After a while Marco called us, that lunch was ready. We got out of the pool and wrapped a towel around our wet body, before heading to the second floor to have lunch. I was surprised to see how much food there was. I was even more surprised to hear that everything was prepared by Rodrigo.
"Yup, my brother is a good cook." Ellie said as she sat down on one of the Rotan chairs. I sat down next to her and looked at all the delicious food on the table. There was seafood pasta with goat cheese, orange chicken, fried rice, pandan wrapped chicken wings, Lasagna, and bread roll.
"Did you prepare all this?" I asked looking at Rodrigo. This was a lot for lunch and it all look so delicious.
Rodrigo nodded. "Yup, it didn't take long. I'm used to cook."
"Where did you learn how to cook? Are you a chef?"
He laughed. "No, but I did take culinary class in high school and when I was in college I watched a lot of Giada De Laurentiis videos."
"Really?" I chuckled. "I thought you would say Gordon Ramsay?"
"Nah." Rodrigo placed a napkin beside my plate. "Giada is hot and she kept me interested in this whole cooking thing."
I laughed at his response. "But how did you learn how to make all these international dishes, because Giada is a american-italian chef?"
He shrugged. "Practice makes perfect. You see that orange chicken there? Took me two years to make it as good as the ones from Joe's Shanghai.”
Marco came out of the kitchen holding two glasses with juice. "Orange or apple?" he asked looking at me and Ximena. I took the Apple juice whereas Ximena the orange.
"Where's mine?" Ellie asked, looking at Marco.
"Oh." Marco said. "Your brother told me you would have water.
"What?!" she yelled and then glared at Rodrigo. "Please don't tell me you also made salad for me."
Rodrigo grinned. "Actually none of the food on the table is for you. I made Chicken avocado salad for you. Healthy and refreshing."
"Rodrigo!" she bawled, hitting her head with her hands. "I'm craving orange chicken and for your information I don't like avocado."
"Oh really?" Rodrigo provoked. "Last time I checked you were literally confessing your undying love for chicken avocado sandwich at Ashley's house."
"That was Ashley's house, you know how she is!" Ellie whined.
"Fine! You can have orange chicken, but tomorrow no junk food at all!"
"Deal!" Ellie took the bowl with orange chicken and scooped a spoonful on her plate. I decided to have lasagna and bread roll for lunch.
During lunch Ximena and Rodrigo held a conversation, Ellie was so engrossed with her food, and Marco was on his phone, probably texting one of his regulars.
When we were done we brought everything inside. We didn't have to do any dishes, because Marco had a maid who would do it later on today.
Perks of being rich.
After we had put all the dishes in the sink, Rodrigo and Ellie went home and Ximena went to take a nap. I decided to go to the upper deck and lay down on one of the deck chairs.
I almost fell asleep when I felt a presence next to me.
A naked Marco.
Well, not fully naked, he wore bright orange Hawaiian shorts. His upper half on the other hand was bare, which means I could see his incredible six pack and V-Line. It's not something I haven't seen before, but I couldn't resist not staring at him.
"Enjoying the view so far?" he asked leaning back putting his hands behind his head.
"No!" I replied fast, thinking he meant the view as in him.
He chuckled and said, "Pudding, what I meant was the view in front of you, not next to you."
Oh, both views were breathtaking. Wait what? Did he just call me pudding?
"Did you just call me pudding?" I was perplexed, since when did we start giving each other nicknames?
"You don't like it? I have other ones like buttercup, honey bear, or kit--"
I interrupted him. "It's okay, but I mean why pudding?"
He shrugged. "You're sweet, adorable, and confident."
"And how do you know that? You barely know me."
He gave me a mysterious smile. "That's why I'm sitting here to get to know you, duh."
As if he thinks I'm interested in a conversation. Secretly, I am.
"So," he continued. "Let us start over again, because when we met at Ximena's office I was kind of... shocked."
"Shocked?!"
I recalled him being mad not shocked. "Your definition of shocked means mad in my dictionary."
He chuckled, "Pudding that happens when I'm shocked. I yell."
I shook my head. "You're unbelievable and I say that because I already have experienced some of your unbelievable moments."
"If you refer to the bathroom and Victoria secret incidents, those weren't even close from unbelievable, pudding."
I looked at Marco when he said that. I noticed that his eyes were closed and his dark brows were actually graceful, but currently furrowed in a frown. He looked so peaceful like this, not like the arrogant and conceited jerk he always is. He's quite nice around me lately and I wondered why? "A picture will last longer." he mumbled, a small smirk playing on his lips.
My face turned fifty shades of red. How could he know that I was staring at him?
"And if you are thinking about how I know that you're staring at me. You're eyes are burning holes in my body."
How the hell did he know that I was thinking about that? Geez. I decided to change the topic.
"So if you call me pudding, do I need to give you a nickname too?" He opened one eye and looked at me. "Do you want to give me one?"
I put on my thinking face. "What about Mr. conceited or Mr. Arrogant?"
"I suggest staying with Marco." he muttered at my choice of nicknames.
I laughed. "Come on Marco, you should help me choose. What do you think fits the best on you?"
He turned his head towards me. "Mh, I would say sexy, hot, Greek god, but I would prefer you calling me daddy."
"Mr. Conceited it will be then and ew, did you just say I should call you daddy?"
He snickered, "Yes, pudding. I prefer you calling me daddy."
"Ew, hell no! Gross!" I gagged. Marco burst out laughing. "You should have seen your face when you made those gagging noises."
I shook my head. "You're a freaking CEO of a multi-billion company and here you are acting like a high school bad boy."