Chapter 15

Our luggage was brought in. I pulled my Travel bag into my room. It was grey and white themed with beautiful paintings on each side of the wall. The ceiling was very high with a beautiful chandelier shooting from it. The best part of the room was  the  fact  that  it had a  glass wall  behind the queen-sized bed that flaunted the view of the most beautiful waterbody I had ever seen. 

Stepping into the balcony opposite the door, I was more than marveled at the glorious landscape in sight. I didn't dare look down to avoid getting nervous by the height of the building but the melody the breeze gave off in my ears made excitement jerk to life in me. I loved this place already and could spend a really long time here.

I instantly remembered Hames had asked me to make him coffee. Couldn't he just ask the hotel for that? Annoying man.

I returned to the room. A smile spread my lips apart the moment I noticed a coffee maker on a stand. "Wow, nice." I chuckled. 

Without wasting anymore time, I took out my clothes from the bags, arranged them into the wardrobe, taking out other things to arrange them to where they fitted to be. 

I grabbed my towel, heading straight for the bathroom. After a long bath, I took a quick shower, wrapping the towel around my body. 

I returned to the room, dried my hair and body, did my night skincare and hair care routine. 

I heard Hames' deep voice vibrating from the other side of the door, it sounded like he was on a phone call. 

I sprinted to the wardrobe, taking out my bum shorts and silky tank top, wearing them on my body. I mean, he didn't expect me to dress formally, did he?

I quickly made a mug of coffee with the coffee maker, got into a pair of bunny slippers, leaving for the living room. 

Hames was seated on one of the 3 white heavy sofas, he had his back to me and was obviously on the phone, not paying attention to the loud noise from the television in front of him.

"I guess I love you too, Mom." He shrugged, going silent for a few seconds to obviously hear what she had to say then burst into laughter. 

I turned around, dropping his mug of coffee on the center table. 

He only noticed my presence. The smile he previously had on was replaced with a frown. Did I seriously irritate him so much? He needed to know that he irritated as much.

"I'll call you later, bye." He ended the call abruptly, sitting up straight then leaned back on the sofa. He was in sweatpants and a v-neck shirt which I had to admit I looked good on him.

"Your coffee." I pointed at the mug. 

He scanned me from head to toe with irritation blazing in his light brown eyes before picking his mug from the table. 

"I'm certain my eyes still work properly and can see you're not dressed formally as well, do you expect me to dress like I'm going to work?" I tried to sound polite but guess what, it didn't work.

He had his eyes raised to me as he took a long sip of his coffee. He returned the coffee to the table, crossing one of his legs over the other and his arms over his chest. "Your eyes work properly but I don't think your ears do, I didn't utter a word, why are you replying to silence?" He wore a blank expression. 

"You looked irritated by me." I stated the obvious.

"Still, I didn't say a word. I don't expect you to dress formally here, else we have to go out for work-related meetings."

"Really?" I smiled shortly. "That's great." 

"Go." He said in more of a whisper, waving me off. 

Without another word, I turned around the sofa then returned to my room, ready to drown myself in the extraordinarily beautiful view of nature.

~ HAMES ~

The moment Imogen shut the door to her room, my phone began to ring so loudly. 

I frowned, wondering who could be calling me after Mom had already killed me with a long phone call.

I raised the phone to my face, answering the call from Kade. "What do you want?" I spat. 

"Easy there, tiger. You don't have to kill me with your tone, just because I called." He said from the other end of the line.

"Whatever. What do you want?" I reached for the mug of coffee Imogen had brought me, taking another long sip of it. I didn't know how Imogen made her coffee but they tasted the best of all coffees I ever tasted.

"You're taking a day break, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Great, let's hang out." He said. I didn't reply to him.  I could really do with a break but hanging out with friends or people if it wasn't business-related sometimes made me feel like I was wasting precious time of my life. "Common man, it's just for tonight." 

Well, I guess I had to hang out at some point. "Okay, no problem." I agreed. 

"Great, I'll be waiting by your car."

"You're not bringing your girlfriend along, are you?" I just had to ask. 

"No, she's not coming tonight. She has to sleep after our business together." He laughed. 

"You're so dumb." I said truthfully, ending the call.

I took another long sip of the coffee, dropping it on the table. I grabbed my car keys from the center table, shoving my phone into my sweatpants pocket.

I scuttled to my bedroom to grab a jacket, wearing it over my shirt, then returned to the living room, flicked off the switch as I always did when I was leaving.

I strode out of the house, used the elevator to transport myself down to the ground floor. Once again, everyone bowed their heads in greeting, bearing to the fact that this one of the hotels I owned. 

I left for the parking lot, to my car. As he had said, he was resting against my car. 

"You're here," he said rhetorically. "Give me the keys, I'll be driving." 

"If you knew you were driving, why didn't you make us go with your car?" I hissed, nevertheless throwing the key to him.

"Life doesn't give us the chance to sort ourselves out." He replied, holding my shoulder. 

I shoved my hands into my front pockets, raising my eyebrows at him. "You know that makes no sense, right?"

"And I just realized that after saying it." He pursed his lips. "Anyway, let's go."

***

"This is the best club in town." Kade yelled over the loud music playing as we walked into the club that was illuminated with purple lights and had a dance floor at the center with a disco ball shooting from above the dance floor which had people dancing like hungrily crazy souls. A particular couple were fucking making out right on that spot, ignoring the number of people around.

