Chapter 25: The experiment.

After that, the day went casually. Nicolas had a few meetings throughout the day and Seven occasionally went with him, but nothing out of place happened. Time went by and the next thing they knew was that the sun had gone down and work was over.

Nick had reminded his assistant of their 'special occasion' the moment the clock hit 10 pm. After that, Nick drove the PA to the location, but still, nothing was said. Mostly because Seven had fallen asleep and Nicolas was on the phone most of the time talking to other CEOs.

The point came when the two were at the front door of the restaurant, and it looked excellent. The outside of the building was clean with green bushes lined along the path of the cement to the door. Bright lights were hanging from the ceiling that shined the door's design, revealing it's swirls and gold-like material.

"Wow. This must be a 'really' special occasion if you're bringing me to a rich place like this." Seven commented as he stepped towards the entrance, looking up. Nicolas grinned, opening the door, "Web Baze is a special company anyways, right?"

Walking in, Seven's breath was taken away. He was left speechless at that. It was a two-story restaurant with the imperial staircase being at the very front of the door. The wooden floor of the restaurant gave the scene a bit of a casual feeling, but the greyish marble wall contradicted that tone, giving it a feel that the two were about to eat at the richest place ever.

Seven kept his eyes on the place, seeing the little sculptures that were set at different spots.

Nicolas eyed him for a moment, the corner of his lips curving into a tiny smile as the waiter strolled towards them, "Evening, Mr. Anderson. We have your table right this way." Nicolas nodded at the man who was a few years younger than him. Nicolas and Seven followed him, being led to the left side of the staircase.

The place was empty of customers as the two entered the actual dining area. The pianist that played near the bar moved her hands so casually and slowly, putting out the silence and replacing it with soft, slow music. The lights were dimmed in the dining area with tables that were empty except for the one the waiter escorted the two to. The brown square table had a candle in the middle with utensils straightened out. Aside from the pianist, a couple of waiters and waitresses stood against the marble wall, their hands to their backs as if they were at the military, standing quiet and eyeing whatever was in front of them.

"I know it's 10 at night, but isn't it a bit unusual that we're the only ones eating in this place right now?" Seven asked.

Nicolas pulled out the white Yaheetech dining chair, stepping aside for Seven to sit down. However, the PA didn't even bother glancing at the chair that was pulled out and continued to walk to the other side of the table. Nicolas frowned, dropping his shoulders as he sat down with Seven.

"I booked the place," Nicolas responded, setting his cheek on his cold palm. Seven finally shared eye contact with the CEO who sat in front of him, "The entire place? Are you insane?"

Nicolas grew a smirk at the reaction of the PA, "What? You don't think you can work off the price?"

"Ha! I think you're insane, Mr. Anderson." Seven peered down at the menu in front of him, "I'll probably be old by the time I work off this price, boss."

Nicolas kept his sights on the assistant. One could even think that it looked like the CEO was eyeing a beautiful piece of art. His attention directed down the assistant, seeing him in his normal office outfit which consisted of a white dress shirt and a black blazer. Serene's green eyes were darker than usual due to the lightening, but as he stared down at the menu, the candle in the middle of the table was able to light them up.

"I'm afraid all I can afford is water with these prices." Serene sighed. Nicolas blinked back to reality, resting his shoulders now, dropping his hands to his own menu, "I'll pay. Don't worry."

"Am I going to have to work for it too?" Seven questioned casually.

"You're not working off anything, Mr. Ochoa. I did all this because I-," Nicolas stopped, glancing up at the PA who also eyed him with a raised eyebrow, "- am a generous person." Nicolas gave Ochoa a clever grin who rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue.

"In that case, I'm ordering the most expensive thing, if you don't mind." Seven joked, staring back at the menu. Nicolas kept a grin on his face, feeling his stomach warm-up, "Be my guest, Seven." he responded with a calming tone.

