night as well, Althea."
"O-okay..." I mumbled, not finding any more words to say. Oh, I didn't want this night to end. I wanted to stare at him just like what I was doing now.
Nigel also didn't move from where he was standing.
I surrendered from our eye contact. "S-so... I..."
Then, closing our distance, he strode towards me and gripped one of my hands with his. I jolted once more. "I... I'd like to show you something when I come back..."
My mouth opened in awe. What was he going to show to me? His HEART? Ohh, please show me your heart.
"And, Althea, thank you for tonight," he whispered in my ear.
You know the feeling when your heart's filled with real awesome happiness and the feeling is just so great your brain can't think of anything else? Well, this was it!
His sensual lips formed a sexy smile.
He let go of my hand and then, catching a glimpse of my eyes one last time, he went into his room.
My brain couldn't move on. Gasping my breath, I was stuck on the floor.
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"Can't fight this anymore," I exhaled unconsciously.
Kara grinned widely sitting beside me on a bench under a tree near the parking lot. She put down the book she was reading on her lap. "It's not going to be forever so stop acting like that," she indicated matter-of-factly.
Well, I couldn't help it. Nigel's absence seemed to be intoxicating me. "Can't help it," I mumbled.
Kara chuckled. "Do you know you're overreacting right now?"
I pouted my lips as I leaned my head on her left shoulder. "I'm not overreacting. This is how I normally react whenever he's not around," I made out.
"Well, your normal acting is overacting," she said as she kidded me on getting rid of my head.
I pushed my head harder on her shoulder instead, "No, you're not getting rid of me, girl. You're stuck with me and you're going to hear me out now."
Hearing my desperate words, she laughed hard causing her shoulders to shake. I was forced to take my head off her shoulder.
"Thea, you're so melodramatic," she stated jokingly.
I pouted my lips again. Why couldn't she understand? Gosh!
"Quit being a drama queen, okay? Your Nigel is certainly missing you right now just the way you're missing him so there's no need for you to fret. Trust me, the feeling is mutual between you and him," Kara assured me hugging my right arm with her left. "Just trust me, okay?" How could she be this confident?
I nodded though I couldn't make up my mind yet about what she just said. God knew how much I wished that her gut feelings about Nigel missing me were right! Yet after that unforgettable night I had with him before he left, my heart kept on telling me to believe.
"Now, stop complaining and compose yourself. Somebody's heading our way," she mused giggling.
I looked up and saw Dylan Fernandez walking towards the both of us. His signature angelic smile caught my eyes and, just like that, it somehow changed my mood. His appearance was always like a rainbow after the rain.
"Dylan, Hi!" I greeted him. "You're here again!"
"Hi, girls! So glad to see you again." He came closer and sat at my left side on the bench. "No more class?"
"Yeah, Kara and I are just waiting for our ride," I said answering his smile. "Had a conference with your university supervisor?"
"Nope. I've just returned the book I borrowed last time. I'm just lucky enough to be given the permit to leave the office for a while," Dylan explained. "Lucky for me the President's out of the country. We can't actually just go out anytime if the President is around unless it's my sched to meet with my university supervisor. The strictest boss ever," he mused.
Kara, at my right, chuckled upon hearing it. "You bet, Nigel Sarmiento is the strictest, even the meanest boss ever..."
I cast her a glare. "How could you say that? You aren't even working for him," I complained elbowing her.
She eyed me meaningfully, "Isn't he a mean boss? Doesn't he boss you around? He tells you what to do and what not to do. You can't even call or text him. Isn't it the reason why you can't stand his absence?"
I sighed. Yeah, she was right. Nigel was like a boss to me. And I was like an obedient employee...
Oh, no! That was not a fair analogy.
Nigel was one heck of a very powerful man. With a truly developing company and hundreds of employees around him, he could be very strict and mean. I knew how he tried his best and worked hard for the success of his business ventures, it was never easy. I truly understood why he took everything so seriously. It was to keep the company and make it big.
Our relationship, on the other hand, was not between an employer and an employee. I was his princess that he often insulted, mocked, and didn't treat right. I was his childish fiancèe that he never liked... and never loved... I was his mother's choice, not his own choice to be his wife. Having me around was never easy for him. I understood why he took being mean to me very, very seriously. It was to get rid of me.
"In my defense, I didn't say the President is mean, I just said he's strict," Dylan clarified himself after sensing my complaint.
I shrugged my shoulders.
Kara shot me a questioning look. "So, strict or mean?"
"Okay, okay," I raised my hands up. "Yeah, he's strict to the point of being mean," I said in surrender.
"And arrogant," Kara added.
"And intimidating," Dylan concluded.
The three of us exchanged glances. Then, we laughed.
After a while, Dylan spoke, "But he's a pretty admirable guy. I'm so amazed at how he is able to put up his name in the country's business industry at such a young age. Though the Sarmiento Corporation has been there for years already but to really make it on top this year is a pretty tremendous achievement."
My mouth formed a dumbstruck oh as I listened to Dylan. I couldn't believe Nigel had been able to put himself on top! No wonder why he had put so much commitment and dedication to his business, it was to make it to the top!
"Wow! I just knew he was that big!" It was Kara who opened her mouth first.
"Number one this year? Are you being serious, Dylan?" I asked bewilderedly.
"Don't you know?" he seemed surprised at my oblivion.
I shook my head.
"Why don't you know?"
I thought for a while. When I didn't know what to say, I shrugged my shoulders.
"Oh, poor young mistress of the Sarmiento Corporation..." Dylan mused as if he found my ignorance funny. "Why do you think I chose the Sarmiento Corporation for my internship? It's brilliant success has been in the daily papers and there's no way that I'd be neglecting it for my internship. I just got to be there, you know!"
