"Are you nervous?" Andrew stared at Rey through the rareview mirror but he was met with silence yet again for the fifth time so he decided it was best to stop talking and clamp his mouth shut.
The dirve was quiet and tense and Andrew imagined the pressure in the car pushing him to drive into another car.
His hands were getting calmmy and after few minutes of trying to stay still, he broke the silence himself again. "Everything has been set down, you only have to follow the process naturally."
"Hmm." Rey hummed looking out through the window.
Clicking his tongue, he decided it was best to speed up and quickly end the uncomfortable journey, probably with Mia with them, the atmosphere wouldn't be so bad.
"Do you have your lines ready?"
"I'd rather slash your pay into equal half again." Rey's low voice came and this time, Andrew calmped his mouth shut all through the drive.
***
Fredrick held Mia's chin again and turned it from one side to the other and Mia who had not tried to force a smile to her lips stared at him without blinking.
"You look fierce and just as beautiful." He complimented again and the staff behind him nodded like their head would fall off and they would have absolutely no problem with it.
"I believe we are done." Mia who had said 'thank you' twice was fed up and wanted nothing than to leave Fredrick.
"Of course, after I take a picture of your out of the worldly face and shape." He smiled, showcasing his set of perfect dentation.
At this Mia frowned, she contemplated talking to Reynaldo about this but called quits on it. Wasn't he worse than Fredrick?
"I'd rather object Mr. Fredrick." She gave a stiff smile this time.
"There is no need to be so formal Princess and I very much appreciate your smile." He smiled back before taking out a card from his breast pocket and handed it over to her.
"I believe we'd meet again."
'I hope not.' Mia thought in her head but took the card from him delicately with her perfectly manicured hand.
"Till then." She gave a quick look at the card before placing it in her black clutch.
"We'd get going now."
'As you should.' She hissed in her head, it had been hours of discomfort with him getting cringy and extremely close.
Outwardly, she put in more effort to give a sincere smile and a polite nod at the staff behind him.
***
Driving into Rey's apartment, Andrew was not ready for the mind-blowing transformation of Mia. She stood in a model like pose, one leg before the other, dressed in a red bodycon dress with smoky eyes and deep burgundy lips.
"Is…is that Mia?" Andrew who had just stepped on the brakes asked, this time he was blinking rapidly and not wanting to believe the model like figure he was seeing was Mia, the cook he had known for years now.
"Where?" Rey asked and his voice sounded deep like he wasn't prepared to talk and was forced to from shock.
"There." Andrew who hadn't peeled his eyes off Mia nodded towards the figured still standing, leaning on one of the pillars.
He wasn't even shaken when Rey opened the door like a thief being chased, he had his eyes still on Mia and notice the fringes shaped earrings move when she looked towards the direction of the car after Rey jammed the door shut.
"Jeez!" He shook and decided it was best to look elsewhere.
Rey who had aggressively stepped down from his car slowed his steps as he approached Mia. He stopped to appreciate her curves which were very much pronounced than the last time.
"Mia?" He called when he got closer to her.
"Welcome back Sir." She greeted like she would on the normal day but her voice lacked the warmth it usually carried.
He looked into her eyes for a while and forgot himself in her stony looking brown eyes which were devoid of emotions.
He swallowed and thought it best to ask for her forgiveness about his brash behavior earlier but when he made the move to open his lips, the words stuck painfully to his throat and he ended up swallowing it down to his belly.
"You look beautiful." He found himself complimenting.
"Thank you Sir." She sounded machanical and it somehow found a way of pricking his chest.
"Sir?" He tried to be imposing but she was cold.
"Only in public." She reminded, minimalizing her words the best she could.
"You look different." He clenched his jaws when he said this but she was quiet, only looking at him for orders.
Stretching his hand out, she placed her delicate looking hand adorned with a ring on his.
He had initially intended to move towards the car but paused at the sight of the ring, somehow it irked him.
"Why is this here?" She looked down at her finger gracefully and he wondered for a minute if he had really been this blind all these years not to notice this hidden part of her.
"You authorized it." She looked at him, a subtle look of arrogance on her face, it confused him and he felt like he was left in the middle of a large land with nowhere to go.
"No, I did not." He decided it was best to go back to being himself.
"Okay." She replied and took it off without a second thought.
"Shall we?" He asked her and nodding once, she placed her hand on his again and slowly they moved towards the car.
Andrew, who had already been watching everything transpire from the comfort of his seat, had taken a few pictures, fascinated by his friend's cook. Seeing them walk towards him, he didn't believe it was fake and not real.
When Reynaldo opened the passenger's seat for Mia, she muttered a cold greeting and he felt like he was hit by a gust of cold wind.
"Hey Mia?" He called enthusiastically, hoping for a change in aura.
"Hey?" She responded with her face thrown to the side so that she didn't get to look him in the eye through the rear view mirror.
"You look amazing." He smiled nonetheless.
She was quiet for a second or more before spitting out a stiff "thank you".
His palms were getting clammy again. Just then Reynaldo opened his side of the door and entered the car.
"Doesn't she look beautiful, Rey?" He asked, his nervous gaze moving towards Rey who stared at him straight in the eyes and deep to his soul that he was forced to look away.
"Mmm." He heard Rey mutter after he had looked away.
"Now drive, we have a place to be." He nodded with a look of discomfort and drove off Rey's residence.
Deciding it was better to shut his mouth and drive just like he had been told to do, Andrew reached out to play a song at least to keep himself from mistakenly saying something that would probably cause him his job this time.
The speakers in the car blared out Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" and from the corner of Andrew's eyes, he caught Reynaldo shift uncomfortably on his seat while Mia did the job of looking outside like she was not aware of her presence in the car.
"I don't like your little games"
"Don't like your titled stage"
"The Role you made me play"
"Of fool no, I don't like you…"
"Put it off Andrew.." Came Rey's cold voice and Andrew who sincerely felt like he was sitting on pins and had not been paying attention frowned.
"Sorry, I didn't get that."
"Put the damned song off!" Rey repeated, this time his voice contained venom that he was sure would kill him before anything else could and immediately, he put off the song without a second thought.
Glancing at the rear view mirror at intervals, he caught Rey desperately looking at Mia while Mia was hell bent on not looking at anything else but what was outside the window.
"Shouldn't you be here?" He heard Reynaldo ask Mia and breathed a little relief.
Rey who had it up to his neck and got suffocated with her distance from him tapped on the space close to him.
"As you wish." Came Mia's dutiful response and without a second thought, she scooted over to his side of the chair.
Andrew who had been expecting a turn of events sighed silently in resignation and Rey who had hoped to elicit some sort of reaction from her closed his eyes in frustration. Hopefully, the location would wow her out of her mind.