"Ms. Bai, follow me to my office."
"Yes, Sir."
It was another Monday and Xiu was still stuck with Dylan"s moodiness. They had just come out of the conference room and Xiu was still sorting out the meetings minutes when he asked her to follow him.
When Xiu entered his office behind him, he was already going through some files. Without lifting his head, he asked, "Have you met my mother?"
"What?" Xiu"s eyebrows snapped together in confusion. How or why would she meet his mother? Wasn"t it a ridiculous question? But then again, Xiu hadn"t expected anything better from a ridiculous person like him. "I haven"t even seen your mother yet."
Dylan looked at her face and felt that she was telling the truth. But if she didn"t chinwag before his mother then how did his mother found out everything? Mysterious. It was really mysterious.
"Forget it. Are you done sorting the data in the reference room?"
I"m a human, not a machine! How am I supposed to sort hundreds of files in a week? She was shooting laserbeams - invisible ones- through her eyes at him. "Not yet. I"m working on it."
"Why are you so slow? I think your age is getting to you." Xiu"s mouth opened wide at his remark. Oh, no! He did not just use the same tactic on her which she did on him before! Childish little copycat. At least, bring your original words to get on my nerve.
"I agree with you. Haiz! We are all helpless before age anyway." Xiu"s reaction left Dylan speechless. Wasn"t girls always sensitive about age? Why was she so indifferent? Was she pretending or did she really not care? Somehow, he was leaning towards the former option.
However, the latter option was true in Xiu"s case. She might be in the body of a 23-year-old but her spirit was of a 27-year-old. But she had never been sensitive about age from the beginning. If anything she"d be proud to say that she finally learned something from her years.
Dylan didn"t manage to provoke her but she unknowingly did.
"Would you like me to give you a handwritten copy of the meeting minutes or printed copy will do today?" She asked with an innocent smile but somehow, it really was like someone was challenging him.
"You have very bad handwriting. I don"t want to spend another hour trying to understand it. So, I"ll be okay with a printed copy today." Xiu found his reply stupid just like himself. And she had learned her lesson to never let stupid people"s stupid words get to her.
"Suit yourself." She muttered softly and said, "I"ll bring it to you right away," with that, Xiu left his office without even asking for his permission.
Dylan kept staring at the closed door as he said, "What is it? This feeling of being insignificant... Am I that unimportant for her that she won"t even argue with me now?"
Xiu angrily slammed the doc.u.ments in her hand on the table as she came back to her own cabin. She immediately went through the meeting minutes before printing it out and taking it back to Dylan"s office.
She stood in front of his desk while he skimmed through the printed copy. "Everything seems fine to me." He stated and Xiu heaved a sigh of relief that she didn"t have to do it again as always. "But..." Xiu pursed her lips as she knew something else was coming now. How could this nitpicky person say just fine so easily? He definitely had something up his sleeve. And Dylan indeed did. Since she wasn"t still confessing about calling him "Uncle", he was gonna make her!
"I"m feeling really down. So, why don"t you bring something sweet for me?" Xiu rubbed her forehead and nodded. She had turned to leave when she heard his voice again, "Ms. Bai, I prefer chocolate cakes. But today, I"d like cupcakes."
"I"ll keep that in mind, Sir." Xiu gritted out with clenched jaw.
Xiu"s first stop was the little cafe near the office building and when she brought the cupcakes to him, Dylan"s reply was, "These are not from a gourmet bakery. Go. Buy again."
Xiu took his order again and went out to find the gourmet bakeries. When she came back after thirty minutes, she was again rejected. Dylan had only taken a bite and said, "This is not the taste I want. Bring it again."
Xiu spent the next three hours going back and forth from office to different bakeries but Dylan always had some excuse for her. For instance...
"This is not moist enough."
"Not chocolaty enough."
"Not sweet enough."
"Too moist for me."
Xiu finally asked, "Sir, why don"t you just tell me what exactly do you want? What is it that you"re looking for? I have already gone to half of the gourmet bakeries in the whole city and yet, you don"t find anything to your liking."
"Do you think I"m making excuses?" He asked.
"Aren"t you?" Xiu was straightforward with her words. She was done beating around the bushes. Now, she had more urges to treat Dylan like a bush and beat him instead!
Dylan narrowed his eyes at her and said, "Ms. Bai, although I do love torturing you. But right now, I"m not doing this for entertainment. I"m really looking for a certain taste." He was exasperated himself by now as he went on, "My best friend gave me a cupcake a while back and it tasted heavenly. I"m trying to find that same taste."
"Why don"t you ask your friend where he got it from? It"ll help you and me both." Xiu suggested for her own goodwill. Her ankles were hurting now because of all the running that she was doing.
"Do you think I"m an idiot?" Xiu had the urge to say "yes" but she kept her urges buried. "I already asked him. He said he doesn"t know the name of the bakery. So, as my Executive a.s.sistant, you should be helping me."
"Sir, don"t you think I"m overqualified for this job?"
"You are. But your job description stated that you have to fulfill all my needs."
How she wished to refute to that. If only she really could!
Poor Xiu and Dylan, both were oblivious to the fact that the cupcakes that he wanted were made by Xiu herself.