84- Meeting her

I turn my attention away.
They soon retreat but then Aaron refuses to leave our side, choosing instead to remain by us with a nervous smile on his face.

“It sure is great to own and run a company,” Allen says. “I come here several times a week and they don’t give me half as much attention.”
“You’re familiar to them,” I say and pick up my tray of served dishes. A plate of squid ink rice, diver scallop and maitake mushrooms, some chicken salad and a bowl of leek soup. It does look quite appetizing so I am eager to get into it.
We pick up our trays and, for the first time, I allow my eyes to scan the room for a table. Her table.
I soon spot her, but her back is facing us.
“Sir, we’ve readied a table for you,” Aaron says, his hand gesturing towards my right.
“No, thank you,” I respond. “We already have a place to sit.” I then turn to Allen to see the surprise on his face
“We do?”
“Over there,” I say.
His eyes follow the direction I’m nudging towards. “Oh,” he says. “Blair.” And then he sighs. “She’s still sitting by herself.”
“She always sits alone?” I ask.
“That’s how I always meet her. She doesn’t have many opportunities to interact with other staff anyway. Her position only puts her in contact with you and senior management.”
We begin to walk over as I listen to Allen, and I know that she doesn't realize we’re approaching. Her back is to us so when we arrive and Allen pulls out the chair by her side, she is startled. And then her eyes nearly pop out of her socket as I take the seat right in front of her, and focus on arranging my tray on the table while Allen is already chatting her up.
“Hello, sir,” she greets me.
My gaze finally meets hers. I haven’t had the chance to speak to her since the start of the day as early meetings outside the office kept me away till 11 AM. Upon my return, it had been with a guest, so all of those had kept me preoccupied until now. “How are you?” I ask and she nods shyly in response.
Allen is watching us, so the moment she lowers her gaze from mine, I do the same.
“Sir?” Allen asks. “I expected that you both would be a bit more casual with each other by now. Mark calls me by my name.”

“He’s two decades older than you,” I point out but then my nerves tighten. My words imply that because Blair is younger then she shouldn’t address me so informally but this is not my reasoning at all.
“Fair point,” Allen says.
“And besides, I’ve told Blair to call me by my first name but she still refuses to. There’s not much I can do about that.”


llen smiles. “I suspected as much.” He’s dabbing some hot sauce into his Pho broth when he realizes that he’s forgotten to bring a pair of chopsticks with him. “Damn it,” he says and
rises to his feet. “I’ll be right back.”




have become quite intimately acquainted with Grady for a little while now, but in this moment I can feel the beads of sweat beginning to gather across my forehead. I can also
feel the gazes of certainly everyone in the cafeteria on us. For one, I have heard that it’s rare for the CEO to visit the cafeteria and since I’ve been working with him I’ve rarely seen him even eat lunch.
I have offered to handle this for him, but he has always refused with his reason being his lack of preference for eating lunch except when he has lunch meetings with his clients outside the office.
But now, he’s right before me and although I realize that no one will think too deeply about why the two topmost executives of the company are sitting with me since I am one’s secretary, it does nothing to dispel the self-consciousness and anxiety that I feel.
“How’s your sister?” he asks as he slides his fork into his squid ink rice.
“She’s doing great,” is my response. “I spent yesterday taking care of her, so she has fully recovered. Thank you again, for being so lenient with me.”
He isn’t looking at me as he eats and I’m perfectly okay with it. Although, I’m unable to stop my heart from melting in my chest as I watch him. His motions are unhurried and calm, his lashes fluttering softly and his shoulders encased in a crisp white shirt that brings memories to mind of just how appealing his skin looks without the clothes.
Sometimes it’s almost impossible to believe how far that I have gone with this man.
He suddenly looks up and before I can move my gaze away, he catches me staring. I freeze for a moment but then thankfully, a comment comes to mind. “Thank you for getting us a private room. I wanted to say this to you in the office but you haven’t been available all morning.”
“It’s okay,” he says and returns his attention to his food.

I look at his crisp dark hair, neat and swept away from his face, then at his clean shaven face and sharp jawline. Then I take in his familiar addictive scent. I want him, right now and so badly that it’s almost too painful to breathe or to sit comfortably for that matter, given the pulsing bud between my legs. “I’ll pay you back,” I say.
He keeps eating and is silent for a while. And then he asks.
“Why do you want to pay me back?” He puts his fork down, and with both elbows on the table, resting his chin on his interlinked hands. His electric blue gaze is now directly on me.
It is exactly this kind of attention that he should not be giving to me while in the presence of so many people. I look briefly around and lo and behold… we are the focus of so many eyes. I have never wanted for Allen’s presence as much as I currently do. “Let’s talk about this later, sir,” I reply.
He relaxes his pose and picks up the bottle of water by his side. “I don’t need the money,” he says. “But if you really want to pay me back, then come to my house tonight.” Once again, he holds my gaze.
I’m all out of responses. Allen returns then so I focus my gaze on my half-finished salad bowl. “What did I miss?” Allen asks.
I dare not answer the question.
The instant I return to my desk, I pull out my phone and text Jodie. He invited me to his house.
A few minutes later, her response pops up. And? He’s never done this before.
Did something happen between you two? Before this?”
I tell her the truth. He proposed a casual relationship. No commitments. And?
I refused it. Well, I told him I’d think about it.
Well, his message is clear then. You’re taking too damn long.
I throw my phone aside and try to return to work, but as I stare at my computer screen, I can’t help but ponder on what is truly holding me back. Perhaps it is fear, just like Lee Rang said; the fear that I would be the one broken… this is very likely.