A few months passed by and I was becoming more and more adapted to Hey. I learned a lot from everyone there especially from Miss B, Miss D and Miss R. These Urban Fruits had always been so generous and informative with me. Anything important or I should know would always land in my hand. As advised, I would always skip any unnecessary dramas in that office and just focused on doing my works the best I could. I was recommended by Daniel there so I did not want to let him down. Talking about Daniel, I could actually count it with just two hands of how many times we had met in that few months. And when we did, it was only for a short meet up. No long conversation, let alone a casual one. Our focus were totally on the job that was becoming more and more challenging to me.

That transformation was a little bit too drastic for me. From a fun and casual friendship filled with laughter, to a serious, professional boss-staff relationship. I admit it I did try a couple of ways to bring us close like before. But it just did not work. The walls of priority and professionalism kept separating us and putting me back to where I belonged. To be quite honest, I was feeling a little bit frustrated with what was going on- losing the "Harry" that I used to know. However, I was so grateful it did not compromise my work. It was still sharply under my focus. In fact, I found it as an effective way to divert my attention from keep thinking about Daniel.

One day, Chan called me to meet her in her office. The situation in the office was quite a stir in that moment, as if Hey has just received a bad news about the company's balance sheet.

"Have a seat, Marina..." Offered Chan.

"What's going on Chan?"

"There is something you must work on, Marina," said Chan whilst her fingers were fast on the keyboard and her eyes glued onto the screen.

"What is it, Chan?" I asked back. I took a glance on her computer screen and I could see Chan was working on a long list of something.

"Look...Daniel is changing the topic that we have discussed before to a new one. And the new one is- Chicken"

"Chicken? A chicken? As in the bird?" I asked back in full of confusion, hardly believed what has just came out of Chan's mouth.

"You heard it right. The recently decided  'Money' issue would be a subtopic now and be replaced with a new highlight- 'Chicken'. I don't know what he found in Hong Kong last week that made him changed his mind on this!" Chan shook her head.

"Well...Chicken it is then! Tell me what should I do now."

"For now please pause on the data management you are working on. I need you to help me with all the things in this plan."

Chan handed me a freshly printed paper with a few to-do-list for me to complete.

"Here is some cash and a credit card that you are going to need. Do the most that you can, and submit me the review later."

"All right Chan!" I replied.

I got back to my table and went through the list line by line. It consisted of all the things that I needed to work on for the next three days.

"Oh wow!" I said to myself. I took a deep breath before getting on my phone to call Gina.

"Hello Gina!"

"Hello..."

"Where are you now?"

"At work. Why?"

"There's something I need you to know, Gina."

"What is it?"

"I don't think I can make it to be with you guys at the Dr. Love tonight."

"Okay, Marina. But why?"

"Chan just gave me an urgent task, Gina. I need to find three restaurants and do some research on them. I mean the food they are selling."

"Three restaurants?"

"Yes. And not to just be there, I have to try the food and write a review on each of them as soon as possible."

"That's weird. Why suddenly do you need to do all these?" said Gina, half joking.

"The editor-in-chief changed the idea for this month's issue and they need some kind of an 'extra player' now."

"Extra player?" Wondered Gina.

"Yes! And tonight I have to go to the University of Malaya. There's a theatre performing there and I need to do a review on that, too."

"That sounds fun! Well... it's okay then Marina. Just proceed with what you need to do. Sometimes a divert like this is good for our career. Or else we might get too comfortable with it and remember, a calm ocean never make a skillful sailor!"

"Aye I Captain Gina! You are right! Talk to you soon okay! I need to go! Bye!"

"Bye!"

To be quite honest, at the beginning of it I had doubts that I could fulfil the tasks at the very best as they wanted. Throughout those three days, I kept going back and forth to check on the reviews. I kept retouching them until they really met with my satisfaction. And even that, I would still be rechecking them again and again, thinking and worrying about just how I might screw these works up. The reactions that I might get for these reviews, not only from the people in this office, but also from millions of Hey readers out there, kept playing in my head again and again.

"Marina, thank you so much. I have gone through your findings and am really pleased with them! It does have a little room for improvement though, but fret not I'm going to get onto it later," Chan said it to me a moment after I submitted the reviews to her.

"You may now resume all the works that were put on pause prior to this all right?"

