MY BEST ADDICTION

Chapter 8

“Where have you been? Do you know the time, that you are now coming back to the office? Do you think we are here to play or has working with the boss gotten over your head?”, my supervisor asked just as I entered her office, not even giving me room to answer her.
“I’m sorry”, I apologized instead sighing and left to do the work she assigned to me.
“Hey, how are you doing?”, Emily asked later when I was done with my work.
“I’m good”, I answered. I knew she was the only defending me with the others but I felt guarded because you never know when someone might turn against you.
“Are you happy?”, she asked when she realized I was guarded against her.
“Who is ever happy at work?”, I asked and she left me alone to myself knowing I wasn’t in the mood to talk.
I went through the rest of the week ignoring the snide remarks they made about me and before I knew it, it was Saturday again and I was dancing my heart away on my table. This time round I decided to go further than I ever had forgetting all about the audience and danced all the pain and frustration I felt away, that at a certain point I felt tears mixed with sweat on my face. After dancing I calmed myself and walked to the bar for a drink.
“I would like to have what she’s having”, the shivers I felt at that moment after hearing the voice told me who was behind me.
“I didn’t think you were going to show today”, I said turning to him.
“I came earlier but I guess you were really engrossed that you didn’t see me. Are you okay?”, he said taking the seat beside me.
“Who is happier than me here? I have all the people here in my palm so why won’t I be okay”, I said brushing his question off. I guess being with each other for a while has made him alert about my emotions. That night we just talked and cuddled till later in the night when we had to go back home. There were days were he and I just sat down and talked not always jump on each other. I felt comfortable talking to him since I knew there was no way we were ever going to find out about each other’s identity. I trusted him in a way but even that had a limit, all he knew about me was that I was a student and I have some few issues, and all I knew about him was that he was working. I got home with an unsettling feeling in my chest but decided to ignore it thinking it was nothing. On Sunday, Haven came over to help me pack my things since I had to go on a trip with Seth in the evening.
“How are you doing? Yesterday’s dance was different from the usual. So what happened?”, she asked whiles we arranged my clothes and necessities. She was my best friend for a reason. She knew when I was down and when I was happy, sometimes she felt more like a sister and a mother than a friend.
“Nothing happened, I was just tired at work”, I said and smiled still packing my things.
“You know you can talk to me, right?”, she asked letting the matter rest.
Later that evening around 6 pm, Seth drove us to the airport and after the usual check in we boarded the plane to Paris. After 8 long hours, we arrived at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport and hailed a taxi to the Les Royales hotel. Even though we left on Sunday evening we had arrived in Paris on Monday evening, so both of us were really tired and didn’t spare each other any glance and went straight to our rooms after confirming our reservations with the hotel. Feeling very tired from the flight I didn’t even look at the interior of my room and just fell on my bed and tried to get some sleep since we had a meeting early the next day.
I woke up the next day still feeling jet lagged but went on my morning routine so as to not be late for our meeting. I heard a knock on my door just as I had finished dressing up and opened it to find Seth there. We went to the hotel’s restaurant to get our breakfast before we left to our meeting. By the time we were done with our breakfast, Seth’s phone rang and beckoned for us to leave when he was done with his call.
“Good morning, sir”, the man who alighted from the car in front of us greeted Seth.
“Good morning. Are you Alfred?”
“Yes sir. I was scheduled to drive you to the office”
“Shit”, I mumbled to myself hoping none of them heard me. I had seriously forgotten about scheduling a ride to and fro work. I knew my salary was going to suffer a backlash from these forgetful situations but to my surprise, Seth never once mentioned it and just smiled at me before going back to his phone. I knew he could sense how nervous I felt about going to a new office but he didn’t know it was because of how we were viewed in our home company, luckily no one knew I was just an intern working as his assistant. In about 30 minutes we arrived at the office just in time for the meeting. We didn’t take long as usual since we had to just brush through the issues of the branch. The thing is this branch was newly opened and Seth felt the need to build the foundation himself to feel more secure. After the meeting, we went around the office getting acquainted with our new colleagues since we were going to stay there for the next month.
