[Noah's POV]
*FA Announcement from CA to Philippines*
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Local time is 9:40 A.M and the temperature is 31 degrees. On behalf of Captain Mikael Oliveros and Avia Airlines and the entire crew, I'd like to thank you for joining us on this trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on board again in the near future. Have a nice day!"
I took my phone out of my pocket as soon as we got off the plane and dialed a number. I felt Olivia's fingers brushing mine while waiting for the person to pick up my call.
"We're finally here!" she exclaimed.
I looked down on her and pinched her cheeks. "Yes, baby. We are"
"Hello, Sir?" I heard from the other line,
"Yes, Architect Rodriguez? We just landed. Are you at the airport?"
"Opo, Sir. I can see you from here," then not far from where we were standing, I saw a woman. She raised her left hand, the other holding a paper with Olivia's name on it and mine. I came next to her and shook her hand.
It was a while after the last time I had seen Architect Rodriguez. I remember she had short hair, and at that time, she only had one child. She's a mother of three now and she certainly looks pregnant and healthy. She's 7 months away, I guess, and she was supposed to take her maternity leave, but she insisted that she leave when she's just 4 months away and when her baby bump finally shows up.
"Welcome back, Architect Sebastian," she knelt down and patted Olivia's head.
"Hello, Olivia. Welcome to the Philippines."
"Thank you. You're so pretty," then she giggled cutely.
"Thank you, Architect. It's so good to see you again." I said.
"Ikaw rin po. Kahit Melody na lang, Architect," she smiled.
Uhm, I don't think I should call her that.
We headed to the company car and went straight away to the office. I was supposed to drop Liv off at our place, but I thought I would not take a while at the office as I was just supposed to drop by and greet my employees. Besides, we need to take a rest, especially my kid right here.
"May I ask, bakit ka pala mag-isa?"
"Oh, actually Sir, dapat kasama ko si Engineer Asuncion kaya lang nagkaroon ng slight emergency sa isang construction site sa Tarlac, so he had to rush there. Pero he's probably on his way back to the office," she explained, not taking her eyes off the road.
"Oh, I see. I wonder what's changed there."
Architect Melody just chuckled.
I used to be the company's head project manager. But because of certain circumstances, I was promoted as the Chairman of the Company, filling in Dad's position. The head architect became Architect Rodriguez. My former assistant project manager, Engineer Asuncion, was promoted as the head and senior engineer. Kung tutuusin dapat isa 'rin na architect ang papalit sa pwesto ko pero dahil Architect Rodriguez was the best among them, and the fact na backlogged ang kumpanya ng interns because Dad was a little bit of a drag, we took someone from the Engineering department. I don't regret it, anyway. I trust Architect Melody's instincts so I sought for her help appointing someone for the said position. Plus, before, I used to hang out with Engineer Asuncion. He's the same age as mine, so at that time we were friends. I witnessed how industrious and wise he was so I knew he was ideally suited for the position.
"Ano po bang gusto n'yong itawag ko sa'yo?" she suddenly asked.
"Whatever's comfortable with you, Architect."
