Chapter 25

I got out of bed and looked out my window. He was really here. So I walked down without making a single noise. He was leaning against his car as he gave his back to my house. I slowly walked closer to his car and leaned on the other side. He didn’t know I was out so I cleared my throat as to say ‘I am ready to hear you apologize.’ 
“Princi” he called out my name “I am sorry” I stayed silent, I needed to hear everything. “I am sorry for not coming at the coffee shop. I am sorry for ditching you on valentine day. But most of all I am sorry for not coming sooner to apologize.” He moved from where he was standing and stood in front me. 
“I really am sorry.” he repeated his apology. I am a very weak hearted person; he was looking at me with those beautiful sea blue eyes that I couldn’t resist. I gave him a little shy smile, we hugged it out. 
“Why did you come at the office earlier?” he asked as we were hugging. I realized myself from his arms to answer with a glare “I came to yell at you for being a jerk to me.” 
“Why didn’t you?” he asked another question so I gave an honest answer “Because I didn’t know you were in there with people and as soon as I saw them I got so startled that I forgot the purpose of my visit.” 
“Well I promise I will make it up to you, anything you need.” 
“Anything” I asked. 
“Anything” he replied “Tell me” 
“I don’t have anything in mind right now” I answered. 
“Well take your time. The offer stands until you have something you need.”… 
Few months in to dating Shawn; everything has changed. Everybody instead of Oliver and Lucy Chaw has been treating me differently. The older employees look at me like I have committed treason, the new employees look at me in their curious eyes and the free spirited ones slaps me on the back and says “You hit jackpot girl.” I am super annoyed at them. But the one I can’t handle is Melisa Brown. The old lady of the office is nice to me now. She treats me like I am some sort of fragile egg. When I used to walk slowly before, she would scold me for wasting time on purpose but now she tells me to slow down or even take a break. Avoiding Melisa Browns’ yelling was one of the biggest reasons I used to work hard but now she doesn’t even raise her voice at me even if I made a mistake. It was being too much for me to handle, but it was the price I had to pay to date Shawn. 
I am not the only one that seemed to be straggling, MC has her hands pretty full as well. Her plan to keep her parents away from each other has not been working. Her parents seemed to be inseparable. Her mom even brought her dad to movie night. Mr. Clown never came to movie nights even before they got divorced so I assumed he has really changed. But MC was still so focused on the past that she just couldn’t trust her father again. On one of our ice cream nights, MC shared her idea about how she was thinking of getting her own place so as to run further away from her parents. She also said she will need a roommate and offered me the spot. But I declined. I am fine with where I am now, I don’t need any change. Or so I thought… 
Things at work were getting crazier, the rumors are getting wild and any work I get credit for will immediately be assumed that it was because I was dating the boss. We have only been going out for six month and it felt like six years. It was way better when no one knew about our relationship. It doesn’t even feel like I am dating one person, it felt like I was dating the entire company and everybody in it. But I try to hide these feelings from Shawn because I don’t want him to feel more pressure because of me. If only Shawn was not my boss or Lucy Chaw had kept her mouth shut about us, everything would have been fine. I needed to talk to someone but I didn’t know who. I thought of DR. Goodman but I don’t have a session for another week. I thought about MC but she was too occupied lately. She has been too busy hating on her parents relationship; and when she is not doing that, she spends her free time with Chris. I thought about my mom but she has been too busy with work. These days I can barely see her face when she rushes out early in the morning and comes home at night really late. I haven’t spoken to Noah in almost three month because he has been too busy with school. So the only person left was my dad. I know he doesn’t work, I know he doesn’t have friends who don’t have jobs like him and most importantly I know that he will be at home sitting on the couch in front of the TV watching football like he always does. 
So after work I rushed home to lay it on him. I walked in and for the first time in almost my entire life, I saw my dads’ sit empty. ‘Maybe he went to the bathroom.’ I thought to myself and went to the bathroom looking for him. But he wasn’t there. 