Seven's eyes widened at the name, pressing his lips together and clearing his throat, "I'm kidding. I'm not that hungry." he closed the menu and put it aside, crossing his arms now, "What are you going to order?"

"A sirloin steak."

"Oh? Fancy. I have to ask though and I really do expect the right answer..." Nicolas raised an eyebrow, keeping his eyes on the PA, "Did you ever treat any of your other assistants with such luxury?"

Nicolas' smile faded, his eyes growing at the question. Seven's lips parted, "Oh? I see a change of expression. Did I say something that you didn't relish?"

Nicolas gulped, blinking a few times as he gazed back down to the menu in his hands, "Now you're the one being an asshole, Mr. Ochoa."

"How so? I'm just fairly curious as to why you wasted so much money on me tonight. It's not like I've done something out of the usual except invite WebBaze... even then, we didn't meet up with them. If anything, I think you should be cutting my paycheck-"

Nicolas sighed, looking up and turning his attention to the waiter who stood afar, "I told you that us missing that meeting was not your problem."

Serene leaned into the table a bit, whispering as the waiter approached their table, "I was part of the problem."

"Are we ready to order?" the waiter greeted, holding a notepad in his hands.

Nicolas turned to Seven again who's eyes were widened at the CEO, still leaning in. Nicolas rolled his eyes, shaking his head, "I'll have the sirloin steak, well done. For sides, I'll have roasted vegetables."

The waiter nodded, writing down as Nicolas spoke, "And to drink?"

"Iced tea." he finished, setting the menu aside. The waiter grinned, turning his attention to Seven, "And for you, sir?"

Nicolas leaned back onto the chair, crossing his arms, smirking, "You can ask for the kid's menu if you want to whine about the prices."

Serene scoffed, keeping his eyes on Nicolas, "I'll have the (1) sopa de marisco with a water."

The waiter nodded, taking the two menus, "I"ll be back with the caesar salad for the appetizer." then left.

"You speak Spanish?" Nicolas smirked, keeping his back to the chair. Seven leaned back to his chair, tilting his head, "I took a few classes in high school. I understand it, but I'm not very fluent in the speaking part."

Nicolas nodded, sticking his lower lip out as if he were impressed, "Right. I think I read that in your resume. You know if you did speak better Spanish then you could get more job opportunities."

"Do you speak Spanish then... Nick?" Serene teased, pressing his lips together.

Nick huffed, leaning into the table, crossing his arms and furrowed his eyebrows, (2) "Un poquito pero... I have my assistant to translate for me, right?"

Seven licked his lips, shaking his head, "I can't say I'll be a hundred percent accurate, but maybe a B minus on accuracy."

The CEO laughed, his grin growing, "B minus? Ah, I don't know. Now I'm regretting hiring you if you had a B minus in Spanish."

Seven reached to his right to pick up a spoon, rubbing the handle and feeling it's rich design against his warm fingers, "I expect the next assistant you hire to have more responsibility than I did when meeting with an important company."

Nicolas' smile disappeared again, turning his head, "Why do you still blame yourself? We already had this conversation that it was entirely my fault."

The waiter came back, placing a large bowl of caesar salad in the middle of the table. He set two smaller bowls in front of the two friends, "Will there be anything else?" he asked calmly, putting his hands to his back. Nicolas grabbed the tongs from the bowl, shaking his head, "Not for me."
The waiter then turned to Serene, a soft grin on his face. For a second, Seven expected Nicolas to speak for both of them, but hearing the CEO's response was a huge change from the time he spoke for the assistant at the office earlier. Seven's eyes widened and he felt his throat stiffen at the sudden attention from the waiter. He gazed up at him and sent him a nervous smile, "Uh- ranch dressing?" he responded, in an almost questioning tone. The waiter nodded and turned his back around, walking towards the kitchen.

The PA eyed Nick who was setting the salad in his bowl, "That was generous of you." Seven commented.

