( Florida, 2014 )
( Miami )
HAJIRA WAS ALWAYS A SUCKER FOR DREAMS. She adored them and wished she had them more often. Hers mainly consisted of her singing to her favorite songs or writing letters of what she did throughout the day. But, this one time, she deeply wished her dreams would stop. This time, her dreams had basically backfired on her. This time, it was a dream she wished would fade, infinitely.
She could tell she was on a bed, her usually comfortable one at that. A huge weight was above her, causing the sensation she could definitely feel on her neck and on her upper right thigh. Whoever had been touching her, had smooth hands with extreme expertise. She could definitely hear her own moans, echoing through the room.
Soon enough, their mouth landed on her neck, dangerously near her collarbone. She could feel the peppered kisses, each with an electrifying feeling of pleasure. She threw her head slightly back, not used to the feeling. Only a moment after, she looks to see who it is. She sees Rafael, the one creating the pleasure before it all fades into black.
She wakes up in a cold sweat, looking all around her room. She breathes in and out rapidly, needing to gather herself. She shakes her head, knowing she couldn't keep it up for long, especially with dreams like that. She rolls her eyes before finally getting up to get ready for the day, no matter how long it would be.
As soon as she got to work, she had to make sure she avoided Rafael, at all costs. Even thinking or talking about him had brought her back to her dream—hell, nightmare. It was a good one at that but even thinking about him was bad. She needed to let go of this crush, not let it fester.
"Hey, Jira" she heard, a deep voice she definitely recognized.
"Nick, hey" she replied, a smile plastered on her features.
"Are you busy?"
"Oh, uh, no. Why?"
"I just wanted to see if you are busy tomorrow night" he asked with his common smirk. "If you aren't, maybe we can get some dinner, like old times?"
She blinked at his offer, not thinking such an opportunity would arise. She hadn't been able to hang out with her friends as of recent and she was sure it would distract her from Rafael. "S-Sure! Just text me what time, later."
"Okay, sounds like a date" he nonchalantly says as he walks off, allowing her to get back to her work at hand. She raises her eyebrows at the last part but lets it go soon enough. She gets back to work, wanting to distract herself from the handsome elephant in the hotel, the elephant being Rafael.
But, of course, she sees the 'elephant' from across the hall, done arguing with his father. He lets out a huff, clearly frustrated. He takes a deep breath in and walks forward, surprised to see Hajira again, so frequently.
She awkwardly freezes in place and considers immediately running away but realizes she can't just run away. She puts on a generic in smile to cover up what she'd really be doing.
"Hajira! Hey" he greeted almost happily.
"Rafael, hi. W-What's going on?"
"Nothing besides my father micromanaging the hotel" he says irritated.
"How so? I mean, he can't always be managing this place, right?" she asked, slightly confused. She hadn't really known much about Emilio Solano. All she knew was that he was usually busy and not too nice, either. Most of the time, it seemed like Rafael didn't really favor his father.
"He's using his whipping boy to manage me" he huffs out. She raises her eyebrows in confusion, not even knowing who he was referring to, "He's an executive now, since my father thinks I can't manage anything."
She expressed her surprise with her mouth forming an 'O', "Well, I'm sure it won't be too bad. Just hold in there" she assured him, putting a little first bump in the air, even establishing a hopeful but small smile.
"Hopefully" he says, appreciating the comfort and gives a small smile of his own. She catches herself staring at him before he goes off to his office or elsewhere.
"Damn it!" she whisper-yells to herself but oddly enough, Rosa sweeps her away from her spot and into one of the hallways. "Rosa, w-what?"
"Please tell me you what're doing" she whispers.
"I already told you, I am trying to let the feelings pass—"
"What I saw was not 'letting it pass.'"
"What?" she asks skeptically.
"Jira, you have those lovey-dovey eyes. It's written all over your face!"
"N-No, it's not" she argued, even trying to convince herself. "I don't know what you're talking about, Rosa."
