My Sunflower World

Chapter 2
Please call me Ricky

Maya, coffee tumbler in hand, ran briskly towards the closing elevator. She got in, then looked up to thank the person who held up the doors button for her, with her usual friendly smile, and find herself looking at the guy that invaded her thoughts the night before, and which caused her to buy a venti americano today to perk her up from her almost sleepless night. She was unable to sleep because of him!

“Good morning, Maya!” Richard Lim greeted her with a big, happy smile from the right side of the elevator. The other employees inside looked at them curiously as Mr. Lim didn’t greet them that way when he got into the elevator with them moments ago.

“Good morning, Sir Richard! Errr, Attorney Lim!” Maya replied, getting confused on what title to use for him, giving him a smile with a bit of a blush, remembering her embarrassing moments yesterday. Be still my heart, May silently said, but what a nice morning this is turning to be!

They settled into the elevator which was a bit crowded at that time. Maya was squeezed in beside Richard.

Wow, ang super nice smelling naman talaga ni Sir Richard, Maya thought.

When the elevator stopped at Maya’s floor, Richard gestured for Maya to get out first. Then he also got out of the elevator after her. Maya was surprised as she knows that Richard’s office is two floors up from hers.

“You have a meeting on this floor, Atty. Lim?” Maya asked conversationally after she noticed him walking beside her towards the direction of her office. She shares the floor with another department so she thought he has a meeting there.

“No, I don’t have any. I just want to accompany you to your office, if it is okay?” He remarked, smiling and gazing at her intently.

Maya’s heart beat faster, hearing that. It felt like a current went through her for some reason she can’t explain. All the blood went to her face too, making her blush. She, the poised one, is acting like a gauche teenager with this magnetic man.

“Oh!” was all she managed to utter at first. Then regaining her poise, she looked at Richard, then thanked him. “Thank you, Sir Richard, errr, Atty. Lim.”

“Please call me Ricky, Maya! I’m not your boss naman.” He said, gazing at her, then said enigmatically, “I’m glad.”

Maya just smiled at him, not really knowing how to react.

When they reached the entrance to Maya’s department, Richard gave Maya another of his lopsided smiles, then wished her a very nice day. She wished him a very nice day too. And they both parted ways, Richard with a big happy smile on his face, and Maya with her heart beating fast, as it if it jumping with joy.

But still, Maya does not know what to think of that encounter. She has a puzzled looked on her face when she opened her office door, and saw another surprise for the day! There is a big bouquet of sunflowers on her desk.

Maya felt that at that moment that there is something at work that she is still unaware of. She can’t think off hand who would send her sunflowers. While she had admirers at work before, none of them did this. Besides, only a handful of people knows that sunflower is her favorite flower.

She walked faster towards her desk, checked the floral arrangement for a card. She found it and she hastily opened it, an effort to find out fast who sent her the beautiful floral arrangement. However, while there is a message, it was not signed.

Dearest Maya,

Have a great day! I hope you like the flowers.

Yours

The first thing that entered Maya’s mind when she thought of who could have sent it, is Richard Lim! She does not know why! He was just the first person that entered her head. But that’s impossible! He couldn’t be interested in her! As part of her job, she reads newspapers and magazines and she knows that he is considered as one of Manila’s most eligible bachelors, with socialites running after him, not that he pays them much attention, that’s according to Emman. Besides, he was with her in the elevator so he couldn’t have not been the one who sent it! Baka ipina-deliver. But really, why would he? However, before she can stop it, her heart jumped with the thought, that he might like her too, the way she likes him, a lot! But, Maya, she told herself, huwag assuming. Baka naman kasi crush na crush mo lang kaya naiisip mo na baka siya! Huwag mag-ilusyon, Maya Angela Dela Rosa.

Maya poked her head out of her door, checking if Minerva, her secretary is around. Seeing her, she called her to her office.

“Yes, Ms. Maya?” Minerva asked when she reached her desk. “May kailangan po kayo?”

“Minerva, anong oras ka pumasok today? Would you know kung sino ang naglagay nitong flowers sa office ko?” Maya asked.

“Naku, Ma’am, I was here around 7 o’clock, pero nandiyan na po ang flowers na iyan. Ako po ang unang pumasok sa department natin.” Minerva answered.

“Very puzzling talaga.” Maya said, almost to herself.

