Alba POV
Tuesday. Tomorrow we finish the campaign. I'm exhausted, I should have gone to bed earlier but I was talking to Alejandra until late. I wish I could close my eyes and it was Friday.
'Finally, here comes Myria with my coffee.'
MYRIA: Morning.
She's all smiles, she looks happy. She must have spent the night with Sandra.
'I don't care, outside the office she can do whatever she wants.'
ALBA: Good morning.
She stares at me for a while, looking like she wants to tell me something but can't make up her mind. I nod to her to see if she'll finally speak, or leave, or do something.
MYRIA: You're beautiful today.
'Okay, I wasn't expecting that.'
I look at her with my mouth open. Myria said something nice to me. Agh, why did I like it. She's only saying that because she's coming off a night of wild sex with Sandra and she's in such a good mood today that she even says something nice to me.
'Don't let her notice that you liked it. Indifference.'
ALBA: Thanks.
MYRIA: You didn't say hi at the brewery yesterday. Why?
ALBA: You looked busy with Sandra.
MYRIA: Well... the truth is that she tricked me a bit. She said we were going for a drink with the Design people but when I got there we were alone.
'And what do I care, why is she explaining to me.'
ALBA: And you're telling me that because...
MYRIA: So you don't think wrong.
ALBA: I didn't think wrong, you can do whatever you want outside of the office.
MYRIA: I know, but I wanted you to know that there's nothing going on between me and Sandra, and that you could have said hi to me. She's not exactly my type.
She looks at me with such intensity when she says this last thing that for a moment I forget to breathe. Why do she have those eyes that are so... so I don't know, I don't even know what word could describe them. I swallow.
ALBA: Myria, I don't care what you do outside of working hours, what's going on between you and Sandra and also what your type is. If we didn't say hello, it's because we wanted to talk about our stuff.
She stares at me, thoughtful, for a moment looking... sad?
'What did she expect me to say.'
MYRIA: Okay.
I decide to end conversation.
ALBA: Thanks for the coffee.
When she leaves she has the opposite face to the one she came with. She sits at her desk pensive, sometimes I wonder what's inside her head, she seems to be discussing things with herself all day long.
I knew Sandra wasn't her type, she couldn't be, they were too strange couple. Maybe I've been too rude to her, she was just explaining herself to me because... well I don't know why, but maybe I gave her a dirty look yesterday and she felt she owed me. Last night I was angry, maybe she noticed and wanted to explain the situation to me so I wouldn't think she was coming to the office to flirt.
I can't understand why I am so nasty to Myria, she is not so hateful anymore, she talks to me better lately, sometimes I even think she thinks we're friends. But when I have her around I get nervous and those nerves make me push her away and put distance between the two of us. I'm her boss and she's my assistant, I think I try too hard to put us both in those positions, in every way.
'But she's also my friend.'
Well, maybe not a friend, but she is in my group of friends and without her the group wouldn't be so fun. I really like the way she is with Elena and with people in general, she always tries to make the rest of us feel comfortable, she is generous with her friends. It's not a common quality. She's not so nice to me, but I guess I haven't helped her confidence these past few months.
'Maybe I should start treating her better.'
Myria POV
The following weeks were much calmer in the office. We finished the project and it was a success and now the workload is not even half as heavy. I work much shorter hours and often don't even have to work in the afternoon.
Alba is much nicer to me, she seems to have relaxed, I imagine that since we finished work she is calmer. A week ago I bought her a capsule coffee machine for her office so that she doesn't have to go downstairs to get coffee or wait for me to bring it up. Although at first she seemed awkward, I think she was pleased and ended up thanking me. She spends all day making coffee for herself, sometimes she even tells me to have it with her in her office and we talk about silly things.
Awkward conversations, that's for sure. In person we don't have a lot of trust, even though I feel we really know each other a lot because of all the things we are sharing without her knowing.
Because my Alejandra-Alba conversations are getting more intense, longer, more everything every day. We spend the day talking about everything, it's as if we have a relationship even if we don't know each other. We talk until late at night, she is always the last person I say good night to and the first person I say good morning to. Then in the office I have to act as if it's nothing, and deep down it hurts me, but I can't help it.
I have considered several times to stop texting her, to disappear and delete the app. But every time I've tried, I've always made some excuse to continue. Talking to her is like some kind of addiction and I'm unable to stop it.
'It's the right thing to do, though.'
She has sometimes made comments to me about meeting in person, she also finds it strange that we have so much complicity without having seen each other face to face, but I always end up making excuses, or inventing that I'm working away.
