It All Started With A Payback

Fourteen: Sweating the Small and Big Stuff

"Why is this still here?" Louie asked in an irritated tone, pointing to the framed poster on the wall that said: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff....and It's All Small Stuff. The server he was speaking with mumbled an apology and quickly removed the poster in question.

It was past seven in the evening and by that time all the posters covering the recesses behind them should have been removed. All the six TVs mounted on the full motion brackets should have been pulled out of the niches, one of the everyday routines done in order to transform the interior of the coffee lounge into one that resembled that of a restobar's.

Jon's gaze followed the server who looked so uneasy and then went back to his friend. He shook his head and walked in Louie's direction. He slapped him on the shoulder and steered him towards the small office at the back. Only after he closed the door did he speak.

"What's been eating you? You have everybody walking on eggshells." The two men were kind and considerate employers, they treated employees with respect and rarely reprimanded them. So in the few occasions that they did, the employees were more prone to making mistakes.

Louie raked his fingers through his rumpled hair and sighed in frustration. He was well aware that these past few days he had been breathing down everybody's neck.

Jon's lips turned up in a jesting smile, "Makes me wonder if that's just another severe case of Blue Balls Syndrome."

That remark struck a nerve and if only his problem was as simple as that. He looked at Jon sharply, "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

Jon sighed resignedly, abandoning any attempt at humor. He sat on a stool across from the desk. "Look, I don't know what's bothering you and if you don't want to talk about it, I respect that."

Louie took a seat on the swivel chair, picked up the small stapler on the desk; tossed and catched it above his head repeatedly.

"But you're making the staff jumpy, and they make more mistakes.....small and big. Two days ago Jamie and Carol collided against each other spilling leftover coffee all over themselves, in their haste to clear the table that had just been vacated for fear that you would chew their heads off if you saw it before they did."

"Yesterday Tony---" He had heard enough, he looked at Jon squarely.

"I was there," he said cutting his friend off. He knew what troubles he had caused. The chef accidentally poured an entire bowl of sliced green chilli on the gambas good for three orders when they were so packed that they were behind already. All because he was talking to him about a dish that a customer complained about (a customer, even he knew, to be one that constantly found something to complain about.)

"Fuck!" He exclaimed, rubbing the throbbing area on his forehead where the stapler landed when he failed to catch it.

Jon resisted the urge to laugh, "You're not even supposed to be here anymore. You do remember you're opening the coffee shop tomorrow, right?

Truth was, it completely slipped off his mind that Mel, who was usually the opener had to accompany her daughter to her school field trip. She had asked their permission a month ago and he agreed to cover her shift.

Louie nodded once. He rubbed his palms over his face and leaned on the backrest.

"Is this about Tori?"

"No, it's about Mark."

"Ah!"

He exhaled audibly, "When Tori said he wouldn't be staying long since he has to make a portrait in California, I was expecting him to leave in four days the most. But it has been more than a week and I couldn't even spend some time alone with Tori."

"Well, that sucks."

"No, him being with Tori in Batad for three days does."

His friend whistled, "The rice terraces in Ifugao, that Batad? That's a long way from Manila. How do you feel about that," Louie shot him an incdredulous look. "Sorry, stupid question. I and the rest of the staff know how you feel about that."

"It is far. Tori wants to use it as her subject. What's driving me crazy apart from worrying if she's okay, is that I didn't know that she doesn't mind other people tagging along when she's out for a project."

Even if his jealousy was gnawing at him, he was still comforted by the thought that at least Tori had someone to protect her in case something went wrong. Still, it would have been so much better if he were there instead of Mark.

He shook his head in annoyance with himself, "I should just have asked her when she first told me she planned to go there. I just found out two days before they left that Mark was going with her."

He didn't mention anymore that he was as jealous as hell not only because the two were inseparable, but also because he felt like he was an outsider on the rare occasions that he was with them. He was the jerk in a love story who ruined the two people who should be together.

The two had been friends for so long and knew each other well that they finished each other's sentences, craved the same food and communicated without talking.

Those things he noticed and more, during the few moments he was able to stand being with them physically in their own little universe but he may as well have been invisible.

Seeing how good they were together made him doubt if he and Tori actually had a shot. The two are even in the same line of work.

**********

Tori tossed and turned in her bed. Not even exhaustion from clambering on the magnificent rice terraces and hiking to get to the waterfall could knock her out cold.

She tried putting her phone in every place imaginable just to get a signal, she simply couldn't. It was their second night and she still hadn't spoken to Louie yet since they arrived in Batad.

Even if they both knew from the start that the reception there would be bad, if at all, she knew he would be worried if they got there safely.

She also missed being with him alone. These past few days she was always with Mark but then again, she had to maximize whatever little time she could spend with her bestfriend.

It would be almost a year before they see each other again. It was a good thing that the client he was supposed to make a portrait of postponed their session due to some merger that had gone sour, at least he was able to come with her on this trip.

But no matter how much she enjoyed her bestfriend's company, knowing that he disapproved of Louie, lessened the happiness she felt.

Right after Louie left on the day Mark arrived in Manila, the latter immediately made known to her what he thought of the former.

I hope you still remember what he did to you. She immediately rose to Louie's defense and explained that Louie never intended to hurt her on purpose. Her bestfriend's opinion however didn't waiver.

It saddened her that the two men she loved the most and without a doubt cared about her the most couldn't seem to stand each other. Sure, they were civil, but anybody could feel the brewing tension between the two whenever they were in the same room.