Love at the Nth Time

Moving Backward

Chapter 25

"You will be my secretary for a while." I stopped the piece of strawberry shortcake from entering my mouth and gazed at Seth. Her cyan eyes turned at me over the papers in her hand. "I said you would be my secretary while Win isn't here yet."

"No way," I muttered.

"Yes, way! Why are you like that? How much do you want?"

"Ah? Are you crazy? You know I'm busy with business." I ate the cake, and the balance of sweetness savoured in my mouth.

"I'll take you to Japan at the end of the month." I looked at her again and caught her smile.

Chinnie walked away, not waiting for the last accusation she pointed at me. I'd never imagined her to attack me since I'd been nice to her, and perhaps she noticed the tears in my eyes controlling to get out. I guess there's a good thing about having onion skin.

I sighed as I leaned at Seth's desk, eyes on the screen of my iPad, the schedule I arranged for her.

"This is more difficult than creating the itinerary of my team." She stopped inking the dress on a blank piece of the pad and eyed me.

"You're making an itinerary for your business?" I came from the manager's office at the marketing department to finally set Seth's schedule for the month.

"Yeah, I'm the one making sets of schedules for them not to get out of track. Then, I had to talk personally to the managers to finalize your schedule as they needed it too." She nodded and put the hair strands behind her ear, later facing her work.

"You can do that. You're a dummy, but you'll be fine."

"Bastard, is that how you encourage your secretary?" Now, I understand Win's job more and more.

"Could you take this to Ms Ana? She's with dad, I believe." I took the silver folder in her grip.

"What's this?"

"A contract," she replied.

"Contract signing? You have a runway again?"

"No, my works, some of them wanted to be in Venice."

"Venice?? Wow. Amazing, having an international talent." I watched her skillfully trace the rough drawing of the dress, shading it to make it more distinct. Her fingers were beautiful too, long and slim, and she was drawing smoothly. I saw her sketch so rough that the sound echoed throughout the room, though there were times-

"Hey." I gazed at her eyes.

"I hired you not to watch me working."

"Tss." I scowled and stomped towards the door. I peeked at her and stuck out my tongue. She chuckled.

*On call... Sis

"Yes, this is just for a week. I'll get back after done with the task for today." My hand brushed the smooth texture of the folder. It emanated an excellent scent that displayed regal. I bet the folder cost more than the sling bag I carried around.

"What's her trip making you the secretary?" My older sister questioned.

"Hmm, maybe because I already knew her enough, I'm familiar with the work of Win anyway." Although merely the gist of it.

"And you're not refusing. You're spoiling Seth." I scoffed funnily.

"It is okay. We'll go to Japan at the end of the month." I laughed. My relationship with Seth was giving and taking. I wouldn't do anything against my will if nothing were in return. The same goes for her.

In Venice, I dreamt of visiting the country. Seth had everything, huh? She could do and buy anything she liked, travel anywhere, and boss anyone. I groaned softly to the trash of thought popped up in my head. Well, not that it's trash, because it was a fact proven by proof, and that's me.

Later on, Seth took me to the nearest mall and lingered around a cosmetic shop.

"Here, try this." Her forefinger lifted my chin, and the matte nude lipstick touched my lips. I yanked her away.

"I can do it."

"You're not wearing lipstick the right way! You're embarrassing women's source of beauty."

"What the hell don't me," muttered I. She laughed sweetly. My eyebrows furrowed, and her laughter struck me to know if I wasn't wearing lipstick the right way. Hold on, was there a proper procedure? Seth's hand reached an orange blush on display and opened it.

"Let me put a blush-on on you." She grabbed the back of my head and leaned me closer to her face. I shut my eyes and moved away.

"No!" She's resisting whilst laughing!

"Come on, just lemme try this!"

