Love Pentagon

Serene

"Serene, Mr. Shawn is on his way! Come on!" My co-worker, Natasha Maurice, cried as she poked her head into my office via the tiny opening of the door.

She seemed tense. At first, I had thought she had been dramatic when she had cried out that much. But, paying attention to her words, an invisible alarm hollered in my ears.

Mr. Shawn was on his way? Damn, no!

I widened my eyes, and gasped. "Gosh, what?! Why the heck would he come all of a sudden?"

"Will you sit there asking me questions, or get your ass here?!" She lowered her eyebrows at me, the fretting tone in her voice aggravating.

"Okay!"

Like a maniac, I slammed my pen against the glass table in front of me, hopped from my seat. Grabbing my suit jacket which I had placed on my table, I slipped it on in a rush, flipped my long, brown hair past my shoulder. In a short while, I glanced at the rectangular shaped mirror which was placed on the wall beside me, and cleared my throat as if I was about to state a speech at an event.

"Are you nuts? You're trying to look good for the CEO or what?" Natasha scolded.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her prattle, just clipped my staff ID to the pocket on my shirt, then made my way out of the office with her.

Only taking a step into the corridor and shutting the door behind me, the tension hovering around me kind of increased. Natasha and I weren't the only ones who were trying to get to the last floor as soon as possible. The whole workers on this floor were also trying to do that.

I blinked like a confused pig, trying to calculate and decipher what was going on around here. First, I might not successfully reach the last floor before the CEO arrived, owing to the fact that the elevator wouldn't be able to contain the great crowd who were rushing to the last floor. Second, if I kept standing here, I wouldn't make it in time!

"Snap out of it, cow!" Natasha gripped my wrist, began pulling me towards the elevator.

As we ran over there, my ankles hurt. If I had known that I would take a short race today, I wouldn't have worn these scarpin shoes to the office. Also, why would the CEO be coming over without leaving a notice, prior to now? Well, he was the CEO. He could do what he wanted.

Mr. Raymond Shawn, the CEO of Twinkle Stars, was that one person who never took shit. He was bratty, a man who never broke his own rules, extremely classy, cold, and worst of all, he was the one person who could determine my future. Speaking of my future, it wasn't like I was being caged by him or something. As we all knew, the CEO was the person in charge around here. If he fired me, my life would be a mess, knowing that working here was my only source of living.

"Come in here!" The elevator door was about to close, but Natasha managed to pull us in. When we stepped in, we sighed in relief. She glared at me. "Can't believe you're not a smart-ass after all. How can you be so sluggish in such a terrifying situation?"

"Yeah right." I flapped my hand at her, being apathetic to help words. "Keep your comments to yourself."

"Of course. I will." She hissed.

After the journey that felt like forever, we reached the last floor. In a jiffy, we all rushed out of the elevator, ran with so much intensity, and lined up in a straight line. We all put our heads down, waiting for the so-called, mighty Mr. CEO to arrive.

I took a deep breath. Encountering Mr. Shawn had always been an earthquake for me, in the nine months I had been working here.

The moment the glass door beside me opened up, the whole place went silent. It was silent enough to the point that the footsteps of Mr. Shawn were the only things that could be heard. As he stepped in further, my heart slipped to my stomach.

He stood a few steps away from me, standing like a mango tree. He cleared his throat. "Who is Ryan's Secretary?" And inquired.

My heart jumped to my throat. Wait, as far as I knew, I was Ryan's Secretary. Gosh, what now? Was he going to fire me or something? I had always known that working for that ass would implicate me someday!

"I'm Ryan's Secretary." I gulped. I had tried as much as possible to not stutter.

He walked to me. Standing in front of me, I had no choice but to look up at his 6"4 height.

"You?" He wiggled a brow at me, his hands behind him.

"Yes, me," I responded, being as dauntless as possible.

Staring at him directly was something no woman in this company wanted to do. The grey color in his eyes could make someone's heart burst out in admiration of how good he looked. Talk about the straight nose, full eyebrows, small lips and the good height he possessed?

For some very irritating and unfathomable reason, he smirked. "Hm... nice. Meet me in my office tomorrow. Seven o'clock in the evening."

"O-Okay." I couldn't help but stutter. "You need something?"

He stepped even closer, his tall height overshadowing my 5"9 height. Unexpectedly, he winked. How unprofessional of the CEO of such a great company.

