“Miss Hutton, I’m sorry to stop you. But Mr. Valencian requires your presence in his office.”

I frowned. “Why? What does he need now?”

He shifted on his legs, pushing the specs up his nose. “Uh, he wants you to have lunch with him.”

TWELVE: CREEP

I set aside my designs and picked up my phone after it blared for the second time. A smile etched on my face, seeing the caller ID.

“It took you a whole week to call me?”

“And it took you so long to pick up the phone?”

I chuckled. “I was working on some designs. Anyway, what’s up with you? How’s the job going?”

Since Warner had left for Seattle for his new job and I returned to Los Angeles, it was our first conversation in a week.

“You’re working on weekends? And yes, everything is going smoothly. Life has never been this good. ”

“Glad to hear that.” If only my life was a little better. “And yes, but it’s not official work. Just some of my ideas I needed to polish.”

“About the office, how’s it going? I hope you still don’t have any problems staying in LA, do you?” he asked. He didn’t know where I was working.

And what do I tell him? All of this was still so confusing to me.

“Office is good. I have to work here for at least three months until I decide to think of something else,” I replied absentmindedly. Office was good because I hadn’t seen Ace in three whole days. He didn’t visit after the day he ordered me to have lunch with him. Of course, I denied. And the nerve of him. He sent Carter again to the canteen to deliver me the food he got for lunch!

You should eat homemade food.The canteen’s stuff isn’t good for health. It was the message I got with the food.

And the embarrassment I felt with every pair of eyes on me out there was a whole different thing!

Though he didn’t come to the office for three days now, the food was always on time. At first, I gave them away to Liza and others, but then, well, I thought I shouldn’t push away food like that.

The dishes were heavenly. From the pieces of information I picked up from Liza and Caleb’s conversation, he was busy hunting for a new house and renovating it. Why did Achilles Valencian need a house all of a sudden?

“I don’t understand what problem you have staying in that city,” Warner mumbled. “Anyway, I will call you tonight. There’s a day out with my office colleagues today, so gotta go now. I miss you, Em. I wish you were here.”