I DON'T NEED YOU

Theresa smiled triumphantly as she seemed to see his answer coming.

“As expected…” she murmured with a grin. “Judging by what you wore today, I’m confident that you must be excited with this new career.” She added. Troye was about to contradict his statement as he flinched his eyes at her, when the lady shut him down in an instant by turning her back around.

“Follow me, Mr. Gomez.” Theresa said in an authoritative tone. She more likely ordered him to follow her. “Let me orient you about the field you are in.”

Troye wrinkled his forehead at her. He thought that everything that he had to know was already in the contract in which she had lent to him yesterday. “So, there’s more to it…” he whispered, brows are almost in one line.

Theresa turned her head half-way and gave him a sideward glance. She let out a scoff with the same smile on her face before saying more. Theresa pressed a button and waited for the elevator to open.

“Dear, I understood how meticulous you are by considering where you came from before here. But you can count on me with this.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone. “You may have heard lots of rumors about my daughter—” her statement was cut short, when Troye abruptly muttered.

“Which were proven right.” Again, Theresa casted a sideward glance at him.

“The thing is, I wanted you to protect—to borrow your words—the successor of our company.” She stated, recalling what Troye referred to her daughter yesterday. “She had received tons of death threats a day, and we don’t know when will an intruder attack her, and make the threats happen for real. She may be stubborn about not wanting to have a bodyguard, but you have to deal with that attitude of hers. Just ignore whatever she says and do.”

Troye listened to her intently until a silence broke out inside the elevator. But later on, he shattered the silence and asked Theresa a question that he should consider to think about.

“What would happen if I were to quit this job unfortunately soon?” Theresa chuckled softly at his question, before looking at him with her straight face.

“You ‘can’ only quit once you had secured the safety of her life, dear. Might as well when she had found the person who would stay with her eternally… in short, a boyfriend that she could marry.”

Troye couldn’t help but to break the looks in his face by frowning at the lady. Though, despite the expression, he still remained his respect toward the elder. “I couldn’t remember reading a clause in the contract that contained with such.” He said, looking at the lady through the mirror inside the elevator.

“Oh, my dear… as you said,” Theresa returned the gazes through the mirror. “There’s… more… to… it…” she continued, giving emphasis each word as she savored the look of the lad.

Troye stared at her with a sense of not feeling it right. Does his decision to accept the job offered by this elder is a mistake? Did he choose the wrong path? Is accepting it a wrong decision? His eyes lingered at her for a brief moment when their eyes cut each other’s gazes, until a bell rang inside the elevator.

They just reached the floor of the headquarters’ abode, including Hailey’s. The elevator opened slowly, gradually revealing a familiar woman whose face darkened. She was facing another woman whose head turned to the left side.

“What’s happening, Daine?” the lady beside Troye muttered with a frown on her face. She stepped out of the elevator in which he followed instantly.

Hailey, together with the other woman, turned their heads to one side synchronously. The dark look of the former instantly vanished, instead it was replaced with a scoff.

“Don’t tell me…” Hailey looked at her mother with narrowed eyes. Her mother nodded at her, causing her to close her eyes immensely, and take out a deep breath.

“Again, what’s going on here?” the mother asked again, she crossed her arms across.

The other woman scoffed and rolled her eyes. “What’s the fuss? As if like you would listen to me. It’s always your daughter who you take side after all.” The woman answered bitterly but in a bold expression.

“Of course, she’s my daughter and you are just—”

“Yeah, your daughter who constantly made everyone feel bad in which you just always turn blind eye on.” She let out a chuckle.

“Anyway, I have done my business here already. Nice running into you… Auntie.” The woman remarked before leaving the three behind.

Troye was just watching them throwing words, he didn’t know what to do after all. Should he start acting as a bodyguard now? Or should he just be himself for now?

Well, it seemed to be the former. Otherwise, what else did he stay here for then?

The lady and the daughter led him to a room in which he presumed as the office of either of the two of them. A luxurious condominium-like office welcomed him. For a moment, he had a trouble of determining this place as a condo unit or still an office because of the different amenities in here.

