Chapter 17

• I don't how did it happen, but I just find myself getting close with Agustine. We often eat lunch together, talking ‘bout stuffs, smiling at each other and more. The more time I spent with him, the more I noticed little habits and quirks I had never paid attention to before—the way he occasionally furrowed his brows when deep in thought, the soft tone he used when he explained design ideas, even the faint scent of his cologne that lingered subtly yet distinctly. True to his words, he never brought up about that fvck role thing. It was as if a delicate line had been drawn, separating the chaos of the past from the slowly building trust of the present. Each lunch, each shared glance, seemed to chip away at the walls I’d built around myself, leaving me strangely exposed yet comforted.
• Unlike before, at work, where I almost end up like a secretary. He let me do things now. Like, designing rooms, landscapes or anything. There were also times when he asked for my suggestions regarding the hotel they were currently working at. Those moments made me feel seen—not just as Daddy’s daughter or an annoyance in his life, but as a professional, capable of ideas that mattered. I could say that for the past few days, we're really business partners slash friends. Even our casual exchanges in the office carried a warmth that hadn’t existed before, a subtle reassurance that we were on the same page, even if words often fell short.
• "Are you free this evening?" Agustine asked when I was about to put my seatbelt. His voice was calm, almost casual, yet there was an undertone that made me pause. The hum of the construction site, the smell of freshly poured concrete, and the distant clatter of workers became background noise as I turned my attention fully to him.