“Are you going out today?” I asked.
“No, I’ll be here to clear up some work. I’m leaving things on that end in Elizabeth’s hands for now until I hear back from her again,” Ace replied before showing me a warm smile.
“Alright, then. Please try to make it to your meetings on time. I’ll be heading over to my project room now if there’s nothing else…” I said politely as I switched into my secretarial mode.
“Good luck, Rina. Enjoy your day at work,” Ace said before he smiled at me again.
“Thanks, you too,” I replied simply.
The outlook for the day did not look bleak at all. Everything seemed bright enough although there were always uncertainties around us. I had a spring in my steps when I left Ace’s office to go to my project room where Richard was undoubtedly waiting for me. I told myself once again that I would work hard, do my best, and impress Richard one way or another.
Seeing Richard reminded me a little of the warning that he gave me. It bothered me that someone might have misunderstood the friendship that I shared with Jeremy. Although it troubled me, I did not bring this topic up to Ace simply because I thought that it wasn’t at all that important. There was also the risk that Ace might also misunderstand and then we might get into a completely unnecessary argument.
When it was almost time for lunchtime, I found myself taking peeks at my phone with the hope that Ace would send me a text. Since he was in the office for the day, I thought that it might be possible for us to sneak a private lunch together at his office. My first two tries did not bring any rewarding discovery but my third time peaking at my phone showed that there was a message.
‘Are you free for lunch? It can be my treat!’
There was a message on my phone, but it wasn’t a message from Ace. The joyful tone of the message reminded me of its sender. If this had happened before that conversation that I had with Richard, I wouldn’t have felt anything about it. However, the invitation out for lunch that I received from Jeremy had me feeling troubled.
“Karina…” Edward called my name.
“Y-Yes?” I asked as I turned quickly to face him.
I wondered if he saw the message on my phone screen and then realized that it was impossible for him to read anything from where he was sitting.
“Your friend is here to see you,” he said with a strange emphasis on the word ‘friend’.
He pointed toward the door of our work room and soon I saw that he was right about me having a visitor. Jeremy was standing there with a friendly smile on his face. While I wondered how he got here so fast since I just saw his message on my phone, I realized from the time stamp on the message that he had actually sent the message around ten minutes ago. Since I didn’t reply, he must have come along to check up on me.
“Right. Umm…we’re going out for lunch…” I stammered although I tried to tell myself to stay calm.
It’s just lunch…there’s nothing wrong with it…
Richard gave me a challenging look as he narrowed his eyes at me. His words of warning came back so clearly to me inside my head; however, Jeremy was already standing there in front of me. I wasn’t sure how to get myself out of that situation. Of course, I could tell him a lie like I had work to do and couldn’t go out to have lunch with him, but I didn’t want to lie especially when I didn’t need to. Furthermore, even if I could lie to him to avoid having lunch with him today, what would I tell him next time?
“Richard…umm…do you want to join us for lunch?” I asked before mustering the most sweet and pleading smile that I could.
Everything would be solved if I didn’t go out to have lunch with Jeremy alone, right?
“Why would I go out to lunch with you guys?” he asked like it was the most outrageous idea in the world.
“Well, I want to treat you to thank you for always helping me…I guess…” I replied with the most pleasing answer that I could think of.
I smiled hopefully at him again. Honestly, I did not think that it was a bad deal. I was even willing to throw in money to pay for his meal as well, although I doubt that he was running on a tight budget like I was.
“Sure…but I get to pick the restaurant,” he replied before grinning evilly at me.
Suddenly, I felt like I had made a decision that my poor bank account was going to suffer for. Despite that, I quickly nodded my head enthusiastically in agreement before Richard would change his mind.
“Let’s go. Thank you so much…” I thanked him.
“I’m only going because you’re offering to pay,” he muttered.
I had no idea whether that was true or not, but I chose to be optimistic and believe that Richard was doing this out of the pureness in his heart to help out a colleague in desperate need.
“Hey…” Jeremy greeted me.
“Hi…” I replied.
The smile on his face evaporated right in front of my eyes when Richard came to stand next to me. Jeremy seemed instantly confused and I didn’t blame him for his reaction.
“Umm…Richard is going to join us for lunch today. I thought that it would be great for the three of us to eat together…” I said before I laughed to hide my nervousness.
“Oh, sure. It’ll be good for us to have lunch together…” Jeremy replied while still looking quite confused.
“Yea, I think so too. Anyways, I think Richard knows a good restaurant, so he’ll take us there…” I said before smiling at both of them.
Just like that, the three of us ended up having lunch together.
--To be continued…