I locate my earphones from the pockets of my pant and plug them into both of my ears. I'm so close to getting through this design and I want no disturbance. The noise cancellation helps me to focus on the task at hand. 

Somebody knocks on my table and I look up. It's one of the company men. The man with green eyes and brown hair like super curly noodles on his head gives me a huge smile. When somebody gives you such a genuine smile, you end up smiling at them. I mean I'm not a bitch without a cause.

"Hey?" I smile back at him. 

He grabs a chair from the other counter and twists it around so that his legs are spread. He grabs the top of the chair and rests his chin and starts to introduce himself, "I'm George, the designer."

"I'm Charlotte, I guess an engineer here?" I answered him, confused about my designation here. But after all,  what could I be hired for if not an engineer?

"Haha, I understand it can get confusing here because Elliot never hires you for your post in the initial days. I mean he didn't hire me as a designer," he says.

I give him a confused smile, "interesting. How so?" I want him to elaborate more on this fascinating way of Elliot's.

He straightens his back and moves forward and puts one hand on the table, his fingers resting in the pattern of a square and starts to explain, "see, he sees you and if he feels you possess something he desires so he'll hire you. For example, I was just the guy who made contacts with people who used to sell spare parts and I would bargain the prices and find the best quality stuff but then one day we were just walking and I randomly gave him a design and I thought he wasn't even listening but suddenly he stopped and he told me to make him a design. Like to prove to him that whatever I was pitching to him can happen and just like that, the Ritz-vix car happened and you know, we don't have to brag about our car! And I got promoted to being the designer," he says and towards the end, he has this childlike gleam to his eyes as he talks like an excited child who helped somebody put a bell on the Christmas tree.

"Wow. That's insane!," I can't help but applaud Elliot. I mean his idea of choosing his employees is genius and time-effective.

Suddenly a thought strikes me and I end up voicing it out to George, " I wonder what he saw in me. I mean, what do I possess that he wants?"

"That's the trick. Neither he knows that, nor do you. It'll just one day happen and you both will find out and then the rest of the path will be clear," he says and he stands up after saying that.

"Well, that's the end of my shift. I'm about to go. Even you can leave, Charlotte because the boss seems busy with his personal affairs right now," George says.

I'm baffled by his words, "what personal affairs?" 

"Oh! You don't know? Pearl is here," he says in a hushed tone as if he's scared of being overheard.

"Who's a pearl?" I ask him, loudly, totally annoyed by the feeling that's slowly started to creep into my veins. Irritation courses through me and I don't even know why.

He snorts, " oh! It's not a thing, Pearl Avery is his girlfriend. Some even say fiancee, but that's not a certain fact, yet," he says and leaves.

I wanted to ask him more but he left after saying that. He probably didn't want to dwell on the conversation anymore.

Neither should you! Speaks up that ugly subconscious.

Great! Now I can't even eat, sleep and work peacefully because curiosity always does this to me. Whenever I don't have answers to the questions that I want answered, I can't rest.

And I want answers to this question.

If he has a girlfriend, why did he kiss me?

If he has a Pearl, why the hell did he take me to his house and let me cook food for him?

What the fuck was I doing on the floor with him, sitting on those blankets eating the first home-cooked meal he said he was having?

I have this acidic feeling in the pit of my stomach that tells me that he fed me loads of bullshit and I was naive enough to believe it.

I'm so enraged that I don't even think once before picking up my bag and turning on my feet to leave but in addition to my already miserable day, it just so happens that it had to turn even more shitty because my back collides with someone as I take a few steps back to turn around.

As I turn around to look at the object of impact, it's a woman in a white pantsuit with golden jewellery, blonde hair, and sunglasses stuck on top of her head.

I know it in my heart, it's her. This is Pearl. I don't like her.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going," she says as she picks up her handbag which had fallen to the ground.

The moment she says sorry with so much kindness, my arrogance slips out of me. How can I show attitude to someone who is being so nice to me?

So I smile at her half-heartedly, " sorry! I got some bad news so I was in a hurry to leave. I absentmindedly struck you with so much momentum," I choose my words carefully.

I obviously can't tell her that she is the bad news and her boyfriend is the terrible journalist.

"Oh! Too many science words. You sound just like my fiance. He's always like, "honey I have to get so much acceleration on this thing," so I guess you're an engineer here?" She says with a wide smile on her face and I can't help but give her a forcible smile. I think my smile is so crooked right now, it should be illegal.

"I won't know anything about your fiance. I haven't met him so..." I say letting my words evaporate into the air like they were so volatile that they didn't even exist.

"Oh really! Wait," she says and goes back to Elliot's office.

Shit! She's about to bring him here.

I start to pull on my clothes nervously, a habit I always found myself falling prey to whenever introduced to awkward and tense conditions like this. My throat runs dry and my arms and neck feel sweaty because of how hard I am perspiring.

The moment she walks out of his office, he is behind her. His eyes instantly catch mine and I'm done for.

I can't look anywhere else other than him. As he keeps on walking towards me, as she holds his hand and pulls him after her, I reminisce the way he looked into my eyes and told me he had no girlfriend. I think back to the time we both were under the rain in the farmer's market. How he left me clothes of his to wear. The way he chopped off the onion even when he didn't know how to, because I had cut my hand. He put my fingers in his mouth to stop the cut from bleeding. He had looked into my eyes, even then. Back then they screamed honesty, or so it seemed.

He betrayed me.

My eyes fall from his as he is brought to a stop in front of me.

"Baby, she was saying that you guys haven't interacted," Pearl says in her soft voice to him. Her kindness, his little white lies, and my quietness are a full-on background soundtrack about betrayal.

As soon as she said that, I knew I had to look at Elliot. My eyes locked with him and his eyes looked like a mixture of hurt, surprise, and regret, I think.

Within some seconds, his facial expression converted to complete calmness but his eyes gave away some form of anger behind them.

What is he getting angry about? I should be the angry one.

"Oh really? Is that how you feel Charlotte?" He asked me. His tone sounds so sweet but I know it is far from it.

I exhaled out forceful laughter, " I meant to tell your fiance that I don't know you outside of your work, that's all."

I lock my gaze with him as I throw the word fiance between us. As if the poison of that word wasn't enough, Pearl stands on her tiptoes and grabs his face by one hand, and turns it towards her to kiss him on the lips. He closes his eyes and my heart cracks, warmth like shame spreads throughout my body and I can feel the embarrassing redness on my cheeks but I can't find the strength to look away.

I stare at their closed eyes and locked lips. A switch turns in my brain and I start to retrace my steps softly.

"Charlotte, I need you to stay here, we still have more work to do," Elliot stops me before I can leave, making me drop my bag on the table. He makes some distance between himself and Pearl and says to her, "I have work to finish. I'm so sorry but I can't leave with you tonight."

"It's alright. I got my time from you. This is enough," she whispers against his lips and after giving him a peck, she starts walking away. She gives me a smile that doesn't reach her face. 

After she's gone, Elliot and I stare at each other. As I'm about to start talking, he raises a hand in the air silencing me, "come to my office," he says and leaves, signifying me to follow him.

I hate it when he does this.

***
Author's note

You betrayed meeeeee!

In a Olivia Rodrigo voice.

So do you like Pearl?

Love, Leena ❤❤
Bye-bye, until next time.