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Still. I closed the door behind me so that Carlos and I were alone in his office.
“What’s up?”
“This may be awkward for you,” Carlos began and I immediately thought, oh no. This wasn’t about one of the projects. For a terrible moment, I thought he was going to confess his undying love for me, which would have been a disaster.
But then he said. “It’s Luisa.” He had an anguished look on his face and I felt truly sorry for him.
“Ah,” I said, nodding. “Of course.”
“We’ve started seeing each other, as you know,” he said and I kept nodding, because of course, I knew. She’d been seeing him mostly over weekends, Carlos would take her out to restaurants, sometimes she stayed the night at his place, a luxury apartment near the Bridge. But I knew Luisa was seeing other guys too, going out with her usual crowd of friends who liked to drink and dance. A younger crowd, to be honest. After the first few dates, I could tell that even though she really liked Carlos, it was probably not going to work out. But looking at Carlos’s anguished face, I could see that he wanted more.
“Just a moment,” I said, taking out my phone to quickly text Tate that I was going to be late.
Then I put the mobile away.
“I thought things were going well,” he said in a strained voice. “I even took her to meet my mother, but lately, I don’t know, I’ve been getting a bad feeling. She’s not returning my calls, she says she’s too busy with her studies to go out?”
“It’s her last year, you know, there are many assignments, tests and so on,” I said, even though I knew that wasn’t it.
Carlos was pacing up and down the office. “I thought we had something, you know?”
There were tears in his eyes. It was painful to see.
“She’s too young for you, Carlos,” I suddenly said. “Let her go.”
“What?” He stopped pacing, stared at me.
I got up and walked up to him. Sometimes, it was better to rip the plaster right off. Prolonging the agony was going to make it all worse in the long run.
“Luisa is 21, she wants to stay up all night to party, she doesn’t want to sit at home and watch The Voice.”
I saw him blink, processing the fact that she’d told me this was the show he liked to watch.
“But… but… she liked it, she told me she loved it!!” he almost wailed in despair.
“She hates it,” I said. “Look, Carlos, you’re an amazing guy. The best boss I’ve ever worked for. If I wasn’t hung up on someone else, who knows, I might have fallen for you. Please don’t waste time on someone who is not right for you.”
He had turned away from me, his shoulders twitching and I had the horrible feeling he was crying. I didn’t want to see a grown man cry. Especially not my boss, and someone I respected hugely.
“You might have fallen for me?” he turned to face me. Of course that would have been the one part of that speech that he’d heard! “Yes, you old fool, of course I would. You’re handsome and successful and such a nice guy! You don’t know how rare that is! Cut your losses, move on. Luisa’s not worth it.”
“Luisa is your friend?” He sounded confused.
“I know and I love her, dearly. But for you, it’s not right. Luisa likes to play around, she likes to have fun, be a little wild. Maybe your relationship has run its course?”
I could see Carlos was processing this, and working his way into accepting it.
He stood a little straighter, took a deep breath.
“God, you must think I’m such a loser,” he said, unable to meet my eye.
“Of course not!” I walked over to him and touched his arm. “I’ve learnt something over this past year. Brutal honesty is better than telling yourself all kinds of stories that make you feel better but aren’t true. I think you are a catch, a total winner. But you and Luisa aren’t right for each other. The moment you realize that and move on, you can find the woman you should be with.”
He nodded slowly. “Perhaps you’re right,” he said, in a sad voice.
“I know I’m right.” I gave his arm a squeeze. “And now I’m late for lunch, see you later.”
I rushed out of the office, practically running down the stairs.
