Love Thy Neighbor (Completed)

Chapter 15 - Goodnight

Sinagtala Grocery Store

Sunshine and Benji with some of the key employees of Sinagtala Grocery store went back to work after their lunch in Obispo Residence. Tatay Teddy invited the key employees to explain Sunshine's presence in the store. As usual Benji is not in his usual cheerful mode since they started that morning even until during that unplanned lunch at the Obispo's. They continue the training until it was closing. Tatay Teddy just sent them food for their dinner so as for them not to travel from the store to their house anymore. Sunshine eats the dinner alone in the office. Benji did not join her because according to him he needs to check on some email for his RHC business.

It was nearing closing time when Sunshine received a call from Jorge informing her that he could not say no to his relatives when they requested that he stays with them overnight. She again worries as she does not know how to get home. Benji has been treating her coldly for the whole day though she shrugs it off but she still feels unhappy with such treatment. She keeps on telling herself that it is the right thing for Benji to do but a small portion of her could not resist on thinking why Benji suddenly treated her distantly.

After everything was settled for the day, Sunshine prepares herself to go home, she scans some of the documents that Benji told her to read while waiting for his cue that they are going home. After a few minutes Hector knocks at the door he told Sunshine that Benji instructed him to drive her going to her house. She felt a little disappointed but she makes sure that nobody sees it.

"Inutusan po ako ni Sir Benji na ipag-drive na kayo ma'am Sinag, ayaw po kasing umalis ni Sir Benji hangga't hindi naipapasok sa warehouse yung lahat mga bagong deliveries. Baka daw po mainip kayo kaya pinapauna na nya kayong umuwi" Hector said

Without any question she grabs her bag and walks out of the room. Upon opening the door, she sees Benji carrying two cartons of canned goods going in the warehouse. She politely nods "I'll go ahead, I brought with me the manual, sa bahay ko na lang itutuloy basahin" she told Benji and the latter just nods back at her and walks in the warehouse without a word.

Obispo Residence

Upon reaching their house, she immediately prepares to hit the bed but she could not force herself to sleep so she took the manual that she brought home and started reading it. But after few pages she stops reading ang just laid on bed. She started tossing and turning again like the precious nights. Since she arrived in the Philippines she hasn't get a good sleep yet, and it was all because of Benjamin Rosales.

When she leaves Paris, her mind and heart are all set on how she will handle all situations with regards to Benji. She knows that she could not avoid an encounter with him but at least she has to prepare for it. That night in their condo building when they accidentally meet at the elevator all those preparations flew somewhere and until now she still seeks for it, much more when Benji intentionally locks themselves in his father's office and apologizes for what he did almost eight years ago. She admits, she felt his sincerity when he apologized again last night.

Tonight as she tries so hard to get a good sleep, Jorge and her Tatay's statement about letting go of the past keeps on playing in her mind. Maybe Jorge is right, all those things that happens to her has a reason. And it seems that the universe is really on her side since those challenges occurred one by one. The death of her mom, the incident of loosing the highest honors in school and her scholarship until the hardships she experience abroad, all of those makes her stronger and braver.

Now all hardships and challenges that life will throw at her will be just a piece of cake for her. But that does not include matters about Benji. Until now she does not know how she would handle every encounter she will have with the guy she once got infatuated with.

Last night he straightly told to her that he still likes her, and she saw in his eyes that he was sincere when he declared that. But his betrayal is a different story, everytime she remembers what he did to her on the past, the pains comes back and so as her hatred to Benjamin Rosales.

She was in that deep thought when her phone beeps. She saw two unread messages. One was from Jorge more than an hour ago, apologizing for not fulfilling his promise of joining her for dinner. Maybe that was the reason why he calls, he thought I was mad but the truth is, she was too engrossed in reading the store manual so she did not noticed his text message. 

When she read the latest text message, she was not able to notice how widely her smile is. She put down her phone, grabs the sheets and closes her eyes. "Yeah tomorrow is another day. Goodnight" she said before she finally dozed off.

Rosales Residence

Benji reaches home an hour after Sunshine leaves the store. He prepared himself to leave Sinagtala without Sunshine because he knows that Jorge will pick her up upon closing. He decided to help the warehouse clerks to secure the deliveries into the warehouse and it was late when he reads Jorge's text message. "Please take care of Sunshine for tonight. My relatives requested me to stay tonight and be back tomorrow morning. Pasensya na Benji" he reads. He could no longer leave their people with unfinish work. It is one of the store policies for the employees, which they are strictly implementing. "No one leaves unless their work is finish". He got no other choice but to ask Hector to drive Sunshine home.

He admits to himself that he have treated her coldly for the whole day because he could not remove in his mind the scenario that he saw very early in the morning between Sunshine and Jorge. He was jealous, and he is still jealous.

Is Jorge really that lousy boyfriend to entrust his girl to someone whom he knows is still smitten with his girlfriend or is he just too confident that Sunshine will not fall on him anymore? "If I am her boyfriend, I will not do this to her. I will make sure that se feels important and special" he said to himself.

For almost eight years, he has not forgotten the girl that he was enamored with. The first time he met her after several years, the same level of heartbeats race inside his chest. He is not over her yet because he does not want to. He believes that the universe have set for both of them to be together for the rest of their lives. She is his first love and definitely his last love as well.

Earlier he already received Beverly's confirmation on the modification of Sunshine's training schedule. In the said email there was a statement from Beverly that the show which forces Sunshine to go back to Paris after a month maybe postponed to another date but she is not yet certain about it so Beverly advises him and Marj not to tell Sunshine yet.

That simple statement gives him a wide smile enough to lessen the pain in his chest because of Jorge and Sunshine sweetness this morning. He does not want to end his day on that state so he grabs his phone and started composing a message. He stares at the name to whom he plans of sending his message to and it took him a while before he finally has the guts to send it.

"I hope you had a fruitful day today. Tomorrow will be another busy day for both of us so make sure to get a good sleep tonight. Goodnight for now Sinagtala Obispo, sweet dreams and I hope you'll dream of me" his text message says.

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Aysus, so at the end of the day, hindi ka rin nakatiis Benji. Kung alam mo lang na napangiti ng text mo si Sunshine, malamang isipin mo that you'll be in her dreams tonight. 😊🙄

Pero feeling ko kahit hindi kayo nag usap masyado maghapon, masarap pa rin ang tulog nyo ngayong gabi. 😊😉

Early update because reality will eat all my time later. 😊

Thank you guys for the reads and votes 😚🤗😚🤗😚🤗