“I almost had a heart attack in there. The way he thought about it for so long gave me a bad feeling at first,” Jeremy told me as he were on our way back to our desks. “I know exactly what you mean. Well, at least we got the pass otherwise the project would have been delayed,” I replied before I let out a loud sigh. “Thank you, you two,” Julianna said from behind us. “Oh…” I murmured as I turned around to face her. “No need to thank me. If you want to thank someone, just thank Karina. After all, it was her brilliant idea that helped get us through that,” Jeremy replied before he started laughing. It felt a little awkward for him to give me all the credit like that. Julianna looked at me before he lips broke out in a bright smile. “Thank you, Karina. You’re doing well,” she said. “Thanks…” I thanked her in a small voice. I watched as she waved and turned to walk away from us. A warm feeling started budding in my chest and I realized soon after that I suddenly felt quite proud o
My mouth fell open in shock and it took all of my self-control not to let out any sound of shock. The chairman turned around to face me and my entire body froze in place. My legs wanted to take me as far away from him as possible. However, I knew that there was no way that I could turn and run away from the chairman after he had asked to see me. Why is Ace’s father here? What does he want from me?“Karina, take a seat,” he said as he gestured with his hand at the seat opposite to his at the meeting table. I dreaded seeing the chairman even more than before since Ace made his announcement to retire from his position as CEO. Although I knew that Ace must have spoken to his father about his plans already, he did not tell me in detail how things went down between them. Simply because he did not mention anything, I had assumed that everything must have gone well. I dared to steal a look at the Chairman’s face, and I was convinced that this pair of father and son never reached any kind of
“I am sorry but regardless of what I think about this, I honestly don’t think that I can change Ace’s mind,” I confessed softly. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Of course, he might just leave you behind when all of this is over. However, if he cares for you, don’t you think that he’ll at least lend you an ear?” he asked suggestively. I had nothing to say to that. The possibility of Ace simply just leaving me when he quit his position brought a throbbing pain to my chest. Just thinking about it hurt so badly that I couldn’t imagine how much it would actually hurt if it were to turn into reality. I knew at that moment that I needed to do something; however, I wasn’t sure what to do. The chairman probably thought that he was being very convincing, and he probably wasn’t wrong. However, I didn’t think that it would be wise for me to take any action without thinking things through. “Thank you so much for the warning and for thinking of me. I’ll think about it…” I said without making
My eyes widened a little in surprise and I started to feel nervous for no good reason at all. Although it wasn’t supposed to be a secret, I didn’t think that Ace would like to find out that I had met up with his father even if it was because the chairman had requested for me to do so. I wondered if Ace knew about my little meeting with the Chairman already or not. “I see…” I replied vaguely without wanting to give anything away. If Ace found out that I met the chairman, he would undoubtedly ask me what we talked about, and I didn’t want to tell Ace that. The fact that I felt clueless about what to do next also bothered me. “Did you meet him?” Ace asked as his eyes stared directly at my face. “He…requested to talk to me,” I replied honestly. It didn’t seem like I could avoid discussing this topic with Ace any further. Now that I didn’t have a choice in the matter, I thought that it might just be better to be completely honest and open with Ace. After all, we were supposed to be on
Ace seemed surprised for the first time since I stepped into his personal office. I should have known that question would have sounded weird. It was also very straightforward; however, I didn’t want to evade it any longer. I just had to know his thoughts on this and because of that, I decided to wait in silence for Ace’s answer. “Nothing,” he replied simply. “Nothing?” I repeated his reply in surprise. I hadn’t thought that the answer that he arrived to after being surprised and putting his thought into it would be so simple. “Nothing. Nothing will change between us. Just because I won’t be working here anymore doesn’t mean that anything will change between us. Well, I’ll no longer be your boss and you won’t be my secretary anymore but that doesn’t have anything to do with our relationship,” Ace explained calmly. I guess that did kind of make sense…“Umm…do you really mean that?” I asked just to make sure.“Of course. I mean it, and it’s true. We may see each other less if I no
The day that we had been waiting for had finally arrived. Thinking to make a big bang launch, Julianna planned a very busy day for the launch day of the commercial that we had worked so hard on. According to her plan, Ace would lead a press conference to announce the launch of the commercial which would go live in the evening of the same day. “We’ll build up a lot of hype on the day itself. The news would cover the launch for the whole day and then the commercial will finally go live in the evening,” Julianna explained. “Are you sure that’s enough time to get the word out? It doesn’t seem like enough time,” Jeremy asked with a frown between his brows.Right at that moment, I had to say that I was on Jeremy’s side of things. One day to get the word out seemed like a very tight schedule indeed, even if it meant that we would launch our commercial at least a few days before our competitors. “Words travel fast these days. Plus, waiting for too long between the press conference announce
“Are you nervous?” I asked even though I guessed that that probably wasn’t the case. “Me? Of course, not…” Ace replied dismissively. “That’s good, I guess. I’m really hoping that everything would go well. We’ve put in so much effort and time into this…” I said as I started to feel nervous instead. Why wasn’t Ace getting to the point just like he always used to? It felt like he had something to tell me. Why else would he pull me into a private meeting room just when the press conference was about to start like this?“Rina…” Ace called my name softly. “Yes?” I replied in such a soft whisper that I almost couldn’t hear myself.My throat suddenly went dry and my heart began racing in my chest as I waited anxiously for his next words. Instead of going on right away, Ace reached for my hands and held it a little too tightly in his as he stared deeply into my eyes. Although I knew that he wasn’t going to formally propose or anything like that, it felt like he might. I plastered the best
“You’re right. Let’s save the rest for tonight,” he said before he flashed me a smile. I didn’t know how to respond to that bold hint of what I was to expect later tonight when we returned to his place together so just tried my best to offer him one of my best smiles. Ace responded just like he could read my mind and I was thankful for that. “There’s not much time left. You should head back to the auditorium first,” I told him quite sternly. “Yes, Ma’am…” he replied mockingly. He gave me a nod and a smile before he went on ahead. I pressed a hand against my chest as I took in a few consecutive deep breaths to calm the rapid beating of my own heart that hammered against the palm of my hand. It was far from the first time that he had kissed me this way, but I still couldn’t stop myself from getting so excited from his kiss. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh as I tried to collect myself. Just like Ace, I should head back to the auditorium soon as well because there may be things th