“Ma’am, meron po kayong secret admirer? Nakakatuwa naman po. In fairness, bongga ha. Nakakakilig pati.” Minerva said, smiling. “For sure, Ma’am, taga-LC lang din iyang pa-mysterious mong secret admirer. Sino ba ang may access sa building nang ganito kaaga. When we left home, wala naman iyan.”

“Hmmmm, you have a point there, Minerva. Thank you. I will figure it out, eventually.” Maya said. “Please make a follow-up na lang with Legal the documents we sent them for review last week, baka tapos na nila. Thank you.”

Maya looked at the card again after Minerva went back to her cubicle. It was written in a very distinct, ‘masculine’ way. Who could have send her the flowers?

She put the card in her drawer and tried to concentrate on her work. She found it difficult to do so. Aside from thinking who could have sent her the flowers, Richard also sneaked into her thoughts from time to time. She was puzzled actually by her instant attraction to him. She was drawn to him from the beginning. She had met other handsome guys, some even courted her, but none of them made her heart beat faster with just a look at a smile, like Richard does. There is something about his chinito good looks that is pulling her in, very strongly towards him.

The first time she saw Richard in person, his back was to the door. She was late for the party to welcome him to LC as she was talking to a business reporter of a major daily about LC’s upcoming stockholders meeting and the interview took a while. Richard suddenly turned when she was about to go to James Ventura, one of her good friends and the Chief Operating Officer of LC. He was actually the one who recruited her as LC’s Communications Manager several months ago. She was working for one of foreign news wire services in the country at that time. She felt she needed the change, and the job sounds interesting, so she accepted.

When Richard turned and focused her gaze on her, she literally stopped on her tracks. They shared a look, and she thought she saw something in that, but it was so fleeting that she thought she had imagined it. Then James called her, brought her to where Richard was, and introduced them. They chatted, at first with James, then just the two of them when someone called James across the room. They mostly talked about company stuffs and how long she had been with LC, and a bit about her old job. Before they can go into the details of their professional backgrounds, and other stuffs, Roberto Lim came and said he will borrow Richard. Richard told his father he would be along shortly. He gave her his business card before he went after his father.

They didn’t get talk again for the rest of the night as Roberto Lim went around the room with Richard in tow, formally introducing his son around. Even if Richard was just to assume the Chief Legal Counsel position then, everyone in the room that night knew he is being groomed as the next CEO of LC. Maya, on the other hand, was drawn into pocket conversations by the other executives and officers of the company.

From that night, Maya will just caught a glimpse of Richard here and there the past week, but they haven’t really saw each other face to face and interacted again until yesterday when she had mistakenly sent him the text.

Emman’s knock interrupted Maya’s introspection.“Hi Maya, hindi ka pa ba magla-lunch? Sabay na tayo?”

“Ha, lunch na ba, Emman?” Maya asked, surprised, looked at the clock and noticing that it was already past 12 noon.

“Oo naman, Ms. Maya Dela Rosa! Parang space out ka today, ah. Stress ba? Kalalabas pa lang naman natin ng newsletter for the week ah. Uy, sunflowers, ang ganda naman! Bonggang manliligaw ah.” Emman remarked, noticing the sunflowers.

“Beautiful, di ba? Kaso hindi ko alam kung sino ang nag-send.” Maya said as she grabbed her purse and cellphone. “Pagpasok ko nakita ko na sa table ko. When I asked Minerva naman, she told me na nandito na rin pagpasok niya, considering na siya ang pinakamaagang dumating sa department natin. Bayaan mo na nga, kung ayaw niyang magpakilala, eh di ayaw, di ba?”

Emman, stopped a bit at that, remembered Liza, one his other long-time LC friends calling him yesterday, chatting a bit, asking him what is Maya’s favorite flower. She said the company will send Maya some flowers for her birthday, which is in two weeks and she does not know what kind to get her. Nagtaka rin siya when she asked since it was not her who handles those for the company, but he got busy and forgot about it. If Liza asked, and Liza now works for…..

“OMG!” He muttered. He was torn between telling Maya who could have sent it. But what if he is wrong and it is just a mere coincidence? Saka, if ever man na si Sir Richard ang nag-send, mawawalan naman ng thrill kung sasabihin niya, di ba? Emman did this mental debate for a couple of seconds more, then decided not to tell Maya of his suspicion.

“Halika na nga. Ikain na lang natin iyan.” Emman just said.

