Meanwhile, at the CEO’s office, Joyce is still crying. No matter how Tristan tells her that the marriage will only last for a year or two, she won’t stop.
For her, just the thought of Tristan marrying someone else, other than her, already breaks her. She can’t bear it, even if it’s just for show.
Joyce isn’t from a rich family. Her mother was a maid from one of the affluent families living near the De Clarion Villa, which is how she and Tristan met.
They would play almost every day before Tristan was hospitalized and even after that. She would even stay overnight at the villa sometimes.
Her mother’s employers were generous enough to send her to school. Because of this, she was able to study at the same high school as Tristan.
The two got separated when Tristan moved to Shaston for college. When he came back, they finally got a chance to be in a relationship.
However, since he is a womanizer, their relationship has been on and off. Their recent breakup was fourteen months ago, the longest in history.
That is why she is also apprehensive that there won’t be any chance for them to reunite anymore. She can’t let that happen. Her dream is to marry him after all.
Now that this plan about Tristan and Vernice getting married was brought up again, she got scared. She suddenly felt like Tristan was slowly starting to drift away from her.
Joyce was already feeling jealous of Belle, as she noticed how Tristan looked at her lovingly. Although he doesn’t say it, she also knows that he takes care of her thru Jacob.
After the wedding, Vernice will add to her headache too. It hasn’t happened yet but she is already feeling lost. She doesn’t know what to do anymore.
“Please stop crying,” Tristan pleaded. He’s been trying to coax her since Jacob and Belle left, but she kept going on.
‘ Would it be like this if she was Belle?’ Tristan thought, but he dismissed it immediately. He shouldn’t be thinking about Belle when Joyce is breaking down next to him.
Joyce’s sobbing calmed down after a while. She grabbed a tissue from the coffee table and started wiping her face.
She then reached out for Tristan’s cheek before letting out a sigh, “Once you’re divorced from Vernice…” she sniffed before she continued. “Will you marry me?”
Tristan felt like his body became rigid after hearing her question. In all honesty, he’s not feeling anything special anymore towards Joyce, other than being grateful, of course, as she once saved him.
Aside from that, he isn’t feeling any love anymore. He started feeling this after breaking up with her several times.
Hearing this question from her, he didn’t know how he would respond. He wants to be honest with the woman, but he’s unsure how she will react to it.
At the executive office, Belle receives a call on her phone. It was from Eric. “How did you get my number?” she asked.
“I asked your friend, I was at Eden last night,” he explained. After saying that, Belle asked him why he was calling her, “I’d like to invite you out for dinner.”
“Sure, I’ll be out of the office at six,” as he said he was going to pick her up.
“Who was that?” Jacob asked after picking up parts of Belle’s conversation over the phone. He knew it was Eric as she mentioned his name while talking earlier, but he still wanted to make sure.
“It’s Eric, he’s asking me out for dinner,” Belle smiled sweetly, Jacob’s heart frowned at his boss.
‘Because he’s too slow, his friend is now ahead of him!’ While thinking how much of a loser Tristan is, the white phone on his table rang. ‘Thinking of the devil.’
Tristan asked Jacob to buy iced coffee for Joyce. As he was feeling lazy and there were still a lot of documents he needed to go thru, plus it was for Joyce, he asked Belle to do it.
Fortunately, the secretary didn’t ask anything. She just obeyed the CEO’s assistant. Jacob also told her to bring the coffee to the office.
As soon as Belle got the coffee, she immediately took it to Tristan’s office. She knocked three times before opening the door.
When she entered, she saw Tristan sitting on the armchair of the couch while hugging Joyce who was sitting next to her. He was gently combing her hair with his fingers.
She rolled her eyes feeling irritated because she didn’t know what reason. They looked so sweet that she felt like throwing up.
‘Throw up? Why did I even think of throwing up? Tristan was just comforting another woman, why am I affected?’ Dismissing her ugly thoughts, she cleared her throat to get their attention and let them know that coffee’d arrived. “Just put it down there,” Joyce told her.
Belle immediately placed the coffee cup on the table. She closed the door of the office with a loud bang, but she shouted ‘Sorry’ right after.
Jacob was shocked when the door of the executive office flew open. When Belle closed it, the door made a loud banging sound as well.
“Sorry…” she muttered, walking straight to her swivel chair and slumping on it.
While fixing the documents on her table, some fell on the floor. She stood up, stomping her foot, before snatching the paper and placing it back on her table.
Jacob noticed her actions and his forehead creased. Looking at Belle, she looks like she’s throwing a tantrum.
“What happened to you?” Jacob asked, very curious as to why Belle was behaving the way she was.
“Nothing!” she smirked.
The assistant was about ready to laugh. He already had a faint idea of what was happening, but he didn’t want to assume it at the same time.
It was almost six in the evening when Joyce left. As soon as Jacob saw her pass by the glass wall, he stepped out to visit the executive office.
“What happened?” he asked. Tristan was leaning on his swivel chair with one hand covering his face.
When his boss heard him, he sat up straight, letting out a sigh. He started telling his friend what happened to Joyce.
“Did you hug or kiss to comfort her?” Jacob knew his question was inappropriate. But he was fishing for information to find out what Belle saw in the office that made her act like that.
“I was hugging her almost the whole time,” Tristan responded.
Jacob nodded slowly, ‘Belle probably saw them hugging, that’s why she’s acting like that. She got jealous!’ He then giggled, causing Tristan to glare at him.
“Oh sorry, I just remembered, Eric invited Belle for dinner. I was just feeling happy for her,” trying to come up with an excuse for giggling all of a sudden.
“Who asked who for dinner?” Tristan asked, brows furrowed.
“Eric Thompson.”
“He invited who?” Tristan asked again, this time his face was starting to darken.
“He invited Belle for dinner!” Jacob answered eagerly. He was intentionally giving out the information to his friend to see what he would do.
When Tristan just nodded, he felt disappointed. ‘This person is helpless and hopeless!’ Jacob then left and went back to their office when his boss didn’t say anything more.
Belle was already tidying up her table when Jacob came back. She took a mirror out and started retouching her lipstick, popping her lips several times. Then she sprayed a good amount of perfume.
“I’m leaving!” she announced, waving at Jacob as she went out of their office with a pretty smile painted on her face.
Ten minutes later, Tristan opened the door to the executive office. “Who’s perfume is that?” he asked, scrunching his nose.
“It’s Belle’s,” Jacob answered.
“Why does she have to wear perfume? Are they going to smell each other while eating?!” he asked, obviously irked.
Jacob wanted to laugh and mock him at the same time, for having childish thoughts and for being too slow at making a move on Belle, but he held it in.
“Let’s go!” Tristan spoke after a few minutes of silence.
“Where are we going?” Jacob asked while taking his coat off the backrest of his chair.
“We’re having dinner, of course!”