My legs felt heavy as I stepped into the small café on the corner. Anna was already waiting at the table in the very back, a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. The moment she saw me, a grin spread across her face.
"Do you know what just happened?" I blurted out. My voice cracked before I even had a chance to sit down.
Anna stared at me, then let out a short laugh. "Don't tell me Andrian turned out to be the boss you've never met all this time?"
I nodded weakly and collapsed into the chair across from her. How had she heard the gossip so quickly? I drew a long breath, my eyes burning. "He's the CEO there, Anna. He's the one who left me on our wedding day. And now he's standing in front of me, in control of my job, as if there had never been any pain between us."
Anna laughed again, louder this time, until several people turned to look at us. "Fate is crazy, isn't it, Nis? You used to run as far away from him as possible, and now the world is pushing you right back into his arms."
"Not his arms," I shot back. "It's hell. He tortures me with his eyes, his words, even his silence. Then he offered to let me keep working on the condition that I become his fiancée."
The glass in Anna's hand stopped halfway to her mouth. "You accepted?"
"I turned him down." A sarcastic smile appeared on my face on its own. "I told him humiliating me in the past was enough. The pain is still etched into me, even now. I resigned right then and there."
Anna was silent for a moment, then shook her head. "You're absolutely insane, Annisa. But I love it." She waved to the waiter and ordered two glasses of liquor. "Tonight, we aren't going home until you've forgotten the name Andrian Antoni."
We drank. One glass, then two, until it felt as if the walls of the café had started spinning. We laughed, we cried, and we told each other about all the stupid things we'd done back then. In the end, I couldn't remember how I got home. All I knew was that my body had been tossed onto the bed, and then the world disappeared.
The next morning, my head felt as if someone had smashed it with a rock. I woke up feeling shattered, but there was no time to grieve. I opened my laptop and applied for jobs everywhere. I sent my résumé to dozens of companies, hoping one of them would call me in.
The hours slipped by. Afternoon turned to evening, and night fell. Not a single reply came. No calls, no messages. Every company seemed to be slamming its doors shut in my face.
My thoughts drifted to the hospital. Grandma lay there weak and frail, while her medical bills piled up by the day. Aunt Ana had called last night, her voice trembling as she told me the money we'd collected was still nowhere near enough. I was an orphan, raised by my grandmother alone. If I didn't help her, who would?
I stared at my phone screen, where Andrian's name was displayed. My finger trembled over the call button. My heart screamed that I didn't want to, but reality slapped me hard across the face. Pride couldn't pay the hospital bills. Dignity couldn't save my grandmother's life.
I pressed the call button.
The call connected a moment later. Andrian's voice came from the other end, cold and flat, filled with the same arrogance that had never changed.
"What do you want?" he asked curtly, as if he'd known it was me.
"We need to talk," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "Just the two of us. At the café we used to visit, at three this afternoon."
Silence fell on the other end for a moment. Then his voice came through, filled with the certainty that made my teeth clench.
"Fine. But don't reject my offer only to end up regretting it," he said, as if he knew what would happen to me if I turned him down.
The call ended immediately.