Maya and Emman enjoyed their lunch, joined by their friends in LC, Edselyn and Jonah. The lunch put Maya in a better frame of mind. She has decided that she will just go with the flow. She is sure that whoever her secret admirer is will one day reveal himself. Why go to all the trouble if he wouldn’t?

With that resolution, she was able to concentrate on what she was doing. The rest of the day flew fast, and before Maya knew it, it was already past 6 o’clock in the evening. Emman has left already for the day. She gathered her things and went down to the lobby of LC, then walk to the street corner to get a taxi. A tall order at that time of the night, but she didn’t have any other choice. Maya was not able to use her car that day as it was her number coding day. She had been standing there for 10 minutes with taxis passing by, full, when a car stopped in front of her. The driver got out. It was Richard! OMG!

“Hi Maya, are you waiting for a taxi?” Richard greeted her as he walked towards her.

“Errrr, yes Atty. Lim.” Maya replied. OMG, ang guwapo talaga with his eyeglasses, pale blue dress shirt!

“Ricky, please, di ba I told you to call me that na lang.” Richard corrected and reminded her with a smile. “Where do you live?  Come, I will take you home. It’s difficult to find a cab at this time of the night in this area.”

“Naku, Atty….errr…Ricky, baka my area is out of your way, I live in Makati.” Maya said, not wanting to bother him. Besides, three quarters of an hour with him the car, she might just melt and turn into a puddle like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz!

“Perfect then! I also live in Makati. at least in the meantime. I’m going to our family home in Dasmarinas Village. Where exactly do you live?” Richard asked as a horn blew loudly. “Come na, Maya, please, at baka ma-tow pa itong car ko. Nakakaabala na yata ako sa flow ng traffic!”

Maya agreed then. “Okay, thank you, Ricky.”

Richard opened the passenger door for Maya before going to the driver’s side of the car.  Then when on their way, Richard asked Maya again where he will take her.

“Oh sorry, about that! I live in Bel-Air.” Maya replied.

Richard and Maya fall into an easy chatter throughout their journey from Ortigas Center to Makati. Maya forgot about getting self-conscious as Richard put her at ease. Before long, they were chatting like they have known each other long. She found him very easy to talk to.

From general topics, they shifted to talking about their favorite movies after getting distracted by a huge billboard in EDSA advertising the latest instalment to the Marvel Universe’s movies. Maya found out that Richard is a Marvel Comics avid fan and likes all the movies that were release under the so-called ‘Marvel Universe’. She also likes those, as well as romantic comedies, period movies, and movies based on literary works. Richard teased her about preferring chick flick and intellectual films. But admitted in the end, laughing, that he also watch those. From there, they moved to books they like, and other interests. They also started talking a little more about themselves. Maya, of course, know more about Richard than he about her.

Before they knew it, they were already approaching Buendia. They turned right, then drove into Maya’s village. Maya directed Richard to a beautiful two-storey house with a low fence, painted mostly in white and has a big garden in front.

“Ricky, thank you for taking me home. Would you like to go in, and have dinner, or coffee before you go home?” Maya offered  when she and Richard were standing by the curve, in front of the gate.

“Thank you, Maya. Next time I will take you up on that. My parents are waiting for me. I told them I will be home for dinner. Knowing Mama, she will wait for me.” Richard said regretfully. He wanted to spend more time with Maya, but he had already said yes to his mother, to him being home for dinner. He forgot to cancel.

“Oh, okay then. Good night and thank you very much again for taking me home.” Maya said warmly, giving Richard a brilliant smile that lit up her whole face. “Baka kung hindi, naghihintay pa rin ako ng taxi.”

“No worries, Maya. If you want, I can also pick you up in the morning. Sabay na tayo pumasok.” Richard offered.

“Thank you, Ricky. My car is okay na tomorrow. Besides, I have a meeting outside the office so better if I have a ride.” Maya said, touched by his gesture.

“Okay, just let me know if you need a ride home again.I would be happy to take you.” Richard said. “I’ll go ahead. Good night Maya. I enjoyed the ride with you.” He finished soflty.

They shared a look, then as if they both realized what they were doing, both got a bit flustered. They said good night one more time.

Maya went inside the house, thinking that this turned out to be a very wonderful day, not only she saw the object of her affection, she shared a ride home with him.

Richard felt the same. When he saw Maya earlier waiting for a taxi, he can’t believe his luck, so he seized the opportunity to be with her. Now, he still has one thing to do that night, and he hopes Maya will like it.