"Wow!" Kara exclaimed again.
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"He's always working. It seems like his whole life is only for his business," I grumbled at Suzana while she was doing the dishes. I sat on the stool beside the kitchen island and had my palms in my cheeks.
"He is working, yeah, but I don't think his whole life is solely for his business, señorita," she commented.
"So what do you call his always being out, leaving very early, arriving very late and always looking very tired like he's carrying the world on his shoulders? That's purely workaholism!" I couldn't help myself but grumble. "He's still young. Why is he so damn serious with his business?"
"I don't think he's really into the business, señorita. I don't think that's what the señorito really loves to do," Suzana turned her head towards me. Her face was calm and serious.
"What does he love to do more than working in the company?" I said finally lifting my face away from my palms.
She washed her hands and moved to the kitchen island where she sat across me. "The señorito never misses a Sunday in his studio."
"Painting?"
Yeah, of course, painting! It was his first love.
Suzana nodded. "When I first came here, I really wondered what's in that room. Every time the señorito came out from there, he had this weary but vibrant, content look. Then, he had these spatters of paints of different colors all over his face and clothes. Later, I came to realize that he had been painting in there and I just knew, it's his only escapade of all the pressures he gets from the outside world. Even as a student then, he seemed to embrace it as his only way of coping up with feelings... suppressed feelings perhaps... I don't know exactly what kinds of feelings. The señorito is a hard-to-grasp, hard-to-read type of man."
I stared at the face of the woman in front of me. For the first time, she shared to me how she felt about Nigel.
"Yeah, yeah, he's buried a big part of him in his studies and work, but he would always go back to what he truly loves to do, and that is, to paint," she concluded like she was having a monologue.
"Yeah, I think, you're right..." I pondered and realized. "Painting is his first love..."
I thought of that young Nigel I had a crush on when I had just started staying in The Fields. His walks to the Forest Garden carrying canvas and panels and a backpack slumping on his back unfolded in my mind. His going to the Forest Garden to paint was kind of an afternoon routine during weekdays for he had to attend classes until 3:00 pm, whole-day routine during Saturdays for Saturday was his free day, and again an afternoon routine during Sundays for mom would always see to it that we attended first the mass in the morning at the village chapel in La Carlota. Therefore, most of the time he had in the province apart from schooling was spent in painting. That was how he loved that stuff.
Mommy Carol told me before that Nigel once expressed that he would like to have a painting exhibit by the age of ten... but everything became different after they learned that Annie had a cancer. It had become a struggle to the family until she died. Nigel still continued to paint, more solemn than ever, locked himself from the outside world when he created his artworks, but eventually forgot the exhibit or exhibits that he had been planning.
"He's still been totally wretched since his sister died..." I mumbled within my breathing.
"Yeah, that was what the señora emphasized to me when I first worked for him here. It's true he's been through hell when his sister died... but I don't think it's the only reason for his coldness and apathy," Suzana blinked her eyes as if she was trying to decipher Nigel's countenance in her imagination.
"You mean there are other reasons?" I was amazed on how Suzana tried to find an explanation on the way Nigel was. I absolutely wanted to hear what she thought about him.
She gulped something in her throat, stared at me, and reached out to hold my hands on the table, "Señorita, most people want to have this thing called freedom. Too bad the señorito doesn't have that. He's lived a life where everything is just laid out before him; he's left with no choice. In his studies, for one. He's been pushed to pursue business ad because that was what he had to. He's the only heir to the family business. But I do think that if he had a choice---"
"He'd choose fine arts," I finished it.
Suzana nodded.
Suddenly, something hardened in my chest. My hands began to tremble as I felt a swelling fear in my heart.
"Señorita, your hands are cold," Suzana said while grasping my hands tighter.
"Suzana, I am one of those that have been forced to him..." I wasn't able to finish what I was going to say for I felt a lump formed in my throat.
I forced myself to him!
The woman in front of me shook her head. "Of all the things forced to him, I believe you're the best ever. So don't ever give up, señorita. For him to be always reminded that things may be forced to him but all for the right reasons, you just have to be there with him. There's nobody more suitable to him than you. He needs an understanding, persistent and patient woman in his life and I do believe that that woman is you," she spoke in a very calm voice enough to soothe my troubled heart.
I gave her a smile, "Thank you, Suzana. You don't know how much your kind words mean to me."
She squeezed my hand and smiled, "Just hang in there, señorita. Believe me, someday, he's going to open up his heart for you. Just wait..."
I breathed hard and visualized that day when Nigel would finally come to open up his heart for me. I'd gladly wait for that day to come. However, with his actions shown to me lately, I was getting confident that we were almost getting there.
All of a sudden, the sound of the buzzer interrupted my thoughts.
Nigel! Is he home already?
"Nigel?" I asked rhetorically.
"There's only one way for us to find out, señorita." Suzana stood up.
"No, I'll check it myself, Suzana," I said excitedly. Without waiting for her reply, I ran towards the living room to open the main door.
I was missing him so much I wanted to be the first person to see him arrive. With a wide smile in my lips, I opened the door.
To my absolute shock, my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw who was standing before me. It was definitely not Nigel. It was the person that I least expected to see.
"I'd like to talk to you," the woman in front of me spoke in a demanding tone as she put her right hand on her waist.
What the hell was Maria Stella doing in here?
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A/N
Gosh, the busiest week eveeerrr!!!!! I haven't met my deadline in updating. Sorry for the delay, guys. Anyway, if you find this chapter nice, please do VOTE, COMMENT, and SHARE.
Lovelots,
(sapphiregirl22) ~_^