Tell Me Again, My Love

There was a soft knock but she ignored it. She was too angry to even care.

Her head turned to look at the door when it was opened without permission and came in Stephanie bringing a mug of hot chocolate. Next to the mug was a small plate of marshmallow. She also found some strawberry candies and chocolate cake in the pantry.

"What?" Mika snarled.

Despite she was afraid, Stephanie pushed herself to keep walking until she reached the coffee table and arranged the drink and snack on the smooth surface.

"Boss, I have made your favourite dark chocolate," she explained gently.

"Hmph."

"If there is nothing else, may I return to my place?"

"Go."

Stephanie bowed politely before she went to the door. She stepped out and closed the door gently. Then, she went to her desk to continue her work. It would be a long day and she had no doubt Miss Mika Long would pull an all-nighter just to design her own set of the collection just in case the team failed to come up with a proper design. 

None of the team actually knew this particular habit of Miss Long. They thought she bullied them so much but most of the time when they failed to reach her standard, she would stay back just to design another collection as a backup. But most of the time, the backup was pushed back in a file, collecting dust, as the team successfully came out with a better design.

They really need to work under a bossy and scary boss like Mika to develop their talent.

No doubt tomorrow Miss Long"s alternative design would join the other collections collecting clouds of dust.

Stephanie sighed a bit and shook her head. Then, she cracked her hands and neck before focussed on her work. Better she put her focus on the important thing which was her own work, rather than thinking about the team.

Soon enough, it was time for lunch. As there was no sound from inside the room, Stephanie stood up and bravely went to knock the door.

"What?" came the snarl. 

Err... Miss Mika was still furious.

Stephanie gulped. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath to gather her strength before announcing herself and asking permission to enter.

When she received one, she entered the room carefully. Mika was actually sitting on her leather chair staring at the computer screen. At the sound of the door being opened, Mika turned her head and looked at Stephanie, c.o.c.king an eyebrow.

"Boss, it"s lunch hour. Would you like to eat outside? Do you want me to book you a restaurant? Do you want a takeout?" Stephanie asked.

Mika looked at the clock on the computer and frowned again. The time surely flew fast when she was busy. She rubbed between her brows and sighed. She still had a lot to do today. She had not even started designing the clothes yet!

"Buy me a bowl of garden salad and some soup," she finally decided.

"What kind of drink would you like, boss?" Stephanie asked.

"Just plain water is okay. Go. Leave me alone," she waved her hand irritatingly. She still had a lot to do. She had no time to listen to her personal a.s.sistant"s yapping.

Stephanie obeyed. She knew which shop to buy the food Mika wanted. She quickly went downstairs and crossed the road. Just in front of the building, there was a small cafe selling healthy vegetarian food. Although it was a vegetarian shop the food provided is so delicious, so many health-conscious customers come to eat. The cafe even provided take out.

Only Ryn hated it. She never wanted to enter the cafe even though Mika asked her many times to have lunch there. Who wanted to eat rabbit food willingly?

Hence, Mika only went there if she felt like it when Ryn was not accompanying her. As it was Mika"s favourite, as her personal a.s.sistant, of course, Stephanie was aware of it. So, whenever Mika wanted to have a take-out and especially when the food she wanted was based on vegetables, Stephanie would go straight to that cafe to buy the food. 

Mika was deep in her work when her door was yet again being knocked.

"WHAT?!?" she screamed furiously. Why couldn"t everyone leave her alone to work in peace?

The door was pushed open, revealing her fiance holding a bouquet of red roses. He c.o.c.ked an eyebrow seeing his fiancee having a bad mood.

"Love, who made you mad?" he asked gently, not even scared seeing her like this.

She refused to answer. Her attention was on her work. Her hands were busy typing on the keyboard, trying to finish this doc.u.ment.

He came closer, bringing the roses. He put the bouquet on the table, on top of the scattered files. Without even asking for her permission, he pulled her to stand and hugged her tightly. His hand stroked her back soothingly.

"Shh... it"s okay. Everything will be alright."

She closed her eyes. Her gripped fists fell to her side weakly. She felt like the anger in her slowly drained away. All she could feel right now was exhaustion.

Truthfully she was tired. The work came back to back. With the huge success of the event held last time, it came with a new responsibility for her to step up her standard. She wanted to be able to reach to everyone"s expectation, especially her family"s expectation.

Not only she had to prepare for the jewellery"s advertis.e.m.e.nt, but she also needed to ensure the money from the donation was used wisely. Of course, the one responsible to choose the contractor would be her brother"s team, but at the same time, she would not let her brother controlling everything. She was the one in charge of the foundation!

Her brother should just focus on overseeing the whole company and his singing career. Let her do her job the way she saw fit!

Jason was finally able to pull her to the couch. He let her leaning her head on his shoulder, still caressing her arm. He also kissed her hand, still trying to soothe her.

"Do you want to check the roses I just bought. I saw them when I was walking to the car today after finished my meeting," he asked gently.

"Hmm..." she nodded.

Smiling, he took the bouquet and brought it to her. He watched as she smelled the fat roses and finally, finally a smile curled on her face.

Secretly he let out a relieved sigh. Luckily Stephanie sent a message to him, telling him what happened this morning.

He leaned back and watched his fiancee cooing at the roses and sending smiles at him. They shared a short kiss before she turned back her attention to the roses. 

"I love you."

"I love you more, my little lolita."

Stephanie, who was about to knock on the door which Jason forgot to close, quickly closed the door when she saw the lovebirds were exchanging love. Luckily everyone was not in the office or the whole company would be busy discussing the gossip until they neglect their work. She put the food she bought in the refrigerator in the pantry. She would reheat them back if Mika wanted to eat them. If Mika forgot, she would bring them back for dinner... well, pre-dinner. She did not think her stomach would stay full only consuming them. She was not like Miss Mika Long who could survive eating this kind of food. She needed real food to survive.

Miss Mika knew about her tendency to finish the unfinished food and Mika did not mind. Mika knew this a.s.sistant of hers hated wasting food and she would eat the leftover food if she had to. She did not even cut Stephanie"s salary even though the food she bought was using the card given by Mr Jeremy Long to buy necessary things for his little sister; mostly lunch and dinner if Miss Mika was too busy with her work. 

Stephanie finished off her lunch, the homemade fried rice with extra egg to fuel her body while watching over the room, waiting for the next instruction. 

True to her though, just as she finished her fried rice, the door was opened and both Jason and Mika walked through it. Jason winked at Stephanie, holding Mika"s hand tenderly. He finally managed to coax Mika to eat lunch with him and the restaurant he booked this time located just an hour drive from here. It was not that far. Once they had their lunch, Jason would bring Mika back to this office... well, after they were done checking the beautiful scenery near the restaurant.