"What? The fact that I brought you out here and paying from my pocket or the fact that I let you answer for yourself?" Nicolas asked, not sharing a glance at Ochoa.

"Well, I am grateful for having the restaurant cleared out for me. Really, such a royalty move and a good way to show off how much money you have," Seven joked, chuckling before he pressed his lips together, "But... I mean letting me speak for myself."

"I should be letting you speak for yourself anyways. You are your own person. This morning, I only spoke for you because I was nervous that you'd say something on accident to Marcel, so I didn't even desire Marcel to ask you questions." Nicolas set the tongs on the bowl, grabbing his fork, and moving the salad around in his bowl.

Seven nodded slightly, hearing Nicolas explain again, "I'm not that loud about my private life with people I don't talk to on a daily. Even then, if I had mentioned the night of the donation party, would it really be such a big deal? I understand if it were the chairman that was in the room, but it was your friend." Seven reached for the tongs and started serving his own amount of appetizer, "I said it before... it wouldn't have affected me if Mr. Adams had found out. He is a lawyer. I doubt he'd think it meant anything, and it didn't."

There it was again. The pressure in Nick's chest that felt like a stab to the heart. He kept his blue, ocean eyes on the PA who was more focused on the caesar salad than Nick's devasted facial expression. Nicolas only remembered this pressure in his chest and it was when his past girlfriends cheated or dumped him in high school. It was always the girls that held the sword to his abdomen, having the ability to break his entire world of peace, but now... hearing Seven say that it meant nothing to him... Nicolas bit the inside of his cheek, feeling the sword that Serene held poke to his chest.

Seven set the tongs back on the bowl, looking up at Mr. Anderson. His pained eyes struck the assistant to a surprise. Seeing the CEO's lips part gently as if his ability to talk was stolen was not anticipated. The sullen look on his face made Serene's eyes widen and tilt his head, "Why are you giving me that look?" he asked, almost worried.

Nicolas' closed his lips, glancing down at his food, "No reason. Sorry. I was out of thought." he cleared his throat and stared at the utensils that were set next to him.

"Also, why this restaurant? You could've taken me somewhere like... less expensive. Inviting WebBaze was not this serious." Seven stated. The waiter came back, setting a cup of ranch on the table followed with the two beverages, "Your meals will be ready in ten minutes." he said before leaving again.

Nicolas poked at his salad, picking up some of it and putting it in his mouth as the waiter sat down drinks on the table. By the time he left, Nick had swallowed the food in his mouth and eyed Seven, "I wanted to experiment something."

Seven slid his drink in front of him, putting a straw in it, swirling it around as he heard the CEO's response, "Experiment what?"

Nick can't say. It'll be too embarrassing. The reason why he wanted to ask the assistant out was to figure out if it'll feel exactly like he remembers it feeling in high school. With the cheeks burning, stomach-turning, legs shaking and hands sweating. Would liking a guy be the same as liking a girl? Nicolas could only wonder as his body screamed at him the same signals he had when he was younger. The night at the donation party... he wasn't drunk and he knew that much. He could only assume he did what he did because he wanted to leave the event itself. He didn't want to work under the same roof his mother lived in. It was disrespectful to him and it definitely was uncomfortable. To add to it, he hated his father for making business events under their roof. Why he walked up the stairs and pinned Seven to the wall and kissed him all over, he can't say. The pleasure itself was the same, maybe even better than he remembered. Seeing Serene so cute and vulnerable, his sweat dripping down from his pale skin was something Nicolas would picture as the seconds passed. This dinner occasion was more for him to figure out what he was feeling than celebrating WebBaze.
But he can't say that to Serene who had already admitted that he felt nothing.

"I wanted to experiment with the food. I haven't been in here for a while and I forgot what it was like." Nicolas responded, grabbing his iced tea and taking a sip from it.

The waiter approached their table, setting the plates in front of the two friends, "The sirloin steak and... the seafood soup." he announced, stepping back, throwing his arms behind himself, "If there's anything else please call me for services! Enjoy." he bowed down and walked towards the kitchen.

