Closing the door with a thud, Reynaldo felt out of breath. It wasn't supposed to be this way; she had been working for him for heaven knows how long, and none of such had ever happened.
Why did his stupid heart have to soften at this dire moment?
'No! My feelings can not get in the way!'
Rey struggled to walk straight, looking back at the closed door and remembering the hurt and sadness in her eyes. He needed to get as far away from her as possible to avoid succumbing to this strange feeling.
Taking his phone out of his pocket, he ended up dialing Andrew's number. Andrew picked up on the first ring.
"Rey Rey, don't you think it's a bit too early to call me up for feedback? It will take a while to trace the ID of the number." Andrew spoke immediately after the phone got connected, munching something in between.
"Follow me to the boxing ring," Reynaldo ordered.
"Hello? Is this Mr. Rey?" Andrew called after keeping silent for a few minutes.
"Be there in 10 minutes." Reynaldo hung up before hearing any more of Andrew's enthusiastic voice.
Before he had thought of calling Andrew, the thought of going to Fluxx irritated him out of nowhere. The image of the countless sexy blondes filled him with disgust but even more to his anger, he found out he desperately wanted to hold Mia close to himself.
Shaking the thought out of his head and not bothering to change his outfit, he walked towards the direction of the ring while hoping Andrew would avail himself to enable him to vent properly.
***
Mia who had sat down on the pile of her clothes with her now dried body, looked distraught. She beat herself up over and again at her stupidity.
"I shouldn't have allowed him anywhere close to me." Her eyes were reddened, and her lips pouted as she was about to cry.
In such an intense moment, she forgot there were to be no strings attached, and everything was to be transactional. Holding onto the pain and embarrassment of the night, she vowed never to allow herself to fall too cheap for his deliberate deception.
Mia built a wall around her delicate heart, she should have known what she was signing up for when she said yes to the contract.
Feeling the need to yell, Mia grabbed her pillow, holding it tightly against her face, she screamed into it, tears falling down her face and wetting her pillow.
"I did it all for Lucio." She convinced herself when the memory from earlier came rushing back.
"I am doing it all for Lucio." She repeated, and it became a mantra. She repeated over and again till she grabbed her phone and looked at the picture of her brother with a sad smile.
"Get well soon, Lucio; your big sister needs to leave for her sanity." Her eyes were downcast, and her smile was sad.
Not resisting the urge to hear Beatrice's voice, she clicked her number and kept the phone on speakout while lying on her back with her eyes closed, tears leaving silence to give her space to think.
"Hey M! How did it go?"
"You guys were done so fast? It isn't even close to 3 hours!" Beatrice's excited voice made Mia wail out loud.
Her sobs came with hiccups as she kept remembering his words.
"Hey Mia, what's up?" "You have got to be calm, talk to me." Beatrice encouraged slowly. She was patient enough to listen to Mia recounting what went wrong.
"Whaattt!? He said that?" Beatrice's enraged voice blasted through the speakers of the phone.
Imagining her cousin's facial expression and body language left her at ease. At least, she wasn't alone in this whole thing.
"I am so sorry M."
"It's okay, B; it's not like I didn't consent to do this."
"How dare he play with your heart this way? What business did he have coming to your room when he could just call you up?" Mia had the same thoughts, too.
There were no suitable answers, so she left them hanging, she would make sure to lock her door henceforth.
"Do you want to leave?" Beatrice suggested, her voice lower than usual.
"I can't. We need to save up for Lucio's medical bill and this is the fastest way." Mia had her hand over her eyes this time, her towel already loosened leaving her lying bare.
"But your mental health…"
"I will be more careful this time B, I promise." Mia crossed her finger on that already drafting a whole plan in her head to make this work for the period she would be there.
"I will have to hang up now, I need to attend to him as early as possible."
Mia heard Beatrice suck her teeth with a mumble of "You pathetic thing."
"I will be fine Beatrice. Night."
***
Waking up an hour earlier than her usual wake-up time, Mia hurried to the bathroom to take her bath. This time, there was no singing as she hurried through her routine, she would do anything to avoid bumping into him.
Deciding she would start this journey by taking her job more seriously, Mia dressed in her full uniform for the first time in a while. Putting on her knee-length black gown, Mia wore her official white apron, tying it around her waist before forming a bow at her back. Looking at the mirror, she packed her long black hair into a tight bun before putting on her white scarf and tying it to perfectly fit what she wanted.
Hurriedly polishing her shoes and making them look extremely shiny, she wore them and nodded at her reflection of herself in the mirror.
She was about to leave when she had the thought of arranging her room, she didn't want anyone barging into her scattered room and having a misconception about her personality. Having finished with the hurried arrangement and pleased with her work, Mia hurried out not caring to preplan what she would make for breakfast.
Frozen in her footsteps, she didn't expect to bump into him this early, and he wasn't alone; who was that blondie with him?