Continued ...

    Bryan nodded before walking out of the room.

--

    Two days had done little in lessening the impact of what he’d learned in Noel’s office. Since that day, Bryan had been in a state of combined confusion and utter numbness. He wanted to be knocked out of this stupid stupor. He wanted to get away, far away from the sight of his workstation, which recently has grown so dull that he felt an almost unbearable urge to ask Ken to switch workstations with him. He wanted to exist without devoting one iota of a moment thinking about this recent mess. But more than anything, he wanted to see Bench.
    He was wont to admit but it had taken its toll on his work. The copy he wrote barely met his personal standards. Fortunately for him, clients sometimes had the unusual habit of picking the studies that Bryan least liked.
    That afternoon, a brainstorming session had gone nowhere with Bryan and Ellie struggling to come up with an event-driven campaign for an agri-feed client. Bryan nonchalantly excused himself and headed back to his workstation to collect some stuff and go home. He unplugged the charger’s cord off his cell phone and checked the liquid crystal display: 1 message received. It was an unregistered number. He opened the message and read: “tequila jos 5.30pm. dont b l8 sucker, i wont w8.” He glanced at the time — 5:37 PM. Damn.
    Three minutes he was at the door of Tequila Joe’s. He looked around inside the grill house restaurant. Bench was sitting at the bar with her back to the door. Her head was tilted towards the TV screen propped seven feet up on the wall behind the bartender, American Idol was on. The glass of iced tea on the counter was already half-full. Bryan took the stool on her left.
    “Don’t you wish sometimes you had a TV remote in your brain?” Bench casually remarked without looking at Bryan.
    “Why would you wish something like that?” Bryan asked back.
    “So that I could just press mute in my mind whenever it’s Paula’s turn to say something.”
    Bryan laughed.
    “I mean, Paula’s always saying the same thing to anybody, anyway. She’s like the judge on the Miss Universe pageant who always gives an 8 to every contestant. I can’t stand her actually.”
    “Neither can I.”
    Bench smirked while she sipped the last of her iced tea.
    “Bench, Noel has been looking for you. He says — ”
    “I already talked to him,” Bench interrupted him.
    “Really?”
    “Yeah, last night at their house. We sorted out everything. Well, not everything, but the areas concerning me — it’s okay now. Trust me.”
    “Sure about that?”
    “Funny. Who would’ve thought that Kyla would do something like that. I mean, she’s a world-class beeyatch and all that but … Damn, she’s got guts, that’s for sure.”
    “How did you find out about what happened?”
    “Maimai from Camp Cebu, she’s friends with Anne. She told me yesterday morning. Naturally, I had to talk to Anne, tell her I didn’t have anything to do with what Kyla did. I had some explaining to do to Noel, too. God, you should have been there. Noel was really pissed, I mean really pissed. He was sure I was in on it because I disappeared.”
    “Well, you did disappear.”
    “Yeah. But the thing is — I chickened out.” She laughed weakly. “That’s why I was back in Cebu since Tuesday. I was in Davao the whole time, ever since the Adventure Caravan was done. I was really planning to talk to Anne eventually, to her alone. And then this ruckus just blew up. I could have done nothing. I don’t even care a shit if Noel hated me for not showing up ever. But I did show up. I guess I didn’t want him to hate me for the wrong reason. I mean I got issues, I know that. But I’m no thief. That’s not who I am. That I’m sure about.”
    “You got me scared. You did.”
    She burst into laughter.
    “I got you, didn’t I? I got you big time, Bry.”
    “No shit.”
    “I did tell them everything, about my plan to go AWOL. But I didn’t tell them that you were in on it, too. That would be unfair to you. Bottom line is now they know how badly I want out of the agency. Anne — I guess she took it rather well. Noel — well, you know Noel. But I’m not scared of him, I never was.”
    “So what happens now?”
    “The deal is, I stay until the end of November, just enough to turn over my accounts to Ellie. That’s about three weeks — that should be enough. She’s quite a capable lady, that Ellie, although she could use some chillin’ out. As for Kyla — well, Anne is going to have to handle the accounting for now. They don’t really know how much damage Kyla did to their funds. Anne mentioned about getting an independent CPA to sort it out. I wish him luck. As for me, I don’t know. I’m thinking about finding work overseas. Or maybe school. I really don’t know. All I know is I want out.”
    Bryan remained silent. Bench took a crumpled mauve bill out of her pocket and unfolded it on the counter. “I need a smoke,” she said, “let’s get out of here.”
    They stood on the paved sidewalk outside the restaurant. Bench absent-mindedly watched the cars whizzing by. Bryan stood three feet from her, staring at a large billboard ad recently put up. Bench took a step towards him and turned her head at the same direction he was looking.
    “Advertising has ruined my consumer life,” Bryan said.
    Bench couldn’t be sure if he was talking to her or himself. “Why is that?” she asked.
    “I could no longer look at any ad without mulling about how much work has been done in creating that ad — the copy redone and revised many times over, the graphics going through endless changes, the many steps, the arguments. When I look at an ad, I don’t see the product anymore. I just see the work behind it. I’ll never be sold by any ad, ever again. Advertising has ruined my consumer life.”
    “You’ll be okay, Bry. I know you.” Bench took out her cell phone and turned around. “Lex is here to pick me up.”
    “A friend of yours?”
    “She’s my — you know.” Bench smiled.
    “Oh,” Bryan said in comprehension.
    “I gotta go. I’ll see you around?”
    He nodded. She punched him on the shoulder before walking away. Bryan watched her walk towards the parking lot, her retreating figure finally getting obscured by the passing vehicles. He stood for a while with his hands in his pockets. He glanced eastwards across Archbishop Reyes Avenue. The skyway was finished.
    He sighed and walked away.