Starting Fresh (Lorica Series #1)

Chapter 11

Tovi spent her whole day alone at the office. Cole didn't come back and neither was Sandy. She knew that the two of them hung out together the whole day. After her shift, she was able to finish her work earlier than before. Because of her allotted time, she thought of checking Cole and Sandy's social media. And she saw Sandy's post of her and Cole being together at a fancy restaurant. It was posted two hours ago and it appeared that they did this around lunch time. She scrolled further and saw that Cole and Sandy have been hanging out since they were in highschool. Even to their youth days, they were both attractive. They studied from a prestigious school and their uniforms looked expensive.

She saw Sandy's recent status saying: "Our dreams will finally come true!" And it showed a picture of her showing off her beautiful ring. Cole was nowhere in that picture in which Tovi finds it odd. She kind of hoped that the relationship of the two of them is just more on Sandy's side. But seeing their pictures together in the past, they seemed really happy and close.

Both of them have a lot of followers. Sandy's status got a lot of comments and votes and most of the people reacted happily and were congratulating them. Tovi got off from the social media feed then sighed. She envied Sandy and Cole for having a life like that, in which she wished that her father didn't force her to go work and live on her own, which resulted in her pregnancy with her ex-boyfriend.

But that was just the past. Tovi has no time to dwell about it. All that matters is Tori is always there, waiting at the front door for her to come home everyday.

Tovi went home and greeted her daughter at the dining room. She threw her a hug and helped her with her assignments from school. Then they both sleep together on Tori's bed.

The next morning, Tovi went to work then she saw Cole and Sandy holding hands together at the entrance of the building. Tovi quickly hid behind the big tree so that she wouldn't be seen by Cole. She didn't want to face them and possibly embarrass herself from them. Well, it was because Tovi felt like she was a bit upset with Cole's engagement with Sandy.

She watched them enter the elevator as someone tapped her shoulders from her behind.

"Oh jesus—" she exclaimed and saw it was Adam who tapped her back, smiling.

"Why are you hiding and who are you hiding from?" Adam asked, wearing a mocking smile.

"N-Nothing! And what are you doing here?" Tovi asked, then she noticed that Adam was holding a cigarette in his hand. "Oh."

He put the cigarette on his lips and puffed its smoke out from his mouth. "I saw that your boss is with his fiancée."

"Yeah, I know," she said.

"They're good together. I heard that they're both eighteen?" he said. "Man, that's what the money does to these young fellas. I kind of feel sorry for them."

Tovi felt the same way too with Cole. She remembered that Cole hated his father for controlling his life and he couldn't do something about it.

"I gotta go. Work," she said as she partly glanced to her silver watch.

"Bye! See you around," Adam said then Tovi turned her head and gave him a short smile. Her eyes went back on the road as she passed through the empty narrow road that was in front of the Lorica's main entrance.

She went in and watched the numbers on the elevator rise up. She stopped at the fifth floor and stepped into the production floor. She quickly spotted Amy, Tiana and some of her teammates gathered around, having a meeting. Tovi watched them with her arms crossed on her chest. Then the agents scattered around and went back to their seats. Tovi approached Amy and Tiana.

"Tovi! What's up?" Tiana greeted her.

"Another busy day!" Tovi said with an enthusiastic tone and her shoulders shrugged.

"Oh, by the way, have you heard about the news that Cole and the daughter of the WiseLine's CEO were engaged?" Amy asked.

"How did you guys know about that?" Tovi asked.

"Someone told us. It was just a rumor that spread all throughout the floor," Tiana said then they heard some of the girl's squeals and whispering around the floor. They turned their heads at the direction where the commotion was from. They saw Cole and Sandy walking together at the floor, holding hands together, with Sandy smiling proudly while Cole had a blank expression on his face.

"Oh my gosh! They look so attractive!"

"My hormones are exploding!"

"Oh my gosh! I envy them!"

She heard overlapping phrases from their colleagues' mouths as Cole and Sandy walked past at them. Tovi noticed that Cole has a blank expression while Sandy would look proud and feel like she was the luckiest girl in the world.