“I don’t think this is a good plan, Jackie,” Dannie uttered silently. “It’s not right.”

“Come on, it’s not like he’s going to find out, right? It’s the perfect plan. If Brian thinks I am in a relationship with the guy, he would back away. I am so sure of that.”

“How can you be so sure? For all we know, it could make matters worse,” George pointed out.

Jackie let out a dramatic sigh. “Trust me, it will work. Brian doesn’t even breathe inside the elevator when the man is around!”

“But--”

She stopped Dannie’s words by saying, “What? I’m just going to wait here until things get physical? Because that would be very tragic. My ex-boyfriend,”--Yes, of course she already told her friends about her dramatic breakup with Kevin--“wouldn’t even lift a finger. And the police won’t do anything, remember? They will wait until I walk in battered and bleeding. Or maybe that won’t happen because I’ll be dead since my freaking stalker suddenly decides to commit a crime of passion.”

Her friends seemed to have thought she was right because they just sat there looking at her.

“This is the only way I know. I am planning to file for a barangay protection order just to keep him away from our apartment. But that is only good for fifteen days. And during that time, I will try my best to file for a protection order at court. But, I wouldn’t have to do that if my plan works. And I hope it works because to file for a restraining or protection order will take a lot of time and I’ll be dead by the time someone signs the papers. This plan is a win-win situation.”

“And how do you get away from this? You can’t keep on pretending a fake affair forever,” George said as she lifted her bottle of beer.

“I will stop when the right guy comes along, someone who will be willing to protect me. And if that doesn’t happen, let’s just pray that Brian has already given up. And if he tries to continue on with his antics, then, let’s just hope the court order is approved. Or maybe I can kill him before he gets to me first.”

She appeared to have thought this through and her friend knew that. Dannie was a saint, but when it came to her friends’ safety, she was willing to do anything. George, Jackie knew, was already thinking this was the only solution. Among the two, George was the one who understood about ‘desperate measures’ better.

“So, how do you plan to do it?” George asked and Jackie almost jumped to her feet in success. She knew her friends would back her up no matter what.

“Well, first thing I have to do is to make sure that his Facebook account will appear legit.”

“How do you do it?”

“I need to take a lot of pictures of him. I tried searching for some from the FB account of the people in the office, but I didn’t get a good one. So I thought of a brilliant plan,” she finished with pride.

“What?” her friends asked in unison.

“I called Troy.”

“Troy?” George asked.

“Troy Brady!”

George rolled her eyes and Dannie groaned. “That guy is trouble, Jackie,” Dannie said.

  *****

Well, well, well, if it’s not Troy Brady! I haven’t seen this guy in months! And I would have been glad if I never saw him again. He was the typical cocky, handsome bastard who played around with girls. Good thing the boys were the type of girls who would never fall for this guy.

I think it was the reason why Troy stuck with the boys ever since I could remember. When they purchased me three years ago, he was with them. And he was too vocal to point out that I was not good enough. He suggested the boys buy a brand new car. And up to this day, he never failed to piss me off like he would Dannie. The two of them never got along and it was a wonder how Dannie baby could stand his presence. I think they were friends, but they rather liked their friendship to be spent bantering, teasing and killing each other with words.

Troy Brady was not only handsome, he was rich. Not as rich as George, but rich enough to buy ten cars like me. And he was a freaking photographer and women dig that. Lucky bastard, I thought as he climbed down his high, glossy and stunning black four-wheel drive named Tata. Yes, he named it after he learned the boys named me Toto. He said that we were quite a match.

“Hey there, Toto. I see you’re still alive?” he asked with a smile when he spotted me.

Shut up! What the hell are you doing here anyway?

But the black-haired, handsome guy just smiled and walked to the entrance of Sanders.

