MIXED SIGNALS

Chapter 21 - Changes

Good morning friends, I'm in the office rushing something and squeezed in this update for you. No photos for now, didn't have time to find the right ones but will do that maybe tonight. Hope this update will be good enough for now even without the visuals.

Have a great day friends, hope you enjoy this chapter :)

In the days that followed, Maine and Alden became inseparable. Gab knew he was beaten and bowed out gracefully. From the start, he knew that Maine was not interested in him anyway. But Kayla was a different story. She dislikes losing and it's a bitter pill to swallow that Maine bested her twice; for taking the Marketing Manager job away from her and now winning over Alden, who it seems, isn't gay after all.

One afternoon, she sat down to meet with Alden. She brought all her new acquisition properties in the pipeline, hoping to squeeze out an excuse to go onsite with him.

"Hi Alden, have a seat."

"Yes Kayla. You mentioned you needed help with a few things?"

"Yes.....kasi I have some proposals from land owners who want a joint venture with us. We need to determine if the land will be good for development."

"Ok, so how can I help you there?"

"Can you go to the different sites with me? Let's look at the properties together, so that you can tell me if the properties are good or not."

"Hmmmm.....Kayla, hindi ako dapat ang isama mo. Before the horizontal development kasi, we need to determine the land use muna. So civil works yan, si Tony ang dapat mo kausapin para ma-survey ng mga bata niya yung land."

"Pero diba dapat pati competitors, yung itsura ng neighboring projects titignan, para yung design ng land use malaman mo rin?"

"Kay, hindi pa rin ako yun. Marketing yan, sa kanila competitor scanning. Si Maine ang kausap mo diyan."

"Eh ayoko kausap yun, kasi kinokontra niya ko lagi."

"Talaga? The way I see it, ikaw ang kumokontra sa kanya eh."

"What's with you and her ba? Bakit madikit ka masyado sa kanya?"

"Kayla, whatever differences you have with Maine, sort it out with her. We need each other to make things work."

"We used to be close, you and I. What happened?"

Alden's patience was starting to wear thin. He had things to do and this meeting was wasting his time.

"Stop putting more context on us working together, ok? Excuse me, I have a lot to do."

He left her with her mouth open, amazed at how rudely he left her there. Well, Alden just gave her reason to go full on battle mode against his new......friend.

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Alden came by Maine's office at the end of the day to help her with her things. He had not seen her all day because of his meetings and onsite inspections, but he made it a point to come back to the office because he was taking her home tonight.

She was already preparing her things when he arrived and smiled brightly at him. He smiled briefly at her but did not seem happy to see her. He took her things and walked with her to the parking basement, quiet the whole time.

"Huy, Alden. May problema ba?"

"Meron. Pero wag na natin pagusapan."

"Huh? Bakit? Baka makatulong ako."