Love at the Nth Time

Adjustments

Chapter 2

Dad questioned me as I came into his office frequently, with his attention on the papers on his desk, as usual. I was lazing on the couch, thinking that it had been two months since I last saw Celine. We merely had two meet-ups. I played with the pen in my hand while staring at the sketchbook.

"Those two sisters you had business with last month, those Pinays. Did you take their proposal?" Dad looked at me.

"Two sisters, you mean Rose? No, it's fascinating, and I like the system of the field. Still undecided, maybe if her sister would be more willing to show any way to convince me, then I'd reconsider it."

Hand paused from playing with the pen and asked, "What do you mean?" Dad shot me a teasing gaze.

"Hmm, you seem interested. Whose among the two?" I scoffed in disbelief. I looked away to disregard my sudden changes of emotion. Curious, I, as to how those ordinary people had taken a lot of courage to show a kind of unknown business. Did they even know who Dad was?

Weeks had passed. Frustrations and stress heightened over wanting to see her again. I had my pride and ego, especially the girl who was not captivating, and what could I get from her? She already had a boyfriend, and she's straight.

"Boss, you look so stressed out! Why not pick up some girls already!" suggested Win. If I could, then I already did. Sighed inaudibly, I was facepalming my face the entire time!

"I wanna see that girl again," I mumbled enough for him to hear. My eyes turned to him as he gasped with a hand covering his mouth.

"Shoot. Are you in love?" This human behaved buoyantly. I scowled.

"What the hell are you spouting? I only wanna see her!"

I heaved a sigh as I looked at the samples. Jeremy forwarded the reference to the additional clothing designs we needed to reconsider. Funny it was, yet why I couldn't even laugh at the joke, and my assistant, for years, now shot me with a doubtful gaze.

"So after you see her, you'll be back to your normal self then?"

"Yeah, I guess..." I faintly frowned in confusion. What's up with the question? Wasn't it usual for me to have an interest in a girl? Ah. I get it. Dad and Win had the same perception in mind.

A couple of days went by, and she was with her sister again. Celine wore a plain T-shirt and jeans. Her hair was slightly curled and scattered between her shoulders. Unsure if she was wearing a face foundation or barely put some lipstick and eyebrow liner on her pale complexion. Too plain, it was. God, I wanted to leave. I leaned my back on the chair.

"Sorry, she just got off from work. Does it bother you?" asked her sister. I looked at her, wearing business apparel. I glanced at the girl in front of me, checking her reaction, still the same neutral expression.

My eyebrows lifted. "No. Yeah, slightly, I understand." I sipped my drink. I tried to catch a hint of coyness towards myself but failed.

I couldn't come up with a precise reason. However, when I saw Celine and heard her voice, it calmed me exactly how I soothed myself. When I was irritated about wanting to do something, I was not sure what it was. Solely observing her put me at ease. Though at first, seeing her looks unkempt disappointed me, as time went by, my mood changed. Her looks weren't that bad.

"We'll take it," I affirmed, and I grinned at how wide Win's eyes were on me. It's funny. Although I didn't understand anything, the older sister was a good speaker. I listened to what I needed to know, how to be a part of it.

The young woman, whom I glanced at sitting in front of me, barely smiled at me. I wasn't expecting her to get hyped when I made a deal with them. I refused to imagine her reacting that way because I swore it would make me cringe. They let us sign the application form and tried to take a stolen picture of myself, though I refused.

"You're a fashion designer, you said. That's amazing, since you can teach us how to choose quality clothes. Our team will be so excited to see a beautiful foreigner as you join us!" stressed the older sister. I stared at the end quote of the business slides on the laptop, a bible verse. I smiled a bit forcefully. Who would want to join that kind of trap? I gazed at the woman right in front of me, and she'd been faking her smile throughout.

"Excuse me, restroom," I uttered, leaving them as I peeked at Celine displaying a signal, but she was talking to her sister, and it pissed me off. I clicked my tongue. She didn't notice how I acted towards her. Was her reaction normal? God, I met a lot of women who were in a relationship already. Still, they could easily catch my signals of interest, and the dumb girl killed it!

The night came, my hand motioned, drawing the curve of a woman's figure on a piece of paper, and I put my phone near my ear as it rang.

"You crazy, Rose got my social account and contact, but I don't even know what to do about this! You're not getting away from this!" Win shouted softly.

"You got her number?"

"Yeah, she's our upline anyway."

"What?"

"She's the one who'll assist you regarding their business."

"Oh…" Win excused himself promptly from the loud noises in his background. A new message popped up in my notification bar. The unknown number Celine thanked me for joining their little business, and if I had any concerns, I'd let her know.

I swiftly pressed the call button. "Hello?" a soft, gentle voice came out from the other line. I smiled as I heard it.

"Hello, upline." She didn't respond. Simply trying to keep the conversation going, I asked, "So, what am I going to do now?"

I smiled when I heard what I was waiting to hear.

"Why did you join us?"

"Just in the mood." I watched the pen swirl from my left hand. I had a client meeting after my appointment with the two sisters, and there were quick moments where her face popped up in my mind and diverted my attention to ignore it.

"You're crazy. What do you want? When I saw you with Winson, I knew you didn't come here for business." I chuckled and admired that she had a strong personality too.

