Chapter 27: 27. Girl from publishing
Shirley and I have gotten quite close since the Safari Lodge, we usually have lunch together, you could say she's my close work friend. The only thing I don't like about her is that she always eats the same thing, Rice and Beef stew, I don't know why but the woman is obsessed with that meal.
I choked on my Cranberry Juice upon hearing Shirley's question, the whole cafeteria felt like winter in an instant, I was running out of breath and my heart started racing, I swear my pulse was visible from the silk blue blouse I was wearing...'Was I exposed?', I tried to keep a cool head to gauge how much she knew, it was time to test the acting skills I acquired during Art class in high school.
"Ohh...really? how do you know that is someone from publishing?!?", I asked while being indifferent, although on the inside I was crumbling with fear
"Apparently he is there all the time..at first people thought he was going see the President, but he is there even when she is not around, and he has never done that before. Even worse, he took leave to take care of his mother, but he is in the office all the time..."
"Wait, Wal...Mr. Sekulu is on leave?", I was not aware that Walter took leave since he never mentioned it to me. Was he coming to the office just to see me? At that moment, I felt a fluttery sensation in my stomach 'Were these the butterflies people spoke of?' But I had to pull myself together, I was still in the middle of a deep conversation.
"Yeah, but he still comes to the office, it must be for the girl in publishing...I hear he is always in and out of the President's office", Shirley elaborated. My palms were getting sweaty, it sounded like I was caught. Convinced that I was caught, I decided to come clean to Shirley,
"Uhm--so-", I was about to explain myself,
"Do you know who it is?!?", Shirley cut me off with anticipation on her face, thinking I was about to drop the name of the woman in question. I was relieved but surprised that she did not suspect me, I felt it was obvious. However, my sense of relief was soon overshadowed by disappointment. Why would they not suspect me, was I not qualified to be Walter's person of interest? I felt like telling her out of spite just to see the look on her face, but I decided to be grown up about it.
" I don't know who it is, you know I sit in the President's office the whole day, and I hardly go out...maybe Mr. Sek", I felt the urge to defend Walter, but there was no way I could defend him without looking guilty myself, "I don't know what Mr. Sekulu is thinking hey...", I snapped back to my clueless robot mode and Shirley was buying it.
"Oh, makes sense, whoever it is, I hope they know what they are doing and they keep their heart safe. Walter has a problem with commitment, he tries but he can't sustain it....so they must be careful and not expect much from him. Especially since Rachel is back in town...", I felt overwhelmed by a familiar feeling, I was suddenly taken back to the housewarming party. I was not okay, but I had to keep forcing a smile in front of Shirley.
All the butterflies in my stomach turned into a tight knot in my heart, what was Shirley talking about now? Who is this Rachel everyone keeps mentioning? Also, the Walter people kept talking about was different from the Walter I know. But I was curious as to how much Shirley knows about this Rachel person. At least I have someone I can ask now;
"How does his ex coming back affect Mr. Sekulu? Didn't they break up?".
"You know how we all have that one person we can't shake no matter how much we try, that shadow of a person, every time they show up, all the light and color in our lives suddenly disappear. Well, Rachel is Walter's shadow, they dated from high school until 2 years ago, I think they were engaged but then suddenly, Rachel disappeared, and Walter didn't take it well. She always comes to visit every year around this time, and around this time Walter starts to smoke. I guess it's his coping mechanism", upon hearing Shirley say that, I had so many questions about Rachel, and only Walter could answer those, but I couldn't dare ask him.
"When did she come back?", so I decided to probe Shirley, her information is better than having nothing at all
"About 5 weeks ago?", she said putting a spoon of rice in her mouth.
'That was around the first time Walter showed up at my door', I thought.
"How do you know so much about Mr. Sekulu?", I was really curious, is not like the information she's sharing with me is public knowledge and it's all over the internet, you have to be a stalker or close to him to somehow know that.
She leaned in close to me and spoke in a lower voice, "Walter and I have been friends since middle school, I have to admit that at some point, I had a crush on him, but I dared not to tell him, and then Rachel came to the picture. But I am over it now, married with a kid. Don't tell anyone I am friends with him because I don't want people to start acting weird around me...". My jaw dropped upon hearing that. 'If Shirley knows so much about Walter, there is a high chance that she knows about me and him, was she telling me all this stuff about Rachel to give me head up, to prepare me for something', my mind started racing.
I was very triggered by what Shirley said, whether true or not. But first, I had to diffuse the rumors flying around about Walter and the imaginary publishing girl, before it led back to me. I knew Walter was in the building, although I had not seen him the whole day, so I decided to call him and warn him about coming to the publishing division when my manager was not around:
"Don't you think me not showing up will make it obvious to Shirley that the woman is you, since she is the one who told you about it all?", he asked, for some reason, he sounded distracted. All that aside, He had a point, but I managed to convince him otherwise but on his condition that we see each other at our respective homes in the evenings and occasionally at the cute coffee shop.
"One more thing, are you okay? Is there something bothering you? You don't sound okay and I didn't see you today. Is there something you want to tell me?", I was hoping he would tell me about Rachel and how he was holding up with everything happening at home, but the silence on the other line told me he was not ready, "Alright then, just remember my condition okay..."
"Hmm, don't worry, I will call you later, I am driving.", Just like that, he hung up the phone
I worked until evening that day, I was the last one to leave or so I thought until I saw Walter's car coming out of our building when I was waiting for a taxi. There was a beautiful, brunette woman sitting in the passenger seat, I immediately had a sinking feeling, I had never met her, but my instincts told me that was the famous Rachel Baker. 'Was she the reason he sounded distracted? Didn't he say he was driving? Where was he driving from?', while I was cracking my brain trying to figure out the situation in front of me, I accidentally made eye contact with him but I hurriedly looked away.
Walter stopped right in front of me,
"Get in...I will take you home", he said nonchalantly
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