Cyrus is here. He’s freaking here. What to do?

“Finding a way to escape from me?” The resentment in his voice makes me rots in my place. What did I do anything wrong to him?

“Yes. I will go now, enjoy your meal,” I say as I continue to walk towards the restaurant’s double door without looking back at him.

His hands stop me from going outside. His breath fanning in my neck sent goosebumps in my arms. “Let’s talk. Shall we?”

My body looks like it is under a spell as I could only nod at him.

“Good, because we have a lot of things to talk about.” He turns me around and I could see his tired face.

My hands go higher to touch his face, but as I look at his eyes, that snaps me from a trance. I start to withdraw my hands but he stops it from getting lower. He guides it to his now beard face and kisses my palm. Out of instinct, I slap him real hard and starts to run towards the street and went straight to my office.

My colleagues make way as I press the floor number in my office with haste. I didn’t care what I look like now as long as I escape from him fast. The moment I arrive on my floor, I release a deep breath and walk with elegance in my office. Katarina greets me but I ignore her.

“Later, Katarina. I need a moment alone.” I close the office door and lock it from the inside.

Finally, alone without Cyrus near or Rafael pestering me. I clutch my head and try to release the oxygen in my lungs. This is too much to bear, I have to sort what Rafael and I have and Cyrus appears again on the wrong place and time.

A knock brings me back to the reality that I am already a grown-up woman. “Yes?”

“Ash, it’s Yasmin. Could you open the door, please?”

Hesitant to let anyone in, I still open the door and let Yasmin in and lock the door again. She looks at me with sympathy but I shake it off.

“No need to sympathize with me. No one’s dead.” My joke didn’t work on her and she still looks at me the same.

“Ash, I am here, you could talk to me. I heard from them that you are trying to break up with Rafael, why is that? I thought you two are doing fine.” She paces inside my office and looks at the handkerchief that is on my table. “Is it about the guy I saw you with?”

That shocks me. Wait, she saw it? So careless of me.

“That man is the man I am trying to forget.”

“Is that all? I think it has to do with that handkerchief.” She gives me a sad smile and gives her a sad one too.

I keep my mouth shut and divert my attention to the papers Katarina sent to me earlier. I sort the papers that I might consider taking up while Yasmin just follows my actions. I let her be because I know that she will leave me alone if she sees that I am busy. This is something I usually do whenever I don’t want to answer their queries and also when I don’t want myself to be the topic in this kind of discussion.

Yasmin remains in her seat until she falls asleep on the couch, she didn’t leave even if I wanted her to leave. I call Vladimir to get Yasmin inside my office and I open my door for him to go inside.

“Thank you,” he said and nods at me.

“Why are you thanking me? I didn’t do anything that needs gratitude.”

“Still, thank you. We know you’ve gone through many things already and we hope that you will soon find that someone.” The sympathy that is lace with his voice makes me want to cringe but he’s right. With my father’s death, I am certain that I become stronger and stronger every day.

“This is not you, Vlad. Don’t worry, pain is inevitable. If things won’t go for the best, at least I experience the feeling and when it happens again, it won’t be new to me.”

He lifts Yasmin in his arms and bade goodbye. How I wish to experience that kind of love. I went back to my work and a cosmetic brand ‘Tears’ caught my attention. I press the intercom and within one ring, she answers it.

“Katarina, could you come here to the office, please?”

Katarina appears in my office with her sad face but I have no time to pry in her life. “Yes, Miss?”

“I want you to find out the owner of this company and contact it for negotiation.” Her face lights up and she went back to her office.

After a while, Katarina appears again. “Miss, this company is mysterious. They didn’t have any promotions from last year and the company won’t tell who the CEO is. As I contact the company, they will try to send their representative to negotiate.”

I nod in agreement and answer her, “Okay, if that’s what they want. Have they set a time for us to negotiate?”

“They said that whenever you are free.”

“You already know my schedule. What did you tell them?” I look at her, waiting for her answer.

“I said that you’ll be free this Friday morning and they agreed,” she said and bows her head.

“Good. What would be my schedule for this afternoon?”

“The lunch meeting was moved… and you don’t have any scheduled this afternoon except for the papers that need your approval.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me that there has been a lunch meeting?” My head hurts that I have forgotten about the meeting and Katarina forgot to tell me.

“I am trying to tell you but as you heard that someone looks for you. I am so sorry, Miss.” She looks like she is about to be teary-eyed.

“It’s okay. Tell me the important thing first next time.” She nods and I lead her towards the door. “Calm down now, it’s nobody’s fault. The meeting has been moved, don’t worry too much.”

“Yes, Miss.”

I grab my handbag and stops by Katarina’s office. “Tell them that I will be meeting a friend.”

