Love Thy Neighbor (Completed)

Chapter 22 - Jelly

Sinagtala Grocery store

Benji's mood shifted from vibrant to prickly after Sunshine agreed to meet Daddy Riel's business friend in their dinner on Wednesday. Benji and Daddy Riel met Jasper Miller and his father on the same day that he travels to Candelaria for Sunshine's training.

He finds the young Miller as a very aggressive business man. The half American-half Filipino young businessman is only three years older than him and yet their lingerie line were able to penetrate the global market since he assumed the company's presidency.

It was far from his thought that the young bachelor will be interested to meet his Sinag. Oftentimes his Dad's tactlessness never brought positive things to him. His Dad is very much aware of his feelings with Sinag and it hurts him that his very own father would be the key for Sunshine to meet another guy who could be his possible rival to the girl he is so smitten with.

He admits that he does not have rights to be jealous but he could not prevent it. Sunshine and him are back at the starting point of their friendship and he is not yet prepared for it to be ruined this early therefore he chooses to keep the jealousy to himself. But his grumpiness makes it more evident.

From the time Sunshine and Benji travels from Rosales residence to Sinagtala Grocery store, the latter notices Benji's silence. Benji was just all eyes on the road while his lips are sealed until they reach the office and started working.

Sunshine witnessed Benji's bad-temper as he scolded his RHC staff over a video conference because of very little thing which she believes can be resolve more if he tells his frustrations to his staff without shouting at them. He has very little patience even in a very simple error an employee would commit. Even Marj was not spare of his bad-temperedness which causes all Sinagtala's staffs to be more cautious at work.

Her heart goes to Helen when Benji reprimanded her for allowing two of her janitors to take a day off at the same time because of some personal matters to attend to. The inventory clerk was also scolded because they failed to inform the purchasing department on the items that needs to be replenished. She saw how their staff avoided an encounter with Benji because they are afraid to be scolded by one of Sinagtala's owner.

Sunshine chooses to be mum at Benji's behavior. She does not want to be reprimanded too as it may trigger another fight between her and Benji. She is that kind who never takes reprimands sitting down. She makes sure that the other party would hear her out first before she gives up the fight.

In reality, Sunshine is aware why Benji is behaving that way. She knows that jealousy triggers the sudden mood swing because it only started when she agreed on meeting Jasper Miller.

This behavior of Benji is not new to her. When they were still in High School, there was an instance that Benji got jealous of Christian too. That was when she attended Christian's birthday party and he was not invited since Christian and Benji do not belong to the same section then. Benji did not talk to her the next day. She felt how upset Benji was then but since they were not into a relationship Benji could not voice out his frustrations to Sunshine. She remember how happy she was when Katrina told her that Benji got irritable when the latter told him about Sunshine's attendance to Christian's party with her and Jorge.

In the deep corner of her heart, she smiles at the thought that Benji is again jealous to a certain Jasper Miller. It was nearing lunchtime and Benji's mood hasn't change. Unlike the previous days, now nobody dares to knock at their door to give them even a simple report about the store. The atmosphere in the store is very gloomy as everyone is already aware of Benji's mood and Sunshine does not want to end the day with a low-spirited atmosphere.

Sunshine excused herself and went out of the room. She smiles when Benji just shrug-off his shoulders when she told him that she will go out to get some fresh air, that is the confirmation that she was looking for, indeed Benji's bad mood is all about her.