SECOND CHANCES(A Lesbian Story)

Chapter 14

Rain water was slashing against the bedroom window. Mika's unit was warm but it was cold outside. It was February... a miserable Monday morning in one of the coldest month of the year. They have been back from Africa for two weeks... two horrible weeks which had left the secretary feeling as though she was living in no man's land.

She pulled on her rain boots and took her raincoat from the wardrobe... not quite as loath as she had been in the previous days because Vic Galang would not be there today. She was spending the day at their factory in Batangas. She was actually looking forward to her boss's absence... the atmosphere would be normal for once— as far as Mika was concerned, that is. For everyone else, things were running very smoothly at Galang and Galang. Kim Fajardo was back in her old routine and so was her secretary, Desiree Cheng.

Desiree, normally a very talkative girl, had said little about her broken engagement. She had told Mika merely that things had not worked out as she'd hoped... that she and her fiancé discovered they were not right for each other.

Mika knew the feeling only too well. It was obvious to her that Desiree was still suffering over it— something else Mika could sympathize with because she was suffering in a similar way. She feels that her relationship with Vic had disintegrated totally. They communicate but fail to reach one another.

During the past fortnight, she had on two occasions acted as hostess to dinner parties in the penthouse. They were entertaining foreign visitors on both times and the evenings had gone well. Ever the gentlewoman— or responsible employer— Vic had taken her home afterwards, but she had said very little and she had not stepped foot inside her unit.

Mika had long since given up trying to reach her boss. For the first couple of days in the office (since their return from their African trip), she had try to make things "normal". She had been perfectly natural. But her boss does not seem to reciprocate her efforts. Kung hindi masungit, over sa pangdedeadma.

How much longer the secretary would be able to stand this, she did not know because she loved her boss more than ever. During their stay in Africa, Mika discovered different facets of Vic Galang.... her sense of humor, her sense of fun, her appreciation of life, her being childlike at times... how beautiful she is inside and out. The discoveries only deepened her love to the extent that life with her now was almost unbearably frustrating and depressing. But life without Vic was unthinkable.

There had been one hour... just an hour... last Friday when she had thought that their closeness was going to be recaptured. Vic had come to her office with her children, after having collected them from school, and they all had snack together. Later, however, she learned from the twins that it has been their request to see the secretary because they wanted to invite her to their birthday party a week on Saturday.

The party was to be held at the Galang Family Home in Alabang. Mika really wants to go but had not given the girls a definite answer. She felt guilty. But her acceptance of their invitation depended so much on Vic's attitude towards the idea. She had told them she would let them know and that she might have to go her brother's house in Bulacan at the time of the party. She explained to them, truthfully, that her sister-in-law was soon to have a baby and that after the baby's birth, she was going to help them out for a week. She told Vic of this when she requested for a week-long leave, she had merely nodded her agreement.

Vic has not given her reaction to the twins' invitation to her. She took her children upstairs after their snack and had not come back to the office. Mika plans to ask her tomorrow, if it was OK for her to attend the girls' birthday party.

"Mika, can you spare me a minute, please?" Kim Fajardo stuck her head round the door ten minutes after Mika has arrived at the office.

"Good morning, Kim. Of course I can. Vina, would you look after the switch for a while?"