|5|

Knock! Knock!

"I don't wanna meet anyone, except for my mistress. Where the heck is she?"

Aiden remained silent.

There was no particular answer he could give at the moment.

"Let her in, and I will come out. Take me back!", she screeched.

Aiden left a sigh. Harry and the gardener along with the Scottie had walked in through that kinking door, standing aside, waiting for orders.

"Master?"

He flicked his fingers, and showed them a finger, pointing in only one direction; outside.

They bowed respectfully and walked outside.

The door closed behind them.

Just then, a sound came from the other side of the door.

"Master?!”, a smirk, “Now, rich man, are you whom they address as 'master'?"

Aiden listened intently. Even her sound was as refreshing as the cool drinks.

A sneer again.

"That's weird. Mistress always wants herself called as 'Mom' or 'Aunt'. This itself defines you, rich guy"

Rich guy......

That isn't new...

In pretended frustration, he knocked vigorously, 

"O-P-E-N"

"No!", her yell smashed against his pinna.

"Where is my mistress?!"

He held his ears with index fingers, to keep the shriek from getting into his head.

"Anna, I wanna talk"

Silence lingered.

Queer, because neither the furious lady nor the adamant CEO separated by the huge yet dilapidated barrier, spoke a word.

And slowly, the barrier gave way.

The door was open.

And in walked a grim Aiden.

The door closed behind him.

"So, she just walked away?!"

Aiden nodded, both his hands on each thigh as he tried to take a breath better. The deal was still revolving around his head. No, he had never done this but it was happening to him like this. 

Still hungover by that attitude she had shown, and her stupid deal, most obviously winning over him, he remained silent, waiting for the gorgeous being to say something.

Something important. 

Anna, on the other hand, was blabbering.

Intermingling between important stuff and not-so-ones.

"What should I make out of this? Mistress just left me here like this? But that isn't what she said. She did say, she would take me and leave without much delay! Her plan...and it's all gone now when she sees you? Huh! I can't believe this...This isn't anything she promised! And to leave me, unaided with a man I met at the bathroom, What?!"

Aiden was taking deeper breaths as time passed.

Everything pierced deeper and deeper.

"...Oh, God! Did her plan fail? Or did she just see you and fall deeper in love? Oh, God! I can't believe this... This is bullshit, right? I hope it is...The good Lord knows, what you did to make her ...? No way! Did you ...no..did you bribe her with something greater than her land property?"

That had got him enough.

He stood up, flying from the bed, and stood, with clenched fists, and strained jaws.

She strained herself for a moment.

"Stop"

Her hands flew up in the air, 

"You aren't going to ...do anything to me...are you? You have no idea, but I'm a Taekwondo blue belt after three years of training and even Judo-and-d-d-d even the best of all training athletics you have ever heard about--"

Aiden was now drifting closer.

Soft and swift, with a step closer and closer, he was making his way to the little chef who had caught him in this mess.

Aiden's breathing had quickened. 

His heartbeat had accelerated.

She was moving equally backward, finally smashing her back against the wall.

It seemed no escape now.

She lifted her hands, screaming,

'DEFEAT! I'M SORRY...PLEASE, LET ME GO!"

The former gawked, struck by what she was doing.

So childish, and as cute as a teddy.

Aiden felt that strange feeling arrive again. But it got lost in the depth of his dilemma. It felt more important than anything else to get this all done before it crossed its limits.

"Please...", she pleaded, shutting off her exposure with two arms.

"I will do anything...Seriously, I will", her squeaky voice, now kept shrieking, as she shivered. 

He stopped inches away.

Their noses met now.

It felt unreal but as beautiful as the sun to feel each other's exposure to one another.

Their noses met.

Just then, Anna winced.

She was undoubtedly uncomfortable by this touch.

However, Aiden had turned himself on.

But he pulled back.

 He held his breath.

His arms blocking either way of Anna.

The nails he had forgotten to clip this morning, due to the hurries over arrangements for her arrival, now scratched through the costly designed wallpaper, plucking it away by bits.

He blocked her now,

"Please...I plead. Don't do anything to me...I swear, I'll try to do anything for you.... anything...."

He breathed,

"Anything?"

She nodded, admitting it without disregard,

"Please...please...."

"Be my chef"

Her eyes went wide.

"Nothing more"

"Just stay...."

"Stay with me"

The contract had been neatly made, with a pruned handwriting in cursive by the personal chef itself.

Never in his life did Aiden had to go through such a trauma, of having got a contract written for a chef in his kitchen.

He had been used to writing contacts for marriage deals, business partnerships, and furthermore serious stuff.

But a 'No' to Anna, meant losing her and that wasn't what he needed now.

"Are you going to say anything now?", she asked, with a slight sneer on her face.

First and foremost, she herself wasn't enjoying any of this.

After being technically hit in the face with a sudden deal of being a personal chef to a rude man like him, she wasn't ready to go nice on him, as she used to her Missus before. 

No, she wasn't, and that was final on her part.

"I have signed"

She said, making Aiden sigh.

/If she did make it, then she would,

right? /

Shaking his head at the childish cute face of Anna, which would remain as bubbly as ever even when he was furious, Aiden lifted his pen to sign. He didn’t even wanna read it. It felt okay for whatever it was unless and until she stayed with him.

However, at one look at the contract, and his eyes were roaming through the statements marked in bold.

"No platonic relationships. Only clean and neat beginnings, and clean and even better endings"

Aiden cringed hard his forehead. His girl seemed pretty determined and intimidated. 

"Cleanliness is a must. It should be maintained, so I must have permission to clean the house"

He looked up, annoyed.

"We've got servants for that!"

She shook her head, keeping those arms crossed,

"I can help! And stop calling, Mr. Jacob a 'servant'. It's way more insulting, you see"

The shy puppy eyes at the end made Aiden gulp down his arguments. 

/The fuck is happening with me? /

"And finally, the kitchen is all mine. I can make and discover as much as I want"

Aiden nodded to that, before scribbling down his signature. 

He then lent it to a shy Anna who looked a hell lot scared now, after attempts to make this encounter even better and done with.

"Met Harry?"

Anna nodded, giving a cute laugh grin at Aiden. The former almost blushed.

“He sounds fun!’

Aiden sneered, 

“You bit him”

Her eyebrows raised.

“Did that actually hurt? It was a minor...”, her face twitched a bit as she moved her face around like a sparrow. 

Aiden melted softly.

/Can I say I have fallen hard.....for her?/