Thirty minutes before the closing hour, Tom's eyes were fixed on the wall clock, following the second's hand as he tapped his fingers impatiently on the desk. At the sa ti, he halfheartedly listened to the complaints and reports of the resort and hotel managers concerning the challenges they were facing and the new changes they needed to implent in their various branches.
From the mont he had gotten to his office that morning and rearranged his schedule with the help of Harry's secretary, he had barely had five minutes to himself as he had moved from one eting to the other.
He was feeling completely drained and exhausted, and his brain felt saturated. He couldn't even process what the man, who was now speaking, was saying.
This was supposed to be Harry's eting, not his, and now he wished he had asked them to postpone this eting until Harry was available to et with them, or better still, Harry could have held a zoom eting with them and saved him this stress.
Thankfully, Harry's secretary was present there, typing down the minute of the eting, or else they would all have been wasting their ti thinking they had his full attention.
He couldn't rember the last ti he had been this busy or felt this exhausted. If anything, this made him appreciate Harry's position in his life even more and comnd himself on his wisdom in assigning Harry as his Co-CEO.
Harry indeed made his life easier, and now he hoped that his new assistant would resu quickly and be at least half as efficient as Harry had been as his assistant.
Tom sighed inwardly when the man kept going on and on with his boring report. When he couldn't take the self-inflicted tornt anymore, he massaged his temple as he cleared his throat, causing the man who had been speaking to stop abruptly.
"I don't know about you all, but this has been a long and busy day for , and I'm ntally exhausted. Honestly, nothing any of you has said in the last hour has made much sense to . Can either of you do us all a favor and concisely summarize in five minutes what you have all said so that we can call it a day?" Tom asked as politely as he could muster.
On hearing that, the managers exchanged a look, and thankfully, the only lady amongst them volunteered and briefly explained all they had said to Tom.
Tom listened quietly for so ti, and by the ti the man was done, he had gotten the crux of the matter, "That wasn't so difficult, was it?" Tom asked as he stood from his seat, wondering why they had spent over an hour complaining about sothing they could have summarized in five minutes.
"I've heard all your complaints and suggestions. Mr. Jonas and I will discuss and deliberate on them, and we will get back to you," Tom said, indirectly telling them that the eting was over.
Taking that as their cue to leave, they all trooped out of his office, and Tom turned to Harry's secretary, "I want a printed copy of the minute in five minutes. Send a copy to Harry's email, too," Tom said as he walked over to his desk to tidy it up while Harry's secretary quickly left to do as she had been instructed.
Once Tom glanced at the wall clock and saw that it was less than ten minutes to the closing hour, he picked up his suit jacket from where it hung and left the office with his phone and car key in hand.
He stopped by Harry's office and took the printed copy of the minute from Harry's secretary before taking the general elevator.
Instead of going outside to wait for Lucy, as usual, he went directly to her office, eager to see her since he had not seen her since he dropped her off that morning, and he hadn't found the ti to text or call her either.
Imdiately Tom opened the office door and walked in; every movent and conversation going on in the office as Lucy's teammates prepared to leave for the day ceased when they saw the CEO in their office.
Tom didn't bother sparing them a glance since his gaze was fixed on the beautiful lady, who was seated behind the glass door, which separated her from her teammates.
As though sensing his gaze on her, Lucy, who had been checking the ti and wondering whether she should call Tom or text him, looked up. Instantly, her eyes lit up and her lips curved in a happy smile when she saw him standing outside her office and staring at her through the glass door.
The image evoked a mory in both their minds of the first ti Tom had stood by her office door that way, the first day he had resud as her driver, and she kept him waiting because she was carried away with work. Who would have thought then that she would ever be this excited to see him standing by her office door this way?
She stood from her seat when he opened the door and stepped into her office, and she walked up to him, "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure, Mr. CEO?" She asked with a grin, not paying any attention to her teammates who were watching them.
"I'm sorry I couldn't call or text all day. I was swamped with work," Tom said apologetically as he dropped everything he was holding on her desk and pulled her to himself, but Lucy resisted.
"We are in my office. Everyone is watching," she reminded him softly with a grin.
"Says the woman that kissed in the presence of everyone. Or have you forgotten that already? Where is that bold woman?"
"Well, that was after work hours on our way ho. People are going to start saying the CEO is making out with an employee send in..."
Before she could finish speaking, Tom walked away from her and opened her office door, "Is there anyone of you here who isn't aware that Director Perry is my girlfriend?" Tom asked, startling both Lucy and her teammates.
"Tom..." Lucy chided as she walked over to him.
Her teammates shook their heads, "We are all aware," one of the n summoned the courage to answer.
"Does any of you have a problem with kissing my girlfriend in her office after work hours?" Tom asked again, and Lucy elbowed his side to shut him up.
"We don't," another man responded.
"Good. So why are you all still standing there after work hours, staring at us like you have never seen a man in love with a beautiful woman when you should be leaving? Or do you want to work overti?" Tom asked, and imdiately they all picked up their stuff and hurried out of the office, leaving Lucy, who was trying not to laugh.
"Did you really have to do that?" She asked in amusent as she embraced him.
"Tell you didn't want to do that," Tom challenged as he wrapped both arms around her and let his chin rest on the top of her head.
"I was kind of hoping you would send them all away," Lucy said with a wide smile as she tried to pull away, but he held on.
"Let's remain like this for a while," Tom pleaded, and Lucy stayed still.
