Chapter 4

Mike quirked his brow, knowing his brother would never fidget if it was nothing. He smiled as though he knew why he was acting strange. He kicked his legs for a while, observing his brother’s actions.

The door opened, and Angeline, tall, slender, fair, and curvy, walked in. Her black shoes shimmered under the sun rays that stole through the curtains of Nick’s window. The smile on her face enticed Mike, who couldn’t stop darting his eyes from her face to that of his brother’s. The mischievous smile found its way back to his face.

Nick dropped a bunch of keys on the table, “Here, you need to take these to the coffee shop.”

“Sir, the coffee shop manager demanded your attention. Are you sure you want me to go?” She bent down to pick the keys from the table.

“He did?” His eyes were back on his computer screen, “what’s the next agenda on the list?”

Angeline looked at her wristwatch, “You have a meeting by 2 pm. It’s a simple briefing meeting with minor stakeholders and some staff.”

“Yes, that’s right.” He looked at Mike, lost in thought, and then took his eyes back to his secretary, “You can go with Mike to return the keys. I’ll go in for the meeting. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes to return those and be back on the seat.”

Mike shifted at the mention of his name. He stared at his brother. He wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but he wasn’t going to register his consternation, at least not with the pretty secretary present in the room. He tapped his fingers on the desk.

“Yes, sir.” She juggled the keys in between her hands but stood her ground, unmoving. Nick looked up, “Do you need anything else?”

“Um, sir, I was hoping you’d come with me to return the keys. Sir…” She glanced at him and stopped when she saw he was staring at her.

“Mike, can you help me take her to the coffee shop? I took some keys, and I wish to return them.”

“You took some keys?” His quizzical look was already insinuating something other than what Nick meant, and he knew it. That has always been the problem between them in the past, and he wasn’t ready for it this time.

Nick stood up, “Not to worry, Angeline, let’s go return the keys.” He motioned her forward, and she took the lead, heaved a sigh of relief added to a broadened smile that made Mike look up and cut his left eye at Nick. He ignored him.

Angeline had been his secretary for over two years, and in the course, he had learned how much he affected the young woman. He would have attributed her warm reactions to the kindness he showed her when she first came in for an internship. All the media franchise companies that run book shows like his where she applied for a job had turned her down until she met him.

He wouldn’t have accepted to look at her prepared resume because they looked not just disorganized, but the now pretty secretary didn’t look enticing to be hired, “Your words are not properly organized, you don’t look fit, and with what I’ve seen here, you don’t have much experience to handle the job you’re asking for.” Nick told her the first day she came to his office.

“Sir, there’s no way to get an experience if I don’t start somewhere. Please give me the opportunity.”

He was taken aback by her boldness. To think that an intern would want to test her competence in his recognized company was more than a slap on his face, but then, there was something else he saw hidden in her words: determination and eagerness to prove herself. That alone got her the job.

She had proved her capacity ever since, working tirelessly under him till he could trust her. His staff had thought there was something going on between them. With the way they rolled their eyes and made strange noises when she dressed more than is fitted, he had confirmed that they thought he had a thing for her.

But he corrected that misconception the day she misprinted the presenter’s note for Corbin Tim’s Who Won the Game? Mike’s company had published the book, and thousands of its copies had sold within days. Proposals of airing the book have made BirdF more famous.

Angeline had mixed up all the notes for the interview with Corbin Tim and sent them to a public printer. This almost made him mad. The show, if not for his timely intervention, would almost have been ruined. He wouldn’t make such a lousy mistake even if he was drunk. He had stormed into her office to find her chatting with a subordinate and got more infuriated.

She hadn’t noticed the costly mistake. Nick wouldn’t hit a woman, but his words when angry did more than that.

Angeline couldn’t restrain her tears that day. Other staff stopped whispering about them as a couple after that incident. Although some clients had the same assumption as some of his staff, he didn’t bother explaining anymore. If there was nothing it did, it protected his back from the claws of hurt that other women were so eager to inflict.

The drive to the coffee shop took longer than Nick thought. He had suddenly grown weak at the realization that he was going to meet the bold lady again. The morning scene flashed across his mind, and her audacious voice filled his head. He wasn’t going to accept he was affected, but somehow, the smile that sat on his face gave him away.

“Sir, are you okay?”

He wasn’t aware she had been staring. He flushed with the wave of shame that swept across his face. He tried to comfort himself, but he couldn’t.

He looked in Angeline’s direction, “How would you react if you found out someone you despise took something that belongs to you?”

Angeline piped her lips in loud thoughts, “I wouldn’t be happy with him. Is this about the key, sir?”

He swerved to another bend, trying to avoid a question that was already glaring at his face. It took him minutes because he was wondering if he should tell her about the young woman and the coffee shop incident. Angeline might not be too open to understand this.

She might take it that he was flirting, and even though it didn’t matter what she would do with that information, he didn’t want her to know about his life aside from business.

***

Aria sat on a tall wooden stool outside the coffee shop. Nick knew at once that things wouldn’t go as smoothly as he’d assumed. When he pulled the brake of his car, Angeline released her seat belt.

“Wait,” he stopped her from opening the door before he was done with what he had to say, “You shouldn’t create a scene. I’ll just hand over the keys to the owner, and we’ll go back to the office.” His voice was frigid. Angeline stretched her face to see the young woman whose sweater was folded on the table. She stared back at her boss and looked away again.

When Nick opened the door, Aria looked in his direction. She mumbled under her breath when she realized the good Samaritan who had picked her keys was the same cursive sexist who wanted her to say one thing because it was expected of a lady. She sat back in her seat, crushing the idea of appearing nice to say her thanks to the person who picked up her keys.

Nick held the bunch in his hands and didn’t stop when he got to where she sat. Angeline followed him immediately, and he opened the glass door for her to get in first. Nick knew Aria was watching. What he didn’t know was how infuriated she was. He glanced back fast enough to catch the heated flush on her face.

Kelvin cleaned his hand with a towel and quickly rushed to the counter when Nick stopped before it. He wore his smile like the apron over his shoulders, “Good afternoon, sir.”

“Is the owner of the keys already here?” He pretended to glance through the almost-filled room in search of the lady.

“Yes.“ He pointed towards a table outside, and their eyes followed. “She’s been seated over there for a while now.”

Aria wasn’t looking their way. She fastened her eyes on a book opened before her. Angeline stretched her hands to take the keys from her boss, but he held onto them fast. “I’ll handle this,” he whispered before taking a step towards her table.

“You’ll need to tread cautiously, sir. She doesn’t look happy,” Kelvin said. Angeline shot him a look. He shot his back before picking up his towel and facing another customer waiting to be attended to.

“Hi,” Nick tried to appear his gentlemanly self. He feigned surprise. “It’s you.” With his hands in his pocket, he didn’t know how else to present himself to avoid appearing arrogant to the already aggravated young lady. He wasn’t sure why he was trying to please her, but he did all the same.

She looked up at him with eyes that could kill, “Do you have my keys?” she said in a harsh tone. She looked away from his direction and rolled her eyes at his secretary, who couldn’t get her hands off his shoulders.

“Yes, I was—”

“Can I have it, please?” She stood with her hands outstretched.

Nick dropped the bunch into her hands. She closed her palm in on it and gathered her books and the sweater, which lay folded on the table. She turned to say something to him but walked away. Angeline stepped out of her way.

Aria looked at her with mouth wide open, “Who is this lady?” she asked.