My Imaginary Ex (COMPLETE)

Chapter 6

Five years ago

While Lena and other people from college disappeared from my radar after grad, Zack did not.

He still lived in his parents' house, ten minutes from mine, and we both found work in Makati a few months out of school. He took a car to work, and I rode with him when I woke up early enough.

If I had changed after four years of college, so did he. Especially since he got a job at a big company that distributed food and soap and stuff. He was suddenly required to wear a nice shirt and tie every day, and he needed a car because he had to visit supermarkets in different areas of the city.

I, on the other hand, became the HR girl people submitted résumés to. I didn't mind working from the ground up. My day mostly consisted of sifting through emails and screening walk-in applicants, scheduling tests and interviews, and ushering people to and from waiting rooms.

At the pharma company, I had my own little group. We HR assistants (three girls and a guy) sort of banded together because we disliked our boss so much. We had lunch together, and maybe even caught a movie after work. But I still had my morning and early evening car rides with Zack.

I looked forward to them. I was proud of Zack. He was looking more professional and grown-up every day.

"I'm proud of you too," he said, quickly deflecting any extra attention. "And I think as soon as you get a good offer, you should leave your office."

"I've only been there a few months!"

"I mean, learn as much as you can, and then find another place where your boss won't keep you down doing photocopying and stuff. You have a talent for... for reading people, and you should become a more important part of the hiring process."

What he said was true, but that was the difference between his industry and mine. He was with a batch of ambitious people, all his age, all wanting better opportunities. I was pretty much a part of an assembly line. How long would it take for me to actually influence how a company hired people?

That might take forever. But I liked what I was doing, so I didn't mind if I wasn't on a fast track.

I studied psychology in college, but that only gave an academic background to what I really liked: analyzing people. I thought that I'd have to be a guidance counselor in a high school or something to practice it as a career, but then I ended up in an interesting place, Human Resources. And I've been fascinated by what I've seen so far. It's all about studying people and their behavior. Why do certain people work well together, and some don't? Why do some people who make horrible decisions in their personal lives make excellent executives? Why do some people think that being timid in an interview will get them hired?

I looked at these people who passed through my desk. From names on résumés, they became employees, and eventually I started seeing the effects of their personalities on the workplace. Some were good decisions, others not so. But Zack was right. I liked to read people. Whether or not that would lead to a high-powered career, I wasn't sure yet. Not in my first year on the job anyway.

This nice little carpool routine of ours continued for a few months. Zack's work schedule became a little more erratic, and then he got assigned to visit supermarkets in Laguna, and for a few weeks I didn't see him at all.

That was when I ran into an old friend in Glorietta. Ramon, Zack's friend and my PE ballroom dancing partner.

"Hi!" I beamed, genuinely happy to see him.

"How are you? You work with Zack right?"

"Yeah, Batch Four," Ramon said. He probably meant the fourth batch of their office's management trainee program, as if that meant anything to me.