"You seem used to making a fake smile," I snickered lightly.

"What?" Her voice started to get mad — a sudden thrill to stir it more.

"You can tell your sister we ain't interested in the business. My dad hasn't responded yet, so I think this is enough to pay for all the trouble to boot. You just got off from work knowing Winson is somewhat related to you." They were both Filipinos, and my dad and I respect them. She had no reply. Scowled by it, I was expecting she would bark. "Hey, are you there?"

"Do you have anything more to say?" Teeth gritted. She spoke superior to me.

"You should compensate me. I paid for it, of course!" I breathed out in silence. I'm all done. Warmth on my cheeks, embarrassment overtook me.

"You can get it if you're aiming for it, nothing else." I paused for a brief second and noticed her acting professionally.

"Really… S-since I don't have any knowledge regarding that sort of thing, you'll do it, right?" Hold up, what did I just say?

"Yeah, invite people. We'll be the ones who'll present the business to them."

"Okay." I covered my eyes with my hand resting over my elbow on the desk. Tired of reading her, my mind went blank and went along with our conversation.

"Is that all?" What the? Her attitude snapped me! I retaliated,

"Hey you, don't act like you're ahead of me because of this!"

"No, I'm only doing what I need to do." I frowned — What a monotonous voice of hers.

On the spur of the moment, I acted immaturely and was embarrassed by how I acted. Enough to follow what was told. It was all new to me.

Win scolded me as we followed the two sisters heading to the conference room, where I decided to hold their business plan. The two ladies kept talking in regards to their field.

"Why are you on their side?" I asked as I watched Celine walk. I smirked as her rump concealed by her black squared pants wiggled at me. My dark side was satisfied.

"Seth, you're crazy. I told you last night, didn't I?" His voice rose. The older sister's best way of words moved him. They stopped in front of me and Win. I smiled as Celine darted at me.

"What reason did you tell them?" she asked.

"It's a business meeting with Dad, but we can passably say Dad came up with another urgent meeting, so then, the stage is all yours." They looked at each other. Celine laughed softly, and my heart fluttered. I knew she didn't mean to admire me directly; it felt like it was.

Her older sister managed the meeting, and this young lady responded sporadically to the questions thrown to the crowd. She also assisted her on some matters till the end. I looked down. Celine always smiled a lot, even though she told me she was only helping out her sister. It was contradicting to me.

"Seth, Celine will give you a bit of training from what we did earlier," said Rose, beckoning Win to follow her over what he requested. I scowled. What's going on here? These two women were bossing us around.

"Seth..." I gazed at her, sitting in the corner of the office. Sighing inaudibly, I followed her and sat down on a chair, eyes on the marble table. Cynical, a faint sweet scent emanated from her. My eyes gawked at her slender neck, a presumption of where the fragrance rested. "Seth?" I blinked at her eyes and watched her open her iPad. I declined to listen to the same topic. I stood up.

"I'm thirsty. I'll eat out."

"W-wait, can you eat out after our training? It's gonna be quick-" She looked a bit bothered. I refused, putting up my usual expression, and left her. Too serious about their business. Couldn't she see I wasn't interested at all? My step halted. I acted immature again! I took out my phone beneath my suit and dialed her number.

"Hey, come here. Let's eat while you talk." I waited for her to leave the room with her outdated tote bag. I eyed away. The thought of avoiding my habit made every situation complicated. I just met her twice today. How much could I be turned off?

There were different kinds of kiosks, although I rarely walked past them. I pushed up my glasses a bit from my nose, keeping away from the stares. I watched as this woman in front of me checked the menu. She was below my chest level. I liked how her hair moved, though. It was wavy, which gave off life to it.

I stopped the habit of mine when she looked up at me. "What are we gonna eat? D-don't order something too expensive. It's not payday yet." I chuckled lightly. So that's why she's somewhat restless, and telling it to me honestly was nice.

"It's okay. It's on me. You treat me next time when you get your cheque." I caught a sheepish smile. "Let's go outside," I said as I carried the paper bag of what we had bought.

"I'll carry the drinks." I gave them to her, and she followed me from behind. She used to bow her head to people who passed by. Was she shy of them? We went to the terrace outside. "So, can we go for training now?" she asked while I took out the food we ordered. Being with her alone emitted strange congeniality.

"You don't have work today?" I asked when she gazed at me while she ate her food.

"Ah, I was absent because of this sudden schedule. It's fine since it is way more helpful in my future than my job anyway." I formed a secret smile as she gobbled down the sandwich with a mouthful bite each time. She ate adorably. She didn't even mind using her bare hands, not checking at me if it wouldn't offend me. I diverted away, dating high-end women, and being with her was refreshing.

"This is delicious!" she announced in a lively way.

"What is?"

"Bite some, taste it." I did what she said and bit a little on where she took the first bite. She said it was delicious. I chuckled and concluded,

"It tasted normal."

"Hmm, no, you're just used to eating this kind of food. Waa, this is yummy too." My heart thumped for a second.

"You know how to cook?" I asked.

"No, I know how to eat well." I laughed, she chortled. So, this was how to get closer to her — food. She loved it.

"How are you and your boyfriend?" Our eyes met.