‘Maybe he got too tired of the couch and went to sleep in his bed’ I thought again even thought I know my dad prefers the comfort of the couch that the bed but he wasn’t there too. So I called his phone but it was turned off. I got confused. I called my mom and told her that dad was missing but she didn’t even seem to give a damn about him. She just said that she was too busy and hung up the phone. I started to worry. 
Now I am starting to think the worse. What if he went out for a walk and got hit by a car? No way. What if he went out for a walk and then a guy in a black minivan offered him candy and he got in too the van and got kidnapped? What the hell am I saying? My 52 years old father is missing, not a 10 year old child. Just as I was walking here and there in the living room, my dad walked in. Like nothing happened, he said “You are home early.” 
“Where have you been?” I asked in a worried tone. 
“I…I went to… the market.” He hesitantly answered and returned to his seat. He had a black back bag with him.”What’s in the bag” I asked him throwing my eyes all over the bag. He pulled the bag closer to him and answered “I bought some snacks for the game.” 
I sat down next to him and started to ask my questions “Dad, can you give me any advice on how to make things better at work?” 
He had his eyes on the TV and didn’t listen to what I said “Yes, you are doing well.” He said what he always says when he has his attention elsewhere. 
“Dad, I know that you don’t like talking about work with me but I really need your help.” 
He gave no answer so I continued “It is not just about work. It’s also about me and Shawn. I mean I like him and all but him being my boss is making things harder for me.” Dad still gave me no answer so I sat in front of him and block his view of the TV. 
He finally spoke “Then breakup with him!” I froze; did I just hear that right? He continued “You told your mom once that you love your job and would do anything to keep it. But if a boy is standing in the way of your success, I say you cut him out.” 
“How could you say that?” I was disappointed. 
“I have always told you to put your work first. I am not going to tell you what you want to hear. I am going to tell you what you need to hear.” He said in a firm tone. I stood up and went to my room. I stood in front of the book shelf and stared at the coffee mugs Shawn gave me. Why would my dad say that? Why would I want to break up with him? Is it because dad didn’t really like Shawn or is it because he’s really worried about me? There is no way that I am going to break up with Shawn over this. Every relationship needs a little sacrifice. But I couldn’t seem to sleep that night. I have never thought to compare my job with Shawn and I had no one to complain to at this time so I pulled out my journal. No matter how much I tell myself that I am fine, my dads’ words kept whispering in my ears. I needed a way to shut those thought out of my head so I decided to distract myself with a late night movie. Watching a late night movie made me crave a late night snack, so I went down stairs to steal the snacks my dad had bought for the game. 
Dad was passed out in front of the TV so I tip toed closed to the bag and slowly pulled it away from him. I took it to my room and opened the bag. But instead of snacks, dads’ bag had cloth in it. He had his sneaker and jeans pants with white shirt in it. I got confused, dad usually wears his sweat pants and flip-flops almost ever where and only wears his sneakers and white shirt for special occasions. But last I checked, he didn’t mention any special occasion, so why would he need it? I couldn’t figure out why my dad had another cloth in his bag, but what got me more confused was the fact that he lied to me about what was in the bag. I remember him clearly saying that he had snacks in the bag. I was too curious, but since he was sleeping and it was too late; I decided to ask him about it the next day, so I returned the bag to its place. But when I woke up dad was already gone and mom was on her way out. I called out to her “Mom, where did dad go?” 
In a hurry, she answered “I don’t know.” She looked at her watch and ran out of the house. So I was forced to go to work with all the questions I had postponed for tonight. 
The curiosity made time go ten times slower. It felt like the day was never going to end. And on top of that, my name had become the topic of every conversation. Everywhere I go I would hear my name from a distance in between the words of every discussion. Lucy Chaw was the worst. She would wait for the right moment so she can throw my name out and make a conversation out of it. Shawn was no help either. In the middle of a meeting he would call me by my name and gives me assignments he usually addressed to Oliver. And it is at that moment the rest of the employees would look at each other and smirk.