7. You've Crossed The Line!

Crossing the line will only cause troubles.

***

“Ouch, I felt like I’ve just come back from a battle field.”

Qeiza sank her butt on her chair, leaning back lethargic with her both hands dangling limply. She totally felt exhausted.

“Did Mr. Malik treat you badly?”

Qeiza was startled. She quickly fixed her sitting position. She cursed her carelessness for not paying attention to Chin Hwa’s desk.

“You’ve come back?” asked Qeiza. “It’s supposed to be tomorrow, wasn’t it?”

Chin Hwa walked up to Qeiza’s desk. “The schedule was supposed so, but the agenda moved forward so I could go home earlier.”

“Ah!” Qeiza had nothing to say than ‘Ah’ in silence. She thought Chin Hwa was still abroad.

“Tell me!” said Chin Hwa. “Did Mr. Malik treat you impolitely?”

Qeiza exhaled hard. “No, he didn’t. But, he made me so tired.”

“Huh? He often asked you to work overtime?”

“Not really.”

“So?”

“I don’t know. I hate his dictatorial attitude,” Qeiza explained. “A bit possessive too.”

Chin Hwa smiled. “Just beat him if he bothered you,” he suggested.

“What?” Qeiza baffled. She didn’t think that Chin Hwa would recommend her to do such a crazy thing.

“You’re quite good at fighting, right?” Chin Hwa asked her in a mocking tone.

Qeiza had just intended to open her mouth to argue Chin Hwa’s opinion when her phone rang. It’s humming the song of ‘Lapang Dada’ from Sheila On 7’s album.

An unidentified number popped up on her mobile screen. Qeiza didn’t answer the call right away. She used to ignore any calls from unfamiliar phone numbers because she was often called by the people who turned out to call the wrong number.

“Why didn’t you pick it up?” asked Chin Hwa.

Qeiza shrugged reluctantly.

“Just pick it up!” Chin Hwa suggested. “Who knows it’s urgent.”

His ears were also irritated because Qeiza’s device was ringing loudly again. It’s more than three times. Like it or not, Qeiza was forced to answer the phone call.

“Who allowed you to go home early?” said the voice on the other line. It sounded chilly and gripping. “Go back to my office now!”

Qeiza kept the phone away from her ear. The instruction in such a firm tone inevitably made her lips purse. Her thumb quickly pressed the red phone symbol.

“Wow! You’ve just hurt a male lion if the one who phoned you was Ansel,” Chin Hwa teased her.

“Indeed, he was,” replied Qeiza in a nonchalant voice.

“God! I advise you to prepare yourself for the worst,” said Chin Hwa. “Or … do you want me to give you a drive?”

Although Chin Hwa couldn’t hear all things that Ansel said, he could still catch the last sentence pretty clear.

“You don’t need to,” refused Qeiza. “I don’t want to go back there, at least, not for today.”

She had almost spent a week to struggle with the feeling of annoyance because she was jailed in a glass prison which was closely guarded by Ansel. It’s her lucky day that she could have a chance to escape from there because he had to attend an important meeting for a quite long time.

Qeiza immediately responded and took advantage of that opportunity to go back to her own office. After all, her designs had been finished. She just needed to hunt for the proper clothes for all of them.

She had planned to do that after lunch. Now, she needed a space for herself in order to calm down her tension a bit before trapping back in the glass box with that very annoying guardian.

“It’s okay. If you don’t want to go back there then let’s have lunch together!”

“It sounds nice. I’m happening to be hungry.”

On the parking spot, Ansel held his car wheel with full strength while seeing Qeiza get out of the entrance with Chin Hwa. The excitement that was shown by Qeiza and Chin Hwa made Ansel’s face get red because of anger.

Ansel got out of his car so fast. He took long strides towards Qeiza.

GREP!

By ignoring the existence of Chin Hwa there, Ansel pulled Qeiza’s left hand, making her mouth scream out an astonishing shout.

“Mr. Malik, what the hell are you doing?” she shouted.

Nevertheless, Ansel paid no heed to her protest. He opened his car’s door and pushed Qeiza down harshly. After that, he slammed the door without any words come out of his mouth.

Chin Hwa just could stare in amazement, fixing his gaze at Qeiza’s departure that was kidnapped by Ansel in front of his eyes.

“Mr. Malik! You’ve crossed the line!”

***

Sitting motionless beside Ansel, Qeiza looked straight ahead. She glued her mouth so tight whenever he spoke to her.

Remembering that she had left Chin Hwa without saying goodbye, Qeiza reached into her bag and pulled out her mobile phone. Still, Ansel snatched her device in the speed of lightning.

“Do not ever call another man while you’re with me!”

Qeiza gave him a death-stare. Since when was that man so ambitious to control her life? They had tied the knot for four years, but Ansel had never called her for just once. Let alone ask her to go out for a romantic candle light dinner, not even ask how she was.

Even, till this time, Ansel had never known what the woman who had ever been his wife for four years looked like.

“Who do you think you are so you dare to interfere in my private life?” asked Qeiza in a sarcastic tone.

“Don’t forget, Sir! We’re only working partners, not more!”

CKIIT!

All at once Ansel pressed the break hard, causing Qeiza’s body somewhat bounced forward.

“Are you nuts?” Qeiza cursed him. “If you want to commit a suicide, just die alone! Don’t take me with you. I still want to be alive.”

Qeiza took off her seatbelt and commanded, “Open the door! I’m going to get out of here."

“Don’t test my patience, Ae Ri!” Ansel said in a firm voice. “I’ve told you so many times that I don’t like any rejections.”

“You are a psycho!”

Qeiza could no longer control the words that came out of her mouth. The dark memory of being hurt by Ansel’s bad attitude when he was still her husband just like the salt sprinkled on the campfire. It caused the sparks to rise higher and wider in all directions, ready to grab and engulf whatever was around it.

Ansel took away his hand from the wheel. Without responding to Qeiza’s curse, he moved fast to reach the seatbelt that Qeiza untied.

“You, don’t even try to touch me!” Qeiza snarled.

She pressed her body against the door while trying to push hard Ansel’s chest that was leaning forward towards her.

Ansel behaved as if he wasn’t influenced at all by the strength of Qeiza’s push. He just kept reaching out and pulled the seatbelt, forcing the young woman to sit frozenly while holding her breath so that her body wouldn’t be touched by Ansel.

It’s heard a ‘click’ when Ansel succeeded to tie Qeiza’s body back with the seatbelt.

In no time at all, Ansel’s wide palm covered Qeiza’s tiny hand that’s making an effort to unbuckle the seatbelt again. Qeiza suddenly fell frozen. She felt a high-voltage electric current sting her skin at the time there was a tug-of-war with her ex-husband.

Feeling that Qeiza’s resistance weakened, Ansel loosened his grip and started to press the accelerator pedal.

“That’s better,” he commented while holding back his winning smile.

Qeiza kept silent until Ansel took her inside a restaurant. Out of the blue, he had booked a table earlier. Soon after they arrived there, a waitress raced to lead them to their table and handed a menu card.

“I’m going to see Mr. John,” Qeiza took an excuse, not long after the waitress left their table.

“Five minutes!”

Qeiza’s ears still caught clearly the time limit that Ansel gave her. She grunted exasperatedly.

Until she had finished her necessity and got out of the toilet, Qeiza still groused about Ansel’s attitude that she thought was too much.

GREP!

A strong hand suddenly grabbed Qeiza and shortly clamped her mouth, pulling her back to a dark place.