Chapter 4. Meeting Accidentally

‘It is her.’ The girl that had been occupying his thought for the past few days.

He noticed an employee tag pinned on the left side of her blouse and read the words written on it. ‘Clara Yang, Programming department.’ so she was an employee in his company.

Clara gaped at him, dumbstruck. Just then her stomach grumbled.

‘Of all times why do I have to see him now?’ she berated inside her head and held her stomach with a twisted face, then she ran in the washroom’s direction leaving her damaged phone behind.

When Carl saw her twisted face, he was worried that she was hurt somewhere due to the collision and was about to ask if she was okay when she suddenly ran past him and headed to the washroom.

He stood transfixed in the same spot, staring in that direction for some minutes. And he finally moved when he heard someone gasp in front of him.

A female employee was looking at him with a dumbstruck expression. When he noticed her, she quickly regained her stance and bowed rapidly. “Good afternoon, Sir,” she said in a professional manner.

Every employee in the company knew not to mess with the CEO. And due to his cold personality, nobody wanted to get on his bad side. There was a time an employee tried to flirt with him and she was fired on the spot. So they maintained professionalism whenever he was around and can only admire him from a distance.

Carl replied with a “Mm.” And the employee bowed again before she quickly left, hiding her flushed face.

He sighed and looked in the washroom direction once more before picking up the damaged phone from the floor, then left the place.

***

Inside the washroom, Clara washed her hands in the sink and stood in front of the mirror. She looked at her reflection and placed a hand on her pounding heart.

She couldn’t believe what just happened. She finally saw him again but in an embarrassing situation. “Ahhhh… Ouch,” she let out a groan and smacked her head which hurt a little.

She rubbed her forehead dreamily and recounted what happened, her heart was still beating erratically.

She never had this kind of reaction before.

“Is he still outside?” She asked out loud, looking at her reflection and gasped before hurriedly fixing her makeup. But when she came out of the washroom, he was already gone.

“Hmmm.” she sighed disappointedly and started walking when she stopped suddenly “My phone.” She looked in the direction where her phone was but saw nothing.

The phone was already destroyed but her sim card was inside.

“Oh no. What do I do?” She looked around worriedly but saw no sign of her phone.

“Wait. Is he the one that took it?” She suddenly stopped and made a surprised sound.

But looking at his suave appearance, he didn’t look like someone that would pick something up from the floor.

“Then who took it?” she said gloomily. ‘I just want my sim card.’

She remembered that she was about to pick up Maya’s call when she bumped into him and she wondered why Maya was calling her because they spoke this morning on the phone. ‘Could something have happened?’ she thought inside.

She let out a sigh and murmured, “I hope it’s nothing serious.”

Then she sadly left for the cafeteria.

When she reached there, Mira had already ordered some food and was eating.

“What took you so long?” she asked Clara and pouted her lips oblivious to the sad atmosphere surrounding her, then continued, “I thought you were going to ditch me.”

Clara laughed and her mood was instantly lifted. She sat down facing her childish friend “Hehe, Mira, are you going to finish all this food?”

She looked at the pile of food on her friend’s plate and chuckled. Mira was a foodie and ordered a lot whenever they ate lunch together. She wondered where all those foods were going looking at her slender figure. However, she noticed that she ordered a lot more than usual today.

Mira chewed a large portion of meat and gulped it down with an apple juice before saying shamelessly. “It’s because you’re paying. So I have to take this opportunity to eat to my satisfaction.”

Clara laughed and started eating from her own plate as well. She liked Mira because she reminded her of Maya. They were both honest and acted unrestrainedly.

After swallowing a large portion of another food, Mira asked excitedly, “Did you see the CEO?” and said in a gossipy tone, “I overheard an employee boasting to her friends a while ago that she saw him and he even spoke to her.”

She put on a sad face and added, “I thought he was going to see the employees. Seems like he only went to the manager’s office. I wonder what he looks like,” she said in a low voice and sighed.

Clara also sighed along with her. She wanted to know who their CEO was.

“I heard he only comes once in a while. I wonder when next he’ll come,” she said to Mira.

“Maybe in the next month, or when I grow white hair… Argh, I already had my net ready to catch the big fish,” Mira said exaggeratedly and Clara laughed out loud, attracting people’s attention.

***

Three guys were sitting at a nearby table and their attention was drawn when they heard Clara laughed.

“Aren’t those the new employees from our department?” said a guy who was wearing spectacles.

“I know right? They’re so beautiful. Especially that one with cute dimples, she’s so my type,” said another guy with a dreamy look.

“Hehehe, Dudes, these ones are out of your league,” The third guy said with a grin while fixing his attention on the girls.

***

Clara and Mira were completely oblivious to the conversation going on at the other table. They were chatting away happily when Mira suddenly asked, “Where’s your phone?”

Clara thought back to how she lost her phone but didn’t want to recount the embarrassing situation to her friend. She smiled awkwardly and replied, “I think I left it on my desk.”

“I see.” Mira nodded and they both continued eating.