"No!" Her laughter was unfair. We'd been in the cosmetic shop for an hour. It was her treat as the replacement for the make-up which fell on the pool. Seth laughed with the female cashier picking up the various make-ups on display. I never minded the conversation they went on as I caught sight of the shelves of eyewear. I needed one with a grade since my eyes started to get worse. The blurry view from afar missed a lot of good things to observe.

I wore one of the square frames a bit far away, and my eyes hurt since the glasses had a grade. I wiped my eyes and blinked several times to fight not to get dizzy. Damn it. I knew there would be one eyewear suited for me or if none, I would get a check-up and let the specialist take care of it. I grabbed the other square frame glasses and my eyes focused on Seth. My heart pounded as she gazed at me.

I took it off quickly. My heart's pounding. Why did I get nervous of a sudden? It's weird. Maybe because all I met every time was Seth. I needed to divert my attention to someone other than her, and my age wasn't getting younger. It was time to look for a date.

"Are you good?" I looked at Seth as she stood in front of me. I nodded and glanced at the paper bag in her left hand. She snickered. "Try all of these. It's gonna be a year's supply. If you need more, let me know." I grabbed the handle of the bag and peeked inside. It's too many.

We exited the store and saw Seth waving back at the cashier.

"Seth, aren't you getting tired?" She took out the phone from her pocket.

"Where? Let's go eat."

"Ah, I need to leave soon. I was asked to assist the new clients in the office." Seth turned left in the restroom. I fastened my pace to follow her. My goodness, it's an insult to have short legs when she's around.

My eyes stared at the reflection of a short-haired girl who wore a fitted turtleneck blouse with tuck-in squared pants. Fingers brushed the autumn brown hair to the tip. Should I install a dating app again? I met Ryan in one of those. A flush on the toilet, Seth opened the cubicle door and looked at me as she washed her hands on the sink. I glanced at her and stared at myself in the mirror again. Should I change my style of clothing similar to Chinnie's? Her boyfriend's quite handsome, and she cheated on him. Not that I wanted to imitate her, but she captured Seth's attention.

I jolted as the long fingers Seth touched the tip of my hair. I gazed at her deep eyes staring at me. She smiled.

"You're too occupied. Aren't you gonna take a piss?"

We headed to the restaurant, and she made a reservation in the VIP room again. Sets of semi-vegetarian cuisines were served on the table. I was never picky when it came to food as long as it was edible and found it delicious enough to take in. However, the cuisines Seth preferred, I might also become a semi-vegetarian.

"Your hair, it's dripping on your food" Her hand took out a hair tie from her pocket and secured her hair recklessly.

"What are you saying lately?" she asked.

"Ah. I'm leaving after this-"

"No, not that," she interrupted.

"Oh. Ah, aren't you getting tired with a lot of flings? How many are they now?" She faced her phone after we left the cosmetic store, a hint of her getting the cashier's contact number.

"Why did you ask?" The tip of the chopsticks in her hand was left in her mouth as her eyes focused on me.

"Nothing, you're already 26. Your birthday's coming soon. Don't you have plans to settle down?" She nodded and nodded and diverted her attention to the food. I continued, "D, don't you have any among your flings that you like to be in a serious relationship?" I picked the dessert and scooped a mouthful, then ate the chunk of steak. "And how could you make time for all of them over your tight schedule?" In addition, if Chinnie did not mention it, I wouldn't notice we'd been together almost every day after work.

"I make time. Well, I adore their beauty. I'm also enjoying dressing them, you know. I'm getting more ideas about what to draw anyway."

I chewed slowly. Ideas. I couldn't imagine Seth dressing women and sketching their body figures on a piece of paper. The flirtatious look Seth wore all the time, her interest flickered in the women her type.

How long would I endure the differences of their perfections? Was the insult and harassment Ryan inflicted not enough? It's been more than four months since I broke up with Ryan. I would never meet forever if I'd solely wait without doing anything.

"I wanna find someone now," I said, putting a cherry tomato on Seth's plate, as she liked them.