Instead of going to the entrance of the company that I might see Cyrus again, I take a detour and go straight to the underground garage. Not many people go here unless it is time to go home. As I spot my car, I look both sideways to make sure that no one is following me. I turn on the ignition of my car the moment I sit on it and drive towards the garage exit.

The street to Klare’s café seems a little bit silent; no cars nor joggers I have seen in this place. I immediately go out of my car the moment I arrive in the café. This café is own by my friend, Serenity who names this café with her daughter’s name. I spot Serenity changing the café’s signs from open to close. Her face looks dejected and disappointed.

“Hey, Ash! What happened here?” She glances at me and welcomes me with a warm hug.

“Well, the police are still investigating the recent crime near this area.” She releases a deep breath and claims a seat in one of the tables.

I sit in a chair and focus my attention on her. “Where’s Klare? And what did this crime has to do with establishments closing?”

“Well, we don’t have any choice than to obey the orders. This is for the safety of people around this area and the police department will announce the moment this situation is solved. Klare is with her father…”

I look at her with eyes wide open. “What? You let her father get involved with her life? I can’t believe you.”

“Please, Ash. This is my and Kai’s problem. Klare shouldn’t witness that her parents are not on good terms…”

“Then, do something.”

“You don’t understand! It’s not that easy--” she stands and tries to avoid me by cleaning the tables.

As stubborn as I am, I keep on blabbering things that she should have known from the start.

“If I don’t understand, then, tell me something for me to understand. If it isn’t easy, then don’t make it even harder. Sooner or later, Klare will have to choose which side and when that time comes, I hope that she’ll side with you. Trust me, Sere, you can’t do anything about it especially if that Kai has the custody of Klare,” I say and stand from my chair as she chooses to clean the table I am sitting on.

“You won’t understand because you haven’t experienced love. Understand me, Ash. Despite all that he did to me, I still love that man and you are right, I can’t do anything about it. Klare deserves to be loved and she deserves to have a father in her life. You won’t understand because you are still stuck in your past and you just shut off the people around you,” she says.

“Of all people, Sere, you are the one who understands me the best,” I pause as I saw her halt in her way to her small kitchen, “Fine, I didn’t go here to tell what you should know better, but I came here to visit you. I am sorry if you think about me as rude or someone who sticks her nose in someone’s business. But let me tell you something, I care for you, we care for you. If I am a disturbance for you, I think the door is open for me to leave.”

I start to make my way towards the door, but Serenity stops me from pushing the door.

“Let’s talk.” She points the table we have sat a while ago. “This time, please hear my side.”

“Go on. You always know that I am always here for you.”

“He apologizes to me, Ash. Who am I not to forgive him? I am just a human being that needs forgiveness, too and I also take part in what Kai and I have experienced. It was all a misunderstanding and we have already sorted our differences together and trying ways to figure out how to do this right.”

I thread both my left and right fingers. “Good for you.”

I can’t seem to find the right words to tell her that I understand her. They do deserve to have their beautiful love story back and right, who am I to stop them from loving each other. I look towards her face and I see some sadness in her eyes, I feel bothered about it.

“What are you thinking?”

She looks up and meets my eyes. “Nothing. It is because I don’t know anymore if I am ready to surrender my heart and let him ruin it again.”

I hug her. “If you love him that much, you won’t hesitate to put your life in the line just to protect him. Also, surrendering your heart means that you are willing to take the risk of loving someone that isn’t capable of loving.”

“Did you love Rafael? Or you just accepted the order of his grandfather to be his grandson’s girlfriend?”

“You already know the answer, Sere. I tried to love him but I can’t. I tried to break up with him earlier because I don’t want to hurt him anymore.”

She pats my shoulders and looks away. “Is it because you still haven’t moved on from that guy who gives you the handkerchief?” I nod because it’s true, I don’t have anything to deny.

“By the way you are acting right now, I can see that you are only hurting yourself more because you won’t get out from your past. It is a matter of can’t and won’t, and we all know that you choose won’t even if you can.”

“It’s not easy as you think…”

She interrupts me. “Right, I told you earlier it’s not easy but you just interrupt me because you think that I am just making it harder for myself.”

“Sere, breaking up with Rafael is the right thing to do,” I reason out.

She shakes her head at me. “You think so? As much as I don’t want to tell you this but you are shutting him from entering your life. He had done everything for you to see that he is desperate to get to know you but you always find ways to break up with him. That’s not right.”

“And you think cheating is right?”

That stops her from speaking. I continue to speak, “Sere, the man in my past, we meet again.”

After I told her, I counted five seconds to know her reaction. Her mouth gape and her eyes wide looking at me. “You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s here?”

I answer her with an anxious nod.

“Ash, what are you going to do about it?”