Scripted Relationship

Chapter 39

“First, it was rhetorical question so you need not answer,” I said to her with a sarcastic smile. “Second, you have lots of ideas. What do you need me for then?”

I looked at Lola who I knew already felt that I was mocking Andrea. She looked at me sternly.

“I need you to work with her,” Lola said to me.

“I think there’s no need for that, Lola. She said she have a lot of ideas.” Then, I sarcastically smiled at Andrea and asked: “Isn’t it, Andrea?”

This time, Andrea didn’t smile. She looked at me rather waryly. I looked at Lola and she still have that stern look like Miss Minchin from Princess Sarah.

“You will work with her for the next two years to build up the image of Inspire,” Lola said to me. Rather, I thought then it was her marching orders to me. “Remember that Andrea is still the darling of the people. Once she gets back to Manila, her popularity will soar once again despite her hiatus.”

“Darling?” I asked sarcastically and almost laughed. I chose to control it out of respect to Lola.

Lola sighed as I said it.

“Erik, I need you trust her.”

I looked at Lola and let out my controlled chuckle. I drank a glass of water and then I  looked at Andrea.

“Trust?” I asked her and looked at Andrea. “Easy to give, easy to break, don’t you think?”

“Erik, I think it’s inappropriate to say that in front of our guest,” Lola interrupted.

“But trust is such an extensive word in the vocabulary of Andrea. She might not understand it. Right?” I said to Andrea who just bowed her head with a trace of embarrassment. She must have been ashamed of hearing the word ‘trust’. I even thought that maybe, she was ashamed of the word because she uses it  as a ‘condom’ rather than as a ‘commitment’.

“That is enough.” Lola said to me firmly.

I looked at Lola face-to-face. By merely looking at her, I felt her authority over the room. I thought then that I went overboard because of the anger I had  while Andrea was in the room.

I took the small cloth to wipe out the food stains on my mouth.

“I’m sorry, Lola, but I have to leave.” I got up from my seat with due respect and started walking out of the dining room.

“Why?” Lola asked me before I reached the door. “We haven’t started our meeting.”

I turned around to look at Lola. I gave her an emotionless face.

“This meeting was already over the moment she went in.”

I helped my way out of Lola’s house and took the cab that will bring me to my hotel. As I mentioned to the driver my hotel, I gazed outside. I thought then, of all the people that would become the endorser of Inspire, it would be Andrea. Does it had to be Andrea? They must be very desperate to raise the company’s image that they had her as our endorser. I laughed mockingly at the thought.

Somewhere in the middle of my laugh, it gradually changed into sadness. I swiftly  found myself crying with the thought of working with the woman who caused me all the pain, who made me a disbeliever of love, who made my trust for myself die. Why it had to be Andrea, indeed? I want to laugh it out instead but the anger I controlled (with little success) during lunch was very quick to consume me.