It was approaching the end of the workday and Phil was looking forward to getting off the job. Sitting behind the counter all day wasn’t good for his back and he was feeling the pain more intensely today than the others. Few people came to contact his department today and that was a blessing to him and his colleagues. One glance from where he was seated showed that the place was almost empty. “Guess we can call it a day…” Phil mumbled to himself before he raised his arms up and stretched. “Excuse me…” a man’s voice said. Phil quickly entered work mode when he realized that a man was standing on the opposite side of the service counter. One look at the man and Phil knew that he was dealing with a VVIP person of some sort. The man looked impressive and so did the expensive-looking suit that he had on. “Hello. My name is Phil, how can I help you?” Phil recited his usual greeting line while still slightly stunned at the sight of the man. “Hi. I’m actually looking for someone…” the ma
That was cold water…gosh…“Aren’t you cold?” I asked as I quickly opened the car door to grab a towel for him. “Elena…” EROS called my name softly. “Hmm?” I made a questioning sound as I wondered what he wanted. “Dry my hair…” EROS requested passively. “Huh? No…you can do it yourself,” I refused. “Dry my hair…” EROS said again, this time in a more demanding tone. Why is he asking me to do this all of a sudden? He’s never asked me for something like this before…I glanced over my shoulder to see Mark talking to the director and some other staff and knew that it would take a while before he returned here. Not that I thought that EROS would be satisfied with Mark drying off his hair in my place. “Next time, you’re going to have to do this yourself…” I muttered as I took the towel and placed it on his head. EROS stayed still as I crouched down next to him to dry his hair with the towel while I thought about why he had the sudden dump cold water onto his head like this. Won’t he ca
“EROS? Elena?” Mark came calling for us.I could tell from his voice that he was close to us. EROS immediately got up before offering me his hand to pull me up. “What were you two doing? Why is EROS’s hair all wet?” Mark asked as his eyes traveled from me to EROS and then back again.I guess, I’m the one who has to do the explaining. “EROS felt sleepy, so he poured cold water on himself. Then I had to dry his hair for him. We just finished that,” I explained before offering Mark a smile. “I see. Well, you can take a nap if you need one. It’ll be a while before we arrive back at the office. Then it’s straight to the makeup artist and hair stylist for you. We have a press conference coming up,” Mark said a little sternly as he pointed for us to get into the car. Thankfully that little passionate tryst of ours went undetected. However, I knew that we just happened to be lucky. I should never let EROS do something like that again while we are working and in public. If someone saw us…
I pulled my hand away before Mark would notice that something was amiss. To my utter shock, EROS grabbed my hand and held it tightly in his. This is even worst than before. If I pulled my hand back, Mark would probably realize. With a silent sigh to myself, I stood still while I let EROS entwine his fingers with mine until we reached our designated floor. “Ok, I’m off. Elena, make sure that EROS goes see the CEO and that he doesn’t run away, ok? After that, we can all head home for the day. Finally!” Mark said enthusiastically while I wondered where he got his energy from after such a long day. Just like that I found myself standing alone with EROS in the hallway. EROS immediately turned on his heels and started walking away and I had a feeling that he wasn’t walking to the CEO’s office. “Wait. Where do you think you’re going?” I asked as I reached out and grabbed his arm tightly to prevent his escape. “I have something that I need to do…” he muttered while avoiding my gaze. “Tha
This was where guests were supposed to sit while they waited for their turn to talk to the CEO, I guessed. Although it felt like many hours had gone by, the reality was that only around 15 minutes had passed by before EROS emerged from the CEO’s office.I heard some sounds of the two men talking close to the door and it sounded like they were arguing about something that I didn’t understand. Feeling panicked, I stood up from the sofa just in time to see the door to the CEO’s office open with a loud bang. EROS strode out followed by an older man who could be none other than the CEO.The CEO of GH Entertainment appears in the news quite often due to the nature of his work and so I sort of recognized his face, although this was the first time that I’ve met him in person. “I’m not quitting. We talked about this already…” EROS said very loudly, and it was clear that he was upset. “That’s ridiculous. You’re my only son and heir. How can you say something so irresponsible? Just listen to y
“What is it?” I asked. EROS seem to hesitate a little which wasn’t at all like him. After a moment of picking his words, he looked directly at me, and I could see the seriousness in his golden eyes.“Don’t go near him,” EROS said sternly.Near him? As in the CEO?“You mean the CEO?” I asked, frankly quite surprised. “That’s right. Don’t go near him, Elena,” EROS warned again. I didn’t quite understand why EROS was warning me about this or why he seemed so serious all of a sudden, but I didn’t think that it would be a problem. My work doesn’t have anything to do with the CEO anyways so meeting him today was nothing more than a coincidence. “Umm…ok. I don’t think I’ll be running into him any time soon either,” I replied with a small laugh as I tried to lighten the heavy mood. “Right. Just do as I say…” EROS said softly. “Ok. Well, if there’s nothing else, I should be heading back now. Is it already this late?” I said as I looked at the time on the screen of my mobile phone. “Wait