"You always have those eyes when your crushing."
"No, I don't—"
"Jira, listen to me" she interrupts, taking on a more serious tone as she grabs her arms suddenly, staring into her eyes. "Honestly, you and Rafael together would be great but at this pace, it's not gonna happen! You always bottle up your feelings and you end up missing a great opportunity" she explains, Hajira shutting up because she knows it's true.
"It's not like I can say something. He's married, has a baby on the way with Jane, and he's my boss. What else am I gonna do?"
"Tell him how you feel? He and Petra aren't gonna last much longer and Rafael is not that conventional, either, babe" she persists.
"Not happening, Rosa. And yeah, I admit, I have feelings I shouldn't be having but I need them to go away. They always go away but this time, they aren't. I'll just end up trying harder."
"Jira, come on—"
"No. Let's just get back to work" she muttered as Rosa reluctantly let her go. She watched her friend shake her head about their conversation and hoped she wouldn't do what she always did.
Although, elsewhere, Jane had been avoiding someone too. As of recent, she couldn't help but feel like something had changed. Recently, she kept thinking about Adom and vice versa. Of course, he wasn't going to ignore her any further or do something extreme but he did notice she was avoiding him.
To figure it out, he searched for Jane during his break and found her during her shift near the pool. She had just walked away from an older man, someone he thought he recognized somewhere. He brushed it off as irrelevant.
"Hey, Jane!" he called out to her, grabbing her attention as she walked towards him, hurriedly, almost.
"A-Adom, hey."
"I just wanted to see how it was going, with everything, you know. And then you have to do that magazine article thing—"
"Y-Yeah, it's a lot, definitely", she nervously laughed, "Actually, um, I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Yeah?" he asks with a smile.
"With everything going on with the lawsuit, m-my pregnancy, and you know, uh, my job—I figured we should probably keep our distance" she nervously explained, not really making too much sense to him.
"Uh, I don't get it...?"
"I-It's like a conflict, of, uh interest. Since you're with the hotel and everything."
"Conflict of interest?"
"Yeah, conflict of interest—" she begins to repeat, backing up but ends up falling into the pool behind her.
Adom's eyes widen and on pure instinct, jumps in after her, falling in with her.
"Jane! Jan—" he yells worriedly
"I'm fine! I'm fine! It's four feet, Baywatch!" she protests, causing him to realize the rescue wasn't necessary.
"Sorry, it was on instinct!" he laughed, knowing it was dumb he forgot how it wasn't a deep pool.
"You work here!"
"You do too!" he launched right back. They both begun laughing and smiling at the ridiculous position. Adom notices how her hair was obviously covering her eyes, with how it was cut out and carefully set her hair to the side, letting her view become clear again. "Thanks" she smiled, keeping a solid moment between them. He smiled, still acknowledging she was gorgeous in that moment.
"Jane?" Michael suddenly called out as he saw the pair in the pool.
"M-Michael! Oh, no!" she quickly yelled out to him as she brushed past Adom. Michael walks off, angrily as she chases after him. Adom only looks after her, having expecting such a entrance by the Cordero.
He shrugs and begins to head for the bathrooms to dry off, & just hopes Jane settles something with Michael.
Later on, everyone heads home, including Hajira. Even after her little dispute with Rosa, concerning what she should do with her increasing feelings. At this point, she had to admit it but she was definitely not telling Rafael anything involving what she felt.
As soon as she reached her bedroom, she went in a beeline for her trusty laptop. She grabbed it and set it upon her lap, before turning it on & deciding what to do. Whenever she felt like her feelings or thoughts were too overwhelming, she would write down what she felt or thought. It was more of a letter than anything and she had done it previous times before.
In truth, she technically wrote letters expressing her feelings towards all of her crushes, to all those she liked.
And once again, she would create a new letter filled with everything she felt. She began typing away, the sounds of clicking echoing through the room.
── Authors Note ──
Uhhh that first portion was awkward to say the least haha