MISHA HESITATED AS she was about to open Kayla’s message on her Message Request inbox to see the photos she sent. She remembered Soren’s advice again—ignore. Everything that Kayla would tell her and show her would anyway just be lies, like the rumors she was spreading against Soren. She thought of deleting Kayla’s message but changed her mind. She stood up and placed the phone on the bedside table again. She went back to bed to continue to try sleeping, although she knew that the fly, the bee and the mosquito that Kayla had sent would be back to pester her and deprive her of sleep.Ignore everything about Kayla, she planted in her mind, and closed her eyes. But a thought occurred to her as she was already feeling sleepy. What if she told Soren about it and listen to what he was going to say about it? Maybe, he’d just tell him again to just ignore it. Or maybe, he’d tell her to look at the pictures. Anyway, Kayla wouldn’t know that she peeked at them, unless she would reply to her mess
MISHA GASPED AND covered her mouthed the moment she saw the four pictures that Kayla had sent her. The photos unmistakably showed Soren kissing another girl. He was sitting while the girl was standing in front of him, leaning towards him, their lips locked in a seemingly passionate kiss. And the date on the photos showed that they were taken during the time that she and Soren were already friends.The first thing that crossed her mind was to send the photos to Soren and then call him up and break up with him—that was how angry she was. She was about to do that when she noticed something. The man was Soren, yes, and he was kissing another girl but the girl was also familiar.“Cindy,” she gasped and whispered.Yes, it was indeed Cindy. And she actually saw this kissing scene live, as it happened inside a coffee shop owned by Soren. It was passionate, yes, but only on Cindy’s part. She saw with her own eyes how disconcerted Soren was, and the kiss was quick, which the photos wouldn’t tel
“ANSWER ME! WHAT do you want?” Misha screamed again at her phone when the person on the other line remained quiet.“Is this Misha?” asked the female voice from the other line.“Yes,” she said, her voice voice a tad lower this time but still tense, “What do you want?”“What is happening?”Misha’s eyebrows both rose. “You are what is happening?”“Misha, this is Maggie.”“Yes, I know you—what?”“This is Maggie. I’m using my sister’s cell phone because my I lost my cell phone.”“Maggie?”“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”“Oh, I thought you were—““Who?”“Kayla.”“Kayla who?”“Soren’s sister… estranged sister.”“You seem eager to strangle her. What happened?”She told Maggie what Kayla had been doing—the friend request, the text messages and the pictures. She even sent Maggie the photos.“I don’t know why she’s harassing me,” Misha said, exasperated. “I don’t think she knows I’m Soren’s girlfriend, unless those who know have told her.”“I didn’t. How could I? I don’t know her.”“I know
OF COURSE, MISHA, Maggie and Yana still became dumbfounded with what Ellis said.Kayla, you little piece of something that’s not good, Misha thought before she slowly raised her hand. ‘I-I know her, sir,” she stammered a bit. “Why?”“Well,” Ellis said and scratched his cheek with a finger, a sign that he wasn’t comfortable with the topic. “She called me up on my phone, which was strange because she wasn’t in my contacts and she wouldn’t tell me where she got my number, but she was asking me about you, Misha.”“What did she say, sir?”“She’s direct to the point, didn’t waste an iota of breath, ” Ellis answered. “She wants you out of the project. And it would be fine for her for Maggie and Yana to continue, but it would be much okay if they too would be removed from the project. But if not, she’d be happy to see Misha leave.”“I’d go with her if she leaves,” Maggie said.Yana didn’t say anything but she nodded.Misha swallowed. “What did you say, sir?”Ellis chuckled. “I asked her who
MISHA EXHALED, WHICH she hid from Soren and checked her email on her cell phone.She got new mails but nothing from Starshine.She went back to Soren, stopping herself from frowning. “No, I havent’ received it yet,” she informed him.“Ellis and his friends are slow,” he said lightly. “But I’m sure, it’ll arrive, if not tonight, maybe tomorrow morning.”She bit her lip upon hearing it. “Soren,” she said, ready to talk about Kayla.“Yes.”“Let’s talk.”“Perfect,” he said. “I was about to invite you to have dinner with me tomorrow, secret, of course, so we will do it in my house where no spy can enter, to celebrate you getting the project officially.”She cleared her throat, and opened her mouth to finally tell him about Kayla. But then, she thought, it would probably be better if they talked in person. What she would tell him was almost akin to breaking up with, and breaking up over the phone or through emails or text messages wasn’t nice, so yes, it would probably be a lot better to t
“KAYLA?” HE ASKED, the wrinkle on his forehead remaining.“She’s calling Ellis and other people at Starshine, to have us removed from the project.”“What did we agree upon regarding her?” he asked casually.“Ignore her.”“So why are we talking about her now?”“I can’t help it,” Misha argued. “She’s trying to cancel me and my friends, make us jobless. I mean, I’m sure she won’t stop here, she’ll harass again with our next projects, again and again until no one’s willing to give us a job.”“I won’t let her cancel you and your friends,” he said, which sounded like he was making a vow.It’s too late, she wanted to say.There was no doubt now that Kayla had been successful in her first attempt to strip her and her friends of a project, one that Misha was sure would lead to other cancelled noteworthy projects. And Kayla would only stop if she would abandon Soren. So Kayla was basically making her choose: be a model or be Soren’s girlfriend. And Kayla thought she would be in a serious predic
MISHA COVERED HER mouth to stop herself from giggling as she was being tickled by the soft kisses Soren was planting on her neck. And then she remembered that just a few moments ago, she was scared of losing her virginity, and now she was happily giddy—Soren’s kisses really had their way of making her forget everything.Soren finally lifted his head from her neck and went back to her lips and gave it a passionate, kiss, then, he stared at her deeply into her eyes again, a stare so intense she thought he was trying to melt her with his eyes. And there she was, at that moment, still hungover with the intoxicating kisses she just received from him, like a submissive drunk, ready to yield to anything he wanted to do, ready to accompany him to wherever he wanted to go, as long as his lips would never abandon her lips.He only had to tell her.“I love you,” he said to her, almost a whisper while he caressed her arm with his hand, those three words had made a home in his lips. “I’ll never ge
MISHA STARED WIDE-EYED at her inbox.There was an email there with the subject Starshine Corp., and right below that line, she could read: Dear Miss Misha Marzan, this is Ellis…She got an email from Ellis. Was it the contract? Maybe. But it could also be a letter telling her that she and Maggie and Yana were out of the project. She exhaled. Well, she could live with that and she was sure her friends, too. It was just that a contract would be a lot more delightful because it would mean that the good had once more trounced evil. Well, she didn’t know if evil could really describe Kayla now, roguish could be a more apt adjective for her. And she and her friends, were they good? Well, at least they didn’t go about trampling on other people.She opened the email, and attached to it—voila! — was the copy of the contract.Yes, Starshine was still offering them the project and they could officially clinch it once they signed it. And with their signatures on it, Kayla would be hard put to tak