KIRA“It was the biggest mistake of my life, Alana. I shouldn’t have come here for him. I realized it wasn’t worth it. Thank you for coming to take me. My car is a wreck. Can you imagine? He could have killed me. And what’s he doing? He’s just paying for my hospitalization. How cynical!” I snarled, snatching what little I had in the ward. I had called Alana before I fell asleep and asked her to come and get me as soon as possible. “You know I’ve always had a reservation about Gabriel Bates. But now that you’re coming back, you should know that things aren’t so good at the company. So Gabriel did you a favor by paying your hospital bill,” Alana said, taking the bag in her hand.“What do you mean things aren’t so good?” “Well, I really didn’t want to be the one to give you more bad news, but you know we’re down on the number of customers. It’s been going well for the last five years. Something’s going on, Kira. You’ll have to see the reports. It doesn’t look good at all,” said my fri

GABRIELI thought about Kira the entire weekend. I knew it hurt her to see me with Lilliana at Jubilee, but life went on. Or at least for me, it was. But who was I kidding? I could see her struggling to keep me away. And I wasn’t doing a very good job either. I had all weekend to put Kira deep into oblivion. But how could two days heal me?I pretended to pay attention during reports and feedback sessions at a few meetings on Monday morning while I waited to leave my office and take the elevator down to the third floor. She no longer had an office near me. It was not a punishment or something; it was just my way of keeping her away. But it seemed I just couldn’t stay away. I wouldn’t normally do anything like this, but I needed to see her. She was already seated at her desk when I stepped on their floor. Her bright red blouse hugged her breasts, and her chocolate hair fell to her shoulders.“Kira?” “Yes, Mr. Bates!” she answered, and her politeness struck me like a sledgehammer. “

GABRIELI didn’t really care anymore that I was showing up everywhere with Lilliana, my secretary. Just like I didn’t care that last night I had picked the exact restaurant where Kira and Alana were. I rarely ate there, but somehow I felt the need to do all this in front of her. I could see the pain and disgust on her face at the same time. And today they invited us to a big party in honor of my childhood friend Jasper. The celebration was a social gathering. Our families have been acquainted for a long time. This was a party hosted by his parents to welcome him back to London after a brief absence. Jasper had reportedly gone to rehab in Scotland, but that was not how his family regarded his needed break. They talked about him traveling a lot. I learned from my mother that Jasper’s parents wanted him to rejoin the family business.I started missing my mum the moment I thought about her. Maybe it was time to call her and ask if we could get together for a few days.“How long must we

GABRIELOn Saturday morning when I returned from my morning run, my mother was waiting for me in the kitchen. This was strange. My mother had not visited me in a while, but suddenly she was at my home. I couldn’t deny that I missed her.“Mom, to what pleasure do I owe your visit?” “Hello to you too, my son. I just missed you and I came to see you,” she explained, rounding the table to give me a welcome kiss and a hug. “I’ve made coffee.” She said with a smile. She was wearing a silk blouse and ironed trousers, and she had perfectly styled hair with not a single out-of-place strand.“Thank you. So, can I help you? Is there something wrong?”“Why do you think there is? I just came to see you” “Yeah, you said that once,” I said in a low voice.When my father left us, there were times when I blamed my mother. Then when he died, I shut myself in and left home. She tried a couple of times to get in touch with me, but I disappeared from her radar. She would text me from time to time, tho

KIRAEverything happened so fast. When it was all over, I was quite ashamed. Even if it wasn’t the first time I scolded myself for being so easily tricked. But I wanted him so much. I needed him. We sat up, carefully getting our clothes back on, as he drew away from me. I was acutely conscious of my surroundings—his office, the boss’s office, even if it was Gabriel and the fact that we had engaged in sexual activity here it was like the worst stereotype imaginable. I was eager to leave this place.“See you on Monday?” I muttered and left his office without waiting for a response.So much for my attempt to quit the job.However, if I would be honest, I hadn’t really wanted to quit. I wanted to confront him about what was unfolding at the office, and I could get him to admit that everything was intentional. After apologizing, he gave a justification for his actions. The many tasks and unreasonable timeframes. I couldn’t believe it was because of Mark and we weren’t even dating, yet thi