My boyfriend's colleague

Chapter Three

Mila looked into the mirror, and applied her blush on. 

She loved cosmetics but was never good at applying it. Her go-to make up was always a blush, and some really nice lippie, and her shoulder-length hair ironed down to a little curl. She wore a white blouse and maroon shorts.

"Beautiful!" Said Jay. 

He always admired her, and always kissed her cheeks to which she would frown- fearing that her makeup might smudge. 

Jay always found Mila cute and admirable. He loved her- even when he knew he was lacking in lots of ways, but he had to leave. It was for his future. They had to go on without each other. This was always Jay's thoughts when something tried to block his thoughts of leaving.

But Mila was trying to move on, already. She was slowly thinking of living alone, slowly pulling away from him- and sometimes this broke Jay's heart but he didn't let it show. And Mila, knowing her actions would break Jay's heart, had actually hoped that this would change Jay's mind. 

But Jay wasn't going to budge. And that broke Mila everytime.

They went into Jay's boss', Tony's house. It was nice, clean, and bright, and the smell of barbeque was piercing through their noses. Tony greeted them happily and led them to the living room.

And there she saw him, for the first time- a man in blue shirt and white shorts, sitting on the couch. He was looking through his phone and he was vaguely familiar. She had met him before- but not this close. 

And she had wondered why she wasn't this attracted to him before. She didn't know his name, but he nodded to her when he saw her- and then started talking to Jay. She sat down at the other side of the couch, and carefully peeked at him when no one was watching. 

Once or twice their eyes had met, but it was nothing awkward. He was quiet, mysterious- and my, did Mila like mysterious guys. She knew it was wrong to be attracted to this person, but the pull was so strong.

As if this wasn't enough, he sat beside her during dinner. 

It was the little things- the slight touch of their skin, the slow look into each other's eyes while talking, the quiet nothing for a second while staring, or the smiling- god the smiling sent shivers down to Mila's neck. 

They were getting a little tipsy from all the wine, but it didn't seem to end soon. After the dinner at the roof deck, they all went down for fruits and more drinks. Mila was the only girl left after a few of them left, and another was Jay's boss' wife. 

She was asked to cut some fruits- and peeking through the kitchen she saw the man standing there. So she went. She was cutting fruits and there came more of them, but she couldn't stop looking at him, listening to his voice, and admiring the little nothings he just seemed to be. 

She saw the veins moving on his arm whenever he carried something, the vein on his neck when he laughed- and how his big brown eyes cringed once in a while. Mila swallowed, the attraction to this man seemed overwhelming.

They all sat down at the floor and continued to talk and drink. Mila lost her focus to this man because she was getting drunk by the minute. She couldn't remember much after that, except that it finished quite fast and they were on their way home. 

Thank God Jay didn't notice me poring over that person, she thought. Jay was a jealous person, and even on such self-centered decisions and how he broke Mila's heart- he was always selfish of her. Mila didn't understand, though. 

Why? If he was going to leave her anyway, why bother? Why not just break up now? The thing about Jay was that, he relied so much on Mila, she helped him with everything since they met- and thus the relationship happened between them.

She didn't see Martin again for another week, until Jay's accident happened. 

It was one night he decided to go to the city with some friends. Knowing he would get drunk, Mila told him not to bring his car. He didn't, but on his way home- he brought it from the office. On the way, on a rainy slippery road- his car couldn't brake, and he hit a post which banged his head to the steering wheel, and broke his wrist. 

Next thing they know, Mila was sitting beside his hospital bed- with, thank God, Jay who didn't seem to have earned a permanent damage from the accident. He was okay, but he couldn't report to work. So the company record book- which he always had with him, had to be delivered to his office that morning. Mila offered to do it for him, so she went to his office. She left the book, and on the way out- she bumped into him.

She vaguely remembered from the barbeque party that his name was Martin. Martin saw her, and remembered to ask about Jay.

"How's Jay? I heard about the accident." He asked, frowning.
"He's okay, he didn't break anything permanently, and he is recovering."
"I always thought he drove too fast.." he said. And Mila nodded. She looked frustrated about what happened. They stood there for a minute, not saying anything.
"Are you going to work?" He asked her.
"Yeah.. I'm late.." she answered.

"Oh.. I'm sorry. I hope you're okay.." 

"I will be.. I hope Jay also recovers fast.." 

"Oh, yes. I hope so too.." he smiled.
Mila smiled, too. But it was getting late.
"Umm, I have to go.. I'll see you next time?" She felt hopeful.
"Sure, please be careful.." he answered.
She felt refreshed, it's been long since she smiled and talked to anyone outside. She stared at him for a moment, and walked away.

She smiled all the way to work, remembering all the simple moments they spent together. She was starting to like him. She crushed those thoughts deep behind her mind, it was wrong- no matter how selfish Jay was. 

But she could never forget, not even a single moment, that one day Jay was just gonna leave her, stranded and alone. He was going to be fine because she was almost nothing. He never introduced her to any friends, family.. 

It disappointed her to know that she was almost non-existent to people around him. They didn't even know he had a girlfriend. Was it so wrong for her to want something better?