He leaned close to me ear, then whispered, "I have something for you."

His hot breath tickled the helix of my ear, a shiver jolting down my spine. If I didn't have a boyfriend, I would have surely been drooling for him already. The heat emanating from our closeness was definitely making my senses go blank. It was as if my thoughts were making the "bleh..." sound. This flirtatiousness was too much for a saint like me.

I nodded swiftly.

He pulled away. Like the boss he was, with a snap of his fingers, ten to fifteen men hurried over to him. And soon, they all left this proximity. I exhaled hard. Dealing with men was a hard thing for me.

I stood in my tracks for a while, then headed back to my office.

***

Seeing it was seven already, I felt a bit glad. Finally, it was time to leave the office. Heaving, I grabbed a couple of files from my table, tugged them to my chest, heading to my boss' office.

I knocked on his door, waited patiently for a response. Since I got no quick response, I knocked for a second time. This time around, he asked me to come in. And, the moment I stepped in, I shut the door behind me.

I gulped. Here I was. About to have an encounter with that one person I never liked to see, Ryan Arthur. Yes, encountering him was another "earthquake" for me.

Ryan was that person who made my life miserable. Working for him was worse than running in a fire. He was that one person who called his secretary by her name, and never cared to pay any respect to me. What a shame, right? But, did he care? Absolutely not.

He had his eyes glued to his laptop as if I wasn't here. I cleared my throat in order to get his attention, but all he did was to glimpse at me. How rude. Of course, I was used to it.

"I'll be on my way home." I walked close to his table, ensuring I wasn't being clumsy. He didn't like that at all.

"Yeah, whatever." He took some files from his table, glimpsed at me for a second time. "Have I ever cared about that? Why tell me?"

"Um, cause, I won't want you to search for me while I'm not even here." I kept the files on the table, arranged them properly so he wouldn't have any reason to complain about them. "Here are the files you requested. Will you need anything else?"

He leaned into his seat as he skimmed through the paper in his hand. "Donno yet. You can wait a little longer, huh? Pretty sure that shouldn't be a problem."

I sighed. "Alright, fine then. Um, also, I wanted to ask why you didn't come out of the office to welcome Mr. Shawn. He can fire you for that, you know? You know he always has a problem with you."

"Is that supposed to be your problem?" He looked at me, fury hovering in his eyes.

I bit my lower lip. "Oh, sorry. Was only trying to, you know, ensure everything goes well."

"This isn't the first time I'll ask you to stop talking about that dick." He stood up, glaring, his hands behind him. For some unknown reason, he started sauntering towards me.

I gulped. "I-I'm sorry, sir."

He stepped close, and closer, and closer. "I hate him," he avowed.

"But, he's the boss around here." The shaky tone of my voice was proof that fear was swimming through me.

He glared even harder. And, when I noticed he didn't resist stepping close, I also began to step backwards. What could I do? I wouldn't let him bump into me, would I?

"But, I'm the boss around here." There was a bit of irk in his tone.

As if the wall had wanted him to stay close to me, I hit my back against the shitty thing, looking up at his tall height. Fright ran through me. Until now, I hadn't known I was this scared of the man who I had been working with since months ago.

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered, swallowing a lump in my throat.

He stared at me, kind of pinned me to the wall. I stared as well, wondering why there was this crazy silence between us. What the heck was this? A romance novel or movie?

Not at all I had expected this, but I noticed the corner of his lips curling into a simper. "Hey." There was a little raspiness and flirtatiousness in his voice. Okay, this wasn't the first time he'd sound this way. "I haven't noticed that you look pretty. It's nice to have you close, you know?"

I gulped. "Mr. Arthur, did you like, drink something tonight?"

He scoffed. "A big deal to tell my secretary that she's pretty?"

"Hm-hm." I shook my head gently. "But, um, we're workers. We shouldn't break the rules. As Mr. Shawn has stated, no closeness between the workers."

"Mind if we-"

The sound of the door cut him off, and even made us flinch. He shut his eyes, exhaled hard, wore the stern look, then moved his gaze to whoever had come in.

Embarrassed, I slowly turned to the person who had come in, only for me to see this annoying freak who tagged herself as "His Girlfriend". I almost rolled my eyes, hating the fact that I had to see her. But well, I had to pay some respect to the visitors.

She moved her eyes to me, moved them to Ryan, then moved them back to me. Her nostrils flared, and there was no doubt that she was furious.

