Chapter 78 - Hate?

Tom had a grin on his face as he tried to picture the blush which he knew would be on Lucy's face after reading his text. Although he knew he was being naughty, he couldn't pass the opportunity to tease her a little. After all, she had been the one who had brought up the whole talk about sex that morning.

He got out of the car and headed for the building, deciding to stop by her office to return her key to her, and also see what she was doing, if she was paying attention to her work or whether she was distracted by his texts. His steps faltered when he saw Anita coming out of the building. What was she doing here again? Did she have another meeting with Harry? Tom wondered as he looked at her with a blank expression while she smiled as she approached him.

"Good morning, Tom! We meet again," She said with a cheerful smile.

Of course, her smile was cheerful since she had nothing against him. She liked Tom as a person since he was a very nice guy, and was good-looking too. If only he wasn't such a... A nobody, maybe she would have tried to take him seriously. Her mother and sisters would laugh at her endlessly if they ever heard that she had gotten involved with a blue-collar worker.

She remembered the first time they had met about three months ago. She had rammed into his expensive-looking car from behind and when she got out to apologize, she had met the gorgeous man behind the wheel who looked at her with a calm smile and asked her not to worry. At that moment, she had thought she had finally met the man of her dreams and had asked for his number so she could give him a call later to know if his car was okay.

She had tried to keep in touch after that day, and soon they had started exchanging texts. She had tried not to ask him what he did for a living because she hadn't wanted to sound like a gold digger. He looked decent and drove an expensive car, so that was enough to tell her that he was doing well for himself. That had been the reason she hadn't mentioned anything about her job either, since she had wanted to take things slowly between then.

Unfortunately, it was only after they went on their first date and she confessed to him that she liked him, and would like to go into a relationship with him if he was single, that he had opened up to her that he was a handyman and the car he had been with on the day they met belonged to one of his wealthy clients. She had been very disappointed but had tried to hide it by remaining polite. After that day she had slowly withdrawn and had made up excuses to stand him up on every date until he had finally gotten fed up to the point of ending their relationship, much to her relief.

"Good morning. What brings you here today? Another meeting?" Tom asked with a polite smile when Anita stopped in front of him.

"Not at all. I came to say hello to a friend," Anita said with a mischievous smile. There was no need to make things awkward between them by telling Tom that she was friends with his boss. She would leave that surprise for later when she finally gets the CEO to be her man.

A friend? She had a friend here? Tom wondered, but decided it was not his business, "I suppose you don't have much work to do at your office," Tom said, and Anita shrugged.

"You know how it is... Or maybe not," Anita said with an apologetic smile since she believed Tom wasn't very familiar with the structural organization of companies, "Things aren't settled yet. New management, new rules," she explained.

"I see. Okay then," Tom said with a nod as he waited for her to leave, but she remained there staring at him.

"I hope you don't hate me?" Anita asked with a curious smile. She knew that if Tom said anything bad about her to Lucy or the CEO he could ruin her chances even before she got any. She needed to make sure they were cool and he wouldn't say anything about her to anyone.

"Hate? That's a big word. Why would I hate you?" Tom asked with a slightly raised brow.

"You know... What happened between us," Anita said with an awkward smile.

"I would rather we don't talk about the past. Can you not mention to anyone here that we were ever involved with each other? Let's just forget the past, and act like strangers, okay?" Tom asked, making the smile on Anita's face falter.

Although she was glad that he was suggesting that they pretend not to know each other since that also served her purpose, but her pride was hurt that a mere driver and handyman like him was asking someone like her to pretend not to know him, "Why?"

"I don't think I need to give you any reason. Just don't tell anyone that we were involved with each other. Have a nice day," Tom said with a polite bow before walking away from her. Knowing the kind of person she was, he knew she wasn't going to go about telling anyone that they used to be in a relationship.

When he first met her and started exchanging texts with her, he had thought for a moment that she might be just the lady he needed in his life. But he had snapped out of that dream almost immediately the moment he lied to her that he wasn't as wealthy as he suspected she had assumed, and her attitude changed towards him.

Of course, he didn't have any problem with a lady wanting to marry a wealthy man. He only had a problem with the attitude she had given him simply because he wasn't as wealthy as she expected. If truly she liked him as she had claimed she did, then she would have treated him so differently.

He was only going to reveal his identity to the public once he was settled with the right lady. That would stop people like Anita from coming around him and trying to act like they cared about him. He wished he could say he looked forward to seeing her reaction when she finds out the truth, but he really didn't care about her or her reaction.

Anita straightened her back and raised her chin proudly as she watched Tom walk away. If he wanted her to pretend like nothing had happened between them, then that was okay by her. She wasn't going to feel bad about any of it. It wasn't her fault that he was poor after all, Anita thought as she walked away.

Once Tom got out of the elevator, he pushed thoughts of Anita out of his mind as he dipped his hand into his pocket and slid the key ring down on one of his fingers. He smiled in anticipation of his encounter with Lucy as he lazily walked over to her office. He had spent some time mulling over what he wanted to say and do to her, and he was already dying to see her colored face.

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Lucy who had pushed her phone far away from her and was just beginning to be focused on the documents in front of her, looked up when the office door was opened, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw Tom standing there with a smile on his face that touched his eyes.

Seeing the smile on his face, his texts replayed in her head and she felt her cheeks flush a bright red. It wasn't lunchtime yet so why was he here? What did he want?

As if he could read her mind, he raised the finger holding the key and said, "I came to return your key."

Oh! "You have fixed the tap already?" Lucy asked, trying to focus on the current discussion and not think about the disturbing texts he had sent her.

"Yes ma'am," Tom said but made no move to approach her table to drop the keys or sit down. He just leaned back on the door lazily, watching her like a predator.

"So how much do I owe you?" Lucy asked as she picked up her bag, wanting to take out money for him.

"Come on, I think we have passed the stage where you should pay me for my services, don't you think so?" Tom asked, smiling at her again in a way that made her uncomfortable.

Lucy wanted to tell him they haven't passed any stage, but she decided to settle for a polite response instead, "I think it's only polite that I pay you for your services. I insist," Lucy said, looking at him as though she was waiting for him to tell her how much his service cost.

"What if what I want from you is not money?" Tom asked, making butterflies flutter in her belly. If he didn't want money what else could he want from her apart from the other thing?

She was too scared to ask the question out loud, since she knew him well enough to know he was likely going to ask for something silly, "Money is the only means of payment for such services," Lucy pointed out.

"Then don't pay me," Tom said with a shrug as he moved away from the wall and took his first step towards her, making her want to hide under her desk. How had their relationship changed so quickly in such a short duration?

Chapter end