“Are you suddenly worried about your job security or something?” he asked teasingly before he chuckled.“You know well enough that I don’t mean it like that…” I said before rolling my eyes at him.Ace just laughed a little at my reaction. Although I was trying to be serious, Ace had no trouble finding some way to joke about it. I did realize that a part of why he was doing that was to make sure that I didn’t overly stress about things. “Nothing major will happen. Everyone will panic to a certain degree but soon they will realize that whatever personal relationship that I have with Elizabeth isn’t going to impact their professional careers and lives at work. That’s just all there is to it. The merger will go on as planned and great things will happen now that the company is merged into a big, experienced, and well-equipped monster,” Ace announced quite proudly. “I really hope that that will be the case. I think we’ve all had more than enough shock this year as employees of the compan
“Thank you for your time. We’ll try our best to answer your questions at the end,” Ace wrapped up quite professionally. The reporters bombarded them with questions, but I wasn’t interested to listen anymore beyond that point. It was enough for me that the announcement had been made. Finally, their fake relationship was over for real. Just like that, it was over as if had never happened in the first place. I still thought that it was ridiculous that they had to announce their relationship and also the end of it in press conferences like that but that was just how things had to be. I spent the rest of the day listening to the reactions of my colleagues and what they thought about Ace and Elizabeth’s break up. That was when I found out for myself just how many supporters they had. The majority of the people felt disappointed about their sudden break up. Employees that were originally from Jessen’s and Hill’s took the change much harder than those from Chase Creatives. Naturally, that w
After reaching an agreement that I should simply stop renting my place and move in with him properly, we scheduled a weekend to make sure that the move would happen. Of course, it was Ace’s idea and his persistent insistence that made it all happen. “Should I help you unpack?” he offered.“Oh, no. That’s fine. I’ll get it sorted myself,” I quickly turned down his suggestion.“If you’re lazy, you can take it slow. There’s no need to unpack everything today. The guest bedroom is free and so are some other rooms, so you can just put your stuff there for now,” he pointed out. “Thanks, I’ll do that,” I replied. I understood why Ace was insistent, but I still had my reserves about our relationship. It had only been around two months since Ace and Elizabeth announced their breakup. I could already imagine what people would have to say if they found out that we were already dating and that I had already moved into Ace’s place. I didn’t need to be a genius to figure out how our relationship
If I had to take a guess, it must have been something related to my personal life, such as my relationship with Ace…“I know that this isn’t technically your fault, but I thought that you should know about this before it leaks out from the walls of this company if it hasn’t already…” she said before closing her eyes and letting out another long sigh. “What is it?” I asked as I told myself in my mind not to panic. “I heard that something similar happened before but there are rumors going around the company that you are dating Ace Hills,” she said as she stared directly at me. “Oh…” I murmured without knowing what else I was supposed to say.If Ace was still working at the company as my boss, then it would have been obvious enough to me that we had to keep our secret relationship hidden away from everyone. However, now that he was no longer my boss and also no longer working at the company, it wasn’t like I would be breaking the rule that forbids employees from dating each other. “S
The call was from Ace and the moment that I saw his name on the screen of my phone, I knew that he had somehow found out about the rumors that had been going around. Although he was no longer in the company, I guessed it wasn’t surprising that he could still find out what was going on. “Ace…” I said as I answered the phone. “You don’t sound so panicked,” Ace stared off by complimenting me. “It’s not the first time but…how I wish it could be the last…” I replied before smiling weakly although I knew that he couldn’t see my face. “I’m actually very impressed. You’re getting the hang of dealing with these things,” Ace said, and he did sound impressed. “Thank you, I guess…” I replied before suppressing a sigh. “Don’t sound so down. Hang in there and keep your chin up. You didn’t do anything wrong and none of this is your fault,” Ace reminded me reassuringly.I wished that I could see what kind of face he was making at that moment. Just the sound of his tender voice and the strength
“Mr. Hills is here…”“Really?”“I think so. I think I saw him right there in front of the building,”“He’s back? Why?”“Are you sure that it’s him?”“How can I possibly get it wrong? It’s definitely Ace Hills…”The random phrases that floated in the air as I made my way toward the front entrance of the building confirmed that I was right about Ace’s arrival. He definitely chose to come at the worst of times. The end of the workday meant that the lobby was crowded and so was the front of the building with people exiting the building on their way to return home from work. I squeezed through the crowd of people while feeling slightly frustrated that I couldn’t get to Ace any faster. When I saw the exit in sight, I spotted a very bright red sports car that immediately captured my attention. I knew without any signs of doubt that it was Ace’s car. It wasn’t a car that I had seen before, and it was definitely much flashier than the other cars that I’ve seen him use to commute to and from w
On top of the rumors that were already going around, Ace had to go and do something like that right in front of everyone at the company. I wondered if any of my colleagues whom I was close with had seen that but then I couldn’t bear to think about it anymore. My head throbbed and I still found it hard to believe that Ace would do something so outstandingly ridiculous. “Right time for what? For you to show up with a little too many red roses?” I asked sarcastically. “Now is the right time to tell the world about our relationship. Let’s just come out and let everyone know that we’re dating,” Ace replied like it was the most obvious thing that we should do. “Are…Are you sure?” I asked as my heart thudded hard in my chest. “Of course. What are we waiting for? Do you have any objections?” he asked as he turned to face me. I could see his hazel brown eyes sparkling and I could tell that he was excited. My heart was racing hard, but it wasn’t just from the excitement. I felt nervous, an
The way his hand was stroking my hair softly made me feel slightly sleepy. It felt like I was ready to doze off to sleep at any moment. It was great that we could enjoy the peace, but I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that it could last forever. First of all, my leave days were limited, and I couldn’t be on holiday with Ace indefinitely. I also wanted to return to my job because there was still a part of me that wanted to make great progression in my career. All of that meant that sooner or later, we would have to go back to our regular life and face the reality of everything that was waiting for us. “I wonder how we’re going to deal with the mess when we get back,” I murmured sleepily. “How do you want to deal with it?” Ace asked as he kept on stroking my hair. “I don’t know…” I replied honestly. It wasn’t like I haven’t been thinking about it and considering various options. However, I wasn’t sure how best to handle the situation. It was hard enough for me to ignore all the mea