Work! Work! Work!

Chapter 3

Lara resumed work in one of her dad's friends company, the company was headed my the son of the man, Derenle.

Derenle is about 6ft tall, dark in complexion. He's the original definition of 'melanin shining' as his skin usually glow under the sunlight. Derenle is a very good looking man with some gym body. At first I had no issues with Lara working as Derenle's work partner or should I say assistant. I drop her at the office every morning, I go to her place of work during lunch so we could always have lunch together and I go to pick her up after she has closed for the day. Suddenly I had a contract which I had to travel for, the company needed me in their branch in United Kingdom (UK), Initially the plan was to work there for three weeks and if we were able to create the software and the anti virus within three weeks we would be back home. I went there as a team because I couldn't do it alone. During my stay in the UK I sent my schedule to Lara so she'd know when I'll be busy and all. We talked every time during my free time not until one afternoon, it was during her break and I was free. We were on FaceTime, suddenly I heard Derenle's voice asking her while she was on phone during work hours. She explained to him she was on her break but he didn't want to hear, he just flared up.

Later that day, she told me her break had been removed, I felt so guilty and sad, I tried to convince her to talk to her dad to approach him but she refused saying she didn't want it to be like because she knows his dad or because their dads were friends, "work is strictly work " she said to which I agreed with her. Towards the end of my three weeks stay in UK we had not finish the application we were working on, I knew our stay was going to be extended which I told her and she was fine with. Sometimes later she told me they had a business conference in Brazil that would take about four days, whenever they have business conference like that she was not always free. After their conference we were able to talk and two weeks after we finished with work and I was able to come home.

At home it was more than a grand celebration when I came back, that day I kissed Lara after years of separation and misunderstandings. It felt like I already forgot how to kiss a woman.

After I arrived from UK I started noticing some changes in Lara, just all of a sudden she doesn't want me to drive her to the office anymore, whenever I call her for lunch she's always busy at the office and now Derenle drops her at home after the day's work. Always on her phone and smiling, whenever I asked she would say she was busy with office work. She was always busy with work that she does not even have the time to talk to me anymore,We barely talk. I told my parents about the sudden change but they both made joke out of it and claimed I was jealous, "don't worry, nobody can take your wife away from you. Or don't you want her to work again? We are in the twenty first century, learn to control your feelings you're a man" exactly what my father told me still very clear in my head. I followed my parents advise to overlook it, their work is hectic and I know that. Instead of calling her before going to her office I decided that I would start going without informing her. I was always sure she would never dismiss me, whenever she saw me she knew she had no option.

One Friday evening Lara and I were planning to go to the cinema ti spend some time together since the week was usually very occupied. She was in the closet when her phone beeped, it beeped the first time, I didn't bother right from when I was a kid minding my business has been my thing. It beeped the second time then third, I went ahead and picked the phone to give it to her in the closet but suddenly I felt my legs not moving from where I was standing as I saw that the person who had been messaging my wife was Derenle. The first message goes thus, "Hi baby, I noticed you weren't so happy at the office today, Wanna talk"

The second message; I just remembered you told me that guy wants to take you to the cinema this evening, should I come to the place? What movie are you guys watching?" The second message shocked me, it took a while before I came back to my senses. Why would a grown up man stoop so low to that extent, "he would really come to the same cinema to watch the same movie? Really?" I think I raised my voice a bit that hit Lara worried and she asked what was wrong but I told her nothing, still trying to wrap my head over the first two messages I saw he sent another one "I really wanna go on date with you, we can make this work out. You're not even married to that guy" the fact that he refers to me as that guy made my blood boil.

As I heard Lara stepping out of the closet I quickly tossed her phone to the bed and continued what I was doing though I was not concentrated on it anymore. I thought to ask Lara about it but I felt like she would ask if I read her messages and to me that's prying into people's business. As we headed to the movies, I had to park at one point on the road and when she asked what happened I told her I wanted to buy water from a store at the street side. I got down from the car to buy water, as soon as I paid for the water I opened it and poured it on my head. Lara came down from the car to make sure I was fine. She asked if we should go back home since we had not gone far but I insisted we went to the movies though throughout the movie the messages I saw earlier got me worried and I lost my concentration. Before i could get hold of myself the two hours movies had finished.

At some point I thought to ask Lara about the messages she received earlier to clarify things but I couldn't bring myself to do so.

It's Been two weeks since I saw those messages, my soon to be wife has changed a lot. I was getting frustrated, instead of keeping it to myself I decided that I'd ask her. When she came back from work that day I told her I'd like us to talk about somethings after she has freshened up.

"Lara what is between you and Derenle?" I asked as I sat on the bed beside her. I could not explain the look in her face. Maybe confused, she didn't say anything but gave me a confused look. I told her I wanted to hear from her before I concluded. "What can possibly be between my boss and I if not work related"… "don't give me that crap" I interrupted her, she was not being straight forward with me, I wanted an answer, a straight and direct one. I proceeded to remind her of weeks ago that we went to the movies and how I saw the messages Derenle sent to her. She told me if it was all about that message then I should calm down, he was just kidding around. That's how he does. What she said made me more angry, how could she say he was just kidding, he wanted to take her to the movies and also referred to me as that guy and Lara is here telling me he was kidding. I asked her if this is how they both joke about things and how their relationship has moved from work to joking about he wanting to see her and taking her to the movies. Lara didn't admit that there was something between she and her boss but she confessed that Derenle asked her out during their conference trip to which she refused and she didn't feel the need to tell me because she was aware of my insecurities. She also told me that they've been really close friends but there's nothing between them. She gave me her phone to read their messages but I refused, I trust her.