Those are the only lies. Who I am and where I am. The rest is not a lie, nothing is. Neither what I say to her, nor what I feel.
--
Alba is nervous this morning and it's very noticeable. Last night, when we were chatting on Tinder, she told me that her father, the boss of the company, who never comes to our offices, wanted to meet her this afternoon and she doesn't know why. She is very nervous because she always puts too much pressure on herself. The work is overwhelming, but not really that much. I would really like to reassure her, but I, as Myria, supposedly don't know anything about this meeting, she hasn't told me.
'But I can't bear to see her like this'.
I get up and go to her office.
MYRIA: Hi, I'd like a coffee, may I?
With the excuse of the coffee machine I can spend some time with her, trying to distract her.
She barely looks at me.
ALBA: Yeah, sure.
MYRIA: You seem nervous today.
ALBA: I have an important meeting in an hour.
MYRIA: Oh yeah? What's that?
I look curious even though I know what she's going to say.
ALBA: My father wants to meet me.
MYRIA: Oh. Don't be nervous, I'm sure he'll congratulate you on a successful campaign.
ALBA: It's been two weeks already, it can't be that.
MYRIA: Don't worry, I'm sure it's not bad.
She looks at me scared and my chest shrinks.
ALBA: Probably not.
'I wanna hug her, why can't I hug her?'
I offer her a cup of coffee.
MYRIA: I've made you one.
'Shit, I'm an idiot, caffeine will make her more nervous, why don't I ever think things through?'
But she smiles at me.
ALBA: Thank you. I really need it.
'OK, not hugging, but what could I do to distract her?'
Alba POV
I'm waiting for my father outside the restaurant where we're meeting and I can't stand my nerves. I don't know why he would want us to meet, he doesn't normally get too involved in my department and for him to do it now can only be bad. I don't know. I've been a nervous wreck since yesterday.
Thank goodness Myria came to distract me for a while, with her idiot smile and a coffee, for a moment I forgot about my nerves. She must have noticed I was having a hard time because she spent almost an hour in my office goofing around, telling me stories about her and Elena as teenagers and showing me some choreography she had learned yesterday from some idols I didn't know but apparently they are very in now. People walking past my office must have been freaking out, but seeing her goofing around and laughing was just what I needed.
My father has finally arrived. I haven't seen him for several months, he keeps travelling and is always busy. Hevia Company is a big company in Korea, we have branches in different cities, even in Madrid there are two, I work in the biggest one, but there are many others and he has to take care of everything globally.
SANTIAGO: Alba, I'm so happy to see you.
We give each other a hug.
ALBA: I missed you.
SANTIAGO: Let's go inside, I'm hungry and I want to tell you a few things.
I hope he doesn't notice my scared face, I'm really worried that I won't live up to his expectations, although I won't deny that sometimes I'm the one who sets those expectations higher than he does. When we went inside and ordered our food, he finally started talking.
SANTIAGO: Well, you're wondering why we're meeting.
ALBA: Yes.
He smiles at me.
SANTIAGO: Well, first of all, because I wanted to congratulate you on the energy drinks campaign, it was an unexpected success.
I'm relaxing a bit, although I was worried that he considered the success as something unexpected, didn't he trust me?
SANTIAGO: And on the other hand, a couple of things. A few days ago I spoke to Juan Manuel, do you remember him?
ALBA: Juan Manuel... yes, I do.
Juan Manuel was my schoolmate until he was 13, when his family moved to New York. He was a very sweet, small, skinny kid.
SANTIAGO: He is now the CEO of JWP and seems to be aware of our successful campaign.
JWP was one of the most important companies in the world, they had started in Madrid and quickly expanded abroad. They were in the business of training pop bands, singers, actors... I can't believe that Juan Manuel, that wimpy kid, is their CEO.
ALBA: We've caught JWP's attention. Wow, I'm a little overwhelmed.
SANTIAGO: Apparently they're going to expand into the North American market and they want us to run the campaign for them.
'Wow, that's big.'
ALBA: But that's a huge opportunity for us.
SANTIAGO: I know,-he grins from ear to ear. -As soon as Juan Manuel heard that you were the one who ran the energy drink campaign, he insisted that he wanted to work with us.
ALBA: But this has nothing to do with that, it's much bigger than that.
SANTIAGO: And I trust you more than anyone else.
I tensed up. He trusts me, after so long I had gained my father's trust, I couldn't let him down, I had to get it right.
SANTIAGO: Next week you will meet with Juan Manuel and his team in New York. You and your assistant.
I choked on my food.
'Me and Myria? In New York?'.
ALBA: Okay.