CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Aria’s POV

I heard boss’s engagement party from Priya. She had told me that morning in her teasingly manner.

Priya was the accounts floor’s most reliable source of information about everything and anything that happened above the fourth floor, and the company at large. Feel free to call her the office blogger.

It was on a Friday, around ten forty-something in the morning, I was midway through a secondary reconciliation Marcus had assigned me when Priya suddenly appeared at the edge of my desk, a file was in one hand, her tablet in another, but the look she gave me instantly told me that that wasn’t the bone of contention.

“Have you seen the internal memo?” she asked.

“Which one?”

She turned her tablet toward me.

It was a brief, formally worded notice from the Beaumont Group communications office. The kind of internal memo that dressed itself as informational while being, in substance, an announcement.

The information was to inform staff that the company would be hosting a private celebration in three weeks time at Alderton Hall, and that certain senior members of the team would be in attendance. It referenced, in the third paragraph, the occasion being celebrated.

The forthcoming engagement of Mr. Xavier Beaumont and Ms. Ivanna Sinclair.

I blinked repeatedly, this should be familiar to me, after all, they were dating. But it sounded foreign instead.

I read it over and over again, to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

It was real.

“Alderton Hall,” Priya said, in the tone of someone talking about a graceful event, “is very fancy. If you see the ambiance alone… oh good Lord, it feels like heaven on earth. I can’t wait to be there again.” She rumbled on.

“Good for them,” I said.

She looked at me properly now. “What do you mean good for them.”

“I’m not a senior staff, so, it’s not mandatory.”

I handed the tablet back to her and returned to the reconciliation document I was walking on before she distracted me with the unnecessary information she had… or maybe, necessary information.

***

The morning continued in its usual way..

I worked through the reconciliation with the mechanical efficiency of someone who was burying her worries in work. My thoughts wrestled against each other inside of me.

I opened my email box and peeped at the memo again.

Xavier Beaumont was getting engaged. My brain needs to register that efficiently. He is my boss and I shouldn’t look at him beyond that boss to employe relationship.

Not the version of him that showed up at my door late in the evening to apologize.

I blinked it away.

I finished the reconciliation longer than it should have taken, then I went for lunch. I located a secluded spot at the cafeteria and I was grateful for that.

I had declined Priya’s invitation earlier that afternoon to join the company’s Friday treat, the company just secured a huge contract, according to Priya, hence the celebration.

She tried her possible best to make me stay, since most of the staffs will be there and they will even try some Korean meals.

I salivated at the thought of eating those Korean food I’ve only seen on television, but yet, I declined.

At exactly six pm. I carried my bag, say some goodnight greetings to my colleagues and headed toward the elevator, signed out at reception, and walked to the car park without looking back at the building.

***

Bryan was already in his pajamas when I got home, he had gone to Arthur’s for the day and been dropped back by the estate driver before late evening as discussed.

The visit to the Beaumont’s estate had became a routine he had adapted to so much.

He was on the living room floor with his football cards, organizing them into categories I didn’t fully understand.

“Mommy!” He ran and crossed his arms around my neck as I crouched down.

I listened a bit to hundreds of hot gist the little man wanted to share with me, and somewhere along the line, I took permission to go and change out of my work clothes and heat dinner. He agreed reluctantly and I hurried up to my room before he changes his mind.

Changing and taking my bath took about twenty minutes. Then I went to the kitchen to set dinner.

I had enough food, cooked and stored in the refrigerator, that way, it’s easier to have varities of food without worrying about the next meal to cook..

“Your eyes are tired,” Bryan said with concern written all over his face. Only then did I realized that he had been watching me for a while.

He was just five years old, but he’s conscious about his environment and people in it like an adult.

I looked at the frank and uncomplicated accuracy of him for a moment before cutting to myself.

“I’m okay, baby,” I said. “Come for dinner, the table will be ready in two minutes.”

He moved to the dinning area without further comment. Then he ate his food in mid-silence, frequently telling me one of his childish jokes.

I smiled and comment nicely at each one… I better do.

I put him to bed at around eight-thirty, amidst folktales he requested for but fell asleep before I even finish the first one.

I covered him with the duvet, kissed him lightly on his cheeks and turned off his room light. Unlike other children of his age, Bryan had never liked sleeping with the lights on.

I closed the door gently after me and went back to the sitting room. The house was gravely quiet except from the cricket sound coming from somewhere far.

I sat down on the couch while Xavier’s engagement memo replayed behind in my eyes.

It replayed with a question I hadn’t been able to answer myself.

*Why was I getting unnecessary bothered by the boss’ engagement?

It’s not like I was dating him or something. Even when some moments wanted to resemble something special, it didn’t happen at the end of the day.

The internal memo earlier today wasn’t just an information, it was a mirror. Whatever feelings I had started to have toward Xavier, it all had to end in the dark, now and forever.