Chapter 11

Hames ignored my glare, focusing his gaze to Trisha. "Mom, we have to go now. We've had enough of your pestering self." He rolled his eyes, rising to his feet. "Miss Ma—" he cleared his throat, wearing a smile that showed off his one-sided dimple on his left cheek. "Imogen." Gosh, he looked way angelic when he smiled than the stern-faced demon he always portrayed. 

"No, don't leave so soon." Trisha pouted. I found that cute though it wasn't exactly cute. I liked this woman's demeanor. She didn't give off the impression of a mean-ass rich son's mother like I mostly saw in movies, and probably books. 

"We have to, Trisha." I also wore an angelic smile, blinking slower than usual for no good reason. 

Hames extended his hand towards me. I raised a questioning eyebrow at him then muttered an 'oh' after realizing he meant I had to hold his hand. Dork.

Reluctantly, I accepted his hand and he helped me up to my feet, leading me out of the chairs. 

"Bye, Mom." He waved, curling an arm around my waist. I tried my best not to flinch, squeezing my internals at his discomforting touch and plastering a smile on my lips to make things look real and normal. 

She heaved a sigh, propping her forehead on her fingers in disappointment. 

"You're being dramatic. You've always wanted to meet my woman—" ew, that sounded way awkward than I could've ever imagined, "—now you've met her." He jammed his free hand into the front pocket of his Chino pants. 

She raised her head up to us, her eyes suddenly gleamed. "You're right. I can finally sleep peacefully at night, knowing fully well that my dumb son has a Woman." She nodded. 

Hames didn't seem to like how she addressed him. "I'm not dumb." He retorted. 

"Oh, you bet you are." She said seriously. I tried not to laugh at it but I failed and had to chortle. She was right, he was one dumb son.

Hames darted daggers at me, reminding me of the fact that he was still my boss, whether or not this act was happening.

"Sorry, Hames. It was just so funny to hear." I admitted. Oh wait, we were leaving already? That meant, the freedom of calling him by his name in his face was almost over. Oh no. "Okay, Hames' mother, I'm glad you're in support of mine and Hames' relationship. Hames and I would be leaving now and I hope Hames gives me the chance to go home already and not work again today, right Hames?" I said, staring at Hames, flashing him a grin I considered adorable. 

He had a 'are you being serious' look. 

"That's Hames, he's always so strict with work. Can't you not be so hard on her with work since she's your girlfriend?" She clicked her tongue. 

"Of course I'm not." He gruffed. "I believe we have to pick something up at the company, regarding what we discussed earlier, then I'll drop you off at home. Bye Mom." He turned around. 

"Bye." She waved and I waved back.

I remembered his hand was still on my waist. I once again had to stop myself from cringing at that. 

We strode on the footpath till we were out of Trisha's sight. The second we took a turn and I was certain Trisha couldn't see us anymore, I instantly jerked away from him and had a frown plastered on my face. 

"You didn't have to kiss me!" I started, unintentionally poking his chest with my index finger. I ought to apologize for that but I instead crashed both hands on my hips. 

At first, he looked amused that I poked him but his usual frown slowly found its way back to his face. "You're not being serious, are you?" He asked rhetorically. "You're being paid $10,000 for this damn job, yet you're complaining about a kiss that lasted for a few seconds."

"I know…" I trailed off, trying to think of a suitable defense. "It's wrong to have kissed me, you could've made up an excuse. We could've said I have mouth sores or something."

"That's stupid." He stated indifferently, walking away from me and towards his Porsche. 

"What do you mean? It's not. You kissed me." I tried to let him know how much of a big deal it was. 

"It shouldn't bother you, you don't have a boyfriend." He added, stepping into the car after the driver opened it. 

"Excuse me?" I huffed, also hopping into the car. "Why would you guess that?" How the heck could he be so judgemental?

He had picked his phone up and was already hitting its screen with his fingers. He glanced at me with bored eyes. "You obviously don't. Judging from how you act and look, you're still single." He simply stated, returning to his phone. 

"I'm not single." I scoffed, folding my arms across my chest and was about to turn my head away but observed that he was gazing at me so I locked my electric blue eyes with his light brown ones. "What?" I had to ask. 

He had a blank expression on. "You have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah?" I raised and curved an eyebrow at him. 

"You're late to return home and don't seem like you're in a relationship. You're lying." He shrugged. "Kade didn't let me know you had one when filling your relationship status in the info." 

Oh, a form about my personal info was filled? How didn't I know about this? "Well…" I trailed off, uncrossing my arms and cleared my throat. "I— I recently had one," a cough accompanied that lie. I immediately remembered the hot dude from the other day, "Tyler."

"Good for you." He returned his eyes to the phone. "You don't have to lie, I know Tyler and he's not in a relationship with you. Enough of this discussion. Keep your weird personal life to yourself."

I frowned again, turning my head to stare at the window. Dumb man. 

***

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated this book in a while. I'll resume updating it daily. Thanks for your patience. 

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