Behind Every Man (COMPLETED)

Chapter 04

Chapter 04

After confirming with Archie that he's at work, I prepared to leave my office to go see him. We needed to go shopping. Normally, I'd rather leave this to a professional shopper, but I knew that I needed to bond with Archie some more. Sure, sex with him was great, but I needed him to be more attached to me. I knew that the more attached he was, the easier it would be for me to make him do my biddings.

Sure, sometimes, I like arguing with him, but it's a waste of energy. We could be doing something else than argue. I was reminded of this when I was out with Maven and I saw how teenagers reacted to seeing him. He's lucky he's a good looking guy. These hormonal teens will let him get away with anything. And these hormonal teens will become voting adults who will most likely vote for him, too.

So, no.

The fight's not fair.

I knew that even if I try, I can never beat Maven in any election. Are you kidding me? He's literally the golden boy—at least that's what the public thinks of him. He's good looking, he's a literal genius, and as far as they're concerned, he keeps himself out of trouble. They will literally vote for him first kahit na gaano ko pa patunayan ang sarili ko na mas magaling ako.

That's life.

And instead of fighting it, I'd just work around it.

Hence, Archie.

He's also good looking. He can be smart at times. He just needed to behave now. It'll be fine. We have time. He just needed to listen to me dahil alam ko ang ginagawa ko.

"Good morning," bati ko sa mga tao sa city hall.

"Good morning, Ma'am," sagot nila.

"Just Nadia," I replied with a small smile.

She smiled at me. "Ay nakakahiya naman po..."

I just smiled. "Si Archie?" I asked.

"Nasa office niya po, Ma—" she paused and took a deep breath. "Nadia."

"Salamat," I replied.

I was fluent in Filipino, but I prefer to talk in English—or maybe depending on who I was talking to. I usually reserve my Filipino skills when I'm talking with the masses. They appreciate it kapag kinakausap sila ng Tagalog. Still, English is considered as the language of the elite... which was honestly a bit weird for me dahil nakakaintindi naman halos lahat dito sa Pilipinas ng Ingles.

Ngumiti ako sa lahat ng nakakasalubong ko. Dati, sumasakit pa iyong mukha ko sa dami ng ngiting binibigay ko. Now, I was already used to it. Kaya kapag puro reklamo si Archie, lagi ko lang sinasabi na masasanay din siya. Because I'd been there.

I gave his door three knocks and paused for five seconds. I learned knocking the hard way. Once, I opened the door to my dad's office and saw some woman spread wide eagle on his table while my dad's head was in between her legs. That was a terrible view. Since then, I learned to knock to give them warning that someone's outside. The five second pause is for them to get dressed. I didn't want to see anyone naked.

"Why didn't you just go in?" Archie asked nang buksan niya iyong pinto at makita niya na nakatayo lang ako roon.

"It's your break already, right?" I asked instead.

He nodded. "Why?"

"We're going shopping."

"Now?"

I nodded. "You got any other plans?"

"Well, no, not really," he said. "Being a councilor's boring. You're basically just a yes guy to whatever the mayor wants," he continued as he got his things.