“Like I said, you don’t have to bother picking me up. I’ll go to the office, so if you want to see me, you can see me there,” she said before rolling her eyes in apparent annoyance. I figured by that time that the poor soul on the other end of the line was no other than her husband, Kyle. Of course, I did not sympathize with him and the treatment that he was receiving from his wife. Elizabeth said a few more words before she hung up the phone. “Good morning,” Ace greeted her casually.“Good morning to you too,” she replied while still staring at her phone screen. “Good morning,” I chimed in. “Guess you’re heading back to work?” Ace asked.“Yes, where else would I go? The company doesn’t run itself, unfortunately…” she said before she flashed us a smile. The gloom and doom Elizabeth from last night was completely gone and the confident Elizabeth was back. At first, I disliked this version of her so much but after seeing her in the state that she was in last night, I had to say tha
I wasn’t sure if I wanted a response from Ace or if I was just pondering that question. Kyle wasn’t poor because poor was what I was for the vast majority of my life. He just isn’t as rich as Elizabeth and the Chase family. “It’s wrong if you want to marry Chairman Chase’s only daughter. Otherwise, there’s probably nothing wrong with it,” Ace replied without even spending time to think about it. “I guess…” I murmured softly. I stuffed some salad into my mouth and began munching on the green vegetables although I couldn’t taste much at that point. My mind was too consumed with my own thoughts as I let time slip pass us by in silence. If not being rich was wrong for someone marrying into the Chase family, I wondered if it was also wrong for the Hills’ family as well. “What will happen to the merger?” I asked in a small voice.That was the closest question that I could think of to the question that I truly wanted to ask. I wanted to ask Ace what was going to happen to us but then rea
“Oh, Karina…” A familiar voice called my name from close by. I turned my head to the side to see Jeremy standing there with his laptop in his arms. Just like me, he must be in need of a break as well.“Jeremy. Taking a break?” I asked while offering him a smile. “Yup. You, too?” he asked in return. “Yeah…” I replied before forcing a smile. “You look stressed out…” he pointed out as he sat down next to me. “Do I? I guess it really shows…” I murmured while hating how tired I sounded. “Richard still giving you troubles?” he made a guess. It wasn’t Richard, or at least, it wasn’t just Richard. With the other issues weighing on my mind, working with Richard has felt like a walk in the park lately. I might have gotten used to him already, either that or the other bigger problems made all issues related to Richard seem miniscule in comparison. “A little…it is getting better, though,” I replied while apologizing to Richard softly in my head.Because I couldn’t tell Jeremy what was tru
We were just colleagues who got closer because we were working together on the same project. I had no idea since when it became a crime for us to have lunch together. “You should be careful,” he repeated his warning sternly. I looked around to make sure that we were not attracting any unnecessary attention from the other people in the room before returning my attention to Richard. This would truly get out of hand if he got the wrong idea. “Listen, I don’t know why you’re getting these ideas just because I went out to lunch with him but there is nothing going on. Thank you for the warning…” I said in a desperate whisper. “Romance between employees is strictly forbidden in this company. If I were you, I wouldn’t do things that would attract suspicion,” he said before shooting me a glare. I took in a deep breath before letting out a loud sigh. I was certain that there were many other instances of colleagues going out to lunch alone together. Just because we had lunch a couple of tim
“Are you going out today?” I asked.“No, I’ll be here to clear up some work. I’m leaving things on that end in Elizabeth’s hands for now until I hear back from her again,” Ace replied before showing me a warm smile. “Alright, then. Please try to make it to your meetings on time. I’ll be heading over to my project room now if there’s nothing else…” I said politely as I switched into my secretarial mode. “Good luck, Rina. Enjoy your day at work,” Ace said before he smiled at me again. “Thanks, you too,” I replied simply. The outlook for the day did not look bleak at all. Everything seemed bright enough although there were always uncertainties around us. I had a spring in my steps when I left Ace’s office to go to my project room where Richard was undoubtedly waiting for me. I told myself once again that I would work hard, do my best, and impress Richard one way or another. Seeing Richard reminded me a little of the warning that he gave me. It bothered me that someone might have mis
It was probably the first time that the three of us went out to lunch together out of our own free will. It was strange but after spending months working together, we had never gone out to lunch together in our free time. The tense atmosphere that seemed to drift around us as we sat down together at the table in the center of the restaurant was clear evidence of that fact. The restaurant was busy since it was lunchtime and I had never been so thankful to have all the other tables filled with people before. I had a feeling that the awkwardness between the three of us would just get worse had we been the only patrons in the restaurant on that day. “Umm…should we order?” I asked hesitantly after we had been staring at our menus for a while in silence. It wasn’t like I had made up my mind about what to order but that was the only thing that I could think of to break the silence. At that point, I didn’t think that it mattered anymore what I ordered for lunch because I was sure that I wa
There were many large office buildings in the area and people take lunch break around the same time of the day, so it was to be expected and I had nothing to complain about. Just getting to have a proper lunch with my colleagues already felt great. Although it started off as quite a big challenge, I think that the lunch ended decently well, and I was kind of glad to have lunch with Richard. Maybe I could get closer to him and learn more from him just as Ace had suggested when he staffed me on this project. We were very close to the office when I felt my phone vibrating in the pocket of my suit. One look at the screen and I found out that the call was from Ace. My first thought was that the call might be about something urgent at work and that made me answer the call immediately. “Ace?” I said his name questioningly. “Where are you?” he asked, and his tone felt rushed. “Umm…” I murmured. “Where are you right now?” he repeated his question, this time with more urgency than before.
Our little lunch outing had quite an unexpected ending. The two men began talking about something related to the crowd in front of the building but what they said was lost to me as I began to worry more about Ace. “I should get going. I’ll see you guys later,” I said as I took a step away from them. “Right, good luck with your errand,” Jeremy said before flashing me a smile. “Thanks,” I thanked him before turning to nod at Richard. Without any hesitation, I turned and walked away from them and away from the office. I had no idea what was going on and I was scared, confused, and extremely worried. Despite all that, I realized that if Ace had bothered to give me a call while all this hell had broken loose, then the best that I could do for him was to follow his instruction and as soon as possible. I walked away as fast as I could as I controlled my urge to turn back and stare at our office building. My hand clenched around my phone tightly as I prayed for Ace to be fine. Although I