Programmed Wife

Chapter 41

“I need to attend an online meeting guys, mauna na muna ako ha? Hindi ko naalala, mabuti nalang at tumawag sa akin ‘yong PA ko!” Shawn screamed as he ran away, leaving Rui who just got out of his car and Leyla who’s still parking her car.

“What? At least help me carry these- okay, he’s f*cking gone.”

“Ano raw? Hindi ko narinig ‘yong sinabi ni Sir Shawn-”

“Shawn. I thought you got that already?” nakasimangot na nilapitan ni Rui ang dalaga na nasa harapan ng sasakyan niya.

Leyla raised her brows and smirked, “Totoo ba ‘yong sinabi ni Shawn?” tanong ng dalaga.

“Anong sinabi niya?”

“You get jealous when I address him as Sir or Mister?” mabilis na napairap si Rui dahil sa narinig.

“No…” he lied. “Of course I’m not!”

“Oh, buti naman. Akala ko nagseselos ka eh. That’s great then, I can continue calling him Sir, it’s actually a little awkward you know.”

“Hell no! Call him Shawn! He doesn’t need to be respected anyway!”

“Hey, that’s not nice,” natatawang komento ni Leyla. “You don’t need to be that mad, I will try my best to not do call him that again.”

“Huh, you enjoy teasing me huh?”

Leyla shrugged, “Hmm? That would be what they call as false accusation!”

Rui smirked seeing that Leyla is visibly teasing him now that the two of them are alone. “You’re really something, you know that?”

She giggled in the middle of gathering Rui’s bags, “Hey, help me with these. We need to get going.”

“Oh wow, ang lakas na ng loob mo na utusan ‘yong boss mo ha?”

Hindi napigilan ni Rui na napakagat ng labi noong nakita niya ang malokong ngiti at nangungusap na mga mata ni Leyla, “Come babe, I still need to do the laundry.”

She just know the right buttons to tame one dangerous beast. In everything that she does, she’s the best. But when it comes to Rui and to understanding him, she’s at the top of it.

“Now you’re playing me,” Rui sighed. He picked up the bags that they needed to carry. Mabilis na nakipag agawan si Rui para lang hindi makapagbuhat ng kahit na ano si Leyla. “Let’s go.”

As the two walked up to the elevator, Leyla was panicking on the inside. The people passing them stresses her so much. Especially when she can clearly tell by the looks of some women that they wanted to approach the handsome young man walking beside her. Kulang nalang ay kumapit siya sa leeg nito para maipangalandakan na may relasyon silang dalawa.

“Why do you look so upset all of a sudden?” Rui asked when the elevator doors closed.

Leyla’s brows were furrowed. Ngayon lang niya naramdaman na uminit ang mukha niya nang ganito. Parang kumukulo ang kan’yang dugo, “I don’t know why I just realized it now, but you have a serious problem with your… your look.”

“What’s with my look?”

“You look perfect.”

“I- what?”

The elevator opened up to a bunch of teenage girls. Their eyes twinkled as they landed on Rui.

“This is exactly what I mean by saying that,” bulong ni Leyla at mabilis na hinawakan ang kamay ni Rui para hatakin ito palabas at palayo sa mga gutom na tingin ng mga batang iyon.

“See that? Kulang nalang maglaway ‘yong mga ‘yon. Bata pa ‘yon ha? Anong range mo, from teenager to oldies?”

“What did you just whisper? Anong sinasabi mo d’yan?” naguguluhang tanong ni Rui. He was about to press the code on his unit but Leyla stopped him and pressed a different code.

“I changed your pass code to the first five digits of pi.”

“To what?”

“31415, pretty simple right?”

He gasped and blinked for like three seconds before processing to all the information, “Of all the numbers in the world, why did you pick something so complicated?”

“It’s a mathematical constant, no way you’ll forget that right?”

“I did not even know what that was in the first place,” confused, Rui went in to drop of his bags. “It really is different in here huh? You replaced the curtains?” itinuro niya pa ang pink at floral na kurtina.

“Oh yeah… About that, I forgot to change them back,” she giggled. “Let me check my unit, hindi ko pa naibalik dito ‘yong mga bagong laba mong kurtina.”

Rui held her hand tightly, without saying another word he stopped her from leaving. So far his whole unit did not look the same way as it does before. The only room left to check is his own room. He’s a little bit scared to check.

“You wanna see your room? I arranged it a little bit,” she said. Once Rui nodded, she was the one who slowly opened the door to his room.

Pagpasok pa lang niya sa may pintuan, pero pamilyar na amoy ng lavender na naman ang bumati sa kan’ya. When he left this unit months ago, his whole room is just a block of darkness. Now he has plain white curtains that matches his new white sheets. Even the arrangement of his bed was different, now it was moved away from the door.

“You did all this?” bulong niya.

“Yup, I tried to change everything up so that… you know.”

Ilang araw rin ang binilang ni Leyla bago niya matapos na mag-isa ang pag aayos sa buong unit ni Rui. Even if the furniture’s heavy, she moved it all by herself, little by little. Thinking that maybe if Rui got home and saw the place completely different, it wont trigger his past trauma that much.

“You should’ve called someone else to work on it, why do it yourself? Ang bibigat n’yang mga gamit na nilipat mo.”

