Her Flaws

Chapter 16

Last week when I had the breakfast with Mr. Clarke, I felt a little awkward. I didn't know the man that had been treating me so well was the CEO of the guest house. The label that was on the table said, “CEO Clarke”, but the problem was not that he was the CEO. The problem was that his surname was Clarke. I didn't think about it then, but it had been bothering me from time to time.
Anyway, it's a very cold day of December. And most probably today will be the day of first snow of the year. Winters are sad. And I wondered how long could I stay at that guest house. I was also running out of money and I still had not decided anything. I went down to get a cup of coffee. Mr. Clarke was standing at the reception desk talking to Linda but seemed quite worried.
“You should have told me a week ago at least. How can you leave like this?” he said to Linda.
“I'm sorry Sir, but I can not stay a day, my family is leaving tomorrow, I have my ticket booked.” she made a considerable excuse.
It seemed like Linda was resigning without a notice. They ended the discussion and he went straight to his office without having a word with me, or even looking at me for once.
“Are you moving somewhere?” I asked her.
“Yes, we're moving abroad. So I can't work here. I forgot to give Mr. Clarke a notice.” she told me being a little ashamed.
“How much do you earn here?”
“Well, that's a random question! Enough to spend one person's life.”
“Should I apply for the vacant position?”
“Yeah, for sure, if you're willing to do it. Mr. Clarke likes you so he will favour you.”
“Thank you Linda. You've been good to me!”
“Good luck!” she said as I rushed towards his office.
I slightly opened the door,
“May I come in?”
“Well, I'm busy, by the way.”
“I'm not here to waste your precious time. Huh.”
“What is it?” he asked without having an eye contact and kept searching for the document he was looking for in his drawers. I entered the room and closed the door behind me.
“How are you going to find a new receptionist?”
“It won't be a challenging task. But it will take at least take two days.”
“Emm.. why don't you let me do that?”
“What? Searching for a receptionist?”
“Ah, no! Why don't you give me the job as a receptionist?”
“Are you willing to do this long term contract? I thought you were here for a long vacation?”
“If I get to work here, I will stay here.”
He looked at me like I was crazy.
“Are you mad? Don't you have a home or a family to answer? Don't you study? I've been thinking about asking you a lot of questions since you've been staying here for longer than I expected.”
“Well... I don't have a family or anything. I'm a vagabond. But I need a job urgently.”
“Aish.. do you have a résumé or something?”
“I don't even have a phone.”
He looked at me strangely again.
“Alright, come here and fill out this form.”
I filled out a descriptive form he had asked me to do. At first, I was afraid but I had to take the risk.
In the evening, almost an hour before sunset, I was sitting on the bench outside the guest house.
“Don't you get bored?” he asked just as he came out.
“I've got used to it.”
He nodded and stood beside the bench with the wall of the guest house facing the sun.
“Do you know any church near here?” I asked breaking the deadly silence.
“Yeah, it's just a five minutes drive from here. Do you wanna go?”
“Yes, I was thinking about it.”
“There are no guests today. Let's close the guest house for a moment. I also have some work to do and you can go to church. Since Linda is not here, so we can't leave it open.”
“Will it be okay?” I asked.
“For a couple of hours!”
He gave me a ride to the Church and left for his own business.
I went in, the Church was almost empty. There were just a few preachers and workers of the Church. I sat in the end row. And as I closed my eyes to pray: one after one, tears dropped off. I was sobbing, and my hands were covering my face.
“Hey, ayos ka lng?” someone said behind me after I had been crying for quite some time. I tried to calm my self and raised my head.
“A- .. oo, I'm fine.” I wiped my tears. It was a man in this late twenties, dark curly haired and fair.
“May I sit beside you?” he asked.
“Sure” I replied politely.
He sat beside me and after a sigh, he started talking. He told me random things about the island and asked about me.
“Why were you crying before?”
“I'm just disappointed from God.”
“It seems you have a tough situation. God is giving you a hard time?”
“I just feel like ending my life sometimes. I just want to give up over all this.” I said calmly.
“Are you that much mad at God?”
“He never listens.” I complained.
“He sends trials like this to see if you really trust Him or not. And He never sends trials that we can't succeed. You just need to be persistent and stubborn.” he continued, “If we keep humble and be faithful; God will make that weakness as our strength.”
I listened to all this quietly. He said words that I really needed to hear but had no one to hear from.
“Hey Mr. Jiovanni, you brought a friend with you? I've not often seen you bringing a friend.” someone said from behind as we were walking out.
“Oh, yeah, she's like a little sister.”
As I walked out, Mr. Clarke was already waiting for me outside.
“Meet Mr. Nephi Jiovanni. I made a new friend!” I told him cheerfully with a bright smile. He shook hands with Nephi and we parted ways.
“I didn't know you're so quick at making friends.” he said while driving.
“I'm not too good at it. But I like sympathetic people, and I befriend them really quickly.”
“I see. What does he do?”
“Nephi?”
“Yes.”
“He has done a Bachelors in Computer Science but he is a reporter and works in a newspaper company. He gave me his card.”
“I earn more than him.”
“Why are you comparing yourself with him? Are you really feeling jealous or something?”
“Why would I? Get out of the car, and get into your bed.” he said this and it seemed like he had something to say but I made my way to the bedroom. I was still on the stairs when he called out my name.
“Aceso!”
“What...?”
“No, I just wanted to say, come to the office in the morning, I'll explain you your work, you will have to do the day shift in place of Linda.”
“Goodnight.”