"Thank you for taking care of my child while I was out of town yesterday, Lis! I swear if you don't exist, I don't know who else to ask for help. Mrs. Sumiyati doesn't really understand anything related to the illness either," Rangga said. The man shook Lisa's hand tightly while shaking her.

"Hey, relax. Don't worry about it. You always help me when I'm in need too so just take it easy," Lisa replied casually.

"Sorry, Mr. Rangga," Mrs. Sumiyati suddenly said. "This is all my fault, if it weren't for me, Julian wouldn't have caught dengue fever like this. I took him for a morning walk to be healthy, but he got hurt and fell into fever in the afternoon instead. I'm so sorry,"

"Mrs. Sumiyati, don't blame yourself! It's not your fault if Julian caught dengue fever because of a morning walk, right? It's all God's plan ma'am, don't worry. I will not blame you," Rangga replied sincerely.

"I will look after Julian this morning, ma'am," Rangga added.

"No, I promised Miss Lisa to change shift. Mr. Rangga needs to take a break, you must be really tired after returning from work, right?" Mrs. Sumiyati suggested.

"I agree with Mrs. Sumiyati. You rushed to return to Jakarta by plane to meet Julian, you must be very tired. You haven't had the chance to rest, right? Just go home. Let me and Mrs Sumiyati take care of Julian," Lisa said.

"Fine then. I'll escort you to the office. Thanks for helping me," Rangga softly said.

"Hey, don't bother, I can just hail a taxi!" Lisa replied briefly.

"No, Lis, you must be very tired while accompanying Julian. Let me escort you to the office!"

The man insisted on taking Lisa to the office. Lisa thought that Rangga was too embarrassed and felt guilty for asking her to take Julian to the hospital and look after his adopted son while he was gone on a business trip.

***

Arriving at the gate of Colors Advertising office, Lisa glanced at her watch. There was still about five minutes before the standard time. Lisa couldn't stay in Rangga's car any longer!

She got out of the car in a hurry and ran to the front door of the office. Rangga glanced at her from behind the half-open car window and waved his hand from the distance and then drove away.

Hopefully, none of his colleagues would see Rangga escort her. Lisa was still hiding the fact that she and Rangga were childhood friends. She didn't want to cause trouble in the office so that no one knew what Lisa's relationship with Rangga was apart from being an employee and a boss.

Lisa was in a hurry to swipe the timesheet and luckily, she was on time!

Lisa sighed with relief that she could get to the office on time.

The woman stepped into the finance department room panting heavily. Sarah saw her and gave her a confused look.

"Sis, why do you look like you've run from ghosts?"

"I'm almost late, Sarah!" Lisa answered with a rush of breath.

"What did you ride to come here?" Sarah asked again, still in a suspicious tone.

"I took a taxi, why is that?"

"Really? So how come I saw you get out of Mr. Rangga's car? Hmm.. I wonder what your relationship with Mr. Rangga is?"

'Oh no, Sarah saw me dropping off Rangga's car!'

Hearing Sarah's question made Lisa pause. She tried to divert the dangerous question by playing dumb.

"Huh, what? Did you not see it wrong?" Lisa said, trying to divert.

"No way, I saw you getting off Mr. Rangga's car!"

"Well, Rangga's not the only owner of Mercedes cars in Jakarta! You know this so stop thinking weird," Lisa replied, this time she blurted out a little.

"But you said you took a taxi earlier. How come it turns into Mercedes now huh? Bingo! It's true right? Mr. Rangga escorted you to the office!"

Lisa looked around her with panicked eyes, worrying that the employees would spread gossip and make a fuss about it. She had made all kinds of statements to argue but it seemed that Sarah was still not satisfied with Lisa's answer.

Lisa started to feel dizzy with her coworkers. Finally, she spoke up and changed the real story a little to prevent crazy rumours about her and Rangga from breaking out in the office.

"Yes, you are right. I was smitten with Mr. Rangga on the way and he then offered to take me here,"historical

Sarah looked at Lisa with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "Really? Isn't it just your way to get closer to Mr. Rangga, Sis?"

"For God's sake Sarah! I don't have a special relationship with Mr. Rangga except being his employee and him as my superior! Duh, you must've read too much gossip from that infamous Lambe in Nistagram!" Lisa said, getting annoyed.

Sarah rolled her eyes and said, "You sure, Sis? Just so you know, Mr. Rangga has just broken up with his ex-girlfriend not long ago!"

Hearing those words made Lisa stunned. Now it's Lisa's turn to suspect something related to Rangga. "What do you mean Mr. Rangga just broke up with his ex-girlfriend?"

Sarah leaned over and whispered, "Sis Lisa, didn't you know? Mr. Rangga used to have a girlfriend but I don't know why they suddenly broke up! After that, Mr. Rangga never looked for another girl,"

"Mr. Rangga used to have a girlfriend?" Lisa spontaneously asked.

"Yes, but he no longer searched for one! It was all because he broke up with his former lover, ugh I can't seem to remember her name. Anyway, she was a graphic designer and also Mr. Rangga's friend, if I'm not mistaken. Ouch what's her name again... "

"Maria, right?" Lisa directly answered.

"Ah, yes! Wait, how did you know?"

"Oh yeah, I heard gossip too," Lisa said, lying.

She had never met Maria before, but she had heard of her from Rangga's old friend named Theo when they both attended Mrs. Wijaya's birthday party.

Initially, Lisa didn't really care about this because it wasn't her personal business. Besides, Lisa was just an ordinary close friend, there was no special relationship between Rangga and her. So, why should Lisa bother finding out who Maria was?

"Ah, so you've heard about her too! But I don't know, I mean, I just feel like.. You're Mr. Rangga's girlfriend now. It's not like I'm against it but can you imagine how furious Miss Riani would get if you were to marry Mr. Rangga and become his wife? It'd be fun to look at her when it happens for sure!"

"Sush! What are you talking about?! Quit with the gossip and get back to work now!"

Sarah stuck out her tongue mischievously then returned to her desk.

There was one thing Lisa didn't know about Rangga's love life, and now she's starting to get curious. Who was Maria and how was Rangga's relationship with Riani?