Faith in Fate

CHAPTER 3

Its been almost 14 weeks since it happened. My life fell into a routine. Work-House-Work-House. It turned into an endless cycle to a point that my everyday life pass like a blur. I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast earlier or if I even had one. My world used to be filled with colors now became pitch black. Its the same thing over and over again. I struggle to find a reason as to why should I still be doing this. I just channeled all my energy to work. I guess this is just me trying to survive.

I still haven't heard from him or from anyone close to him for that matter. He just disappeared. I wanted to say that I don't care anymore that I wasn't affected of what happened but that is not the case. I still wonder why. What could possibly be the reason for him to just leave like that. We were each other's life before he left. Now, he's just like a ghost that haunts my everyday life.

"Rach?" My thoughts was interrupted by Jae trying to get my attention.

"Huh?" I snapped out of my daze.

"I've been calling your name for like a minute already." He complained.

"I'm sorry.. I err.. got my mind somewhere. What's up?" He gave me a long look before he opened his mouth.

"Still thinking about him?" When he was met with silence, he sighed. "Rach, he's not worth it."

"I know. I just.." I trailed and decided to just change the topic. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

He examined my face for a second as if contemplating whether to let it go or be my unsolicited therapist again. Jae has been checking on me everyday for the past 3 months. He's doing everything he thought might help me get over the fact that may ex ghosted me. But what he doesn't know is that there is nothing he can do to make me feel better. Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for Jae. He doesn't make me feel like I am alone in all this. Its just that he can't be with me all the time. When I am left alone, my thoughts eats me alive.

"Rach, hello! you are spacing out again." He said snapping his fingers in front of my face.

"Hmm? Right.. sorry."

He sigh.

"As I was saying, Mr. and Mrs. Castillion called. They invited us to have dinner with them at their house to discuss some details and also to give us a tour of their villa and the site."

"Oh okay. When do we leave?"

"Now." Now? As in right now? Talk about clutch time. I immediately thought of saying no. Its too soon and I already exhausted all my social energy today.

"Can we reschedule?"

"Rach, what is the 1st rule of this firm?"

"Clients always come first."

"There goes your answer." He said with a smug look on his face.

"Fine. You win." I sighed.

"Can you repeat that? I didn't quite hear what you just said." He teased with a cocky grin on his face.

"I know you heard me so get your haughty ass out of my office. I'll meet you at the lobby." I said, annoyed with his antics.

He put a thumbs up and started to walk out of my office when he stopped midway and said

"Oh! By the way, we also get to meet their daughter." then he closed the door.

Right.. the daughter. So I guess we are going for a drive to Bolinao.

It will probably take us 5-6 hrs to get to the villa so by the time we get there its most likely after lunch already. I mostly just watch the other cars pass by and stare into oblivion. Jae and I agreed to switch at the next stop so he can take a rest too. As we drive through the long road, the buildings changed into long line of trees. From months of being just huddled up in my house its a very refreshing sight. Its been awhile since I see this much sun. The sunlight is blinding but a very welcome feeling to me. I am surprised on how much I miss being exposed to outdoors this much. I won't admit it out loud because I hate to see the smug look on Jae's face again but I'm glad I agreed to come with him.

"Jae, your taste in music is awful. All I hear is noise and its distracting me from driving."

"My music taste is not awful. You're just a terrible driver and have an even more terrible music taste."

"I do not! Its just that your choice of music hurts my ears and its not drive friendly."

"Oh please.. just admit it. You're just getting old."

"Hey! That doesn't have anything to do with this." I exclaimed.

"Sensitive to loud noise. Grumpy all the time. Always complain about back pain. See? All signs of aging."

"What??? Okay enough. My car, my rules. Change it." Coming at me with age attack as if he is not as old as I am.

"Fine.. fine.. grandma."

I don't wanna spend the rest of the drive bickering back and forth with him so I just rolled my eyes at him and focus on driving. After awhile he started snoring. I don't know which is more awful, his music taste or the sound of his snores.

After awhile of endless road, the app says we are now only a few minutes away from our destination. Jae is up and is currently trying to manage his unruly curly hair.

"Ugh. The humid is ruining my hair." Sweeping through his hair as he complained.

"You look decent enough. Stop fixating on your hair."

Its true tho. Compare to me, his fashion sense is way better. We have this on going theory that Interior Designers always dress better than Architects. I don't know how they do this. I on the other hand doesn't have a keen fashion sense. I always wear plain clothes in earth tones or neutral colors. The simplest the better.

"Uggh.. I give up." He finally settled to just let it be.

"Run me through the project again." I needed to refresh my brain and focus before we get there.

"The client is well you already know.. its Mr. and Mrs. Castillion's daughter. I searched her through the internet and apparently she's a known business tycoon in the hospitality industry. She wanted to venture on a new project which is the boutique hotel as an extension of their chain. The project is by the beach overlooking a wide shoreline."

"Right.." My mind drift off as to why she would choose to come home again and left her work in France. From what I heard she's a very established woman. If that was me I would have stayed in France cause then I would have saved my self from my sorry excuse of a life.

The road lead us to a narrow unpaved roadway lined with mahogany trees on both sides. The property is surrounded with coconut and pine trees. It is evident that they maintained this property very well. At the end of the road is a gate that opens up to a wide landscape leading to the villa.

"Oh wow. It looks like it came out of architectural digest." I said still in awe of the surroundings.

"I've seen the pictures they sent me but it doesn't do it justice." Jae said as his eyes marveled through the entire facade of the property. We were instructed to park the car at the open carport. There, we were greeted with their housekeeper and told us that she will show us the way. Upon entering the front door, we were greeted with this wide space over looking the beach. She lead us to their living area and told us to wait there for a second. I look at Jae and saw him gawking over how beautiful the view of the house is.

"Oh we are so going to make use of this view. I can already picture out the designs we're going to make and its going to be fantastic." He commented.

I on the other hand is getting a bit nervous. I hope we can deliver to their expectation. As we wait for a few minutes, I started feeling awkward so I tried to stand up and look around the space. I don't mean to be rude but as an Architect, my curiosity always gets the best of me. Architects have this hobby where we touch every material we feel fascinated about. Its weird, I know, but that is simply how we are built. I was about to step on the other room that I assume is their show kitchen when I saw a gigantic dog. I was stoned to where I was standing. It got this huge head and paws way bigger than normal dogs. I think his  body can probably outweighs mine. The  dog looked at me momentarily then it started barking and running towards my direction. My instinct kicks in and run to the living area where we were instructed to wait in hope that the dog won't get a piece of me. Rach, this is what you get for being so nosy. Getting chase by a gigantic dog that looks like it can eat me for lunch is the last thing in my mind when I agreed to this meeting.