Chapter 61 - The Non-couple’s Spat (1/2)
”You sound so serious,” Gabriel says as he closes the door of his office. He even tries to smile.
Claire, on the other hand, has her arms on her ċhėst. She walks straight to the other side of the room, to the glass wall overlooking the city, as though trying to distance herself as far away from the door as possible, away from prying ears.
”What is this about?” he says.
She turns to him. ”What happened to Jake?”
”What?”
”You know who Jake is, don't you? He was one of your top employees.”
”Yes, yes, I know who he is,” he says. ”What about him?”
”Is it true you fired him because of me?”
”Where did you get that idea—”
”Please don't lie, Gabriel,” she says. ”Please tell me the truth. Did you fire Jake Magno because of me?”
”Wait, I'm not sure what you've heard but—”
”Why can't you just tell the truth, Gabriel Tan?” She's actually beet red in the face. ”Did you fire that man just because I dated him?”
”Wha—”
”We're not in a real relationship, Mister Tan,” she says. ”I'm just an employee. A contractual one at that. So it should not bother you if I date other people, especially a good and honest guy like Jake.”
”Hold it,” Gabriel says. Now, it's his turn to turn red in the face. Obviously, Claire is taking the whole thing the wrong way. There's a tone in her voice that he couldn't quite put a finger on. There's something off about the whole thing. Does she think…
”So tell me once and for all, Mister Tan. Did you fire Jake Magno because you're….jealous?”
”What???”
A deluge of conflicting feelings choke Gabriel Tan. For one thing, Claire is really taking it the wrong way; she's so misinformed, she had no idea what kind of a monster Jake Magno is. Even now, Jake is such a pain in the ȧss, and Gabriel has been keeping it all under wraps just to protect her. For another, why would Claire immediately think that he's jealous?
”I'm not jealous, Claire,” he says, trying hard to keep a straight face.
”Come on, Gabriel,” she says, still on fire. ”Just one date, and the next thing Jake knew, he's out of a job. Are you going to do that with every single person I date here? Why would you do that? Are we in a real relationship, Mister Gabriel Tan? Are we?”
”Well, we're, uhhh…” Jesus, Gabriel thinks, he just couldn't really answer this straight. He feels like the ”Are we in a real relationship” question is loaded, and Claire is already high-strung as she is now—he might say the wrong thing and this entire arrangement could be off.
”We're not a real couple, right?” Claire continues. ”I'm not even here as my real identity, but as Bella Xavier. Bella, the blonde. I dated Jake Magno as a persona that does not exist in real life. That should've been a mitigating factor and should've stopped you from firing that man. But no, you went out of your way to go on a power trip, like you always love doing. What will you do if I date another cute guy.”
”Cute guy?” Gabriel's curiosity is piqued. ”Is there another cute guy here?”
”Well,” Claire stammers, trying to decide quickly who's the cutest guy next to Jake in the hierarchy of this office's most eligible bachelors. ”There's, uhh, there's Kurt from Marketing.”