Love at the Nth Time

Pig and the Chicken

Chapter 40

I met up with Win in the office where I stayed for three years. He was originally the manager of the production team. Then dad assigned him as my assistant. Hesitant at first, I wasn't used to having someone telling me what to do, as I could manage my time well, and that's when my attention was on accepting and working on projects to create a certain theme for clothing, and the willingness to model part-time.

"That's good news! She's stupid if she didn't grab the opportunity," Win stated, working something on his iPad, which he usually carried around. I paid no heed to the things he'd been doing before, yet somehow I wondered about other people's roles and if it was too complicated, not someone with a higher rank to discover.

Win, a 27-year-old asexual switch, who could get involved in a polygamic relationship once or not in a thousand years, cut the exaggeration, his blabbering on the preference and reality slapped the truth of forcing himself to normalcy into his s****l activity.

"I only had a month, although I'll go back after a year or two, who knows," I mumbled, pointing to the pen on the frame of the women's figure on paper, too expensive to cover up with ink. Win didn't know I fought with dad last night, and the thought of dad telling him would not be an exception before the matter he's also involved with.

It certainly was the rebellion of the youngest daughter that would spread in the company by the process of resistance over the authority established since birth. I groaned and shook my head to get on my drive. Having a way out of here and coming back would be the last thing I'd do.

"If your dad could give me a vacation in Macau while you aren't around, it'd be the best Christmas gift ever," he connoted. I clicked my tongue. Despite him working for me, he was bound to Dad's final decision. I grinned.

"Why not?"

Overjoyed, he invited me over to lunch, a Filipino restaurant that served limited basic western cuisines such as pasta, wraps, bread, and salads of their kind. Even so, the gay in front of me nicely asked me to order local Filipino food. A kind of sour soup in which shrimp was the main ingredient, the veggies included in what Filipinos called Sinigang complimented how it was made. It's delicious and a substitute for the dislike of sweets.

Win laughed in unison at the complete gay before him, trying hard to control it. He pointed the spoon at me whilst he jested about the guy he met at a bar who behaved innocent and reserved as Win approached him in the corner of the room.

"I peeked at his wallet on the table. Isn't it weird these days to leave your wallet to a stranger?" I nodded.

"Not even normal to do," I added.

"Right, and he thought I wouldn't feel like he was not gonna suck the gold out of me. He tried," Win laughed and ate his meal. Eyes on the food, an assumption struck into my head, the reason I stared for a short while at something not within my character to do. "You okay?" Win put me back in my senses. I nodded a little and drank the juice.

I spent the whole day attending the meetings and paperwork, whereas somehow, I could only detect resistance over them. I checked my phone as a notification showed up at the top of the screen and saw a new message on another chat app. Most of the contacts saved in the application were my friends in England and Australia.

*Celine sent a photo

I opened it and saw a wooden barn with chickens inside. I waited for Celine's typing to end. I replied to the photo.

Seth: Why do you have those? Are you a poultry girl now?

Celine: Haha, can I call you?

I scoffed at the way she asked for permission. I have known her for almost a year, and her modesty made her stupid, though I found it adorable.

Seth: Idk, can you?

I answered her phone call, and the topic of the chicken feeding them in the backyard of their house added to the concerns about pigs and ducks. She sent photos as well. Funnily, it pulled me out of the affliction I was enduring. I told her the possible plans we'd make when we stayed in Europe and how she could spend her time whilst always being together would not be an option.

I snorted. My head turned to the view outside and gazed at the other buildings with my back on the chair. The ideology she searched online about Rome and England limited the knowledge she could depend on and believe in. I shook my head.

"No, you're not wrong. Not all right, but yeah, you could see similar faces of me. Hence, you're being stereotyped so, an F for you," I jested. She laughed.

"Failed already? Maybe you could give me a re-test?" I chuckled. I did suggest the free courses in any field she might get her hands on. Getting a job for international clients would give her a better opportunity. However, pursuing something as an employee again to someone had been taken out of her system. Should I say, because of the training and seminars provided by their business and the people who obtained great results behind it? The people behind the opportunity stored the same belief so she could achieve her dreams too. I smiled a little. However, despite how their business imparted them with the sole opportunity to take the steps of achieving what she wanted to do, it's the reason I met Celine and the connection we started to follow another path.

"How are you with the Chinese man?" I inquired as her voice called my name due to the silence.

"Chaoxiang Hu, we're sending back messages. He's a busy man, and I don't like that," she whined softly.

"I'm a busy man too." She grunted a little.

"I know. Was I taking too much of your time now?" Eyes darted at the lack of enthusiasm that showed in the incomplete draw of a woman's sleeveless shirt pattern on the paper. How long had it been since I met up with one of my women? Almost two weeks ago, I met up and had fun with women I met in a bar with no plans of getting in contact and added them to the same women who were willing to get themselves naked in front of me. I, whose clothes were all intact and the wild mind, was the only thing driving my hand to create a breathtaking piece as a replacement from the clothes they removed.

"Um, not really. It's just me wanting to escape from the next meeting set up with the managers I'd leave for the next two years. Not fond of false hopes." Hand took the folder to the other side of the table to check the quarterly reports of overall operations. Who's a lunatic to read and understand these thick layers of paper? I dropped it on the table. I crossed my leg over the other with attention to the outside scenery of the sunset moving past. "Celine, have you thought of working part-time for me?" I interjected in the pieces of stories she shared, partaking in with the Chinese man I'd not wish to waste my time.

"Didn't I already tell you? I'd rather focus on our business and wait. You still owe me a trip to Japan."

"Didn't you cancel it? No second time."

"What? Unfair," she protested.

"That's life, baby. What about working part-time again so we can finally go to Japan?" She sighed. Whoa, that's a heavy one.

"What kind of job?" I snickered and bit my lips.

"Better see you and talk about it in person."

At exactly 7, I left off work with a plan already set up and waiting. Another overlooking in the town of Rizal I and Celine lodged the night after dinner at a nearby restaurant. Props of a picnic blanket good for two, a basket full of fruits, sandwiches, and chips, and a wine of her liking, I arranged.

"Then, the chicken flew! The chicken, I thought it jumped, but it's waving its wings levelled around here," Celine exclaimed whilst her arm gestured over her chest. I smiled and handed her the glass of wine I poured. Sitting down with knees up and facing the night view, I gulped the wine in my hand.

"What about the pigs? I heard them squeaking," I cut my words in disgust, "Damn. I remember a festival in London where this restaurant took out a whole piglet in the kitchen. It's half cooked, that's what we assumed, and s**t, the chef butchered it, and it wailed!"

"Oh, shoot." I shook my head.

"It's the reason I turned to semi-vegan."

"I ate everything? I also have a childhood memory where my grandfather cut a chicken's head. Then its blood spurted out into my leg. I cried, taking a bath." She lowered her eyes. I chuckled and touched her chin to meet my eyes again.

"I bet you were so cute back then." Her smile appeared, and her eyes lowered to glance at my lips, attentive to a single sign. My lips touched hers.