“Oh, Karina…”

A familiar voice called my name from close by. I turned my head to the side to see Jeremy standing there with his laptop in his arms. Just like me, he must be in need of a break as well.

“Jeremy. Taking a break?” I asked while offering him a smile.

“Yup. You, too?” he asked in return.

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“Yeah…” I replied before forcing a smile.

“You look stressed out…” he pointed out as he sat down next to me.

“Do I? I guess it really shows…” I murmured while hating how tired I sounded.

“Richard still giving you troubles?” he made a guess.

It wasn’t Richard, or at least, it wasn’t just Richard. With the other issues weighing on my mind, working with Richard has felt like a walk in the park lately. I might have gotten used to him already, either that or the other bigger problems made all issues related to Richard seem miniscule in comparison.

“A little…it is getting better, though,” I replied while apologizing to Richard softly in my head.

Because I couldn’t tell Jeremy what was truly worrying me, I had to pin the blame on Richard. He nodded with understanding as a look of sympathy crept into his face.

“Should we go out for lunch of dinner together sometime?” he asked invitingly.

“That would be great. I get off work kind of late and at unpredictable times nowadays, so maybe lunch would be better?” I suggested.

“You can just text me when you’re good for lunch,” he replied with a smile.

“I’ll do that…” I said with a slight nod of my head.

Lunch with Jeremy might just be what I needed to get my mind off my project with Richard and all the other problems that I was aware of. I wished that I could confide in Jeremy about everything that was going on, but I also knew that that wasn’t a viable option. Everything needed to be kept a secret and all that I could do was smile and steer our conversation toward more neutral ground.

“I think there’s a new restaurant that just opened up close to the stations. Maybe we should give it a try for lunch?” I suggested brightly.

“Really? Sure, I’m not a picky eater,” he replied casually.

“I better get back to work before Richard misses me, you know. I’ll text you soon for lunch,” I said as I got up from my seat.

“Sure, I’ll wait for your text,” Jeremy replied before showing me a warm smile.

…

My lunch with Jeremy happened much faster than I thought because the day after we made our promise to have lunch together, we were both free for lunch. The new restaurant that opened up near the station turned out to be a very impressive addition to the food options around the office. Unlike the last time that we had lunch together, Jeremy seemed more relaxed and chatted with me naturally.

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The other change that I realized was that we spoke a lot less about work. Maybe that was because we didn’t have much to complain about to each other anymore. It was a good change to talk to him about other topics besides work and I learned a little more about him and his personal life. Although I’ve worked with him before and we spent so much time together, I didn’t know that much about Jeremy and his personal life.

“My mother is a single mother because my father passed away when I was very young. It was quite tough for us, so yeah…” I said before trailing off.

Somehow, we started talking about our family and I learnt that Jeremy was from a loving family and that he had many siblings. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if I had siblings so hearing him tell me about his older sisters and younger brother really drew me in. On my end, I didn’t have many heartwarming stories to tell.

When we made it back to the office and ran into Richard, I was consumed by a sense of déjà vu. The look that he gave me as his gaze flickered from my face to Jeremy’s and then back again made me feel uncomfortable.

“Have you had lunch?” I asked before trying my best to smile at him.

“I have. Thanks for asking,” Richard replied flatly, and I didn’t feel any genuine thanks behind his words.

“I should go back to my team room now. I’ll see you around, Karina,” Jeremy quickly excused himself.

He must have felt uncomfortable under Richard’s intense stare as well. Unlike Jeremy, I didn’t have the excuse of going back to join my team to escape from Richard.

“Should we head back to work too?” I suggested.

“You two seem close…” he commented as his eyes continued staring into my face.

We seem…close?

“I guess so. I worked with him for a long while on Project Alpha, so I guess we did get closer…” I replied before smiling a little.

The dark look that crossed Richard’s face told me that he wasn’t at all impressed by what he had seen or by what I had just told him. I sat down at my work desk and Richard immediately took the seat next to me. Looking around I could see that most of our team members were not back from lunch break yet and there weren’t that many people in the room besides Richard and me.

“Karina…” he said my name softly.

“Yes?” I replied right away.

“You should be careful,” he warned in hushed whisper like he was telling me some secret.

“What do you mean?” I whispered back although I had no idea why we had to be whispering to each other.

“You and Jeremy, you both should be careful,” he whispered as he stared back into my face.

“Just because we went out to lunch together?” I asked while trying to hold back myself from scoffing at the ridiculousness of the idea.

I had no idea why Richard was giving me that warning because there could never be anything going on that could even border anything romantic between Jeremy and me.

--To be continued…

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