Michael walked into his office and found Tavia waiting for him, “Tavia? What a surprise? What brings you out here?”

Tavia remained seated as she turned sorrowful eyes on Michael, “I need your advice.”

Michael sat down and said, “Sure. On what?”

Tavia said, “I have a friend who did something real bad to his best friend a long time ago. My friend doesn’t want to reveal the truth now because it will end their friendship. But what he did was huge and to me unforgivable. And I don’t know if I want to continue being friends with someone who is selfish and a coward. What do you think?”

Michael chuckled, “Are we talking about Raymond and Ron?”

“No!” Tavia blurted, “Why would you think that?”

“Because it sounds like them,” Michael said casually. When he saw that Tavia was going to deny further, he said, “I know all about it. To make it short, Ron was the one who broke up Raymond and his girlfriend four years ago. Am I right?”

“H-How did you know?” Tavia asked as she stared in awe at Michael. “Ron has kept this secret to himself for years.”

Michael blushed as he looked indifferently at Tavia, “I know because I was the one who told Ron to do it.”

“What?” Tavia screamed, “Why would you do that?” She shook her head, “No. It’s not you. It can’t be! You won’t do something that cruel!”

Michael got up quickly to kneel beside Tavia, “It’s true. I instructed Ron to set the whole thing up.”

Tavia turned teary eyes on Michael, “But why? What did you have to gain out of it?”

Michael got up and sat in the chair beside her. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and said softly, “I wanted Raymond to dedicate himself totally to work for me. He’s one of the smartest guy that I have and I trust him completely but he was also wasting his time on his personal relationships. I wanted him to concentrate on working for me only and nothing else. Without a girlfriend in tow, work would be his first priority.”

Tavia looked at Michael with disgust, “First Ron and now you. The two person whom I love. How could you look at yourself in the mirror knowing that because of your own selfishness, you caused two people who were very much in love a lot of unnecessary heartache and pain.”

Michael opened his eyes and stared at Tavia, “You think it’s been easy on me? I’ve worked so hard to accomplish everything that I have. I admit I didn’t think clearly back then but now I learned what matters most to me. That is love and true friendship. You, Jessica and Raymond are like my family.”

Tavia took a ragged breath as she decided on what to do next, “Michael, I know you’re not a bad person and only did what you thought was best at that time. But now, things are different. You can tell Raymond the truth. I’m sure he’ll forgive you and Ron.”

“No,” Michael barked. “It’s already done with so leave it. Why dredge it up? They’re back together anyway.”

Tavia looked at Michael and pleaded, “Why? Because it’s killing my conscious to know all this and not being able to tell Charmaine the truth. Yes, they’re back together now but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be told the truth.”

Michael stood up abruptly and said, “I said no and that’s the end of it.” He walked back behind his desk and said stiffly, “I don’t want to talk about this ever again. Understand?”

Tavia didn’t dare disobey Michael. Not because she was afraid that he would harm her but because she valued their relationship too much to cause any rift between it. “I understand,” she answered faintly.

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Jessica walked aimlessly down the shopping mall not knowing what she was looking for. She had called Michael earlier but he was unavailable. She took out her cell phone and was about to call him again when someone bumped into her. Her phone dropped to the floor and she bent to retrieve it but another hand grabbed it out of her reach.

“Here it is,” Joe said as he extended the phone back to her.

Jessica smiled dimly at him. She had heard some details of what transpired between Joe, Raymond and Charmaine from Tavia. “Hi,” she greeted softly.

Joe looked at her bags and said, “Shopping by yourself?”

“Yeah, everyone appears to be busy today,” Jessica said with forlorn.

Joe smiled as he took the bags from her hand, “Allow me. Did you eat yet?” Jessica shook her head, surprised by the question. “Well me neither. Why don’t we have dinner together? I know of an excellent restaurant down in the lower level.”

Jessica wavered, unsure of whether to go or not.

Joe saw the uncertainty on her face and handed her bags back to her, “I understand. Now that Charmaine and I are no longer going out, you don’t want to be friends with me anymore.”

“No,” Jessica hastily said, “It’s not that at all. As a matter of fact, I was worried that you may not want to be friends with me.”

Joe smiled, “Charmaine and I are still good friends, regardless of the change in our relationship. We’re just back to where we started off.”

Jessica was amazed at how well Joe was taking it all, “You mean you’re not upset or angry with her? Not even at Raymond?”

Joe looked solemnly at her, “If I told you no would you believe me? I was angry with both of them but then I started thinking. If Charmaine is happy then I’m happy for her. As for Raymond, love is a fair game and he won.”

Jessica stared at him as a smile tug on her lips, “You’re a kind and good man. I’m happy that you’re taking it extremely well.”

Joe took the bags from her again and held his elbow out to her. When she took his offer they walked leisurely towards the escalator. After a few minutes, Joe said, “To be honest, at first I was devastated that Charmaine chose him over me. But after a day or two she was completely out of my mind. I guess I didn’t love her as much as I thought I did. Does this make any sense to you?”

Jessica laughed softly, “Not really. But it doesn’t matter anymore as long as you’re able to put it behind you.”

Joe grinned at her, “Charmaine has been forgotten.” He then looked intensely at Jessica and said softly, “Besides there are many beautiful and lovely women out there and I just happen to be going to dinner with one of them.”