Perry didn't look back after getting out of City A. He was miserable inside. Both the meeting and the site on the beach made him feel unwell. He was still fuming with anger. It subsided when he saw the girls come out of the water.
It triggered again after the one he recognised as Phoebe left the other in the sand with their mother.
He can still remember. She was a little bit heavy. He hadn't seen the other one at all. But Phoebe was pretty, which meant she was also the same. She used to like to be around him back then.
It was not easy. Perry knew she wanted more of their friendship. She never told him how she felt about him. Yet, he knew. He was not interested. Phoebe never approached him with her feelings for him, either. He never saw her again after the graduation. Two years later, they meet at a teen's gala.
That was it. He had no idea she was a twin. The CEO of FACE. Interesting. He had heard it was a female who ruled it. Never thought she was his age mate. He had seen many of the company's assets. They were very nice and of good quality.
A new brand was released last month. It was a customised watch, John had told him. He wasn't around to witness it.
Perry still didn't feel like himself. He didn't want his mood to ruin the rest of the day as well. Getting up from his chair, he walked to the shelf at the end of the room. It illuminated the beauty inside. Though he had everything that an office was to possess.
The coffee table stood between the couch and the middle window. There was a stone carved woman on it. He had specially ordered it to decorate some fabrics with it. But then discarded the idea and left it on the coffee table. The golden curtains matched the golden colour of the couch. There was a small white spot in the curtain that also matched the painting.
A small stool with a wax figure of a man, clapped for the setting of the desk as it was right beside it. He worked on his ideas on it.
He looked at the last window, and the curtain was halfway in front of it. Perry stood in front of the shelf deciding on what he was doing over there. He brought a book, it was one of the company's design factors. All the ideas for their new designs stayed in there. He took it and went back to his chair.
"Come here," Perry phoned his secretary. He sometimes didn't know how to refer to him. His secretary, assistant or guard and friend.
"How are you working for me?" Perry asked the man when he came right in. John didn't get what his boss had said. He stood beside him blocking the view of the wax man clapping. He craned his neck telling Perry he didn't get him.
"What are you to me?" He asked being a bit clear with himself. Perry directed him to sit down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"I'm your secretary, sir. Why do you ask?" Paul also asked his boss. He, too, knew that question very well. He was the only one closer to the boss in the company. He was his everything. He knew the kind of food he liked and disliked. He knew his family very well, his sisters, parents and grandparents.
One time, Perry had gone for a business trip and did not return on the date he had given to his family. They had immediately called him to ask about his whereabouts instead of calling the boss himself.
The question wasn't new to him. He himself asked every day what he was to the young man. What amazed him was that he never had time for anyone except his family. He had never been seen with a woman before with the exception of his female family members. John never had the thought of his boss being gay as well. Just the mention of that word disgusts him. He didn't like to associate with people as well.
No wonder that when he suggested they collaborate with FACE, the answer was still pending.
"You know everything about me," the boss spoke up.
"Why do you look like my wife---," it seemed he was hallucinating.
Boss you have no wife. You've never been with a woman before.
"Forget it," he brushed the thought away.
John sat there immobile. He didn't know what to do. Has he finally decided to get a partner? The girl will be the luckiest woman on earth. This kind soul! He had never seen somebody like his boss before. Of all men, he will even degrade himself to that level. He was the dream of every woman.
"I feel better now. You may leave." Perry said closing his eyes.
John stood up and quietly walked out. Was it one of the twins they had seen earlier? That was going to be very great. He had searched for the twins. Phoebe was a lawyer just like their father, Mr Williams. She was an artist as well. She owned a gallery in City A. The other one which he learned as Phoenix, the CEO of FACE, there was nothing about her. Well--- I shouldn't jump to conclusions yet.
He too remembered vividly the scene on the beach. He saw from the internet that the onwhoat was left behind was the CEO of FACE. She was the smallest shaped one, yet taller. Twins never looked the same. Only their faces said it.
What wan the full meaning of that FACE company?
Perry didn't open his eyes. He wanted to be free from today's distress, though it was not yet tonight.
Speaking to John made him ease the feeling off him. That was kinda not a conversation. Still, that helped.
Friends, he didn't remember the last time they went out. They were all busy men with their own troubles to handle.