Fairy Tale Fail

Chapter 13 - I'll find you

"No, Eleanor!"
   I rolled my eyes and instead concentrated on teaching Dylan the colors of the rainbow. Maybe it was a mistake, telling Ate Gladys casually that Don and I were planning to have dinner. I had forgotten that she was one of those people who wanted me to stay away from him.
   "And this is orange, Dylan, like the fruit. Orange."
   "Are you fond of punishing yourself or something?" Gladys' eyes were wide and she looked like a suggestion away from slapping sense into me. "Don is a bad boyfriend. I thought you'd gotten over this!"
   "He's not a bad person, Ate Gladys, stop it."
   "You should be watching out for yourself."
   I used to get really annoyed when my big sister acted all big sisterly. She was only two years older and in my opinion, that didn't make her that much wiser.  "I did watch out for myself. Didn't I stay away from him on purpose?"
   She handed her son another crayon and eyed me suspiciously. "And he's had girlfriends since you, right? What did Charisse say about them?"
   Charisse didn't like to tell me about Don anymore, but some things did slip out. I got hints here and there. Don's latest relationship didn't seem to be a happy one, and when I tried to ask why, Charisse only shrugged and said that she was seeing a pattern. She was becoming an expert at changing the topic when I tried to press further.
   "She says he's not happy," I said. "Which I think is very interesting."
   "Do you really think you can handle it? What if he fails you again?"
   That wasn't fair of her. It was more than a year since we broke up, and things changed. He broke up with me not because he wanted someone else, but because I wasn't living up to his expectations of me, right? Well I was my confident and happy self again. This new job, and hanging out with people like Sandra and Lucas, meeting Lucas' cool friends… I felt, well, refreshed. It was the best time for me to reconnect with him; I was ready.
   "Yes I can handle it," I said. "I need this."

***

When I got to the office, a minute before eight-thirty, Sandra was standing by her desk instead of sitting. On her face was the biggest smile I had ever seen (at least on her).
   "We're going to Bangkok!" she squealed, jumping up and hugging me. "I'm sorry. It was in an email from Herman this morning. I should have let you read it first but I couldn't wait. Yay!"
   "What? Why me?" I said, smothered a little by her aggressive hug.
   "Um, because you're assistant manager now and your travel plans were the most efficient and best-reviewed of all Client Services teams in the region? But I'm giving you spoilers, just read the email!"
   I never paid attention to the Regional ExCom before... but it was because I never really thought I'd go there. I used to help my boss at Marketing prepare for things when she attended, but other than that I didn't even know when it was held. Apparently, the following week.
   We all were supposed to leave for Thailand next Sunday evening, which meant we had only a few days to help Herman with all the things he wanted to bring. Half the time I didn't know whether to panic or stay calm... I just had the distinct feeling that I was in over my head, and wanted to laugh at myself.
   On Wednesday, I was walking back to my desk from a trip to the copier and saw Don waiting there for me.
   "You need something?" I asked absently, thirty other things going around my mind.
   "Just wanted to know if you'd like coffee," he said.
   "Oh." Couldn't this have happened last week? Already I was forgetting things I told myself to do. "Um, I only have ten minutes."
   "That's all I have time for too."
   This was a big deal. I was seriously busy, and kept having to push reminders and work stuff out of my mind to be able to savor that Don wanted to talk to me. I checked my watch and it was just after three-fifty.
   I was part of the routine again.
   So what do we talk about in ten minutes? Is he single again? Do I ask that now? How many copies of the booklet did Herman want again? Ten? Fifteen? What was the number of the guy in the printing office? I'm going to need to get that from Sandra.
   Focus! I said, kicking myself mentally. We got the cheap brewed coffee from the cafeteria and got seats near the exit. "So how's your family?"
   He told me all he could in a few minutes. I listened, but drifted in and out of my own planning for the errands I still needed to do.
   "...which is just typical of Frances, don't you think?"
   "What?" Shit. Frances was a girl in the barkada. At some point he had started talking about our friends and I didn't even notice.
   Don shook his head. "You're distracted. Sorry, this probably wasn't a good time."
   "No, this is... I'm sorry. I just have a million things to do and..."
   "It's all right. We'll talk on Friday."
   "Right, Friday."
   We both stood up and started making our way back, and I took a big gulp from my barely-touched cup. (Bleagh. The coffee from the pantry that Lucas always brought for me tasted better.)
    "So Lucas is your friend now?" Don said, a clumsy attempt at small talk.
   "What?" I was in the middle of mentally revising an email to Herman and didn't expect that name to come up. "Well yeah, I guess he is."
   "You used to like him, right?"
   I had never seen Don jealous, come to think of it. None of my guy friends were a threat to him. He on the other hand, called me petty and "imagining things" when I was mildly annoyed by his need to be friendly with every ex-girlfriend. At the time I thought it was just the Good Guy thing to do, but this was also the guy who didn't talk to me for more than a year. Even though I worked in the same building.
   I coughed and shrugged casually. "Well, most of the girls in the office do. That's not really a thing."
   Don nodded, and his shoulders also moved slightly, like it was no big deal. "He has a kid with his ex-girlfriend, right?" he asked pointedly.
   I was halfway ready to tell him that no, Lucas claimed not to be the father, but then I remembered that he would prefer people not be corrected. "I've heard that too," was all I said.
   Don didn't press it, so for the rest of the short walk back to my desk we were just sipping coffee. He said goodbye, and reminded me about Friday. I jumped right back into work without thinking about it. It was just as well – I suddenly wasn't in the mood for a big dramatic reunion, much less one that started in the cafeteria. That was not where "happily ever after" happened.
  
***

The big dramatic reunion wasn't going to be on Friday, either. On that day, an email from Don showed up in my inbox at four PM.
   Ricky is making me redo his presentation right now and he's leaving tomorrow morning! Let's just have our dinner in Bangkok? You'd like that, right?
   I replied, Sure, no problem. See you in Bangkok.
   A familiar feeling nagged at me, but it took a while before I recognized it. There was once a time when I took Don's rainchecks and cancellations hard, but now was not one of those times. Maybe I was just that busy. Or maybe I didn't mind so much anymore.
   "Hey."
   I looked up to see Lucas in the space between my desk and Sandra's. I didn't see him at all this week either, apart from the occasional offer from him to refill my coffee. At first I wondered if he wanted to talk about the kiss, but he gave no indication of needing to discuss it further. I didn't mean that in a bad way, by the way – I just didn't have the time to think it through yet.
   "Have a safe flight, okay?" Lucas said. "I'm taking off early."
   "Don't talk to me," Sandra grumbled, head not moving from her monitor. "I have to finish the math on this in five minutes. See ya, Lucas."
   "Lunch or dinner soon, okay?" I offered.
   "I'll find you," he said.

===

There are only a few chapters left in the actual book, so I'm ending the public chapters here. If you want to continue reading, the rest will be posted as private chapters, as a treat for the people who followed my account here. (If I can make that work!)

You can get Fairy Tale Fail the complete book on Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords, iTunes, buqo, Flipreads. It's also available in print in the Philippines through Summit Media.

If you're unable to read the story through ANY of these options, and you still want to, contact me. I'll see what I can do.

Thank you for reading Fairy Tale Fail on Wattpad! I enjoyed posting this. I did fall in love with Lucas all over again.