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I didn’t argue. I needed to end the call as well because there was nothing further left to say. I knew what I wanted, bright and clear, and I had found the confidence to not shy away from it. So, with this resolve in mind, I grabbed my phone and returned to his room.
Chapter Twenty-One
Hunter
The food arrived just as she returned. I had just laid it out when the door connecting our rooms opened, and I was a bit startled because I had expected her to come to the front. With a smile, she settled before me, and I handed her a pair of chopsticks. Something seemed different about her. She wasn’t as nervous as before and seemed to be in control of herself, and I wondered why. Or perhaps I was just paying too much attention to her?
“Tell me about your philosophy,” I said. She had just put a bit of meat to her lips, so she paused for a moment to look at me.
“My philosophy?”
“Yes,” I replied as I relaxed against the chair with my full plate in hand. “Why do you sometimes go through the front door and sometimes go through the connecting door? I need to understand so I can gauge what state you are in depending on the door you use.”
This made her smile, but it took her a while longer to respond.
“You really don't want me to lie to you from now on?” she asked. “Even little harmless lies designed to save me from embarrassment and to keep our working relationship stable?”
At her words, I paused. She wasn’t looking at me. Instead, she had returned her attention to her food and was calmly eating. I knew exactly what she was asking in every sense of the word.
For a moment, my mind went to my bed and the clear memory of us the previous night flashed through it. I made my decision then, and it had to be one of the riskiest things that I had ever done in my life.
“Yes,” I replied. “I hate being lied to. Tell me the truth to the best of your ability without any deflection or sugarcoating.”
“Alright,” she replied, but she still didn’t respond right away. Instead, she continued eating, and I knew that she was still deep in contemplation. And so, I allowed her the time she needed until eventually she was ready to speak.
“In very simple terms,” she replied. “I go through the front door when I want to remind myself that you’re my boss, and I go through the connecting door when I want to forget that you are.”
Her words, though brief, which was unexpected, were incredibly clear and self-explanatory. I didn’t need any further clarification from her because I too had these times of battle with myself.
Now that she had put it in this way, I truly couldn’t help but smile.
“We really caused a lot of damage last night, didn’t we?”
“Six months' worth,” she replied, and I nodded.
I liked where this conversation was going, but before anything, I needed to confirm something with her.
“I’m sorry I gave in,” I told her. “When you were insisting. I’m not sure if you remembered that. In exchange, I tried to reciprocate, but I didn’t go any further. I'm still not certain if you were okay with any of it.”
“For the record,” she replied even as we ate. “I am okay with all of it. More than okay.”
At this, she lifted her gaze and met my eyes. And then she smiled and lowered them once again.
“Hm,” I said in thought.
“So... where do we go from here?” I asked.
“For starters, can I stop dressing like an old middle school teacher?” she asked, and I almost spat out my food in laughter.
“I never asked you to dress that way.”
“Well, it's the standard uniform around you, since no woman with a working libido can keep their eyes and hands off you.”
I shook my head as I kept eating. It occurred to me that it had been quite a while since I had had a personal conversation of this sort with anyone. It was always solely business-related, and this change in pace and topic was quite thrilling, to say the least.
“Did you hear of the previous secretaries that came before you?” I asked, and she smiled.
“Cassandra and Leila?”
