“Umm…” I murmured as I wondered how I should best deal with their questions.
“You work as his personal secretary, so you must know something…” a team member asked with excitement in her widened eyes.
I could feel everyone’s gaze on me, and I just simply wanted to disappear. Of course, I should have known that something like this was bound to happen. It was such a shame that the company didn’t have solid rules against gossiping in the office although there was a rule against office romance in place. A wild idea entered my mind that maybe I should suggest an anti-gossiping rule to Ace because that just might make my life a little bit easier.
“I’m very sorry to disappoint you guys but I honestly don’t know much at all about his personal life…” I replied before showing them what I hoped looked like a regretful smile.
“Aww…that can’t be true…”
“Are you serious?”
“You work so closely with him and you two spend so much time together, how can you not know anything?”
Their dissatisfied reaction was to be expected. I kept a regretful smile on my lips while I thought of how everyone would react if they were to find out the truth about what was really going on. For the success of the merger, I had to make sure that everyone was fooled and believed in the announcement that Elizabeth just made.
“It’s true that I work as his secretary but that’s only for work, you know. I don’t know anything about his personal life or who he dates…” I replied with a blatant lie.
“This is so disappointing that it’s driving me crazy!”
“I would try to find out all the dirty details if I were in your shoes,”
A few colleagues continued expressing their frustration over the fact that I didn’t give them any juicy pieces of gossip for them to chew on. I had no doubt at all that if I were to say something, it would spread all over the office like an uncontrollable wildfire. Precisely because of that, I knew that it was best that I shouldn’t say anything or even make a comment.
“I’m sorry for disappointing everyone. Working for the CEO is already hard, and I do want to keep my job, you know…” I explained with a small nod of my head.
I just hoped that everyone would let it slide. It wasn’t easy for me to see the two of them together and dealing with everyone gossiping and asking me about it made it worse. I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer I had to deal with something like this. It would probably be best if I got used to it. With that thought in mind, I put another smile on my lips to keep any words from escaping between them.
If only they knew the truth, I wonder what kind of face they would all make. If only they knew that the person that Ace had been dating all along was me. What would happen then? How would everyone react? How would everyone take our relationship?
The thought that started out as an entertaining one quickly turned into a very worrying one for me. One day sooner or later, we would have to tell everyone that we were dating. When everything is over and done with, whatever that means, we would have to come out and tell everyone the truth. Although I had no idea what our lives would be like by then, I was certain that we couldn’t keep our relationship a secret forever. I stared at the curious eyes of my colleagues with a heavy heart.
Just like everyone else, I had been taught since a young age that lying was a bad thing. Precisely because of that, I found it quite sad that I had to tell so many lies lately. Even worse than that, sometimes, I felt like the life that I was living was kind of like a lie too.
“Can everyone just get back to work already? Karina’s been away for a few days and work has been piling up on our end,” a very stern and deep voice spoke up.
“Richard…” I whispered his name.
Everyone turned around to see Richard standing right behind them with a very unimpressed look on his face. I almost felt tears stinging the back of my eyes and it felt like a hero had flown down from above to save me. Richard made a disgusted face as he stared at our colleagues.
“If anyone has free time on their hands, I’m more than happy to share my work…” he stated with an icy cold glare.
“We’re also…quite busy…”
“Yeah…”
A few of our colleagues replied in a humble mumble. Just like when the bell rang out at the end of a school break, everyone dispersed immediately and went back to their work desk without much of a fuss. Just like that, the grilling session was over for me. I looked over at Richard as I mouthed the words ‘thank you’ to him silently. In response, Richard just rolled his eyes at me before turning away to return to his work desk.
…
**A week later**
Nothing happens like magic. I should have known that by then, but I was still sorely disappointed. It had been around week since Ace and Elizabeth announced their relationship to the public and things have not yet died down completely both at the office and in the press. Apparently, the news of their dating and being seen together was something that the press could milk for good publicity and money. I woke up to news of them being featured every morning and went to sleep with more gossip and speculations about their relationship in the evening.
Surprisingly, I did get used to it. Although I wasn’t completely immune to seeing news and hearing gossip about them, my skin was definitely getting thicker. What I couldn’t seem to get used to was seeing them together in person.
--To be continued…
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