Ryan stared at Zenith for a long mont before finally asking, "You are going sowhere later?" His tone was quite calm and composed, even though Zenith didn’t want to answer him about her personal appointnts, she couldn’t refuse him straightforwardly.
Letting her fingers clench around the edge of her desk, she responded by nodding. "Yes, I have so plans later. But I will leave only after finishing my work here. I will not cause any inconvenience."
Her words like that made Ryan frown, but that frown only lingered for a second before disappearing. "There is no urgent schedule today, you can leave early."
Zenith paused at his words for a second. Her brows tugged in a small confusion. She opened her mouth to say sothing, but then closed it, not sure what she should say. "Uh —I don’t think so, that would be a good idea, sir. My appointnts are mine to handle. I won’t let my work hours suffer because of it. I will leave after office hours."
"I wouldn’t let work suffer in your hands as well, Secretary Zane," Ryan said, his words carrying his tone of authority. "I only asked you to leave early today because I know there is nothing urgent on the schedule. So, you can take a half-day here, and prepare yourself for the plan you have in the evening."
"Sir, I —"
"Why do I feel like you keep forgetting that I am the boss here and you are my secretary?" Ryan interrupted her, sounding a little edgy. "Leave early so that you don’t miss this appointnt again today."
Zenith stared at him for a mont before giving a small nod. "Thank you, sir."
Ryan nodded back before he turned to Michael to say, "Co to my office after fifteen minutes."
Michael quickly nodded and watched him turn and walk back to his office. Once Ryan was gone, he turned to Zenith and whispered, "I almost thought that you might have to end up cancelling your date again. However, fortunately, Sir allowed you to leave early today. Now you can head back and get ready for the evening."
Even Zenith was confused about Ryan’s attitude. Given how he acted yesterday, she didn’t think he would allow her to fulfil her plans even today. But seeing how readily he asked her to take a half day; she realized that she was probably just overthinking.
His anger yesterday was rely out of his weird thought, and not so emotion.
"Secretary Zenith?"
Michael’s voice pulled Zenith out of her thoughts, and she blinked, looking at him.
"Did you ask sothing?"
"Oh, I just said that you should head back and get ready for the evening."
"There is nothing to get ready for, Michael," Zenith laughed, trying to dismiss the excitent that Michael had been trying to stir inside her. "And this isn’t the date it has to be anymore. I simply asked him out as a gesture of apology for making him wait for yesterday. This is sothing that I should do."
Michael heard her, but then, nodding, he simply shrugged. "But it can still be seen as a date. After all, he is still the sa guy from yesterday —the one you were arranged to go on a date with."
Zenith was about to refuse again, but before she could, Michael rounded his desk, ready to head in the direction of Ryan’s office.
"Secretary Zenith, taking this as a date won’t hurt. It will instead add honour to that man, after all, you are not just anyone who would go on a date with. If you are going, then that alone adds up as a reward to the man." He then winked at her playfully and turned to head away, saying, "Sir has asked to his office. I will go for that first. Don’t wait for ."
Zenith, in the end, couldn’t refuse him more. She watched him walk away before checking the ti on her watch. Seeing that it was close to the afternoon, she thought back about how Ryan reacted yesterday and how his attitude had changed today.
The more she thought about it, the more frustrating it felt. Not because she expected sothing, but because she felt like his attitude was just ssing with the restraint, she had worked on building around him all these years. It was an easy task, but since she was able to master it, then why the hell was she now feeling like she was losing it again?
Her heart felt restless and confused. She wanted to deny the feelings that held no hope, no chance, but they all felt just difficult to deny. Not after seeing Ryan’s strange attitude around her yesterday.
Her hands got over the desk as she moved them to cover her face. She breathed in, trying to calm the chaos that felt stirring inside her heart. "You are just thinking too much, Zenith," she muttered to herself. "You are just overthinking. His attitude yesterday ant nothing. He just couldn’t agree with the general idea of going on blind dates, so ..." Her words trailed off as she sighed out, not able to bring them to a finish.
Her phone rang just right at that mont, and she removed her hands to check it. Seeing her mother’s na flashing on the screen, she answered it. "Yes, Mom?"
"Zenith, don’t tell you have sothing again cropping up today?" The mother spoke through the line. "I only asked your aunt to arrange for you two to et after discussing it with you. If you make him stand every ti, it won’t look good."
Zenith pinched the space between her brows and closed her eyes. She understood what her mother ant. And this was why she asked David out today. Because she didn’t want to make it look like she was unserious about this entire thing.
"Mom, I am not avoiding this date. And I am not avoiding him, trust ." She paused briefly, only to count soon after. "Yesterday, I truly got sothing to do at the last minute. I thought I would be able to make it, but I couldn’t."
"I understand you value your work and career, dear," her mother spoke again. "But now, it’s ti for you to look at other important things in life as well."
"I know, Mom. And don’t worry," Zenith spoke, her eyes again getting the determination from earlier. "I will be there at the restaurant in ti. I have already taken a half-day leave at work today. I will leave the office way early today."
"Oh, you’re leaving work early today?" Zenith heard her mother’s voice peak a little, but she soon composed herself as though she didn’t want to show the excitent and hope she was feeling inside. "That’s good. Go and et him. I am sure you will find him interesting enough to connect."
Zenith didn’t speak anymore. She simply humd and later hung up the call. She checked the ti again and, noting that it was ti, she left the mail to HR and then wrapped her things to leave the office.
There was nothing to prepare herself for. But she did need to calm herself. Calm whatever she was feeling inside, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to go on like this.
—————
anwhile, back at Winslow Residence —
When Arwen woke up from her nap, she looked around the room but could not find Aiden there. Her brows furrowed, and she got out the bed to walk out of the room.
"Did you see Aiden?" she asked, stopping by a maid who was around the corner.
The maid bowed to her before answering, "Sir has gone to the study and has asked us to let you know if you co looking for him."
Arwen smiled before giving her a small nod and turning to walk toward the direction of the study.
Inside the study, Aiden was sitting behind his desk. But the mont he heard her approaching steps, he glanced up at her. "You woke up?"
"Mh-hm," she humd, entering the room, only to see a quite number of files kept on the desk. "If you have work to attend to, you should have gone to the office. Bringing work ho like this will exhaust you and won’t be ti-efficient."
Aiden pushed his chair a little back and pulled her gently to sit on his lap. "Nothing could exhaust more than the thought of leaving you alone, Moon. It’s fine, I will be able to manage."
"But you don’t have to." She pursed her lips. "I am not heavily pregnant yet. You can go and work at the office. And about the later stages, we will discuss them later. Even I will have to visit the company and look over the work. I —"
"You aren’t going to stress yourself out, Moon," he at once refused that idea. "Not with work, not with anything. You just need to stay good and let do everything for you. Since you asked to trust myself, it’s ti for you to let handle it all for you."
Reviews
All reviews (0)