Even the bitterest dessert has a pinch of sugar

On Tuesday, Sara got up very early, because she had to fulfill her part of the deal, she would live very happy in her small palace in exchange for keeping Carlos's house in perfect order and cleanliness. So, she went there and, as always, made coffee before starting her work.

“Good morning, Sara.”

Usually, he didn't eat breakfast, just had a cup of coffee while sitting down to review documents or just read the newspaper. At that moment his cell phone rang, but he just looked at the screen and, without answering, put the phone back in its place. Sara was curious that he did not want to answer that call, her curious mind all the options reviewed, from an unknown number to a harassing woman and, of course, the return of Caroline.

The call was repeated a second occasion and for the third time, he had no choice but to answer, and although Sara, as a good gossip, had her ear very attentive at the end, she could not hear anything … nothing more than his screams and sharp responses.

“Why do you call me? That's not my problem! Fix it … For that I pay you!”

During the course of the morning, Carlos's calls and screams were intermittent, it was definitely not the best day to be in that house. Sara had already cleaned almost everything, only the office was missing, since he had been going in and out, with the phone in his hand, so she preferred to stay outside and not expose herself.

She listened when he said: “Damn! Okay, wait for me.”

Once she felt the door close and the noise of the car go away, she knew that she could enter the office to finish her work. Sara grabbed all her cleaning tools and looked around the place looking for where to start, focusing on the library, first arranging some books, then using a small bench to clean on top, and soon noticed a large amount of accumulated dust between the wall moldings. So, she searched for a chair and climbed into it for better access, she was so focused on what she was doing that she didn't hear when the front door opened.

Carlos had forgotten a folder and returned home to look for it, whatever was happening, it kept him very annoying and irritable, and forget some documents, once he had already left, did not help him at all to calm down.

In the midst of his disgust, he pushed open with force the door to his office, with so much bad luck that the chair that held Sara was just on that path and, although she desperately sought to balance and hold herself, there was no way, she left irreparably to the ground and without the possibility of minimizing the blow, one of her elbows being the most affected.

Seeing what he had caused, Carlos immediately released the cell phone, the keys, and everything he had on him to go and help her.

“By God, Sara! What are you doing behind the door?” He was so scared to see that she did not respond to him, she only complained about the pain, he chose to carry her to lift her from the floor and take her to the sofa so she was comfortable. He felt much worse when he noticed that there was blood on his shirt.

“Damn! You're bleeding!” He almost stuttered as he searched, unsuccessfully, for the keys to his vehicle in his pockets. “Quiet, I'll take you to the doctor only … just …”

“No! I don't need to go to the doctor! I'm fine!” She replied exalted, trying to quickly recover from the blow, she didn't want to go anywhere.

“You are not well. You are bleeding!”

“It's nothing serious, it's … it's just a scratch. See!”

Carlos calmed down a bit when he saw that it was indeed a small superficial wound, but the nervousness and the way that Sara spoke so harshly made him doubt.

“Anyway, the blow was very strong, it is better than a doctor check it up,” he insisted.

“It is not necessary. Believe me, I am fine.” She was very nervous and intransigent, she completely refused to be checked by a doctor. Carlos could not understand her, but her refusal was so great that he had no choice but to please her, he decided to go get cotton and an antiseptic, to take care of the situation himself.

“Okay, but I have to clean that wound.” Carlos spoke to her very calmly and even, with affection. Never before Sara had heard him speak in that way. He sat next to her on the sofa, took her by the arm and began to clean the blood from her skin, with great care. The tension and fear he had just been through still showed on his face. As his fingers brushed over her bare skin, her softness seemed wonderful to him, so much so that, at some point, he was tempted to enjoy her a little more, caressing her entire arm, but immediately, he ended up mentally reprimanding himself and forcing himself to focus all your attention on cleaning the wound.

“Sara really … I'm so sorry. I swear I hadn't seen you. I didn't mean to do this to you. I … I … Oh hell!”

“I know, don't worry. It was my fault for not taking precautions … but calm down, I won't die for this, believe me,” she joked in an attempt to minimize the tension that prevailed between them.

“It was my fault, due to my bad habit of hitting doors when I'm upset,” he continued to disinfect the wound. “This will burn a little bit, sorry.”

He warned her with regret before continuing.

“It doesn't matter, I'm strong,” she replied firmly, almost at the same time that she closed her eyes not to see.

Carlos, who was trying to clean the wound as delicately as possible, looked for a few seconds at Sara's enigmatic face, while keeping her eyes closed, perhaps fearing that the alcohol hurt or burned a lot. He smiled silently thinking how stubborn she always was, the antagonism at hearing her say that she was strong when her body expression and her tight eyes said otherwise, he smiled a little more, unable to stop his gaze from shifting to her lips … those full and tempting lips that invited to be kissed and revered. Again, he found himself holding back his lustful thoughts and concentrating on doing his job well.

He cleaned around and then carefully over the wound. When he realized that she was frowning, silently complaining of the burning, he instinctively approached the wound and began to blow so that the air quickly evaporated the alcohol, when Sara felt the freshness of the cold air rushing through her skin, she opened her eyes and found two orbs, as perfect and as blue as the sky, his gaze was so warm, so comforting, so deep … and so foreign to her, as everything that had to do with her boss. The truth, she could not believe that he was the same person. The Carlos that now she had in front, showed a relaxed and sensitive attitude … is that even his tone of voice felt different.

“Why are you so afraid of him?”

“Fear him? To what?” She answered more enraptured in the features of the male face than in their conversation.

“To the doctor. Why don't you want me to take you?”

“It is not necessary. I no longer feel pain. Also, remember that you have a pending meeting.” She used an excuse to change the topic of conversation.

“The meeting is the least of it; the important thing is that this blow does not have serious consequences.” The cell phone had been ringing for a while, only they had not noticed it in the midst of so much commotion, but at that moment, when they both looked at each other in silence, finally, they were able to hear it.

“Your phone is ringing, they are waiting for you, you have already delayed too much because of me.” Recovering his sanity, Carlos searched for the things he had dropped, answered the call, and rescheduled the meeting.

“It is what I should have done from the beginning and none of this would have happened. I doubt that I can focus on a meeting knowing that you will be alone and that you have not allowed a doctor to review your wounds.”

“Everything is fine,” concluded, minimizing the matter, as she stood up and went to where she had left her cleaning implements.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“I must finish what I was doing,” Sara replied gesturing as if it wasn't obvious enough.

“No way! Go back to the annex, you better rest.” Word for word, Sara looked at Carlos with more amazement each time. She imagined herself telling Brian: ‘Now if we can die in peace, we've seen it all!’ She smiled mischievously, unable to believe what was happening, but still, she obeyed.

As if it were so easy to contradict him!

**«»**

During the rest of the afternoon, Carlos was so aware of Sara, that she began to think that, if she had known before the great change that he would have had, she would have thrown herself to the ground, from the first day she arrived to the Mon'tblank.