Facing Fear (Mark Tuan FF)

CHAPTER 19 - LEAVING

The next day it felt awkward for both of them. Luckily Mark was busy so she didn't see him often in the house. However, it was a different case with Mae. The rumor affected her job. Even though Will still gave her job, the other party became the problem. They would just try to pry on her personal life and not focusing on the job. They would ask her questions, whether she knew who Mark was seeing or not instead of discussing the design. Will then decided that they should discuss everything virtually and not met them in person. In fact, he even told everyone to just email the other party for revision and everything else. No more meeting in the company. She felt bad for Will as he was affected by the rumor as well. But Mark was right. After a week the rumor started to die down. But she knew that the same thing might happen over and over again. The public might forget about them for now. But the next time they were seeen together again, the rumor would came up to the surface again.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Mark poked his head to the guest room. Mae has been staying for a week there now.

"Home. It's time for me to go home," she answered. Mark wished she didn't need to go home. He liked how he could see her every morning before he went to work, and sometimes after work as well. The past week he's been taking it slow at work as well. He tried to be home early or whenever nothing in his schedule. Mostly to make sure Mae was entertained at home. She couldn't go anywhere and even Will decided to shift her work totally online. He remembered one time he got an afternoon off, he tried to teach Mae how to swim. She didn't have any swimwear so he told her to just wear a dark tanktop and a dark short. But when she appeared, he immediately changed his mind.

"Forget it," he immediately said and turned her around, telling her to go back to her room and changed to her original clothes. She raised an eyebrow. He was the one that told her to change, and now he changed his mind?

"I think it's best that you can't swim. No one else can see you in swimwear forever. And I'll be the only one that has seen your body," he smirked and she immediately ran back into her room after completely understood what he's been saying about. How come he said it so casually? He was a totally different person when he was with her.

The other day, his father and mother were out of town for three days. They put Tammy in charge, but she had her own family to take care.

"You guys better behave," she warned Mark and Joey who grinned back at her warning. Tammy obviously couldn't stay in the house as she had her own house. She knew Mae was staying in the house, that's why she was giving the warning to Mark, and Joey, whose girlfriend came by frequently. "No party, no dinner party, no BBQ party, no sleepover, nothing. Understood?" Both Mark and Joey nodded in unison, but boys would always be boys. Joey's friends came over that afternoon and mostly they were swimming. They ordered pizza for everyone since no one was cooking. But for dinner, everyone else has left except both of them. Joey were out with his friends to dine out.

"Can you cook?" Mark asked her.

"Umm.. Fried rice, pasta, basic stuff like that. But we just had pizza for lunch. I don't want to eat pasta for dinner and we didn't cook any rice this morning, so fried rice is out of option," she complained. Mark was rummaging through the fridge.

"We can get instant rice, and we have all we need for fried rice." He went out to buy some instant rice and she started to prepare all the ingredients.

"Wait! Don't put the chili in! I don't like spicy food. You add that later yourself," she stopped Mark when he was about to put the chili sauce in. She scooped her portion and let Mark added the chili after that.

"Hmm.. it's edible. You've grown up into a good cook, kiddo," he scruffled her hair after tasting the fried rice they cooked together. She just swatted his hand and told him to just keep on eating.