“I will leave him to you, Daine. Troye, take good care of her.” The mother didn’t entirely come in as she just stayed in the threshold.

“I didn’t really know what could she have possibly thought for me not to take good care of myself. Damn it. I’m not a freaking kid!” she yelled half-toned. Hailey turned her head to Troye and looked at him with voidness in her eyes.

“It would be extremely nice to you to get paid without even doing anything. You’re just going to be a useless fella after all.”

Troye just returned the gazes and didn’t say a thing. Though, he somehow wanted to let out some of his thoughts, but that’s not what he came here for. He’s here to guard her whether she likes it or not.

“Nevertheless, I should still abide what’s written in the contract whereas you should also get use to seeing me around you… ma’am.” With the stance of a bodyguard, Troye replied to her. He couldn’t stop himself, could he?

“I doubt you can. You would just end up doing nothing at all. After all, I don’t need someone like you— just a heads up.” Hailey smirked.

“Let me prove you wrong, then.” Troye answered with overflowing confidence.

“I want to see you try, Mr. Gomez. I’m looking forward to it.”

And the next three hours was outright boring! Hailey was really true with her words. Troye just did nothing other than standing right beside the door for freaking hours, while Hailey was busy on her phone. Hailey didn’t give him orders nor did she speak to him. She just acted like she was all alone in this condo—office!

I hope this will lead me to the right path, Troye thought, even though he had a blurry vision of it to happen. He sighed. Hailey halted for a moment and took a glance at him. Troye was somehow surprised that the mere sigh caught her attention.

A few minutes after, Hailey heaved a sigh and spoke a word finally. “This won’t do…” she murmured.

“You should be at least of a good use, shouldn’t you?” she said, catching his attention. She lifted up her legs and crossed them on the top of the table in front of her.

Troye chuckled softly. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m doing this because your presence irritates me.” She added. “Get out and get me a boba. Don’t come back if you didn’t bring any.” She ordered.

“Copy, ma’am.” Troye responded sternly. He was about to turn his back to get out when Hailey suddenly threw at him a remote car key.

With his incredible instincts, he managed to catch the key on time before it would land to his head. Hailey dilated her eyes for a moment in surprise. Did he just catch the key without even looking at her direction?!

I-Is he even a human?!

Troye got to his feet and paced his way out. He didn’t know yet what model or the color of the car in which the key he has, so he really had to test the remote car key in every car. Quite a hassle, but his ‘boss’ didn’t bother telling him that.

“She could be doing it on purpose.” He muttered when he hasn’t found the car yet. For some reasons, he halted and sank his brows. “Is the car even here?!” he exclaimed when a realization dawn into him.

He started to doubt about the existence of the car wherein the key belongs. But as he kept on trying the key to some cars with those doubt lingering in him, he finally found it. He sighed in relief. The car of this key really is here after all.

However, he somehow hesitated if he really were to use the car he found. He stood there with astonishment in front of the latest model of Mercedes Benz. It was shining as new that he’s having a trouble of using it!

“I was just dreaming about having this car… Now, it is right in front of me.” He murmured as he got closer to the car. He looked at it with pure sparkles on his eyes.

As much as he wanted to admire the car in front of him, he couldn’t do it for too long. His boss might look after him for being so late to bring her the boba she ordered. With utmost carefulness, Troye delicately opened the car’s door and carefully let himself in.

“God, am I really driving now my dream car?” he couldn’t still believe it! He groaned softly eventually. “I shouldn’t be blinded with this shining and sparkling car.” He spoke to himself as a reminder.

Meanwhile, Hailey was in the office watching something on the computer.

“My, my, look at him… being all like a kid,” she muttered as she saw Troye’s astonished look toward the car. “Make it sure to bring me the boba, hmm?” she said to him through the monitor, even though she knew well it wouldn’t be heard by him.

She lifted up one corner of her lip and smirked at the sight of the Mercedes Benz leaving the building. “I didn’t know that I’ll be needing this kind of entertainment.”