Once Tom broke the hug, he pulled away from her and looked into her face for so mont, leaving her confused as to what was happening. Before she could ask him what was going on, he captured her lips in a slow yet passionate kiss that not only left her breathless but made her whole body tingle.
"I've been thinking of doing this all day," Tom said, his hand on the crook of her neck as he observed her face.
"Doing what?" She asked, blinking at him in confusion.
"Hugging and kissing you," Tom said as he kissed her again before pulling away.
Lucy smiled as she observed his face, "You look beat."
"Yeah, it has been a long day. The only thing that helped survive was thinking about seeing you and kissing you at the end," Tom said, making Lucy smile.
"We should leave then," Lucy suggested, and they both returned to her desk.
While Tom picked up the stuff he had dropped on her desk, she picked up her handbag and phone, which was on the desk, and they both walked out of the office.
Instead of going outside, they both headed back to Tom's office since the car was parked in his private parking lot, and they would need to walk around the building to get to it if they didn't take Tom's private elevator.
"How was your day?" Tom asked as they both took the elevator to his office floor, and Lucy told him all she had done.
She told him about the phone calls she had made to Lucas, Sonia, and then Priscilla, who she had called to inform that she had accepted their offer and would be coming over during the weekend to sign the contract.
And then she told him how she had left the company for the I-Global fashion factory to see the state of the place and get acquainted with the head of the factory and who had been asking to see and know the new creative director.
"Who drove you there?" Tom asked with a slight frown as they both got into the car.
"I went with two of my teammates: a male and a female. The guy drove us there," Lucy said, but Tom didn't look pleased by that either.
"You didn't tell you were leaving the company premises today when you were telling your plans," he pointed out to her without bothering to start the car.
"I didn't plan on doing so either. But I was inford that the head of the factory insisted that they wouldn't work on the new design we sent to them until he sees ," Lucy explained.
"You could have sent a text to let know about your whereabouts."
"To the CEO or my boyfriend?" Lucy asked jokingly, but Tom glared at her.
"Lucy, both are the sa person, not separate people," he said irritably, and Lucy's brows drew together when she realized he was upset.
"Why are you getting mad at ? You were busy all day, and I was busy too. It naturally didn't occur to to send a text to let you know I was leaving the office. Now I'm back. Why is it a big deal?" Lucy asked in confusion.
Okay, he was stressed, and he wasn't handling the conversation properly, Tom thought as he took a deep breath, "I'm sorry. I'm letting the stress get to ," Tom said and turned on the car's ignition, but Lucy quickly placed a hand on his arm to stop him from driving.
"I'm sorry I didn't text you," Lucy said, not wanting any tension between them because of sothing as insignificant as that.
"It's fine," Tom murmured, but she could tell it wasn't. She could tell he just didn't want to talk about it anymore.
"You're not the only one who can read , you know? I know you're not fine. Why are you making a big deal out of this? I know you are stressed, but you are not the type to lose your cool unnecessarily. I won't know what I did wrong if you don't tell ," she reminded him without taking her hands off his arm since she didn't want him to drive until they had cleared the air between them.
Seeing that she was bent on talking about it, he turned to her, "You left the office with the sa set of people that were quick to call you a murderer and speak ill of you days ago..." Lucy opened her mouth to speak, but quickly shut it when he raised a brow as though he was daring her to interrupt him.
"Maybe you have forgotten, but we are yet to handle Anita and her mother, and you can't trust just anyone right now. You can't just trust anyone because they work in the sa office space as you. Especially not people like that who have no iota of loyalty to you. Also, I know I asked you not to leave my sight until I've taken care of Anita and her family. Did you know the distance or the location of the factory before today? What if they had taken you elsewhere? I'm not saying this because I'm a clingy boyfriend..."
"You are actually a clingy boyfriend," Lucy murmured under her breath, and Tom paused to glare at her, but before he could say anything, Lucy leaned towards him and embraced him.
"I now understand why you are upset. You are right. I wasn't thinking straight," she said as she pulled away from him and kissed his cheek.
"I'm sorry I wasn't being careful, and I made you worry. I will let you know about all my movents henceforth. I will text you even when I go to the ladies' room," she added with a playful smile, and Tom sighed wearily as he watched her.
She was with him, and she was safe. That was all that mattered. He reminded himself. "Did you have lunch?" He asked, but Lucy poked his chest.
"First, tell you're no longer mad at ," she insisted as she reached for his hand.
"I wasn't mad at you."
"Liar. You called Lucy," Lucy pointed out.
"You always call Tom. Does that an you're always mad at ?" Tom asked, and she scowled at him since she couldn't argue with that even though she knew she had a valid point too.
"You glared at ," Lucy reminded him.
"When did I glare?" Tom asked, feigning ignorance.
"You looked at this way when you said, 'Both are the sa person,' didn't you?" Lucy said, mimicking his tone and facial expression, and Tom found himself chuckling.
"Alright, I'm no longer upset. Let's leave now. We still have to stop by Harry's place," Tom said, and Lucy smiled as she let go of his hand. Relieved that he was back to his normal self.
"I love you, Ace," Lucy said as she watched him drive out of the parking lot.
"I love you more. So tell , did Adolf deliver your lunch? And how did the eting at the factory go?" Tom asked and listened as Lucy told him about it.
Tom's lips curved in amusent as he listened to her. He found it amusing that barely thirty minutes ago, his head had been aching and he had been too exhausted to listen or process what the hotel managers had been saying. Yet, here he was listening to Lucy, and her voice sounded like sweet music to him. Love was just crazy business.
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