“Yeah?” I said questioningly. “Nevermind…wave to me from the window or send me a text when you’re safe in your room,” EROS said. “Sure. Good night,” I said while feeling slightly confused. “Goodnight,” he replied.I decided to go to the balcony of my room to wave down at EROS who had gotten out of his car to lean leisurely against it. When he saw me waving at him, he lifted his hand in acknowledgment. I watched him drive away in his flashy car while I giggled a little to myself. I got to say, that was the first time a guy asked me to wave at them to make sure that I made it to my room safe and that was exactly why I had decided to give it a try. There’s a first time for everything or so they say. That night I went to bed with a nagging feeling at the back of my mind like I had forgotten something important. But for the life of me, I didn’t know what it was. That nagging feeling brought with it insomnia and I tossed and turned in bed while I tried to dig deep into my soul to find o
“Oh, I don’t mind about that. It’s not like we’re actively trying to keep the fact that Sean is my son a secret or anything. We just don’t feel like it’s something that we should outwardly advertise about,” Simon said with a relaxed smile.Well, if this piece of news does leak out, I am sure that the fans and the public will have more than a few things to say about it and their opinions could be very divided indeed. “I completely understand…” I replied vaguely. Just when I thought that meeting must have come to an end already, Simon spoke up again. “I heard that you’re helping EROS out with his work right now. How is that going?” Simon asked with keen interest. How do I describe this…?“It’s going well. I’m not sure how useful I am to him, but I do try my best to support him,” I replied smoothly. “What about your role as his contract girlfriend? What do you do for him exactly in that…respect…?” Simon said as his eyes narrowed suggestively at me. As in…do we fuck?“The contract t
“What are you sorry about, Elena? Are you sorry for turning me down?” he asked.His cold and very calm tone made my body tremble, and I could feel myself sweating from my own nervousness. I wanted to answer him but then I realized that I didn’t know what I was sorry for. “Please let me go home. I’ll make it up to you another day,” I said to excuse myself for the day. I turned to reach for the car door and once again I felt his grip on my arm pulling me back. It was rare for Brandon to act persistent like this, and it just made me want to scream at him out of frustration. I whirled around to face him ready to do just that.“What is it that you really want?” I spat. “To have sex with you,” he replied smoothly.“You know well that that isn’t want I’m talking about…” I said through clenched teeth as my frustration quickly turned to anger. “What’s wrong, Elena? If you can do it with him in the hospital, surely, you can do it with me here in the car…” he said as he stared at me with a v
The lights turned green, and we were on our way again. Our brief yet intense conversation came to a pause. We were getting close to the intersection where Brandon would usually let me off so that I could walk back to my place. The night felt darker than normal, and I wasn’t sure if that was because of my mood or not. Not a lot of cars were on the road which thankfully made the traffic lighter than normal. “Should we go to your room? It’s supposed to be really close by, isn’t it?” he suggested seductively. I turned to give him a curious look. His sudden question came out of nowhere and it surprised me even more to find that he seemed quite serious about it. My lips curved into a smile before I automatically began laughing it off as a passing comment that didn’t mean anything. “Thanks for driving me back,” I said as I reached for the door. There was no point in delaying my departure any further. We had arrived at the spot where I was supposed to get off and so I should do exactly th
“Yes, and I like it that way as long as I’m the only one buying,” he replied without missing a heartbeat. I bit hard on my lower lip when I had to admit to myself that I had asked him the wrong question and had invited this misfortune upon myself. His hand around mine felt warm and his grip was firm as he pulled me after him toward his car. Something told me that he wasn’t kidding when he said that. I let out a sigh when I resigned myself to following him silently to his car. Fortunately, there weren’t many cars on the road and traffic was extremely light. That meant that it wouldn’t take too long for him to drop me off so that I could walk back to my place. It wasn’t like I was scared of him, but I did feel uncomfortable being in the enclosed space of the car with him alone. The revealing and brightly colored dress that I had on did not make me feel better and I wondered why I wasn’t smart enough to opt for a pair of pants and matching blazer instead. Everything might have been in
