Slightly disturbed

Ethan

I could not admit that Murilo was living such a perfect life after all the pain he had caused, and for this reason, I would now be closer to my enemy, installed inside FERZ.

I was now even more determined to get some more shares in his company, but in addition to the ones I was already in possession of, all the others belonged to Murilo himself and to the asshole Aquiles.

But everyone has their price, and I would try to get closer to Aquiles and play him against his cousin, because only with his support could I make the changes I wanted and maybe even remove Murilo from the presidency of FERZ, something that I was sure would shake the life out of that scoundrel.

Again I looked through the tinted glass of the car window, noting once again that we had walked a short distance since I had observed a few minutes ago.

"Is there a problem, Simas?" I ask the driver.

"Yes, Mr. Constantino," he confirms, looking at me through the rearview mirror.

It seems that the choice of topic of conversation was not quite right, because Aquiles' expression becomes even more closed and it is clear that he did not like what I said at all.

"What do you know about it? "I don't want you talking about my wife, do you understand me?”

The way Aquiles was completely upset just at the mention of his girlfriend said a lot, besides the fact that he was really in love with her. And I needed to find out what was there, for he feared that I would seek information about his love relationship.

Was it just jealousy? Or something more?

"I beg your pardon, then," I say cynically, "I really didn't know that your girlfriend was a forbidden subject here.”

I was teasing him, in an attempt to find out something that would be useful to me in some way.

"For the sake of the smooth running of this company, I ask that no personal matters be discussed here.”

We both looked at the newcomer together and I tried to keep my anger in check, because this was not a good start to the week by any means, and like a good player, I knew the right time to back off.

"Later we'll talk better, great Aquiles," I say by way of farewell and walk down the corridor toward the room that was begrudgingly given to me.

To my delight, I found that all my directions to the Human Resources manager had been followed, for in addition to finding a new secretary standing by, the room I had chosen to be my office at the company was exactly as I had requested.

"Good morning, Mr. Ethan," the secretary greeted me, rising quickly from her chair behind the desk.

I celebrated too soon.

"I asked you to call me Mr. Constantino," I said as politely as possible.

The employee, besides having treated me in an informal way, was dressed in a skirt that was too short for the corporate environment, something that I considered quite inappropriate, but I didn't comment on her dress, considering that she is an employee and I didn't intend to suffer any kind of lawsuit for moral harassment at work.

"And, good morning, Judith," I tried to soften, reading her name on the name tag placed strategically next to her exaggerated cleavage.

I walked quickly into my office, deciding that this day was not pleasant at all and that I needed to express all the anger somehow and I could only think of one person to make my day better: Mariana.

I hoped that the chocolates and the flower arrangement for Aunt Celina had pleased her as well.

Mariana

After talking to Virginia and venting the conflicting feelings that were plaguing me, I was feeling lighter, with a peaceful heart, because there is nothing better than putting out what is making us sad or worried.

And while the store was very quiet on that early Monday evening, I took the opportunity to stay in our small office, taking care of some administrative issues of our business.

While I was entering some information into the computer, in spreadsheets designed to facilitate information management, I heard my cell phone vibrate insistently, but when I saw that it was Ethan's messages, I decided to ignore them completely.

I needed some time away from that man, without his evil influence on my cheating libido, but he didn't make my life easy, and even when we weren't close, his image insinuated itself insistently into my thoughts.

And today I wasn't going to allow myself to fall into the walking trap that Ethan was proving to be, so I continued to pay attention to what I was doing, even though I kept glancing at the cell phone as if it was going to come to life at any moment.

To my dismay, the phone vibrated continuously, with a call now, and of course, it was from Ethan, who had now become more insistent.

I didn't answer it, but neither could I do anything but stare at the screen of my cell phone, it even seemed as if Ethan would come out of his own electronic device, something completely stupefying.

Even after the phone stopped ringing, after three calls successfully ignored by me, I kept staring at it for long minutes, waiting for a new call attempt that didn't come.

Although silence reigned again in my small room, I could not go back to doing what I was doing before, even though I tried very hard to do so.

I eventually gave up, it's impossible to pretend that everything is calm, when my heart is simply beating fast in my chest, for just a phone call from Ethan brought up all the memories of Saturday night again.

I gave up on staying there, left everything half done, and went back to the store, because I would surely find something to distract me, doing something productive like helping some more indecisive customer, instead of wasting my time thinking about someone like Ethan Constantino.

It was not possible that even when he was away from me, that man would manage to disturb me like that.

As soon as I opened the office door, I was already inside the counter, where I found Matheus manning the cash register while the other two saleswomen attended to customers in the middle of the store.

"How are things here?" I ask Matheus, who smiles when he sees me coming and I stop beside him, leaning against the counter.