At noon, Alfred drove us to a nearby restaurant for our lunch.
“I’m sorry”, I said looking away from him when we were alone after ordering our food. Ever since the situation at the office at home, I have shied away from Seth and barely talked to him. Luckily neither Seth nor Marcus got wind of it and didn’t realize I was avoiding both of them.
“For what?”, he asked smiling. He knew what I meant but still wanted me to say it, for whatever unknown reason.
“I didn’t make the preparations for our transport and we almost missed our first meeting”, I said still avoiding his gaze.
“I know you did wrong but we all make mistakes. All that matters is that you realized it and apologized and I know it won’t happen again. Also I knew Alfred was coming for us, sorry for not letting you know”, he said trying to get my attention.
I hummed to him and fumbled with my hands waiting for our foods to arrive.
“Penelope did I do something wrong?”, he said causing me to raise my head to look at him.
“No sir”, I said bringing my head back down feeling awkward the whole time.
“Are you sure? You seem to have been avoiding both Marcus and I. Is it something at the office or something we did or said?”, he asked sounding hurt that I was hiding from him making me feel a pang in my chest but I ignored it and hummed as a response to his question. Even though I knew no one knew about my identity I felt insecure about our relationship. He dropped it when he realized I wasn’t going to say anything more about the issue and before it could get any more awkward, our food arrived. We ate in haste as we had another meeting to attend at the office at 3 pm.
The meeting took a while and before we knew it, it was very late and we all felt tired. Alfred drove us back to our hotel and seeing how tired I was, I decided to skip dinner and just rely on snacks for the night. I took my phone to surf through after freshening up only to be startled when it started ringing dropping it on my face. I answered it to hear Seth’s voice at the other end.
“Come to my room”, he said and hang up. I stood up tiredly to leave but before I left my phone rang again. I answered and spoke to Marcus for a while and left to Seth’s room when I was done. 
I knocked and entered when he called me in but what I saw left me in a shock. He was just out of the shower in nothing but his towel around his waist. I would be a liar if I say I didn’t admire him, heck I drooled looking at his fit body. I guess I spent too much daydreaming because he had to snap his fingers in front of my face to bring me back to my senses. I smiled shyly and closed the door behind me.
“So may I ask what brings me here?”, I asked avoiding his gaze.
“Irrespective of how much fun it is watching you drool over my body, I have to go cover up. You can open the door if you hear a knock whiles I’m inside”, he said leaving me to my imagination of what was going to happen next. I shook my head to clear the indecent thoughts I was having of my boss when I heard a knock on the door. I opened it to find the hotel staff pushing a cart in leaving me surprised. They arranged the food and wine on the table and left after Seth had tipped them off for their work.
“Come sit here”, he said motioning me over to sit by him at the table.
“Huh?”, I said confused but still walked to his side and sat where he pointed to earlier.
“I realized you were tired earlier and you didn’t really eat that much during lunch so I ordered for food for us”
“I’m okay, sir. There was no need for you to do all this. I’m fine for the day”, I said trying to refuse eating with him.
“You’re okay? Knowing you, you might just munch on some snacks and sleep, right? Just eat with me, I can’t finish all these by myself”, he said making me feel guilty because that was exactly what I was going to do.
“Thank you”, I said and smiled at him without taking my gaze off him.
‘He really is handsome’, I thought looking thoughtfully at him.
“You finally looked at me. I guess food is your weakness”, he said and dived into his food.
After eating we watched a movie and feeling very tired, I slept off.
I woke up the next day snuggled up against a body and tried to move away only to be held tightly in an embrace. I looked up at him admiring his facial beauty and felt elated that I was the first person to see his handsomeness first thing in the morning.
“Am I that handsome?”, he said not opening his eyes.
‘Oh my God, he wasn’t asleep’, I thought covering my face with my hand.
“Um I need to go back to my room. We have to get ready for work else we will be late”, I tried to reason with him so I could leave his embrace, as I was embarrassed but he didn’t move at all.