Bitter & Sweet

14. Impediment

Beam's POV

I watched Yo limp to the elevator and wondered what was making him so upset. My own excitement fading when I noticed how sad he was. He had been trying to act normally, but something was definitely wrong. Looking at the mess that was happening in the hallway, I figured I'd better tell Pha to put a stop to it before they actually took down the wall. I knocked quickly, but then walked in, only to stop short and stare.

Pha had his arms around Pring, who was laying her head on his chest and gripping his shirt tightly. He was patting her back while she made hiccuping noises and looked like she was holding back tears. If I hadn't seen that act before, I would have been totally taken in, but Pring had been here for over a week and whenever she didn't get her way, she would cry and look pathetic until people gave in. Pha was the worst, he kept letting her get away with it, saying that she was just a spoiled girl who was used to being treated like a princess but she wasn't bad. Wasn't bad? I'd bet my right arm that she was a lying, scheming bitch who just happened to have a very sweet face.

Now I knew why Yo had looked so upset and wanted to get away from here. Honestly, Pha was so stupid, I didn't know how he was able to run a company by himself. Was he always this easily fooled? Poor Yo, what had he thought of this? Obviously he hadn't wanted to come back in this room. And just as clearly, Pha didn't know that his love had just gone home without him.

"Pha," I broke up their hug-fest with a disapproving tone. "Don't you think you'd better put a stop to the movers? Unless you intend for them to finish moving Yo to a different office and getting rid of our break room."

"You're right," Pha said, disengaging himself from Pring's grasp and going out to get them to move everything back. I looked around Pha's office, noting the changes Pring had made and wondered what the hell Pha was thinking.

"I see you've made yourself at home, Ms. Pring," I said, giving her my best Momma-ain't-raised-no-fools look. "I suggest you don't get too comfortable, though. This room really isn't big enough for both of you."

She looked around happily, all traces of her earlier crying magically erased, "Oh, I think there's plenty of room. See? Everything fits so well."

"It might look like that right now," I admitted in a low voice, "but one word from Yo and you're out on the street. Don't doubt it."

"But I'm so sweet," Pring insisted, her eyes gleaming, "and Pha and I have known each other since we were children. You don't understand, but Pha and I have been together through a lot. I know him better than anybody else. He won't easily let me go, not for anyone."

"Keep telling yourself that," I said, wanting to strangle her. "Pha is in love with Yo. If you try to get between them, he won't take your side. Consider this fair warning."

She raised her eyebrows at me and started laughing when Pha walked back into the room, "What's so funny?"

"Oh, Beam was just telling me a joke," Pring giggled, back to her sweet self. "He's such a comedian."

Pha smiled at her and turned to me, "Where's the closest break room? Yo said he was going to get us some coffee."

"He asked me to get it for him," I informed Pha with a glare. "He said his ankle hurt and he wanted to go home, but I think this office was just too crowded for him."

Pha lowered his voice, obviously not wanting Pring to hear, "Don't be ridiculous, Yo knows how I feel about him. I'm sure his ankle was really hurting, he sprained it today. I'll just go pick up a coffee and take it to him."

"You really are incredibly unobservant, aren't you?" I asked, finding it hard to swallow my friend's stupidity. This was just too much. When Pha looked at me with his clueless face, I had to stop myself from slapping him. "Yo doesn't like coffee."

"What? He drinks coffee with me all the time," Pha said, his eyes showing surprise.

"Correction, you drink coffee all the time, he just sips it and doesn't complain," I couldn't believe that after all this time, he didn't seem to understand Yo at all. "When he orders for himself, Yo never has coffee. He drinks sweet teas, lemonade, or water. He's not a big fan of soda and he really dislikes coffee. Ming knows this, Kit knows this, I bet all of his friends and everyone else in this office know too."

"Why didn't he ever tell me that?" Pha looked confused and a little hurt, but I couldn't let him blame this on Yo.

"Do you remember when I was dating Forth and he told me to choose between you and him? Do you remember how angry I was? Did you ever even ask yourself why I chose you instead of him?" I wanted to yell at Pha, so he would finally internalize what I'd been trying to tell him all along. "He was my lover, but he didn't know what was in my heart. I gave him everything, but he never saw me for who I was. He doubted me, so I couldn't stay with him."

Pha was still looking at me in confusion, so I continued, "You don't pay attention and just assume what Yo wants. He still thinks his father got him this job! You don't talk to him about anything important. He saw you hugging Pring and didn't say anything because he doesn't want to cause problems. If he was hugging someone else, you'd go ballistic! Don't you get it? He's so shy and unsure. He always does his best but he thinks he's not good enough! He needs you to really see him, Pha! He needs to know that this isn't just temporary for you. He needs to know that you know his heart and that your love is going to last."

I was so angry, seeing Pha looking at me with confusion, that I couldn't look at him anymore. I rushed out and slammed the door to his office as I went, making the pictures on the wall shake. Maybe I was taking it too far, maybe I was just assuming, but I didn't think so. Would it really have been so hard for Pha to tell Yo the truth about why he was hired? Shouldn't he have already noticed all the little things about Yo that made him special? Pha was a possessive bastard when it came to Yo, so why couldn't he see that the way he treated Pring was just encouraging her and making Yo feel bad? Why were relationships so complicated?

I stomped to my office, gritting my teeth. I called down to the convenience personnel, asking them to send up some coffee to Pha's office and grabbed my things. Our conversation had brought up all my old feelings about Forth, all the anger and uncertainty and hurt. He said that he wanted to meet tonight, that he missed me and wanted to get to know me again. But I just realized that the reason we broke up back then was because he hadn't ever really known me. I wasn't going to let that happen again. This time, if he wanted me back, everything was going to be different.