The Love of An Invisible

[Aya Millenis’ vision]

“Wait Aya,” I hear Leandro’s voice calling me, but before the elevator doors close he manages to get in, “What’s gotten into you to make that scene, Aya?”

“I-I didn’t know he was back… Why didn’t you tell me! You know how much I wanted to talk to him.”

“I’m sorry Aya, I-I… I was eating myself up, I also did and said many things with Iuri that I regret, I even thought he would fire me for revenge… I… I’m sorry.”

“Now it’s done… I was embarrassed in front of the entire management of the company and worse… In front of my parents… I…” tears cascade down without me being able to control them. “Why do I have to be such an idiot… I…”

Leandro hugs me, the elevator doors open again, now stopped at the fourth floor, where our department is, we walk to my desk which is in front of his room, he undoes the hug and wipes my tears.

“D-Did you know?” I whisper with my eyes closed, still feeling them damp.

“What?”

“That they had bought the orphanage?” I open my eyes and see him sighing.

He is silent for a long second, for a good understanding, this silence is enough. I was the last to know, my last hope was Mr. Gustam, but now… It is your son who is in charge of everything, and I can’t even face him. Why does life always have to have something to take away our happiness?

Sigh, everyone already knew this, but nobody told me anything, left me to agonize alone when nothing else could be done.

“Better go home, you…”

“I can’t be even more of a coward, I won’t let work pile up, I need to organize the paperwork for the reports today… Damn, I forgot my folder there…” I sit down on the chair, frustration takes over me and I can’t go back there to get it, I am a coward.

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“I believe this is yours,” my briefcase is thrown roughly on my desk. “You made that whole scene to get Iuri’s attention, didn’t you?” accuses me.

“I didn’t even know he was back!” I defend myself.

“Tell another girl, your life is all about going out with different guys every new week, you’re just a slut, you wouldn’t listen to me and now you’re like this, humiliating yourself to get attention from men who want nothing more than to have sex with you.”

“Ms. Millenis, please leave my sector, I will not tolerate this kind of behavior here,” he speaks firmly, but she does not get intimidated, she just stares at him defiantly.

“I am the vice-president’s secretary”, she highlights her husband’s position. “I am the one who tolerates you here,” she speaks with her chin up, but Leandro doesn’t lower his head to her. “Look at that,” she goes around Leandro looking him up and down with her hand on his chin, analyzing him. “The boy who took this thing to the wrong place, now that he occupies a position of respect, who did he really marry, Miss Aya?”

I don’t answer, I’m powerless, I’m used to his disgusted look at me.

“I always knew this day would come, the day he would bitterly regret his disobedience, I hope Iuri despises you, just like you did him.”

“Just like you did with him” – it wasn’t contempt that I felt for him, I just fooled myself thinking that he just wanted to use me like all the other people always do, I never thought I was the most beautiful, but I also never thought I was ugly, I always knew that my eyes are my greatest charms… I want to disappear from the world.

“Don’t listen to that woman, Aya,” he says, looking at me.

“Impossible, in a way, I know she’s right, a lot of things wouldn’t have happened if I had listened to her,” that’s the absolute truth.

If I had listened to her, I wouldn’t have gone out with Leandro, I wouldn’t have been ridiculed at school, I wouldn’t have suffered from attempted abuse, I wouldn’t have had to live on the street? But also, I would never have had a will of my own, I would be an eternal puppet, even though my sister always made our parents proud, she is not a puppet, I don’t understand why things happened to me like that.

“We have to make mistakes to learn, Aya. We can’t live forever eating ourselves up for something that can’t be taken back, we need to lift our heads up and find a way to keep moving forward…” I know he is saying this more to himself than to me.

I feel my heart beating strongly in my chest, Iuri is so beautiful, very different from before, I wish I could see him again, but without those serious eyes staring back at me, I just admire what I have lost.

“What are you going to do?” I ask, he leans back against the table.

“I don’t know… I wanted to ask forgiveness, but I can’t find the words… A cake forms in my throat… I did so much shit with him… And now, I depend on him for a salary at the end of the month,” smiling sadly, I share this feeling.

“Do you think he will ever forgive us?”

“I hope so, well, we better get to work, you have to take the reports from the sector and deliver them personally, he is still without a secretary…”

“Can’t you take them? I…”

“Better not, Mr. Gustam said that he hates people who don’t do their job, and unfortunately, taking the reports is part of your duties.”

Damn it, I will have to face him again, and on the same day… Why doesn’t the ground just open a hole to hide me? When will things stop going wrong in my life?

I can only sigh and start organizing the reports, I only need about half an hour, just to check everything, I already left the things ready yesterday before I left, today just review, print and deliver. Hurry up.

In twenty minutes I’m already inside the elevator, my fingers are shaking, I adjust my glasses nervously, my legs don’t want to stay still, what will I say? After a minute the doors open, I draw in as much air as possible with my nostrils and fill my lungs. With long strides I approach the door and knock three times.

“Come in,” he says, in a thick voice that makes the hairs on the back of my neck tingle. He really isn’t a boy anymore.

(Iuri Stevens’ vision)

For about three years the orphanage has been abandoned, the last director caused it to fall into disrepair, now, a theme park has bought the place and will demolish it, but the fact that she makes donations doesn’t answer the fact that she wants my father to buy it so badly… I wonder if she abandoned any children there. Since she went out with so many men, she might have accidentally gotten pregnant and put the child inside so as not to hinder her in her next conquests. This sucks!

I can’t believe she has stooped so low. My thoughts are interrupted by three knocks on the door.

“Come in,” I order and close the pages about the orphanage from the computer screen.

“G-g-good morning, Mr. Stevens, I’ve come to bring you the reports from the economic development sector,” she stutters with his head down.

“Leave it here on the table,” I watch her walk to my desk with her head down, I notice that her hands are shaking, she puts the folder down.

“Well… I…”

“Work is no place for conversation,” I cut her off, and she will see that I am not the same as before.

“You are right, I am sorry, excuse me,” she turns back and starts to walk, impossible not to notice her hips, they are very round and steep. How will it be to tighten them?

“Miss Aya,” I call her attention and she stops walking looking at me for the first time, I cannot lie, she looks very beautiful with those round glasses, a perfection, “We can talk tomorrow, after work, at sixteen o’clock at Lupis restaurant.”

“O-okay,” she turns around again and leaves the room.

The years have only enhanced her even more, I want to prove it, I think this will not be a problem, after I kill my years of desire for her, I will fire her, not because she slept with me, but because she will flirt with all the men in the company, I don’t want to see this, or I can transfer her to some branch office, I just want to see her gone.

I am not like I used to be, I wanted only her in the world, I dreamed of marrying and having children with her, building a family like my parents’ and being very happy, but she made sure to step on my dreams and say that no woman will ever want anything but money from me, because that is all I have to offer, well, whatever, I will buy her off for one night too.