Trap
1432 Words
Miguel stood at the gate of Ani Farms. He never expected the building to be this short. The company he owned had a fifteen-storey glass-walled headquarters before he sold it. He needed to stop bragging about a company that had crashed. This building may be seven storeys high, but the company it represented still existed. Their red Ani logo is centred on the top of the glass-walled building.
Beside him, Carlos was cleaning the mud stain from the base of his trousers. They had practically run down here after waking up thirty minutes late for their first day on the job, and there was heavy traffic. Carlos was Miguel's first and only friend since he arrived in Manila. They had met on the job recruitment for Ani farms and both helped each other cheat to pass.
They both received the news of their successful application on the same day and went out to celebrate together. They both shared their life stories over drinks at Carlos' house. Carlos had been a business executive with a company worth billions before he was defrauded. Now he was trying to get back his footing so he could take care of himself, his wife, Samantha, and his son, Agapito.
The sun scorched Miguel's head as they waited for the guard to open the gate. Despite the heat, Miguel's feet ran cold. It had been five years since he last saw Anastasia. What would she be like now? Especially after what he did to her.
Miguel checked his wristwatch. They had been waiting at that gate for over twenty minutes.
"Let's just go back," Carlos said but Miguel wasn't having it.
"We can't just give up. We must find a way in."
After about thirty minutes, the gate opened automatically with a click. Carlos and Miguel sighed in relief and stepped into the premises. Cars were lined up at the parking space as they walked to the wide glass double doors at the entrance.
On entering the reception, the air-conditioning quenched the heat in their bodies.
"This is so much better than outside," Carlos commented.
They met the receptionist and introduced themselves as the recruits. She gave them a look of disapproval.
"Your briefing was over three hours ago. You'd have to come tomorrow. You're late."
"We cannot go back home and do nothing while there's work to be done here. I'm sure there's someone in there who can give us our briefing," Miguel replied. There was no way he was leaving after coming this far. He didn't run down there and stand under the scorching sun for close to an hour just to get dismissed.
The receptionist eyed him. "This is your first day on the job, you're late, and you come in with this attitude? I've told you what to do. Leave."
Miguel could not believe the young lady. Just because she was working in an office, she thought she could dismiss them like that. He once had receptionists working under him, she had no right to just dismiss them.
"If I were the owner of this company, I would have you fired!"
The receptionist scoffed. "Someone like you can never own a company like this."
Miguel was about to give another reply when Carlos stopped him, already fed up with their drama.
"I'm sorry for my colleague's behaviour, Miss. We understand that we are late but considering what happened yesterday, we couldn't help it. My wife was in labour throughout the night, and as her husband, I needed to be there to support her. After the delivery, I went around my neighbourhood looking for money to settle the hospital bills just so my wife and my baby girl could return home."
Carlos placed a hand on Miguel's shoulder. "My friend here stayed up throughout the night assisting me. We haven't had enough sleep and I'm sure that's why he's cranky. Please forgive our mistake. We need to resume work today so we can pay those hospital bills as soon as possible."
Miguel looked at Carlos in disbelief. He would never have guessed his friend was such a liar. The receptionist suddenly had a change in countenance.
She replied in a nicer tone and focused on Carlos alone, obviously ignoring Miguel's existence. "I feel your pain. My friend just gave birth yesterday and her husband has abandoned her. Men can be trashy but you're one of the good ones."
Miguel felt attacked by her statement.
"Sadly, the briefing for the recruits has ended and they've been given their appointment letters. But I'll see if I can get you to one of the associate directors. Please have a seat."
"Thank you so much, Miss," Carlos replied.
"You're welcome, and congratulations on having a baby girl."
They both went to sit down on a long cushion close to the wall.
"You don't have to always be aggressive, Miguel," Carlos said in a low tone.
Miguel got defensive. "Aggressive? She was being bitchy. People like that need to be put in their place, and don't think you're all perfect; you lied." Miguel said the last word with added emphasis.
Carlos merely shrugged. "Well, it saved us, you're welcome."
Rolling his eyes, Miguel looked away. There was an elevator opposite them. Miguel imagined Stasy walking out of it and it made his heart sink. A sudden sense of discomfort stole his attention from what Carlos was saying. His stomach knotted in anxiety and he was beginning to sweat. He adjusted his necktie, which suddenly felt tighter than ever. Carlos understood his predicament.
"Worst case scenario, she will kick you out and I'll be your inside man," he joked.
Miguel had told him all about Anastasia when he got drunk during their celebration. While still drunk Carlos openly made up funny scenarios concerning the fact that Miguel was stuck up for his new boss.
In Carlos' drunk words; It would be like one of those romance movies where the female secretary and the Boss are having an office affair but in this case, the woman is the Boss and the man is just one of her desperately poor farmers, with a very slim chance at getting the attention of the billionaire heiress.
Carlos and Samantha had a full thirty minutes of laughter when Miguel told them of his plan. Seeing Miguel's determination, Carlos stopped talking him out of the crazy idea. Instead, he decided to sit back and watch Miguel make a fool of himself. Besides, he needed comic relief from his depressing life.
Miguel gave him the stink eye. "She won't even notice I'm the one. The Miguel she knows is more light-skinned, has brown hair and blue eyes and is super rich. She would never guess the dark-haired, green-eyed Alphonso Tillman coming to work as one of her farmers is her billionaire ex-husband."
Carlos laughed and shook his head. He suddenly stopped and his eyes widened. "Is that Anastasia?"
Carlos wasn't sure what she looked like but based on the picture Miguel showed him, the woman approaching them must be Anastasia.
Miguel tensed and his heart rate blew up. He could feel the small muscular organ pumping in his chest. He looked in the distance at the woman approaching them. "That's not Anastasia," he shook his head.
"Sure?" Carlos asked and Miguel slightly narrowed his eyes on her. The Anastasia he knew was thinner than the woman approaching them. As she got closer to them, Miguel's breath almost seized in his throat.
Her black lustrous heels clicked on the tiles as she walked, swaying her perfectly curved hips in her brown pencil skirt. Her formerly black straight hair was now a curly ombre shade and it bounced on her shoulders with every bold step she made.
The sunlight penetrating through the windows by their far right illuminated her appearance, making her white shirt shine with brilliance. Miguel's mouth hung open. She was an angel, she was Anastasia. And after all those years, she got even more beautiful.
Miguel watched as she walked straight past them with an air of authority. She did not spare them even the slightest glance. Suddenly, he realized what Carlos had been trying to tell him. It seemed Miguel had not fully soaked in his new reality. He was only a poor farmer, and Anastasia was the director of a multi-billion dollar company. Considering the history he had with her, she was surely going to use her position to torment him.
Despite his determination to still try and win her back, he couldn't resist the feeling that he had just walked himself into a trap.
- Writer