"Sure Chan!" I replied with a big smile in my face. I was just so happy with Chan's response. I hoped what she said was genuine and not to just sugarcoat anything, because although it could be just a little review to anyone else, but it meant so much to me. This was a good starting point for me and it could be a stepping stone for a better future in my career.

****************

That 'detour' task given to me earlier was actually an early sign that I would be more than just an editorial clerk in the near future. Chan and Daniel were starting to give me more diverse assignments. One minute I needed to help the editorial team and the next minute I was busy with Cindy and Susan who were always so busy with the tasks Daniel given to them.

Working with these two Daniel's assistants however had given me a chance to meet Daniel more often. In fact, it was almost everyday and I got to work more closely with him. This happened so frequently that most of them in the office said it looked like I had became Daniel's third assistant already.

"Wow! It seems like you are now a clerk and also Daniel's unofficial assistant! How can you even manage the double duty!" said Miss R. I knew, she was a little bit worried seeing me working it out like a spinning top.

"It's all good, Miss R. I have fun doing all this."

"If you said so. But please know when to slow down okay? The last thing I want to hear is a news from you getting warded from extreme exhaustion or work related stress."

I could not help it not to laugh at that. I knew Miss R and the other Urban Fruits were very concerned about me. But to be honest, I did not mind it all if they saw me as being squeezed dry for works.  It did not mean that these works never worn me out at all nor I never complained a single bit about the workloads. I even sometimes got angry with myself for not be able to say 'no' for these works or for anyone asking me favour. But deep in my heart, I was feeling so happy  because this has somehow reconnected me with the old 'Harry' who has been disappeared from my life for some times. Yes, we only talked work every time we met, but that's enough to make me so happy.

"I noticed Daniel has a lot of trusts in you," said Chan, out of the blue. That brought  a smile to my face. Undeniably, working with Daniel was a lot of fun. I learned so much from him especially about time, focus, and persistence with decision that came from heart. Daniel has turned to be the centre of my universe at that time. He was the reason I became more motivated and very much looking forward to go to the office everyday.

"I bet you are all over the moon everyday for getting to meet Daniel am I right?" Gina teased me after a non stop of me talking about Daniel.

"You said it like I'm such a thirsty woman, Gina!"

"I didn't say that! But why ticked if it's not right?" Replied Gina with such a sarcastic tone and face.

"Stop pulling off my leg!"

"It's too obvious Gina, you are so crazy about him," Gina went straight to the point.

"Crazy about him? Oh see! Once again you make me sounds like a cheap woman!

"And once again I never said it you are a cheap woman. Anyway what is wrong with being crazy over a man? That doesn't make you cheap or 'thirsty' at all!?"

"All right...all right...I admit it there's an attraction. But it's far from being crazy about him!"

"Hmmm... Can I trust you with that?"

"Why is it so hard? Trust me..."

"Has it got it into your mind that all this attraction thing, is due to your estrogen level, or is it because of Daniel's charming charisma?

"Huh?" that question from Gina sounded so complex and blurred me.

"Never mind! Just forget it. But if Daniel is asking you to marry him tomorrow and build a family with him, will you say yes?"

"Okay you are going too far Gina..."

"If I were you Marina, I will confess it to Daniel of how I feel."

"Hold on… hold on… I think you misunderstood something. Daniel and I are just friends, all right. And even if I have feelings on him, I don't think I will take the first step. I don't know what he is feeling about me. Last thing I need is being like a dog barking on a tree. Once again, trust me...we are just friends!"

"Oh come on Marina...Just a friend? You talked about him every single day! You are lucky I don't get bored with all your stories about him! But why did you say that you will not take the first step? Because you are a woman?"

I only nodded.

"Hmmm...Let's get back to Daniel. Do you think, if you and Daniel are meant to be more than just a friend, the different background and culture between you and him will be an issue someday?"

"Yes, Gina. That is something I must take into account."

"But to be positive about it, let's see all the women that have been related to Daniel before this, they all came from such a diverse background! So...it's not impossible if one day it will happen to you as well, Marina."

"Now you are being over confident about it Gina. Too idealistic..."

"Okay...but you are still not answering my question just now. Will you say 'yes', if he asks you to marry him tomorrow?" Gina persisted.