Seven sighed, grabbing his fork and poking it at his caesar salad, "Well I hope your experiment goes well." he concluded.

Nicolas began cutting the steak into pieces, speaking again, "Also, I've been meaning to ask... how are you going to convince WebBaze again?"

Serene swallowed down a portion of his salad and cleared his throat, "The CEO is the one I've been emailing. At first, it was her assistant, but I guess she was 'persuaded' in a way so she passed me to the CEO of the company."

Nicolas nodded, parting the steak as he kept his eyes on the assistant, being careful about where the knife was in his hands, "Oh? How exactly are you even communicating with them?"

"Do you not look at my emails?" Seven asked, pouring the cup of ranch into his bowl of salad. Nicolas scoffed at the question, "I have my own work to do. I hired an assistant to do part of my job and do it correctly. I'm supposed to have full trust in you."

Seven agreed, eating the portion of salad on his fork, "Right. In that case, WebBaze doesn't follow financial criteria when it comes to working with other people. They don't often ask about the expense rates and anything dealing with prices and values. I might add that I found that relieving since I hardly know any actual numbers within the business."

Nicolas laughed at the statement. He placed the knife down and held his fork, picking at the meat on the plate as he listened to his assistant.

"They ask questions about my thoughts about a certain video game your company has created and what type of people we want to aim for. You know... like basic questions you ask yourself when writing a persuasive essay." Seven continued, "What I liked about the company, what caught my eye, what was my favorite game growing up and how I deal with customers that don't relate to something I create."

Nicolas chewed on his steak, nodding as a response to Seven. He liked it, too. Bringing back the sentence that said that Nicolas would give up anything to hear Serene talk for hours - it was this exact moment he enjoyed and craved. Hearing the elegancy and appealing tone in his voice was what brought Nicolas' heart to a concert of beats. He kept his eyes on the PA who placed his fork on the bowl of salad and grabbed his spoon.

"The problem right now is that the assistant won't transfer me to her boss to convince them again. She keeps asking me about why I think they should 'waste their time' after my-" he stopped and eyed Nicolas who raised an eyebrow, "- sorry, YOUR mistake." he corrected with a smile, "Anyways, it's not like I can't do it. It's just a bit frustrating since they repeat themselves a lot in the emails and I have to respond in a different way."

Nicolas swallowed his food and scoffed, "Just be happy that they even spare time for you. My other assistants couldn't even get a response back. They'd be waiting in 'line' for them to get back to their message. I eventually gave up and gave them other tasks they can complete."

The PA dipped his spoon into his soap, smelling the salty yet delicious fish fragrance that some might hate. Though, the smell was just a barrier to get past. The taste itself was filled with spices and was fairly sweet.
"Makes sense. I'm guessing your former assistants brought up GamerCave's numbers rather than directly answering their ethical questions." the conversation stopped for a bit as Nick took a sip from his drink. Seven bit his lower lip and stared at Mr. Anderson, "Are you going to talk about the marriage with your father?"

"I thought you challenging me in the morning was out of temper. I didn't think you'd actually be interested in how I'm going to deal with it." Nicolas responded, setting the cup aside.

"It's not like I didn't have anything to say," Seven gazed down at his soup and swirled it around gently, seeing the carrots at the top, moving in the same motion, "I noticed how bothered you get around the chairman, but the fact that he is forcing you into something you don't want to do... Isn't it frustrating?"

"Sometimes," the CEO returned, staring at the assistant that focused his attention on his meal, "Does it matter though? Why would my marriage concern you?"
Obviously, Nicolas expected an answer. An exact answer. He wanted Seven to stop motioning his spoon, look up at him with a grave look and say 'because I'm in love with you, Nicolas Anderson.'... but of course, even to him, that was a bit much.