"How on Earth do you know?" I yelled back.

"I did my research." He replied, leading us to the VIP corner. Kade and I sat across each other as the volume of the music seemed to fade away in this corner. It wasn't so loud here and I could get a good view of everyone around.

"How's your damn life been?" Kade began, calling for a waiter.

"Normal as usual." I replied. He gave the Waiter our order, and he left.

"Normal as usual? What's that supposed to mean?"

 I quirked an eyebrow, "what are you supposed to mean?" 

"Hang on, let's chug down our drink." He turned his head away from me. 

The waiter returned with a tray of two bottles of alcohol and two glass cups. 

"Thank you. It'll be deducted from this." He handed his card to the man who left after taking it from him. "Now drink." He poured me a glass.

I accepted the glass from him, chugging down its content in one drought, ignoring the burning sensation it caused to my throat. 

"I'll ask again," he poured himself a glass, slugging its content down his throat then squeezed his face afterwards. He regained his expression, fixing his gaze on me. "How's your life?"

"Normal as usual." I reiterated. 

"Are you crazy? I mean with Imogen, are you both getting along? How's your relationship with her going?" He inched his face forward.

"No, we're not getting along, she's my secretary. Nothing else." I replied, pouring myself another glass. 

Kade's jaw dropped. He waved a hand over my face. "Hello? You requested for me to transfer her to be your secretary." He reminded me of that, like I had forgotten.

"I know." I shrugged, downing the alcohol in my glass. 

"Are you out of your mind? You said you like her and made me transfer her to you though she was the best secretary I had." He was starting to frown.

"You have Jovi now as your secretary, isn't she good enough?" I smirked. 

"She is good, but not as good as— oh, don't change the topic, you dimwit. What's your relationship status with Imogen now?" He pursed his lips.

"She's my secretary, I'm her boss." I shrugged, taking another gulp of my drink. 

"Man, are you crazy? What was the point of making her your secretary if you're not taking the next step? May I know what's the problem at the moment?" He drew his eyes in askance. "Does she know you're in love with her?"

"No." I simply replied, dropping my glass on the table. 

"You're not being serious. What's wrong now?" He sounded pissed off and mostly surprised. 

"Kade, I know I like— I mean, I've been in love with Imogen since the first day I set my eyes on her. She's beautiful, smart, sweet and unique in a way. I love her but she doesn't have to love me back because I don't think that's ever happening." I shrugged. 

Kade's jaw dropped in bewilderment. "So, what's the point of making her your secretary?" He intertwined his fingers, plopping his chin on his knuckles with his eyebrows raised. 

"I don't know, to probably like me back but I don't think that's ever happening. She hates me." I replied boringly, taking another gulp of my drink. 

"Have you— uh — let me think, MADE HER LIKE YOU?!" He yelled the last words. 

"No. Am I supposed to?" I knew it was dumb to ask but I still asked anyway. 

"Are you crazy? If you don't make her know how much you love her, she won't ever know and won't ever like you back. You can't just expect some things to happen without taking the lead."

"She doesn't like me."

"Then you'll make her do. She obviously doesn't like you because you clearly didn't give her the chance to. You've got to let go of her grumpiness and frigid nature to let Imogen Mark know how much you've crazily been in love with her for almost 2 years. You can't just sit back and watch things happen. Soon, she'll have a boyfriend, get married and have children then you'll never fall in love with anyone again." He hollered. 

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" 

"It means you're too heartless to fall in love. I don't know why or how you fell in love with Imogen, but you have to do everything in your power to make her yours." He advised. "Firstly, why does she hate you?"

"Probably because she thinks I hate her by always glaring at her and being myself." I replied, shrugging again.

"And what's the reason for always glaring at her?" He quirked an eyebrow. 

I stopped to think of the reason for that. "Well, it pisses me off that I spend my time thinking of her, dreaming about her and smiling because of her. She holds a special place in my heart but it pisses me off more to know that she doesn't even seem to like me back and is making things difficult for us." I frowned. 

"Gosh, you need help." 

My mind travelled to Imogen's face; her beautiful blonde hair and electric blue eyes. Remembering she had changed the color and length of her hair and was also wearing contact lenses lately, it infuriated me further and made a frown appear on my face. "Why on earth is Imogen so annoying?" I wondered aloud. 

"How?"

"She changed her looks, it annoys me, another reason for always glaring at her. Plus, she thinks I hate the way she dresses. I don't have a problem with her dressing but it pisses me off to know that other Men get the freedom to see her that way and it mostly pisses me off that she definitely thinks her appearance annoys me." I gruffed. 

"Dude, you've got a problem. Let's get things straight. You love her deeply, you didn't express your love to her in the slightest but you're always being grumpy and cold, which isn't something she likes."

"All you have to do is make her know you don't hate her, you like her, and even love her. Man, you've got to do something to impress her." He sat up straight, chugging the remnant of his drink. 

So, yes, I was in love with my secretary, Imogen Mark. I didn't know how it happened but she was everything on my mind at the moment. Kade was right, I ought to express my feelings to her and being here in Australia with her was going to be the perfect means to make her love me back. What a great thing it was going to be...

***

A/N: I hoped you loved this chapter because I definitely did. Don't forget to leave your thoughts on this chapter and on this book in the comment section. If you haven't commented, please leave your comments on why you haven't. 

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~ March 28, 2021. Sunday (1:12AM) ~ I'm damn sleepy so ignore any grammatical errors you might have noticed.