LIKE A MARATHON

LIKE A MARATHON
Viviana
It’s a great thing I know how to speak a little Spanish because during our first meeting with one of the big investors for Jacob’s new project, the main person in charge, Fernando Grant, decided that his English would be too bad a communication medium to seal the deal. I think that was a bullshit move from him. He most likely wanted to use that as a means to back out from the deal. 
If he that is what he wants, he should have just told us before we travelled all the way here. Everything is almost hilarious to me. 
We are here in Japan, to meet a man we thought was Italian, who we thought knows how to speak English - he does but only a little. And who actually majorly speaks Spanish. Or that’s just a little lie from him. I should be at home right now, sharing a couch with Rosalia as we eat popcorn and watch a marathon of rom-come. But we can’t always have what we most want in life right? Annoying.
As I translate his responses to my boss whom I am sitting close to, I can feel the press of Jacob’s bodyguard at the back of my head. I have been trying to play it cool and not go for the more violent approach like Ma’am Greta advised but I wonder how much I can hold on.  A part of me wants to ask Jacob if he indeed asked his bodyguard to babysit me for a few minutes last night but I decided to keep my lips shut for now. If it indeed is, Massimo already begged me not to tell Jacob that I caught him. But that man didn’t look sorry at all. His facial expressions remained same while he blathered those words. 
Fifteen minutes later, Mr Fernando gets a call, one that happens to be urgent because he rapped something about a family member before he flew out the revolving doors. And with a promise that we continue tomorrow. 
As I save the things I had typed on my laptop, suddenly a hand lands on one of my thighs. I look from the hand to he owner as discomfort and disgust spreads immediately.
“You really are the better choice to have brought along for this deal. Imagine if I had brought Hannah along or I had just come on my own- it would have ended very terribly. You saved the day Viviana. Thank you.” Jacob says and simultaneously his thumb grazes the exposed skin right before my knee.
I almost flinch and have to remind myself to breathe, settle this professionally because I still need this job. I place a hand over his. “Thank you. But I think either you or Hannah would have still found a way to manage. I’ll be on my way now because I need to use the restroom.”
I do not have the willpower of patience to let him respond or say something else so I remove his hand myself and head for the restroom. I avoid Massimo’s eyes as I walk past but there’s a particular scent I picked. It had a familiar tinge to it and I could almost swear that there is someone in my life whom I know scents only like that. But the ire from Jacob’s touch was still present and so I march forward. 
When I get to my destination, I’m grateful no one is in sight. I go to the sinks and wash my hands, then I use one wet hand to wipe away the spot on my skin he had touched. That might seem petty or childish but the cool of the water seemed to help me calm- it made me feel like I had wiped his non-consensual touch off my skin.
I stare at myself in the mirror, then I begin to say the things I am still not strong enough to say before Jacob. I speak as though he is standing behind me and also staring at the mirror. “I just want you to know how big a douche you are and a bigger one be cause you can never tell when someone doesn’t want something from you and when someone has fully ruled you out. If I were to be offered all the money in the country just to sleep with you, it would be the biggest disgrace to my ancestry and bloodline to do so. Those your fingers that only GOD knows where they have been. I hate you so much Jacob Bianchi and you just simply wait, once I save the money I need, once it’s enough, I’m going to leave and start my dream life, begin to do the things  I truly want to do. Then you can use those hands of yours to touch someone else. No, not someone else because no one deserves to be rewarded with someone like you. So touch yourself!”
When she was done, she panted hard like she had just run a marathon. Then there was a knock at the door.