A Sulawesi Romance

Chapter 15

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Mark's POV

"Where's the fire?" I teased Gun when he rushed by me to go and press his index finger on the time in apparatus.

I glanced at my wrist watch. He wasn't late, by a fraction haha.

Then a thought occurred to me that caused me to feel a twinge in my chest. Maybe he was almost late because he and Berkah spent a whole night of lovemaking. After all they shared the same room in the employees' quarters.

Talking about Berkah, today was Berkah's last day of work, thank goodness for that. Then hopefully Gun would eventually forget about him. Out of sight, out of mind.

After a few minutes I met Berkah in the hallway. He was also rushing to clock in. His hair still looked wet and a bit disheveled. He nodded in greeting as he passed by me.

"I guess it doesn't matter any more if you're late for work," I remarked with just the tiniest hint of a smirk on my face. "After all today is your last day of work."

"Sorry," Berkah muttered.

"Hey," I grabbed his wrist before he could move farther away. "Do you think you have given Gun enough training by now? Do you think he is ready to be on his own?"

"If you believe that he still lacks some skills you can always train him yourself," Berkah said. I wondered why he sounded so bitter. Did he and Gun have a lovers' quarrel last night, or maybe this morning?

Well if they had a lovers' fight Gun better patch up with Berkah before Berkah clocks out and leaves the villa at the end of his work day.

I walked dejectedly towards my office which was just beside my father's. Since my father was the manager and I was his assistant it made perfect sense that our offices were right beside each other.

I jumped a little when I felt my father's hand clamp down on my shoulder just as I was unlocking my office door. I knew that it was my father without having to turn around because of his shaving cologne. He always used the same brand of shaving cologne.

"Top of the morning, son," I heard him say.

"And the rest of the day to you, Father," I greeted him back.

He followed me inside my office. I wondered a bit anxiously what it was that he wanted to discuss with me.

I did not go farther inside to sit behind my desk. I stood just inside by the door and turned to face my father.

"Anything on your mind, Dad?" I asked.

My father placed both hands on his hips, his elbows jutting outward before speaking.

"You are aware that today is Berkah's last day with us, right?" my father started the discussion.

"Yes, Father," I replied and said nothing else.

"And what do you think about Gun's performance so far. Do you think we can trust him with Berkah's duties and responsibilities without us having to look over his shoulders?" my father asked, his face looking a bit concerned.

For some reason my head started to throb painfully.

"I can't answer that for sure," I began, "but for the sake of making sure that our company is running smoothly, I might look in on him from time to time."

My father was suddenly beaming at me.

"That was exactly what I was hoping that you'd offer," he said, removing one hand from his hip to clamp it down my shoulder once more. "I hope you don't mind having to take on that extra responsibility, as you just said, 'for the sake of making sure that our company is running smoothly."

If only my father knew that if I could spend all my working hours beside Gun, I would.

"Was there anything else that you wanted to discuss with me?" I asked. I already wanted him to leave so that I could walk over to my desk to take out the bottle of pain pills and pop a couple into my mouth before I started my own work day.

"Not really," he replied. "I just wanted to know if your leg cramps are still bothering you."

"They haven't come back so far," I assured my dad. "The muscle relaxant pills seem to be doing their work efficiently."

"I'm happy to know that," my father said, turning away from me to walk out the door.

I walked quickly behind my desk to pull out the middle drawer.

My father paused at the doorway.

"If your muscle relaxant pills ever fail at night, we can offer Gun a double rate for overtime hours," he said before walking away.

"What exactly do you mean ... " I could not finish my question because he had walked quickly away with an unreadable expression on his face.