I stepped into his office and my body froze as I struggled to process what I was seeing. A blonde woman sat on Ace’s table with her legs crossed seductively and I had to say that her skirt was a little more than too short. At first, I couldn’t see her face and Ace paid me no mind even though I was standing there. The two seemed very engaged in just staring into each other’s eyes.
Did I walk in at the wrong moment?
Definitely.
“Oh…it’s you…” the woman said as she turned around and spotted me.
Her face was definitely one that I had seen before.
“Elizabeth…” I murmured her name softly.
Why is she here…exactly?
“Ace and I have unfinished business so if you don’t mind…can you…” she said before she sweetly at me and shooed me off with her hand.
What on earth is going on?
Why is Elizabeth Chase here?
My eyes glanced over at Ace as I hoped for him to do something to correct the situation for me. Instead of telling Elizabeth to get off his desk and pull down her skirt, he turned and shot me a look.
“Leave us for a moment. I need to talk to her,” Ace said dismissively.
“You heard him. Leave us alone please…” Elizabeth said before she glared at me.
I hated myself for feeling out of place although I was the one who should belong close to Ace. Despite the sickening feeling that bubbled up inside of me, I tried to tell myself to stay calm. There were probably discussing some important business and it was my fault for butting in the middle of their conversation.
However, something just felt very off…
“Ok…” I murmured.
I turned around and quickly left the room. After closing the door to Ace’s personal office behind me, I pressed my hand to my chest as I tried to calm the rapid beating of my heart.
What did I just walk in on?
Ace’s meeting with Elizabeth wasn’t on his calendar so it’s not an official meeting, right?
I absentmindedly headed to the sofa before flopping down onto it. My legs had lost their strength and I couldn’t keep standing anymore. So many confusing thoughts floated around in my head as my mind kept on churning up hypothetical reasons why Elizabeth was with Ace in his office. Her position and her attitude toward me just made everything worst. She knows that I’m dating Ace so why is she doing something like this?
How long are they going to stay alone together in there?
Time seemed to tick by so slowly as I sat there alone on the sofa as I waited for Elizabeth and Ace to emerge from his office. So much for working so hard to come to see him early.
It was a little over half an hour before the door to Ace’s office opened and that was accompanied by Elizabeth’s playful laughter. I watched as she walked out of his office while running her fingers through her hair.
“I know I should have listened to you sooner than this…” Elizabeth said as she turned back to face his office.
Ace soon emerged from his office and then he whispered something to her that I couldn’t hear from where I was seated. Whatever he said made her laugh even louder than before and that made my mood worsen. He bent down a little and whispered something directly into her ear that made her smile.
“You should divorce that dumb husband of yours…” he said after he stood up straight again.
I caught those words of his so clearly as if he wanted me to participate in that conversation of theirs as well.
“I’ll think about it…” Elizabeth replied before she smiled up at him.
After they seemed to have reached the end of their conversation, Elizabeth turned towards me before she smiled a little my way.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to take up more of your time. I’ll drop by again soon…or you can come over to my place,” she said invitingly.
With one final smile at Ace and a look my way, she walked proudly out of his office and closed the door behind her.
What just happened?
I was too stunned to do anything, so I just sat there and watched her leave. Ace has got to explain to me what just happened.
“Your work ended early today?” Ace asked as his attention finally rested on me.
“Umm…yea…” I murmured in response.
My mind couldn’t focus on anything else but the fact that Elizabeth was in Ace’s office. What were they talking about just now?
I waited for a moment to see if Ace would explain anything to me. However, instead of telling me the purpose of Elizabeth’s visit, Ace began typing something on his phone instead. It seemed like he didn’t think that he owed me an explanation and that made me so angry. Pain shot through the palms of my hand and looking down made me realize that my nails were digging into the palms of my hand as I clenched my fists tightly in frustration.
Why is he pretending and acting like nothing happened?
“Ace…” I called his name.
“Hmm?” he made a questioning sound, but his eyes were still glued to the screen of his phone.
His lack of proper response and interest only made me even more furious at him. Doubts and insecurities flooded my mind as I struggled to understand why that woman met up with Ace. The vibe between them didn’t tell me that they were engaged in a business meeting. Neither could I think of any reason why Ace would have a business meeting in private with the CEO of one of our largest rivals.
“What were you two talking about?” I asked.
“You mean with Elizabeth?” he asked in return as he finally put his phone back into the pocket of his pants.
The way he said her name pissed me off. Everything was putting me on edge, and I hated how helpless I felt.