“It’s fine, inunti- unti ko lang naman,” Leyla walked up to his closet and opened it to point out his clothes, “I arranged your clothes based on the occasion. Don’t mix them up okay?”

“Occasion? I only wear suits tho-”

“Yeah, look! Suits with colors, for a lively occasion, all black for work, dark blue can be used on casual meetings I guess. Then this supper sad looking black suit is for sad occasions.”

“Leyla, you know they all look the same right?”

“No they’re not. Look, nakaayos na ‘yan ‘wag mong guguluhin!” pagbabanta pa nito.

“Wow, she’s really precised,” isip ni Rui. Hindi na siya nagugulat sa inaakto ng babae. Pati kasi ang mga gamit niya doon sa office nakuha na rin nitong pakialaman kahit noon pang wala silang relasyon. Paano pa kaya ngayon na naging malinaw na sa kanila kung ano ang kanilang tinatayuan.

“Hala, alas tres na pala. Hindi pa ako nakapaglaba,” Leyla said. She prepares and follows a detailed schedule for her weekends. But today, she did not succeed on doing everything on that list.

“You can just send my clothes to the usual laundry shop down stairs. There’s no problem with that. Isama mo na rin ‘yong mga damit mo. I’ll pay for it just take the weekends off to relax.”

“Sayang naman sa pera, at isa pa, may ginagamit kasi akong fragrance sa mga-”

“We can make a request to use that,” Rui said. “Come on let’s get your dirty laundry, so that we can call for the service dude tutal sa condo rin naman ‘yong laundry shop na ‘yon. Sila mismo ang kumuha ng mga damit.”

Leyla shook her head, “I finished my laundry yesterday, only yours aren’t done yet. Sigurado ka ba na puwedeng ipagamit ‘yon?” nag aalalang tanong nito. But Rui was confidently nodding so she silently agreed with a defeated nod.

Parang sarili na niyang bahay ang ginagalawan dahil sa walang pag aatubili niyang paglakad diretso sa CR ng unit ni Rui. Doon kinuha niya ang isang malinaw na bote ng sarili niyang gawang pabango. She have come up with her own fragrance to mix in with the clothes as they were getting washed. It is almost a lovely fabric conditioner but she mixed in the smell that Rui loves, she wished that with this scent on all of his clothes, he will be persuaded into being calm and relaxed every time. And by the looks of it so far, it seems like it helps.

Rui was the one who made the call. And once the staff member knocked to pick up the laundry, Leyla had this very serious one on one conversation with the poor dude. It lasted for at least ten minutes. And it is mostly her explaining the ways on how to used the fragrance correctly. She even gave him a lecture on how to properly dilute it in a one is to fifty ratio. Half the time the staff was so done that he was ready to leave. It’s a good thing that he held on, for Leyla’s piece of mind.

“If the clothes turn out like sh*t after all that, you can sue them,” Rui sarcastically said as soon as she was done with her lecture.

“If they do, I will fight you,” mataray niyang sagot.

“Oh, feisty!” he giggled. “Wait, where are you going?” mabilis niyang tanong nang mapansin niya na nag aayos si Leyla na para bang lalabas na naman siya.

“I need to get groceries, wala ring laman ‘yong ref mo d’yan. I need to get ingredients for our meal this week too.”

“You’re going out? Right now? Can’t we just order groceries? That’s a lot more easier.”

Umiling ang dalaga, “I won’t pay extra money for poorly picked produce. That wont work! I will be quick, maybe an hour or two?”

“Two hours? Where are you getting them? Are you gonna harvest garlic yourself?”

Natawa si Leyla sa dramatic na tanong ni Rui, “That’s normal Rui, don’t tell me you haven’t tried grocery shopping yet?”

“You know how it goes with me, I often send Albert out before if I really need something that bad. But most of the time, everything gets delivered.”

“Well that’s a sin for me. I need to pick the best quality-”

“Can I come?”

The two stood there in silence. Parang pinapakiramdaman ni Leyla ang totoong intensyon ni Rui sa bawat salitang sinabi nito.

“You know there may be a lot of people out there,” she stated. “I don’t have a problem if you want to come or not. I just have to know if you can handle it. What do you think?”

“I wanted to test it out, do you think I should?”

Parang nanigas sa kinatatayuan niya si Leyla. His eyes screamed his desire to go out and experience something new, with her. But it is also clouded by the fear that he might just ruin everything. Natatakot siya na sa kabila ng lakas ng loob na nakuha niya mula noong harapin niya muli si Arturo, baka hindi pa niya talaga kaya.

She watched his usual teasingly gorgeous smile get replaced by a dark frown and consciousness, “You know I’m right beside you, right?” she asked him.

“Yeah, but-”

“Why don’t we try? If we fail, we can try again next time.”

Sa lahat ng mga salita na pilit ibinabato kay Rui magmula noong bata siya para lang subukan na palakasin ang loob niya, nothing worked better than Leyla’s assurance that she’s beside him. It works like magic. Suddenly he’s not afraid to take risks anymore.

“Let’s try it,” he said.

Leyla smiled, “Good! But wear a face mask.”

“How will a face mask help me-”

“Just wear it Rui, you’re too good looking. It will help me a lot please.”