The boys loved Sanders. It was their favorite hangout place because they said it was cozy inside and the food and drinks were great. Yeah, like I could freaking appreciate it, right? But they usually went to Sanders on Fridays. Wonder what they are doing here with Troy Brady? I guess I should find out soon. Right now, I just had to content myself with Tata’s company.

  *****

“Hey, boys!” Troy greeted them, taking off his sunglasses.

The girls looked up from their drinks. Jackie stood up and gave him a peck. George just waved. Dannie ignored him.

“So, to what do I owe the honor of you boys requesting for my presence?” he asked them as he took the seat right next to Dannie.

“Sit next to Jackie,” she ordered.

Troy looked at Dannie. “I didn’t know you are here all along, Danica. You could have said a word.” Troy would always call her by her real name whenever he was in a teasing mood and it was almost always.

Dannie looked at Jackie, completely ignoring him. “This is why I think this is a bad idea.”

“What’s a bad idea?” Troy asked, his eyebrows rose in question. He seemed to be oblivious of the secret glances some of the women in the place were throwing him. He was not that famous, but he was that eye-catching.

Jackie cleared her throat. She shot Dannie a look before she turned to Troy and said, “I need you to take a lot of pictures of someone. In secret.”

Slowly, a wicked smile formed on Troy’s face. “You are stalking someone now?”

“More like avoiding one,” Jackie answered.

Troy frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Can’t you figure it out?” Dannie asked. “She just told you she’s trying to avoid a stalker.”

“How bad is the stalking?” Troy asked, ignoring Dannie.

“Bad. Really bad to the point that I don’t want to go to work, I want to change address, leave the city and fly to nowhere.”

“I don’t understand--”

“Figures,” Dannie said beside him.

Troy ignored her again and continued, “Why do you need my help? Can you please tell me the whole story first?”

Jackie patiently told him about Brian and her plan to keep him away using Dean Gamboa. “He is afraid of the guy. And my boss is the perfect candidate.”

“What about that gay suitor of yours? I heard he’s your boyfriend now. Can’t he do anything?”

Jackie tried to calm herself. Everyone thought Kevin was gay except her. Why didn’t she see that before?!

“She broke up with him,” George answered when Jackie kept silent.

“Really?”

George nodded with a smirk. “She finally realized they want the same thing: boys.”

Troy laughed out loud, attracting attention from the other tables. “How about the police?”

“She just told you she tried, didn’t she?” Dannie uttered dryly. “Weren’t you listening?”

“I’m sorry, teacher Danica, I’ll try to stay sharp from now on,” Troy told her with a mocking pout, one that one of Dannie’s student might have used. He had always liked taunting Dannie and it always worked.

“As much as I enjoy your usual banters, let me just remind you that we are here to help me solve my problem,” Jackie told them.

Troy faced her again. “Okay, so let me get this straight. You have a stalker and he’s a big problem. You have a boss that in my opinion is someone you hate--yes, Jackie, I figured that out easily from the way you talked about the man--and this stalker of yours is afraid of him. Now, you are going to use him as your fake boyfriend. And you are going to do that by making a fake FB account. And you need my help to take pictures of him so it would appear real?”

“Finally,” Dannie muttered under her breath.

Troy just shot her an amused look. “I really do admire your sarcasm, Danica.”

“Thank you,” Jackie’s friend answered.

“Hey, stop that,” Jackie told them.

“I just have one question,” George said, raising a finger. “Brian might not believe it if he just sees it on Facebook. How do you plan to keep up appearances in actual life?”

Jackie flipped her hair behind her shoulder. “That’s going to be my problem. I have a plan.”

Her three friends looked at her with doubt from across the table.

“What? I can do it! And it’s not like Brian will have to see us all the time. He works in a different department. All I need to do is make sure that I can post pictures of us together from time to time. And that’s where Troy comes in. You can photoshop us together, but that will come later. For now, I need as many pictures of the man as possible. You know, just to fill his fake account with life.”

Troy looked at her for a long time before he sighed. “Fine, I can do that.”