“I’m sorry…it’s going to be another late night. You don’t have to wait for me…” I spoke on the phone.
“Hang in there. We’ve all been through it. Drink or eat something sweet…” Ace suggested as he tried to cheer me up in his own supportive way.
He was my boyfriend now, but it didn’t feel that way at all. We had almost no time together now that just getting enough sleep was becoming a challenge in my daily life. Thankfully, we still had our weekends to ourselves, although I spent the majority of that time catching up on my sleep and making sure that I ate properly. I wondered if Ace would break up with me if I didn’t find time to spend with him soon.
We’ve been heading back separately for more than a week now and that meant that we’ve been sleeping separately as well. I preferred to travel back to my apartment to get whatever rest that I could when I still had the time while Ace stayed mostly at his place. Despite my personal struggles, the commercial was progressing quite well. The production team was determined to finish shooting everything ahead of schedule so that we had more time for revisions if needed.
I made a silent vow to myself that I would get off work early enough to spend some time with Ace at his place this week. No matter what, I’m going to find a way to make it happen. Even if it was just for dinner, I wanted to spend some quality time with him. Ace never complained about the fact that we hardly had any time for each other. I didn’t know whether he was just understanding or if he was also very busy as well. Most likely, it was a combination of both.
Back then, I didn’t know that when the day came when I got off work early, things wouldn’t quite go as I had expected.
…
“Why are you working extra hard today, Karina?” Jeremy asked teasingly.
I wasn’t surprised that he realized it. Nothing can slip by unnoticed when it came to Jeremy, and I had been working with him for a while now that he was aware of how I normally operated.
“I want to get off work early today. Wait, I don’t mean like earlier than the official end of the working day, but you know, not like midnight…or after…” I admitted as I continued typing out the email that I needed to send.
“I get what you mean. Maybe we try to aim for an early evening kind of hard stop today?” Jeremy suggested.
“Don’t we all need a break sometimes?” I asked hopefully.
“Sure. This is a good day to have that break too. The meeting with the production team is tomorrow so we have a bit of a breather today. After the meeting tomorrow, things will pick up for us for sure,” Jeremy told me before he sighed.
Work had taken its toll on Jeremy as well and he looked visibly tired as his fatigue accumulated over the weeks. I didn’t even want to comment on myself. For most days, I walked around looking and feeling like a ghost. The only person who seemed to look presentable at all times was Julianna and I had no idea how she managed to keep her eyelashes and hair curled perfectly every single day.
“Let’s stop chatting and get to work so we can meet our hard stop. What about 8 PM?” I suggested before I smiled at Jeremy with pleading eyes.
“Make that 7:30 PM,” he replied before he walked away laughing.
7:30 PM it is!
By the time that 7:30 PM came along, I felt so exhausted and drained. Sprinting through the work saved up time for sure but it drained out a lot of energy at a much faster rate as well. Regardless of the suffering that we went through, we made it in time for our agreed hard stop at 7:30 PM.
Jeremy even went as far as to set the alarm at that time and when the alarm went off, we both lifted our hands off of our keyboards and turned to smile knowingly at each other.
“I’m off!” I announced proudly as I stood up from my seat and began stuffing my things into my handbag.
“See you tomorrow!” Jeremy announced proudly to everyone.
He made it out of the door even before I could finish packing up. Honestly, I was impressed.
This was sort of like a surprise, so I didn’t tell Ace beforehand that I was planning to spend time with him. The only challenge standing in my way was whether or not Ace was free. Being his personal secretary truly paid off at times like this because I could check his schedule directly on my phone. I had no idea if he had other work but according to his schedule, his last meeting already ended at around 6 PM.
I quickly made my way to his office where I was sure I would find out. Inviting him out to dinner might be good or maybe just heading to his place to spend some time together would be great too. My lips curved into a wide smile as I made my way to his office. I think I haven’t smiled this carefreely in a long time.
Wanting to surprise him, I decided to quietly slip into his office. Technically speaking, I also worked here so I didn’t think too badly of myself for not knocking. I didn’t see Ace right away because he was in his personal office. It was very quiet as I tiptoed toward his door.
“Ace…” I murmured softly as I slowly opened the door.
It was unlocked the door began opening when I pushed against it. I slowly peeked in while expecting to see the regular sight of Ace working at his table. I was partially right about him sitting behind his desk, but I was completely off about him working. Unless the definition of work had changed, and I wasn’t quite aware of it.
--To be continued…