Stranded Memories

CHAPTER IX

A/N: wala munang update ngayon...

charot lang! Very late update na naman! Sorry huhuhu nasi-stress na ako kay Alessandra at Evandro, legit hahahaah

P.S. Boring chapter. Filler chapter. No lemons. Just plain convo huhuhu raw edit, maraming wrong grammar etc.

Thank you and God bless!

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Evandro

FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME NOW, I tried calling Alessandra's phone, hoping that I could get through but still, I couldn't reach her.

It's almost six in the evening now, and I actually wanted to have dinner with Alessandra. She just agreed to being my girlfriend just earlier today and I wanted to ask her out on a date, the very first one ever since, well, ever since that one stranded night in Luli island.

"Why are you not answering, Alessandra?" I muttered under my breath. I just wanted to go to her place but instead, I am stuck in this status update meeting with the board. We are currently on a break for a few minutes before going back to our discussion earlier and I used that time to contact my girlfriend. I messaged her around five that I'll be attending a surprise meeting but she hasn't replied since. Maybe her phone's drained? But it's been almost an hour since yet she still hasn't replied. I can't help but be worried. I know for a fact that she can handle herself but still...

Hinilot ko ang sintido ko. I am stuck in a meeting with a number of people who think so little of me. I wanted to hear my girlfriend's voice because she's the only way I could somewhat be able to breathe again. The air inside the conference room is suffocating me. I wanted to hear Alessandra's voice. I wanted to feel like I still have value. I wanted to breathe.

Although I run the Santoros Group of Companies, in the eyes of the board I still have to prove my capabilities to lead the empire even with such a young age. They often look down on me because I am basically a novice in the industry and how I manage to carry the burden of being a CEO despite that is frustratingly beyond them. I am surprised myself at how calm and collected I am whenever we have these kinds of meetings. I've been a CEO for more than a year now after my father stepped down and I am very much aware that they've all been watching me like a hawk because they still think that I am no more that my father's son and my grandfather's grandson, that without the title of being a Santoros, I couldn't get here.

I see myself as that, too.

I see myself as the Evandro Santoros, the man who considered his surname as his only power and without it, he's basically nothing. I used to think that I could have everything in life because I'm a Santoros.

I'm not being cocky, I just know that fact the moment I was old enough to perceive things. I used to have everything go my way, yet there's Aurley, and I realized that no one can really have everything in life.

I can't have her even with my name, and I can't have her more without that because she's Aurlen Aberasturi and she's like a distant star—too beautiful but just too impossible to reach...

I like her, I truly do, at some point I even knew that I love her, but none of those matter anymore as I learned the hard way that I'd rather have someone whom I'll be able to reach, someone who sees my worth and considers my value, someone I could get to be comfortable around with, someone who treats me like I am special even when I'm not.