The one that got away

It was go time for Laila and Maria and they watched anxiously to see if Jake and his mistress would be entering the restaurant for the breakfast buffet. Time was drawing near and they had to be prepared for both scenarios. Laila had a bad feeling and in the final seconds of Jake arriving by the entrance of the restaurant, she got up and headed into the fairly busy hall. Maria didn't know what Laila was planning, but she quickly readied her phone's camera and started recording before following her out of the restaurant.

Maria heard Jake's surprised voice calling out Laila's name when she turned around and saw the both of them stand face to face. Maria watched the scene unfold from a short distance and tried to listen in to their conversation before revealing herself. She didn't want to show up without knowing Laila's plan and potentially ruin it.

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"Laila..? Is that you?"

Laila turned around, pretending to be clueless. "Oh Jake, what a surprise. I didn't expect to run into you here. What brings you here? Don't tell me you are here for the breakfast buffet as well?"

Jake was clearly caught of guard and felt somewhat awkward by what was going on as he tried to laugh the tension away. "Ha ha ha. No, I was just heading out. Are you here alone?"

Laila had a disinterested tone of voice as she responded to Jake. Filling the time until she saw an opportunity to ask the questions she was actually interested in and Jake had just given that opportunity to her. "I see. No, I am here with Maria. She knows a guy who works here and she got us onto the list for the breakfast buffet for a nice breakfast." This was when Laila's eyes shifted to the woman on his arm and she steered the conversation to her. "Speaking of being alone, who is this lovely lady."

His mistress was actually clueless to who Laila was and to what was going on, so she had been quietly watching the back and forth between Jake and Laila until now. With a big smile she chimed in as she said, "Yes Jake, introduce me to your friend here."

It appeared that the moment Jake saw Laila, he had completely forgotten about the woman he had just spent the night with. In that short moment, his eyes had seen only Laila and in his mind the two of them had been alone in that hallway. Hearing the woman's voice and Laila's question, he was pulled back to reality and he abruptly turned his face to the side.

"Oh yes, he he, of course. Let me introduce you guys to one another." As he looked at Laila with a look of love in his eyes, he said, "This is Laila. We go way back and we have known each other since high school. She was my first real girlfriend and you could say that she is the one who got away."

Laila pretended to have become bashful after his words and dismissed his words with a, "Oh, stop it. You are just saying that." Including all the hand gestures that came with the part and the shy laughter. After hearing such a high praised introduction of Laila, the woman looked at Jake to see how she would be introduced. But sadly, she would be in for a harsh look at reality.

"And this, this is Savannah. She is my colleague. We work together on an important deal between her uncle's company and my father's company." The woman looked clearly dejected to get that kind of introduction after the way he had talked about Laila. Where she had probably felt like she was on top of the world yesterday, like she was his number one, right now she probably felt she wasn't even in the top 5. After introducing the two of them, his eyes shot right back to Laila as well as his undivided attention.

The role of the mistress might be exciting in some ways, as it is a forbidden love, it also means that your identity has to remain a secret to the outside world. You will always be the other woman and where that will mean you get lavished with gifts, it also means you will never receive a formal title other than the one in your front to the outside world. But the treatment she had received from Jake in that moment, showed that even in private he probably saw her as an exciting bedpartner and as beneficial to his career, than as someone he cared about.

After absentmindedly shaking her hand and greeting her with a 'nice to meet you', Laila too returned her focus back to Jake as she tried to get him to reveal some more information. She responded with, "I see. Colleagues hmm. What brings you guys to the hotel. You came from the lobby. Does that mean you two spent the night here?"