“Ah!” she shouted with glee. “I so love you!”

“I wish I can hear Danica say that,” he said, blocking Dannie’s slap with a laugh. “So, when do we start?” he asked a while later.

“How about tomorrow?” Jackie asked.

“Sure, why not? I’d love to meet this guy after all. He might just be a good subject.”

  *****

Tata was just telling me about how she almost threw up when Troy and some lady he met last night made out inside her, both of them drunk, when the boys and Troy exited Sanders’ glass door.

Okay, ladies, it’s time to talk about what happened in there! I begged when they finally settled inside me with George behind my wheel. Troy and Tata had already left.

“I don’t think he can do it successfully, Jackie,” Dannie uttered from the backseat.

“Come on, Dannie, you’re only saying that because you hate his guts. He’s good at what he does and I trust that he can do it well.”

“He’s going to follow your boss around for a day or two. He might get caught,” Dannie pointed out.

“No, he won’t. Trust me, Troy can do it,” Jackie said with confidence.

“Where to? Home?” George asked without commenting.

Georgie, don’t kill the conversation!

“Making a fake FB account for your boss is already absurd. Having Troy to take his pictures is totally outrageous,” Dannie uttered, looking out the window. “Let’s go get some pizza,” she added.

Wait, what? Fake FB account? Jackie, you are one crazy girl! This can land you in jail, girl! Georgie, tell her this is not a good idea! Danny baby, give her some scolding! This is not good! I don’t want to add prison in my list of scheduled destinations, you know.

But no one seemed to be listening to me because they were not talking at all. Jackie was busy writing something in a small notebook. Dannie had completely shut her mouth, probably due to suppressed distaste of what was going on. Yeah, and maybe because of Troy. George, for the love of her, was more interested on driving to where food was. And they were again going to Greeno’s, the pizzeria. I didn’t like that place because the guard outside loved sitting on or leaning against me.

And naturally, I would be by myself again!

  *****

Jackie was munching on her pizza, texting the details of her plan for tomorrow to Troy.

I will text you ahead of time if he’s about to leave the office tomorrow. Then you follow him around. You take pictures. Make sure they are good, okay?

Troy replied within a minute. It will make people wonder why he only has candid pictures on his account.

She rolled her eyes. That’s for another day.

Troy replied, What do you mean?

She was already thinking they should have polished the plan earlier as she texted back, If he goes to a place that is not his house, you tell me and I will try my best to come as soon as I can. That way, we can stage something. And I might be able to make him come to a meeting outside the office. We usually do them in restaurants. You can take better pictures there. And he’s not the type to post a lot of pictures of himself so that will be okay, I guess.

Troy only replied okay and she continued with her food.

“Are you sure about this?” Dannie asked for the nth time.

“Yes, I am. Now, why don’t we just enjoy our dinner?” She smiled at her friends as she called the waiter for a beer tower.

  *****

The perfect opportunity presented itself to Jackie the very next morning. Joseph called in sick and Dean Gamboa needed to bring someone from the team to attend a meeting regarding the next project. It would be a lunch meeting at Bar 21.

Karen didn’t want to go, obviously. No, scratch that. No one wanted to go. Jackie was the brave soul to volunteer, now that she had experienced the Devil’s Room with the blinds down and it weren’t so bad. It was just okay; so okay that she decided to make Dean Gamboa her fake boyfriend on FB, really.

“Who’s coming?” Dean Gamboa asked, his voice completely silencing everyone in the floor. The only sound was the copier machine at the corner of the room beside the vending machines.

For a moment, Jackie was silent. “Sir, I’ll go with you,” she uttered when she found her voice.

The man just looked at her and gave a small, single nod. He turned away and started for the elevator in his perfectly ironed dark-gray suit and slacks.

“Good luck, girl!” Karen said behind her.

But Jackie was already busy texting Troy to even give a reply. It’s on! Go to Bar 21!