"I think...Maybe I..." I was being so hesitant with the answer.

"Well..it seemed to me that at this moment you are actually still not ready for this commitment, Gina. So what I thought was right- you are just smitten. Smitten like a kitten!" Gina purposely rhymed that before she gave me a big laughed.

Whilst Gina seemed to be having fun pulling off my leg about this whole Daniel thing, Ally on the other hand, was a little worried about me. Since the beginning he never stopped reminding me to be careful with Daniel and not to be too carried away with this feeling I had about him.

"Just be careful, Marina," said Ally to me every time I share with him about Daniel and I's relationship which was getting closer.

"I know you are pleased that you finally got 'the old Harry' back, but I could see how this professional relationship is changing its colour and what scares me is that it's going to change Daniel's colour too. Or finally showing his true one. I'm afraid that you are just his temporary stop. I have heard a lot about Daniel before. Women all around and they were just there for a while only. I bet you know that right?"

"Don't worry Ally. It's nothing more than a friendship. In fact about his past, it's Daniel himself who came clean to me about it."

"You mean he lets you know his moves with any women?" asked Ally sounded a little bit surprised with what I said, but still very skeptical about it.

"Yeah. He would tell me his dates with any women the very next day."

"And you don't feel anything about it? Not a pinch of jealousy?"

"Nope!" I shook my head with a smile on my face.

It's true. What I told Ally was nothing but truth. I didn't get jealous at all about it. Daniel could share anything with me. And God knew he did, throughout those times we got to work together. I had heard just about anything from Daniel himself. There's funny ones, sad ones and some things even made me want to run away with a blushing face. But I could not figure out why, time after time I felt a little bit possessive about him. Everything that came out of his mouth about his co-curricular activities no longer interest me. I could not listen to them any longer. I became jealous every time it happened. But I managed to remain calm and hide my feeling from him very well.

That however has made him gotten more and more comfortable with me and I became like an open book where he could spill in any words he wished.

"Marina. You've never shared anything with me about your private life!" That question from Daniel caught me off guard.

"What do you mean? Have I not tell you about my family many moons ago?"

"Yes you have. But that's not what I meant...I'm talking about..." Daniel hesitated but continued..."did you have anyone in your heart before?"

I smiled at that questioned, thinking about how I could answer it. In my mind it was like locomotion trying to gather all the correct words for it.

"Well...to be honest, I did."

"Who was it?" Daniel seemed very curious.

"His name is Norman." I answered so slowly. I began to open this old Pandora about him and I to Daniel and throughout this 'storytelling', Daniel did not speak a single word but just a smile. He listened closely to one after another words that came out from me. It looked like he was very into it to know more about this guy named Norman who was once won my heart.

From that moment on, I was no longer being secretive about my past love with Daniel. every time we talked about something related, the name Norman would always came out of my lips. Daniel did not seem to care about it at first and he even told me that it was normal for anyone post-break ups to keep mentioning the ex's name. However as the time went by, I could see it that he was being no longer comfortable with it. He seemed uneasy every time the name aired up.

"Are you still waiting for Norman, Marina? I mean from you story, it sounded like this Norman guy was just temporarily confused with the relationship and you believe that one day he will get that sorted and get back to you," Daniel asked, in quite a serious tone.

"I don't know Daniel...I also am very confused with this thing, sometimes," I admitted to him.

"I think you are still not over him, to be quite honest, Marina."

"Well that's one thing for sure, Daniel. Norman has been in my life since high school. It's hard for me to vanish it."

At that moment, I could see a change in Daniel's face expression, and I know it's coming from my less than a comforting confession about my past love. His intonation also changed, and I could sense a hints of jealousy in that voice.

'Jealous? Is Daniel being jealous? What does that mean? Jealousy means...' I talked to myself in deep confusion about Daniel's reaction to what I had just said.

All of the sudden, I could not help it to smile. There was something about this whole situation that made my heart happy and it was transcended to my face. This was seeding hopes in my heart that 'it' could go further.

However, I did not want to be too confident with it and quickly jump into conclusion about Daniel's true feelings. And so I reminded myself that it could just be my own emotion.

© Kid Haidér

© Kid Haider

© Mohamad Khidir Mohamed Yazir

© Khidir M Yazir