Fairy Tale Fail

Chapter 11b - #TeamRobotShirt

One indication that work had started not feeling like work was when I would look at the time and not even realize that hours had gone by. Today was one of those days. Our office had a yearly Regional Executive Committee Meeting coming up, and certain department heads were required to attend. My boss Herman was definitely going, as well as three other people from our team, so he asked me to coordinate travel arrangements for everyone.
   This meeting was a big deal. If you were there, you would meet the big shots of the firm not just from Manila but the other Asian offices, and only people of a certain rank were invited. Herman told me that he had a shortlist in mind from our team already, and that I should coordinate with the conference's secretariat about hotel and flight arrangements for two men and two women for four days and three nights. Plus, it was going to be hosted in Bangkok so I went over the program and the social event schedule like I was looking through a Lonely Planet book. It didn't feel like work at all.
   When I last checked the time, it was just after one PM. And then I heard Lucas knock on my desk, and suddenly it was three forty-five.
   "Huh?" I said, disoriented for about a second.
   It was a Friday, casual day, and on his shirt was a robot with a sumbrero on its head. His tattoo was a bit more visible, and for the first time I noticed that it looked like a Chinese character, but not quite.
   "You feel like celebrating?" Lucas said, leaning against the wall of my cubicle, which went up to his waist. "Have dinner with me tonight?"
   Celebrating? I assumed he meant the promotion. Last time I checked my email I waded through half a dozen invites for dinner and drinks to celebrate, but didn't reply to any of them. So technically, I had no plans tonight.
   "Sure," I said. "Where?"
   "My friend's birthday at this bar in Greenbelt.  I think he'll pay for the first two drinks."
   "Is there a dress code?" I said, pointing to his shirt. "I'm sorry but I didn't wear a cute robot shirt today."
   "I'm sure they'll let you in," he grinned.
   "Okay then," I said. I may have become friendly with Rock Star but that didn't diminish the cool factor of Rock Star asking me out to dinner.
   Five minutes later, my worlds collided. Three-fifty PM was when Don used to drop by and invite me to coffee. I looked forward to that particular minute each day, and didn't realize until this moment – when he actually did show up again – that it stopped being a big deal. It became just like any other minute to me.
   He sauntered over to the same cubicle wall that Lucas was leaning on and awkwardly looked at us both. "Hi, Ellie," he said.
   Lucas stopped talking and I could see a hint of evil in his tiny smile.  "Don," he said, shaking the guy's hand, "It's been a while."
   Don's eyes darted from him to me. "Yeah, Lucas."
   I never had the chance to see the two of them together, and I couldn't help but make notes. Don was taller. Lucas was, if I had to be honest, more good-looking, but he had admirers all over the office so we knew that already. Don had a bigger, more muscular bod, but Lucas looked lean and athletic. Lucas was older by maybe three years, and it seemed to translate as being more comfortable in his own skin.
   I blinked and looked pointedly at Lucas, who was not leaving. "Hi, Don," I said slowly. "What's up?"
   "Did you get my email?" Don didn't expect to have an audience while saying this, and looked slightly annoyed.
   "Um, yeah." And I quickly looked at my monitor to check. "Yeah, I did. Thanks. Sorry I wasn't able to reply, was really busy today."
   "Oh, okay." He paused, looked at Lucas, who was politely there but not budging from his spot. "Do you have plans tonight? I wanted to ask you about your promotion."
   "Tonight?"
   Truthfully, my instinct was to say yes. It didn't matter that I had made other plans just moments ago. I didn't know that Don was going to come over at three-fifty, like I was part of his day again, and ask me to dinner. I had been waiting for something like this to happen in over a year, and it was here. If Lucas hadn't been standing there I would have said yes to Don and canceled on Lucas with the most fervent of apologies.
   But Lucas was there, and I was sure he knew that I suddenly wanted to have dinner with Don instead.
   "We're having dinner," he said to Don, oh so casually.
   I was sheepish. "Yeah, we are. How about next week?"
   This was confusing my ex-boyfriend, and I didn't know how to correct it without making me or Lucas look like a jackass, so I didn't explain why we were having dinner.
   "Sure, next week is fine. I'm going to the Regional ExCom in Bangkok so I'll probably be busy on the weekdays. How about Friday? Let's eat someplace nice."
   "Yes, Friday.  Sounds good."
   Don took it like a man and nodded, knocking his knuckles on my cubicle wall before he left. I gave him a flimsy wave goodbye.
   "What was that about?" I hissed to Lucas. "Don was about to talk to me."
   "You're seeing him next week," Lucas pointed out. "He's still going to talk to you."
   "Yeah, well, not if you scare him off."
   He smiled at me and I saw the hint of evil again, and yeah, he knew exactly what he was doing. But then he switched gears and said, surprised, "You got promoted?"
   "It was in the memo this morning!"
   "Those things are too long. But congrats. See? My timing was perfect."
   I rolled my eyes. "What did you come to me to celebrate then if you didn't know?"
   "Merit increase? I read that part." He was unaffected by all of this, amused even. "Friday night? Do I need a reason?"
   "You see what I gave up for no reason?" I balled up a used Post-It and threw it at him. "I've been waiting for that for over a year! What if he misses me and still loves me?"
   I was only half joking.
   "Then he can wait a few more days. I'll see you later."
  
***

Lucas had just parked, and as I was disengaging my seat belt he touched my hand as if to put me on pause.
   "Okay, wait," Lucas said. "Some of the people there, I haven't seen in a while."
   "And?"
   "Because they're Patty's friends. Well, not all, but some."
   "Is she going to be there?"
   "'I'm not sure."
   Ah. I could see where this was going. "So I gave up my long-awaited dinner with Don so I could be your prop?"
   "Settle down one second. Let's get something straight here." Lucas unbuckled his own seat belt and turned to face me. "I haven't seen them in a long time because I knew Patty would be where they were, and I didn't want to see Patty, so I avoided all of them."
   I nodded.
   "Well, now I know that I don't care about that anymore. I'm done with it. And I thought you of all people would understand how I feel and back me up a bit."
   "Of course," I said immediately.
   "Plus they'd give me less shit about everything if I brought someone. Are you okay with that?"
   "What exactly do you need me to do?"
   He looked in the general direction of Greenbelt with some hesitation, and then he exhaled. "Ellie, you don't look at me like I'm someone you feel sorry for. Just keep doing that."
   I did get it. That look was a special kind of pity that even my closest friends gave me. Friends of those who've had their hearts broken want them to recover, but they want it to happen right away, as if we could help it. As if we could just glue ourselves back together. I could tell when they started getting impatient, and yeah, that look was hard to see and be around.
   "So I get to be the cool one tonight, and you're the pathetic one?" I teased. "Do we have to hold hands and stuff? Would that convince your friends to leave you alone?"
   Lucas laughed, but I detected some relief there. "Do you just imagine all the time that your life is a romance story? I really did just invite my new friend Ellie to dinner, because she's smart and likes traveling and is very into pop culture and might fit in with my friends. All you have to do is eat and enjoy yourself." He unlocked the doors and started to get out of the car. "But if you feel like you need an excuse to take advantage of me, just say so, I'm sure we can think of something."
   And then he slammed his car door shut before I could protest. I caught up with him and instead followed up with a solid (but harmless) thwack on the back of his neck.

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Lucaaaaaaas. Haha. OK I like how this part turned out.