"What're you both doing? Smooching each other in the office?" She squeezed her face. Yeah, her head was obviously racing in wrath. But, I cared less.

Wait? Had she just said we were smooching each other? Gross. Smooching my boss? How ridiculous.

--

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It wasn't like I had been doing something bad with him. So, there was really no point in feeling embarrassed.

"Oh, gosh," Ryan muttered underneath his breath.

I gazed at her, admiring how good she looked tonight.

Sherri Dustin was a person no lady would like to be friends with. She had a way of intimidating people, either by her excessively, luxurious style of dressing, or by her blatant way of speaking. I truly didn't appreciate her personality. I would say she was mean.

She was dressed in a dark mini skirt, a white off shoulder crop top. As she wore that crazy stern look, she squeezed her purse in her palm, which was evidence that she was so angry. She took a step close, and that was when I noticed she was wearing stiletto shoes.

"What's going on, Ryan? Do you wanna lose your job by hooking up with her?" She obviously wasn't able to contain her anger.

I scoffed. One thing I hated was if my character was being questioned. Nobody had to tell me I was decent. I knew it myself. So, how the heck would she accuse me of hooking up with the guy she liked?

"Hey, no one's hooking up here. Don't spit out some trahsy words." Yes, I was furious. Who cared if she was the visitor?

"Excuse me?" She tucked some strands of her flat-ironed hair behind her ear, linked her arms on her chest. "Did I ask you to speak? I was talking to your boss, woman."

"Yeah, but don't question my attitude." I faced her, ensuring my sassy look was menacing enough to keep her mouth shut. "Ask Mr. Arthur what he was doing, rather than making a conclusion that we were smooching each other."

She snorted. "What do middle-class people like you do to rich men like him? Don't try to act like a saint. I know you don't mind letting him taste your body for some cash."

"Hey!" I couldn't control my fury, so I gripped her arm, yanked her to me. "Mind your words, woman. Fine, you're rich. And so? What makes you think every middle-class woman's a gold digger?"

She sniggered "Um, cause, obviously, y'all are too poor to afford the basic things of life. So, I guess you have no choice but to extract some money from the rich ones."

I tightened my grip against her arm. One thing I knew was, no one, absolutely no one, had the right to speak to me in such an insulting manner.

"Serene." Ryan's voice cut me off my thoughts. Who knew if I was already planning to hit her hard? He held my arm, spun me around to face him. I glared at him as if he was the reason for my predicament, while he just twitched a brow at me. "What's with you, woman? This isn't the first time you see Sherri being this way. Why are you overreacting?"

"Overreacting?" I scoffed. "You see nothing wrong about this, sir? How can she speak that way? Yeah, whatever, she's rich. And so what?"

He frowned a little. "Hey, you need to respect the visitors. Enough of this now. Just leave."

I snapped my arm from his hold. I knew I was supposed to pay some respect to my boss, but I really didn't like this woman.

I twirled around, ready to take my leave. But, before going, I gave her a smirk. She was glaring, and I liked how she seemed frustrated. Ryan sighed out loud, and just walked to his seat. She was also about to walk away, but I held her arm back.

"What?!" She spat out in a whisper.

I sighed. "Insecure people are the ones who cry out at every little thing. If you're jealous, just ask him to pin you to the wall. It's as easy as that. And yeah, I've got a boyfriend. I've got no time for your man."

She gritted her teeth, and choke out, "Bitch! You're messing around with me?"

I shrugged, being so indifferent to her threatening look and voice. "Nah, nah. You're messing around with yourself. Goodnight, my lady."

"I swear, I-"

"Night." I cut her off. Still angry, I took my leave.

Walking back into my office, I didn't think twice before preparing to leave. I couldn't believe someone could accuse me of such a disgusting thing. And, this was all Ryan's fault.

***

It was past eight already. After leaving the office, rather than going home, I had decided to pay a visit to my boyfriend's place. It had been a week since I had seen him, and I knew he wasn't happy about the fact that I hardly had time for him.

I smiled as I took a turn to the next street, which was the street he lived. I was a bit fearful, knowing that he would be annoyed at me. Well, since he had a good heart, he might not be as angry as I expected.

I glanced at the bag I was holding, which contained two burgers and an orange juice. Ralph was lazy when it came to cooking, and there was no doubt that he would be glad that I had bought dinner for us.

