Chapter 5 - Let's Make A Truce

Shenise Mien could not help smiling. Gosh, it had been so long since she smiled like this. She felt slightly guilty with how rude she was to those business people. But on the other hand, she felt darn victorious.

"Do you know how important are the people that you insulted?" Gaville's voice was very controlled. They're in the empty hallway outside the function hall.

"Do you know how big of an emotional damage you've done to the family of my boss?" Shenise threw back. This time, the smile on her face is gone. "I bet, you think that's nothing compared to the damage that I did with your business relationship to your associates, right?" Shenise wasn't able to stop her voice from getting a bit high and loud. "I'll tell you something, Gaville, I don't care if you want to hurt me, but don't you dare hurt other people just to get to me." She stated firmly.

Gaville merely smiled condescendingly. "Oh, how scary. What are you gonna do, Shenise?"

"Have you tried Googling yourself in the net, Gaville?" She asked the guy out of the blue.

"What-"

She smiled when she saw the confusion in Gaville's face. "You should. You'll be surprised with what you'll see."

"What the hell are you saying?"

My, my, Shenise feels like she's in cloud nine seeing Gaville Eclaire so confused and rattled.

Shenise sighed. "Do you know that the chronicles of your 'escapades' in the Internet was longer than the Vietnam War? You should really be careful. You're a prominent man- rich and all. What's more, you've been to different countries making the gossips in the net feast on you. Take note- those who write about you are multi-racial."

"What the hell are you saying?" Gaville repeated.

Shenise looked at Gaville with wide eyes as she feigned an exaggerated look of surprise. "You don't know? Well, the women you've been with are so happy having spent the night with you that they blog about their experiences with you. They should've put you on Wikipedia under the tags, 'Sexual Experiences, Gaville Eclaire'. You should really read their write-ups and comments. It's quite- uh, colorful." She said as if she was examining a marvelous work of art.

The horrified look on Gaville's handsome face was priceless.

Serves him right. Shenise couldn't believe the number of women that had been involved with the guy.

"If it's any consolation, you don't have any sex video. Well, at least there's not one in the net. Anyway Gaville, Sybil Fier was one of the women that you've been with, right?" She smiled. "Do you think Uncle Deive had already seen and read it, Gaville?"

The man glared at her. Oh, this was really fun. "Don't you dare tell-"

"I will really tell him, you asshole!" Shenise hissed. "Stop the rumors at the office or I swear, your almost-saintly conservative father will have a heart attack upon knowing things about you." Shenise glared back at Gaville, then she walked away. She started counting mentally. Five... four... three... two... one-

"Wait."

Shenise smiled at herself when she heard Gaville's call. Hmm, that was fast. She thought that it will take he4 another set of five seconds before the man give in. It looked like he really care about his father after all.

She turned her head to him annoyingly. Gaville appeared like a trapped animal. The man walked towards her. "I thought you said I was childish. What do you think it is that you're doing now?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Sometimes, you have to sacrifice some of your life policies for the sake of more important things- like protecting other people from being hurt. Oh, I'm sorry if you didn't understand that. I forgot that you're a self-centered, uncaring, indifferent, inhumane bastard who doesn't care about other people's feelings as long as you get what you want." She said matter-of-factly.

"You really like to talk, huh?"

She just smiled at him. "Talking has always been one of my talents. Do you want me to use this talent of mine to your father?" Shenise was about to turn away from Gaville again but he grabbed her arm.

Gaville glowered at her. But after a while, he sighed defeatedly. "Let's make a truce." Gaville calmly suggested. "We both want the same thing. It's better if we help each other than the other way around." Gaville was serious.

"Why should I believe you?" Shenise challenged, raising her eyebrow.

"I'm a businessman, Shenise. In the business world, it's always better to earn a friend than an enemy." Gaville said drily.

Shenise stared at Gaville for a few seconds. There are tons of reasons why she should not accept Gaville's offer. But she had this tendency to believe the best in people, and so, she quickly agreed with him. "Deal." Shenise said, offering her hand for a handshake.

"Deal." Gaville replied, then firmly took her hand in his.

And that was how these two people who could not stand each other became reluctant partners.

*****

"Are you serious? You buy this much junk food?" Shenise said disgustingly referring to the bags of imported chips that Gaville put in his shopping cart.

"Stay the hell away from my food preference." Gaville pushed the cart and took another bag of imported chips.

"This is not healthy at all! You know what, I can't just watch like this. You should not eat these junk-"

"Shenise, I appreciate your concern but I don't need your opinion." He cut Shenise off.

It was Sunday morning and they decided to have their first meeting to discuss their strategies to sabotage their engagement. And to whatever reason, they ended up buying groceries because there is no food in Gaville's apartment.

"Fine. If you want to eat these and destroy your kidneys, go. But at least, buy local junk food to at least help our economy." With that, Shenise took the imported junk food and put it back in their respective shelves, and took the local chips in exchange.

Gaville gritted his teeth. They've been like this since earlier. Almost all of the imported products that he took, Shenise exchanged it with locally manufactured products.

"Why do I have to put up with this? This is my food, my money-"

"And this is your country." Shenise interject. "By buying imported goods, you’re helping the economy of other countries. Come to think of it, the quality of their products is almost the same as ours. Will it kill you to buy our own manufactured products and help the economy of your own country?" Shenise almost pouted with face glowing with sincerity and looked at Gaville like he was a very unreasonable and bad person just because he chose to fill his cart with imported chips.

Gaville closed his eyes in frustration- to calm his nerves and to avoid looking at Shenise's pouting lips. This woman was really killing him.

"Fine." Gaville said hotly then he pushed the cart. When they got near an employee of the store, Gaville uncouthly asked what aisle is the local toothpaste. The employee quickly answered. He pushed the cart again irritatingly.

"Thank you." He heard Shenise say to the employee that he asked. When Shenise reached him, the lady preached at him again. "That's basic manners, you know. You say 'thank you' when someone helped you, you say 'please' if you need or want something and you say 'sorry' if you hurt someone. Didn't your father taught you that?" Shenise said with a voice laced with disapproval and irritation.

Gaville could not believe it. Shenise have no right to get pissed. "Unlike your father who seem like a very dedicated and hands-on father to you, mine had been very busy with our business and almost did not see me while I was growing up." He spat.

"Oh." Gaville did not expect the tone of Shenise's voice. It was apologetic. He didn't like it.

It's true that Deive almost had no time for him since his childhood, but he sure did not want anyone pitying him for that. He just said that for sarcasm. Besides, he did not want any other emotions other than genuine animosity between him and Shenise Mien. There should not be any concern between them. There should only be plain business with them- and that is to sabotage their engagement.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that." Shenise said, voice still apologetic.

"You say sorry if you hurt someone..." Gaville's mind replayed Shenise's words earlier.

He doesn’t like this.