"I meant what I said in the morning," Seven answered with a calming tone, "I do think my job is to advise you and weigh out the options to you so you can figure out what you want." Seven stopped rotating his spoon, looking up at Nick, his eyes stern and lips pressed together. For a moment, Nicolas was hoping his expectations were met... until the PA spoke again.
"Ethically, I think you should talk with your father before it's too late. It's not a bad thing to deny something you don't want, Mr. Anderson."

Nicolas frowned, turning his gaze back at his plate, poking at the roasted vegetables, "Just focus on your own priorities. Do what you're hired to do and don't get involved with my own personal life."

Serene leaned into the table, glaring at his boss, "Mr. Anderson. I'm your personal assistant. It is my job to get involved in your personal life. I run errands for you, I know what you like to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner. I know what drinks you like and despise. I know what companies you and hate and like... advising you about this arranged marriage is no different than figuring out how much sugar you like in your coffee."

Nick ate a portion of the vegetables, looking up at Seven, and seeing how serious the PA was about the topic. The corner of his lips curved into a smile as Nick chewed, "You talk like it's some kind of mission you have."

Seven blinked, parting his lips lightly before moving back to his seat. Nothing was said for a while. All that could be heard was the pianist playing her gentle song and Nicolas chewing on his roasted vegetables.

Seven, then, cleared his throat.

"I mentioned my life motto back at the office yesterday and how I was made fun of. I was looked down on most of my life whether it was because I had a girl name, or because I had no parents, or because I had freckles which were very rare where I was raised. People pitied me or saw me as some kind of a dog to step on. High school was not my time, let me tell you," Seven let out a slight chuckle, twirling his thumbs together. Nicolas kept his eyes on Seven who kept talking, "Being looked down on is not something I wish on anyone else."

"You didn't tell the teachers or your aunt?" Nicolas asked.

"I don't think it'd mattered. I'd still be pushed around even if I did tell someone. Not even mentioning the fact that I had severely bad social anxiety back then so the thought of talking was nauseating."

"And you didn't bother to fight or argue back?" Nick asked again.

"For what? There's no point in stressing about those who looked down on me. Even if I had the chance, I wouldn't have taken it because of how nervous I got," the assistant sighed, "So, imagine it, yeah? I was getting bullied. I couldn't tell any adults because I was nervous. I couldn't speak for myself because there would always be a kid who talked for me, which was annoying. All I could really do was hold my chin high and prove them wrong... which I did, becoming an assistant and all, graduating top of my class."

Nicolas took another bite of his steak, his eyes widening at the way the words flowed out of the assistant's mouth. It was soothing and interesting. It was like the more Seven spoke, the more intrigued Nick got. His stomach warmed up as his legs trembled in his seat - trembling like he just got off a roller coaster. They were tensed and pressured. He was wide-eyed, staring at the PA who took a sip from his water casually... as if he hadn't just stolen Nicolas' heart yet again just from a simple explanation.

'*Keep talking. *
*Say something that would make me despise you. I hate this feeling. I hate feeling like I want to be with you.'*

Nicolas had forgotten the feeling of love. He had forgotten why it was even a feeling. Why couldn't people just sleep with other people for pleasure and move on with their life? He had forgotten that it was possible to fall for someone's personality before their body.

"I want to advise you because of the way I see it, your father looks down on you, no offense,"

*'Okay, I can take that as an insult and change this feeling to hatred. I can despise him for offending me.'*

"But because he's looking down on you, I want you to realize that you can also hold your chin high and prove him wrong."

*'Dammit'*

Nicolas swallowed the steak along with the rest of his nervousness and realization.

"Well," Seven sighed, "how are the results to your little experiment, Mr. Anderson?"

Nicolas was still wide-eyed, completely on cloud 9 as the taste of the steak traveled through his mouth, feeling queasy from the warmth in his stomach. Despite his unpolished expression, Nicolas nodded, keeping his eyes on the assistant, "... the results are good." he choked up.


** Translations
(1): Seafood soup
(2): A little bit but,