I took a deep breath when I got to his apartment. Knocking on his door, I waited patiently for him to answer me. I pursed my lips, thinking of calling him. What if he wasn't around?

About grabbing my phone to give him a call, the door opened up. I sighed in relief, smiled as I stared into his nut brown eyes. He smiled back, but I could sense something wasn't right with him.

"Hey, baby?" I stepped in, curled my arms around his neck, giving him a small kiss on his lips.

He smiled. The smile really seemed like a feigned one. "Hey," he returned my greetings.

Oh, yes. Something was going on with him. His body language was proof that he wasn't fine.

I caressed his hairline, then pulled my lips into a pout. "Are you fine? What's with the low and tired voice?"

"Let's have a seat." He pulled away, seeming even more exhausted. It felt like he didn't want me around here.

My eyebrows knitted, as I fretted. "Okay. Please, do tell me what's going on, hm?"

"Sure." He nodded.

We settled to sit on the three seater sofa in his living room. He sat beside me, gazed at me intently, but said nothing.

I raised a brow at him. "Do you wanna keep staring at me like that? Go on. Say what you wanna say, dude."

He sighed hard. His eyes looked down, and his fingers intertwined in one another. It seemed so much like he was being hesitant. This was creepy, and it made me even more nervous and worried. Ralph wasn't a great talker, but he was never this silent and gentle.

He finally stared at me, sighed again. "Serene, I've made up my mind. At this point, I need us to break up."

My heart throbbed against my chest. I trembled in fear. Wait, he had to be playing a prank. There was no way he would ask for a breakup, after two years of dating me. That was surely not possible.

"Wh-What?" A word eluded my lips, after a short silence between us. If this had to be true, my life would crumble. No, my Ralph couldn't do this to me.

Numb, I just laughed weirdly. Yes, I had a boring boyfriend, but that didn't mean he couldn't joke around. Maybe he was only trying to crack me up, or pull my legs.

I shifted close to him, took his hands, smiled weirdly. "What's up with you? You're playing around, huh? Fine, fine, I get that. But before you continue to joke around, let's eat first. I missed lunch today, so I'm so famished right now."

"I'm not joking." He shook his head. The terror, anguish, and every other emotion in his voice was killing my heart.

I huffed. "Come on, stop it. Things like this aren't to be used for jokes, okay?"

"It's really hard to have a girlfriend who hardly has time for me." He ignored my words, only resumed stating what he wanted to.

My eyes watered. This had to be a lie. I couldn't bear losing him. No. Not now. I loved him so much.

"Ralph?" I called out in a whisper.

His throat moved as if he swallowed, and he shook his head again. "I feel really bad about this decision I've made though. Aside from the fact that you don't have enough time for me, I'll be away for two months. I-I don't want a long distance relationship. It's crazy."

"No, the breakup is what's crazy. How can you just ask for a breakup all of a sudden? Can't you think about me? About my love for you?" I spoke as if I was speaking with the last breath in me. I was so shook and upset.

He sighed. "You work a lot, same as me. These days, we haven't even been spending time with each other. A relationship without communication isn't worth it."

"Rather than end it, we can work on our flaws," I suggested. A tear left my eye, and I felt so pessimistic about this discussion. "Please, don't do this to us. We've been dating for two years. I-I'm twenty six. How in the world do I begin a new relationship at this stage?"

"In that case, let's separate from each other. That'll help. We should take a break," he insisted.

The way he seemed to not want this relationship anymore, made me so perplexed. How could he take this huge decision in only a week? The last time I had seen him, we had both been so happy with each other. This felt too sudden and stupid.

I squinted my eyes at me. "Tell me, are you seeing someone? Is there a better person than me?"

"No, no." He shook his head swiftly. "Th-That's crazy. Why would you think in such a manner? You're supposed to-"

"Then what else can I think about?" I cut him off, sniffled, pulled my hands from his. "I haven't done anything wrong, have I? Or wait, are you doing this because I didn't agree to sleep with you? Is tasting my body the priority of dating you?"

He looked away. "Let's end this conversation. I'm not in for this unnecessary discussion."

I was silent for a while. Had he just said "unnecessary"? Wait, he wasn't taking this sudden breakup as a big deal? How ridiculous and shameful. He really wasn't worth my time and tears.

I stood up immediately, swallowed the morsel which was in my throat. "You're right. I should leave. There's really no point in speaking with you."

