Consequence

Game Over

"Thank you, Sheen. Just leave everything else on my desk and I'll deal with all of it first thing tomorrow. That's all for now."

She gave her secretary a nod as a sign of dismissal and just as soon as Sheena left her office, she went back to work.

For some reason, she feels like she's all over the place even though there's really no reason to be.

Kalma, Maine. Maaga pa. 

She was checking her emails when her friend Kayla arrived at her office with eyes and fingers on her phone.

"Maine! Lunch time! I am craving for Japanese. Let's grab some dun sa favorite natin na Japa--"

"Can't. I have to go, K."

Kayla's face grimaced and finally took her eyes off her phone to talk to her. 

"And besides, 11:45 AM pa lang oh. Maaga pa for lunch." She added.

"Uhm, 11:45 AM is as good as lunch time. Pero tama ka, maaga pa yun. Maaga pa para sa out mo. Where are you going?"

"It's a Wednesday."

She couldn't help but smile when she saw how Kayla's facial expression changed from confused to enlightened within the next 15 seconds. 

"Ohhhh. Game day, huh?"

"Yep."

"Okay. Hindi ko na itatanong if you really have to be there since alam ko na ang sagot pero ang aga aga pa. Can we at least grab some lunch?"

"Sorry, K. Pass. Game starts as 7:00pm and I still have to get ready."

"Maine! It's a basketball game and it's not even 12 o'clock. The game is 7 hours away from now, anong klaseng pagreready ba ang gagawin mo? Magpapa-parlor ka pa, girl?" 

Natawa lang sya when Kayla said it out loud because she made a lot of sense and she doesn't. But she just couldn't help it.

"Old habits die hard, I guess."

"Ha! Tell me about it."

"Sorry talaga. I have to get some groceries din kasi bago ako umuwi sa apartment. So, I could just drop you off the restaurant. Tara na."

"Ugh, forget it. Baka ma-over break pa ako. I can't do that if I'm not gonna do lunch with you, Ms. CEO. Kainis! Osya, una na ko. Enjoy the game. You owe me lunch, Nicomaine."

"Lunch on me tomorrow, then! Bye!"

Ten minutes after Kayla left, she tidies up a bit and finally left her office.

Wearing a pencil cut black skirt paired with white halter top and nude Louboutins, she graced the hallway of her office on the way to the parking lot. 

The CEO is done for the day.

Nicomaine Mendoza is one of the youngest successful businesswomen in the country. She graduated from one of the best universities with flying colours. And at the age of 25, she is already managing her very own Architectural firm.

Young, successful, beautiful. 

She has it all.

Or so they say.

Her status was not all from hard work because her entire family is pretty well-off, owning one of the biggest franchise in the most loved sports in the country - where she, in fact, started to learn how to run a business.

After she graduated, her father, Teodoro Mendoza asked her and her brother, Nicholas, to manage one of the 3 basketball teams that their family owns in the Philippine Basketball league - Barangay Ginebra.