The desire that I sensed in his intense gaze made my heartbeat quicken despite the many times that I told myself silently in my head to remain calm. My lips felt dry, and my tongue instinctively moved to lick my lower lip. “Thanks for the advice, I guess. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave so you can get back to whatever it was you were working on,” I muttered softly as I tried my best to excuse myself. “One more thing before you go,” he said to halt my departure.This time it was Brandon who got out of his seat. I turned my head around as he walked toward the worktable in the room. To my surprise, he returned with a box. Brandon came to stand right in front of me before shoving the box toward me. “What is this?” I asked with a hint of suspicion. “Open it and you’ll see,” he said without answering my question. “Ok…” I murmured while feeling slightly confused. It was so like Brandon to be mysterious about everything. With what had just happened between us, I didn’t think
Maybe, just maybe, things would have turned out differently if he hadn’t left me. If we never broke up, my life might have been better or more normal. I was very tempted to think that it was his fault that I ended up the way I was. If I had been younger and less experienced, I would have thought exactly that. That it was all because he dumped me that I was forced to marry George to save my family’s face. Back then, I was too heartbroken to think straight or resist my parent’s proposal. The man that I chose out of my own free will had betrayed me and suddenly left. I was too shocked to even face reality and the mistake that I made. It made me lose all self-confidence that I could make any correct decisions in my life and that perhaps, my parents were the ones who knew better. If I had been younger, I would have pinned everything on Brandon as his fault. However, I was no longer that young, fresh, and green. I looked up and I couldn’t hold in my giggle and ended up laughing softly at
There were many things that I needed to apologize for, and I was certain that he knew that already. It was unfortunate, but I wasn’t in a position with a whole lot of bargaining power, and he absolutely knew that as well. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he wanted to hear me say it, then I had no other choice but to say it. “That day at the hospital, I was unprofessional. Although I was supposed to be working for you, I ended up serving another client when we happened to run into each other…” I said before I pressed my lips tightly into a thin line. My throat and my lips felt dry, and I had to run my tongue along my lower lip. Brandon did not say anything, and he did not seem at all impressed at my attempt to do things his way. His eyes stared coldly at me, and I knew that he was waiting for me to go on. “This is all still kind of new for me, and yes, I know that it’s not a great excuse, but I didn’t know how to handle running into two of my clients at the same time. I panicked…” I
Just as I had expected, within the already very private space was another level of privacy when he led me to a private room. Once again, I began to wonder what exactly Brandon had planned. Although he appeared the way that he always did, I couldn’t deny that the atmosphere between us was unusually tense. I wondered if he also felt the way that I did or if I was the only one who felt unusually stiff while we were together. “Sit anywhere you like,” he instructed casually as he gestured to the large set of white sofas in the middle of the room. My eyes scanned the pristinely white and modern interior of the private room that we were in. Apart from the large sofa set that was in the middle of the room, there was a very large shiny white work desk with a matching white leather chair. Brandon must have been working in this room before my arrival because his laptop still had its lid open on the table. “I didn’t know that you liked working in shared working spaces nowadays…” I said to make
Brandon was definitely the heir to the largest chain of casinos on top of hotels for sure. Brandon never played any game unless he was the gamemaster. I have never seen him lose a bet before either in my life. George was seriously a fool to think that he could win against Brandon and at his own casino at that. So now, what game is he going to make me play?The only way to find out was to ask him. I thought that that was ironic in and of itself. If I had to pick, then I would say that I would prefer not to see Brandon. Although what happened was more my fault than his, my desire to hide away from him outweighed my rational sense and reason to want to meet him. Before I would chicken out and change my mind, I took out my phone and sent a simple text to Brandon. ‘Where and when do you want to meet me?’ I counted silently in my mind to around twenty as I stared at my phone screen. Just as I had anticipated, Brandon sent me back a reply within that timeframe. Had he been expecting for m
“About that trip to the orphanage that we were talking about…” he began before looking at me as if to gauge my reaction. “I’d still love to go if you still want me to,” I replied almost immediately. “Really?” Adrian asked with such an excited look on his face. Suddenly, he appeared much younger and a lot more innocent. Just like an excited little boy who had successfully invited his friend on a trip, he beamed a smile at me. With what had happened between us, maybe he thought that I would have changed my mind about going on a trip with him. If he was someone else, that might have turned out to be the case. However, if I was being honest, I really looked forward to going on that trip with him. It wasn’t just because it was a chance to spend more time with Adrian, but the idea of visiting orphanages felt like the right thing to do for me. Getting in contact with my past life might do me some good and help me figure out something about my sense of self and who I was. After being adop