He nodded, still not looking at me. "Yeah. Thanks for understanding."

I took my bag from the couch, turned around, and left immediately. Being upset was an understatement to what I felt. But, instead of asking him for the reasons he wanted a break up, I would respect his decision, and move on with my life.

But, where was I going to start from? He had literally wasted two years of my lifetime.

This was devastating.

***

Natasha raised her eyebrows at me. Noticing she was about to ask me something, I focused on the documents in front of me. As a nosy person she was, there was no doubt that she would ask for the reason I looked exhausted.

"Tell me, what's up with you?" I guessed right. She asked the same question for an uncountable time.

I rolled my eyes, leaned back, looked at her. "Tasha, what's your probs? I already told you that I'm fine. I'm only tired. That's it."

"Only tired?" She propped her elbow on my table, kept her chin in her palm. "Being tired is obviously far from what I see in your eyes. Tell me, did you get hurt by someone?"

"You know what?" I slammed the documents against the table, being so flustered. "I should just leave. I'm done working. And oh, it's a few minutes to seven. The CEO needs to see me, remember?"

She dropped her jaw, her eyes widened at me. "Oh, wait, wait. Don't tell me there's a thing between that dude and you. That'll be crazy, you know?"

"Whatever it is, it's not your business." I took a bunch of files, put them in my handbag, preparing to leave. "Also, don't forget to do what the manager asked you to do. Don't make these unimportant blabs ruin your work."

She raised a brow at me. "Pardon?"

I feigned a smile, stood up. "Nothing. Just go to your office. Goodnight."

She stood up, sulked at herself, then made her way out of the office. As soon as she left, I also walked out, heading to Mr. Shawn's office. After yesterday's incident at Ryan's office, I didn't think it was important to tell him I was leaving. I couldn't bear seeing that irritating freak, Sherri.

I stepped into the elevator, took a deep breath. Of all the female workers in this company, I wouldn't have expected Mr. Shawn to show some interest in me. Fine, yesterday, when he had asked who Ryan's Secretary was, he had only intended to scold me or something. But now, I had a great feeling that he was going to flirt with me. He had better know that I wasn't a gold digger like Natasha or the other female workers.

Soon, I got to his office. I shut my eyes, bit my lower lip, really hoping that nothing would go wrong. About to knock the door of his office, a force pulled me from behind, spun me around, which made me gasp.

I looked up at what was in front of me, only for me to see my annoying boss, Ryan, glaring down at me.

"Mr. Arthur?" I blinked like a confused dog which was in a wilderness. "Wh-Why would you pull me that way? Are you fine?"

He twitched his neck sideways, exhaled. "What do you think you're doing? I heard a bunch of people gossipping about you and Raymond planning for a meetup, so I had to come here. Tell me, you're really gonna let him flirt with you?"

"Mr. Arthur." I glared as well. This was definitely no good way to treat one's secretary. I wasn't expecting him to respect me, but why did he care? "Do you mind minding your own business? What's with the meetup and all? He's only asked me to come here, probably to discuss my work here."

He grunted. "See, you won't see him. I know Raymond better than anyone. Leave here now."

"Hey, stop." I felt even more annoyed. This man needed to know how furious I was. On one hand, I was heartbroken. On another hand, I didn't like the way he seemed protective of me. He was nothing but my boss for Jeez' sake!

He gripped my wrist, stepped backwards. "You're coming with me, and that's final."

"Mr. Arthur!" I yelled, but he only ignored me, and began pulling me. With so much force, feeling extremely angry, I jerked my wrist from his hold. "Stop this! What're you trying to do?" I inquired.

Suddenly, the door of Mr. Shawn's office barged open. I snapped my neck around to look at him, feeling quite uneasy. He halted in his tracks, raised his brows at Ryan and me. And, the moment he was about to say something, Ryan jerked my wrist, towed me to him, glaring even harder.

I widened my eyes in fear. "M-Mr. Arthur?"

"Don't argue with me," he warned.

Before I could take time to understand what was going on, his hand crawled to my waist, and he locked the space between us. It took time for me to notice something tugging my lips.

Alarmed, I widened my eyes, feeling numb like a frozen bird.

No, no, this had to be a dream. My boss was kissing me? But, why?

It seemed like I would have no choice but to muder him. How could he have the guts to taste my lips? So frustrating!

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