Light that went out

"Well, he's good enough...", Diana muttered, looking away at the water on the table.

Ema shook her head, her lips pursed and her eyebrow raised.

"You're cute and shy, you know, but you're a terrible liar and... You're more likely to be the one who's bad in bed."

The two laughed, Carla even stopped eating to listen to the conversation.

"Please show some respect, you're talking about my boss." Coming back with the food, she pretended to be serious, blushing slightly and offering it to Alice.

The young woman seemed more tired than she was as she chewed, but her senses and hearing were alert.

"Wait, can a woman be bad in bed?" Diana suddenly became worried.

She had never thought about her side of the story.

She only knew that everything was very good.

She could barely hold herself back and learned new things every time. Thinking about it, sex had become a greater pleasure than food lately.

Almost a complement. Good food was like champagne with dinner.

"What are you? A virgin?", Carla narrowed her eyes. Ema and Diana stared at her, even Alice seemed a little more awake. "Sex is like bread, at least there has to be butter on both slices."

First there was silence.

Ironically, the first to laugh like a child was Alice, who covered her mouth, in the middle of chewing a cupcake.

After that, the room filled with laughter. Even the accountant herself found it funny, lowering her head on the table.

The door opened dozens of minutes later, burying the intimate conversation the girls had had.

Entering with his hair stuck to his forehead, and sweat running down his neck, Nero felt that the eyes on him were a little stranger, and more intense, than usual.

"So, is there anything left for me?", seeing the table being cleared, he asked.

Normally, Diana would question why he hadn't eaten before going out for a run. But she decided to smile.

"Just bread and butter."

"Pft! Hahaha!"

...

..

Inside the car and heading towards work, Diana felt a little lonely, even though the girls kept her company. Their goodbye kiss was still in her memory.

"Oh, come on! He said he'll be back in two days, right? It must be important."

Diana shook her head slightly. She knew that, she just wanted a window into his heart. Maybe then she could tell him.

"You two really are a couple of lovebirds, aren't you? Now I understand why you didn't even bother to find a woman with him... I mean, at home."

Carla narrowed her eyes at her friend.

Shaking her head, she didn't know what to say. As an employee, Ema was respectable, focused, serious and intelligent... It couldn't be more different from her real personality.

"Who, Alice?" Luckily her boss seemed as absent-minded as she was.

"Alice is a friend. He already told me about her... He even said that if there was anything, he would tell me first. That bastard."

"Weren't you dreaming about him half a second ago?...", Ema turned to her. Diana preferred to look out the window.

"Who was dreaming? Just... I was thinking about life. That's all."

Like a lifesaver from fate, her cell phone rang.

"See, he missed you too."

The young woman's smile was already spreading between them, but suddenly it died.

Her lips fell. Her eyes furrowed. A message that was hard to believe.

"What's wrong?...", Ema approached.

"Huh, my... Ex-fiancé. He wants to meet me today, now..."

Seeing her serious expression, Ema thought carefully about what she was going to say.

It wasn't necessary.

"Can you please turn around and head to this address?"

Everything happened in seconds. The car was already moving, while Diana's serious and unfamiliar appearance made the couple uncomfortable.

She seemed to have decided something and looked out the window as if she were watching an old movie before her eyes.

...

..

.

"So, why are we here?", Carla finally asked as they were guided to a table.

Classical music played in the background, there was a soft and fresh smell in the air, a modern and reserved architecture with dividers for each table and a pair of windows that looked out a ten-story view.

The girls felt like they could take their shoes off on that carpet and no one would look their way.

"Um..." Diana finally came to her senses for a moment. She looked at the two of them and seemed to have trouble remembering that they had to be at work a few minutes earlier. "Don't worry, we can have the day off."

"That's not what she asked! I mean..." Ema looked at Carla for support. "If the fiancé is yours, why did you drag us in?!"

"Ex-fiancé..." she underlined each syllable.

Diana's expression was unreadable for a second. Then she returned to her usual self, averting her eyes to the beauty of the city streets.

"Because we're a team, like the three musketeers," she said matter-of-factly.

"More like the three little pigs, you only eat and sleep when you're with me," Carla pinched the bridge of her nose with a grimace.

Ema couldn't hold it in, her serious face crumbled like a house of cards.

Soon, the three of them were laughing together.

Diana finally relaxed a little and the couple realized that she wasn't so far from her old self.

"So, what are we going to do? I don't want to be a third wheel."

"No one will..."

"Can I stay with your other fiancé, at least?", when she realized she had already said it, Carla had to look twice to confirm if it was a joke. And she still wasn't sure.

Diana seemed to have come to the same conclusion. But she didn't want to commit murder against her own friend.

Not here, at least.

"No one is going to steal my fiancé, understand? I'm just here to be polite and to dot the 'i's'," her eyes wandered around the entrance. At any second he could walk in, Diana didn't know her heart. "If I wanted a date, I would go alone. You're my security guards."

Carla put a hand to her face.

"Do you think he's going to threaten you or hit you?"

"I think I might end up hitting him. You're here to stop him from fighting back," she answered promptly. Gently giving them their role there.

The two of them had dead eyes, they didn't really like the play.

"Yes, of course. This corporate industry... increasingly exploitative," Carla began. Ema was still processing everything, her lips open like a little fish, but she had the answer on the tip of her tongue.

"Just throw a chair at him."

Carla smiled. Diana laughed at the window.

"I'm sure I'll find something like that in the contract, about serving as a shield for my boss. Speaking of which, you should call him and let him know I'll be late."

"No!..." Diana didn't know how to react to a sarcastic Carla. Mainly because it was true, and she didn't know what she was doing. But when she saw a tall, pale and familiar figure, her professional self took over.

"He's coming. Just be quiet."