Michael threw a cold glance at me and snapped, “Make sure this is the first and last time. If it happens again, you will be dismissed right away!”
I glared at the domineering man who stormed into his room, slamming the door behind him. A wave of fury surged within me as I snorted inwardly. Pfft! He’s obviously overreacting by putting me in a tight spot! Other colleagues had similarly received flowers from their boyfriends previously, but he never commented on anything or asked them to throw the flowers away. What’s with the double standard, huh? How could he just lash out at me and humiliate me in front of the entire office? Oh, he’s gone too far this time!
The moment Michael slammed the door of his office, Millie turned to look at me sympathetically and said in a hushed tone, “Anna, are you alright? Well, what was that all about! Mr. Shaw scared the crap out of me when he shouted at you earlier…”
“Everyone has a temper, and he should know that he’s annoying as well!” I pursed my lips and harrumphed. My mood was utterly spoilt by what happened a while ago.
Millie looked at the bouquet of roses which was in a pitiful state at the moment and sighed. “What a pity. Your boyfriend must have spent a lot for such a big bouquet of roses!”
My anger escalated at the sight of my bouquet of roses, which ended up in the trashcan. It reminded me how Michael reprimanded me in front of all my colleagues a while ago. Apart from feeling embarrassed, I was overcome by utter indignation. Did he realize that he’s just making a fuss out of nothing?
I shifted my gaze away from the bouquet of roses and talked myself into putting the disgruntling matter out of my mind. “Millie, let’s just drop the frustrating subject.”
As a result of the dramatic events that morning, I was down in the dumps the whole day. I could scarcely breathe as Michael assigned me piles of tasks and emphasized that all must be completed on the same day itself.
Consequently, I was occupied by the tasks the whole day and even had to skip my lunch. When my colleagues called it a day and left one by one in the evening, I was still rushing to get a few copies of the documents done. After throwing a glance in the direction of Michael’s room, I focused on my work again, hoping to get it done soon.
It was already an hour later when I finally completed my tasks. After heaving a sigh of relief, I stretched my body and tidied the documents on my desk. I glanced at Michael’s room instinctively. To my surprise, the lights were still on, indicating that he had not yet left.
Initially, I thought of going over to greet him before stepping out of the office. Nevertheless, I changed my mind as snippets of the dramatic event in the morning flashed across my mind. I took my handbag and left without hesitation.
The moment I stepped out of the office building, a familiar figure came into view. My heart skipped a bit when it turned out to be Yuval, and his car was parked not far away from the building. Taking a deep breath, I tried to cool myself down and make my way toward him.
“Yuval, what brings you here?” I smiled at him and asked curiously.
Yuval’s lips curved into a smile as he replied gently, “We haven’t seen each other for quite some time. Besides, you’re always working overtime lately, so it suddenly crosses my mind to pay you a visit.”
In an instant, I was overcome by a sense of guilt. I explained to him in embarrassment, “I’m sorry for turning you down numerous times; I was swamped with work for the past few days.”
In actual fact, I was just telling a white lie to turn him down nicely. I knew that I hadn’t been working overtime, slaving away at the office until late night. It was just that I had this thing going on with Michael, so I couldn’t date Yuval at the same time.
Yuval, please forgive me for not being truthful to you, as I don’t wish to hurt your feelings. It’s never my intention to treat you as a spare!
“It’s alright. I’m here, aren’t I? Anyway, you must be hungry, so let’s go for dinner.”
I was momentarily stunned at Yuvel’s invitation. After a brief hesitation, I nodded my head and kept my mouth shut.
Just then, Yuval’s hand reached out for mine and held it tightly.
I was instantly repulsed by his touch and shrugged his hand off apprehensively. We had actually known each other for quite some time, yet we never held each other’s hand so far.
Yuval’s smile froze in an instant. Then, he apologized awkwardly, “Anna, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”
Yuval was a typical gentleman. Even though it was my fault, he still made the first move to apologize to me.
“I’m sorry for overreacting. It’s probably because I haven’t been in a relationship for quite some time. Thus, it just feels a bit awkward when you hold my hand all of a sudden,” I explained sheepishly while lowering my gaze.
“It’s alright. I understand. But we are dating each other at the moment, so it’s quite odd if we can’t even hold hands.” Yuval smiled again as he said placidly.
Despite his calm demeanor, I could sense that he was stifling his displeasure. After all, it was only normal for any other men to be displeased if they could not even hold hands with their other half. To me, he was already reasonable and understanding.
After hesitating for a short while, I gazed at him as I took the initiative to hold his hand. Anna Garcia, you can do it! It’s not a big deal. After all, haven’t you held hands with boys when you were young?
This was the first time I tried to draw the gap between us. As expected, I could not feel any sparks, yet Yuval’s face lit up at once.
Both of us were hand-in-hand as we walked toward his car. Not long after we hopped into it, he sped off to a restaurant where he had reserved a table earlier.
When we were seated face-to-face in the restaurant, the atmosphere somehow felt a bit awkward. No doubt both of us had mentioned marriage when we first entered into this relationship, yet I could not find any topics to chat about right then.
Fortunately, the steak that we ordered was served in a while. To conceal my awkwardness, I lowered my head and pretended to be busy cutting my steak.
When I was about to take a mouthful of the steak, Yuval placed his plate in front of me. He had cut his steak nicely into even pieces!
“Just take mine. I’ve had it sliced up just for you.” Yuval smiled at me with a gleam of gentleness in his eyes.
I was really touched by his thoughtfulness. Just like any other woman, I yearned to be with a thoughtful man. Even though I had no feelings for him, I made up my mind that he would be an ideal spouse.
“Thank you,” I thanked him and started savoring the steak.
When I was halfway eating, Yuval called my name abruptly. I looked up and saw him lifting his glass of red wine to clink with mine.
I wouldn’t usually drink due to my low tolerance for alcohol. Nonetheless, I did not turn him down this round. I lifted my glass of wine, clinked glasses with him, and gulped down.
But perhaps I was drinking too fast, I choked on the wine. Subsequently, I coughed non-stop till tears trickled down my cheeks.
“Anna, are you alright?” Yuven asked me in great concern and handed me a tissue.
“N-Nothing… I’m just not used to drinking wine.” I tried my best to stifle my cough and squeezed out a sentence.
