Chapter 22-Lunch
“What’s on my schedule today?” Serena Winston asked her manager while sitting in the back seat of her car.
“Um. y-you have a shoot for the moonlight body wash in ten minutes and another shoot for the new emerald jewellery in the afternoon,” Jane Colton responded cautiously.
She had received the order that Serena was banned from being the Wentworth group’s ambassador but she hadn’t told Serena because she thought there was an error.
Serena was the CEO’s fiancee. Why would she be fired and banned from the Company she would soon own through marriage?
This was the reason she kept quiet about the order and Serena was none the wiser. “Hurry up, will you? Do you want me to run around when we reach the shooting scene?” Serena snapped
She had gone on a vacation the past week and just returned the previous night. Since Aaron was still ignoring her, she had come up with another plan to make him marry her. After the shoot, she would pay Edmund Wentworth a visit to complain about him.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the shooting scene. The moonlight body wash was a product made by Wentworth’s cosmetics and Serena had been endorsing it for five years.
The shoot was being done at the beach. When she arrived, Serena haughtily walked towards the crew but her eyebrows furrowed when she saw another model shooting the scene.
Her face contorted viciously and she glared at the program’s manager. “What is happening here? Why is this bitch taking my place?!” She yelled, trying to sound. intimidating
However, the crew just glanced at her and continued with their work. In the past, they used to be afraid of her because of her ties to the boss. But now that the order came from him, they knew that Serena was not in Aaron’s good graces anymore.
Anger washed over Serena when she was ignored. ‘How dare these good-for-nothings treat me like this? I am the lady boss!’
“What do you think you’re doing? Do you want to be fired? I asked why there’s another bitch. shooting my scenes!”
The project manager was annoyed with her ranting so he stood up and faced her. He crossed his arms across his chest and responded, “Miss Serena, we are working here and you’re disturbing the process. We don’t know anything. All we know is that the higher-ups gave the order to change the brand ambassador for the Company. I suggest you take it up with the boss.”
“What? Are you saying Aaron gave the order to cut me off?” Serena asked incredulously.
“I’m afraid so,” the project manager responded. He then turned his attention to Jane and asked, Didn’t you inform her of the new development? I had communicated.”
Jane fidgeted in her stance and shrank when Serena glared at her.
“I-I thought there was an error-”
“Let’s go to the Company headquarters, I need to see Aaron and tell him what’s happening,” Serena uttered.
She then glanced at the project manager and warned him, “You better start packing your bags because this will be your last day on the job”
She didn’t believe that Aaron would ban her from being the Company’s brand ambassador. Even if he was avoiding talks of their marriage now, Serena knew he had a soft spot for her.
Back at the Wentworth group, Aaron was smiling to himself as he recalled how Tessa had been calling him by his name the past few days.
It had been four days since the club incident. Every day, he would take some time off and pick up the children from school and then he would buy his daughters and Tessa flowers. Reagan would get a gift of his preference too.
Aaron was happy that Tessa was no longer hostile towards him but there was only one problem. She still didn’t want to talk about them. Aaron tried to have some time alone with her but she would always avoid the topic.
The obvious distance she was putting between them was hurting him. It was really hard to get close to her. He took out his phone and took a selfie of his face looking sad before sending her a text.
Aaron [Thinking of you. I’m sad because you’re so far away.]
When there was no reply, he typed in another message.
Aaron: [What are you up to?]
He watched the phone for a while but just when he thought she wouldn’t reply, his phone received a notification. He quickly opened the message and his heart soared when he saw her reply.
Wifey: [I’m working]
It was short but Aaron felt like it was a love message. Having Tessa reply to his text was like a dream come true.
He typed in another message while smiling from ear to ear.
Aaron [What’s for lunch? I miss you.]
Wifey [No time. I’m busy. Stop texting.]
Aaron: (Ok. I’ll pick up the kids. Don’t stress. Love you lots.]
A thought suddenly occurred to him and he pressed on the intercom on his desk to talk to his assistant
“Prepare the car and make an order for a variety of food from our hotel’s chef,” he ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Enock responded.
Aaron stood up and grabbed his jacket. He then went into the bathroom to check himself out. He made sure his hair was neat and his beard was trimmed. When he saw that he looked good, he smirked and left the office.
He had to make sure he looked good and attractive enough to get Tessa’s attention At the same time, when Aaron left the Company, Serena happened to arrive She missed him just by a few minutes.
She obnoxiously strode towards the entrance but before she could take a step into the Company, a security guard stuck his hand out in front of her to stop her.
“What are you doing?” Serena hissed while glaring at the guard “Do you know who I am?“ She looked vicious as if she owned the place. However, the guard stood his ground.
“I’m sorry, Miss Serena. You’re not allowed to enter the Company. Mr Wentworth’s orders,” the guard said respectively.
Serena raised her hand and slapped the guard. “How dare you stop me? Don’t you know I’m Aaron’s fiancée? I’ll get you fired!”
She was about to force her way through but more guards came and stood in her way “You’re not allowed into the Company, Miss. If you force things, we shall have you arrested.” One of the senior guards said.
Serena stomped her feet on the ground in frustration. ‘What is Aaron up to? Why has he suddenly banned me from the company?”
She took out her phone and tried to call him but as usual, Aaron’s line was busy. It had been doing that for some days and she now realised Aaron had blocked her
Anger surged through her and a malicious look plastered her face. She returned to her car and decided to turn to the man who held the utmost power in the Wentworth group for help. Aaron’s father.
Meanwhile, Tessa was so engrossed in her work that it didn’t occur to her that she had to eat Michelle and Lisa had invited her for lunch but she told them she wasn’t hungry.
She had to finish the first draft of one of the buildings for the T&A properties project. Someone suddenly knocked on the door and she groaned internally.
“Michelle, I said I’m not hungry. I’ll eat later,” she called out without looking up. “I don’t think it’s wise to work on an empty stomach.”
Tessa jumped out of her skin when Aaron’s deep baritone voice reached her ears She looked up and saw him standing at the open door with some bags of food from the Wentworth’s imperial hotel.
She noticed how he looked smart in a three-piece grey suit and a white shirt underneath. The sun illuminating the office through the window cast a warm glow on his face, making him look like a god that had just descended to Earth.
bunch
“Why are you here?” She asked, frowning. Aaron smiled and raised his hand that had the bags of food and waved it at her, saying, “I brought lunch.”
“But I said I’m busy.”
“And that’s why I brought you lunch because you can’t go out at the moment.”
Tessa sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn’t know what came over her when she responded to his texts. Did she give him the wrong idea?
“Aaron, I…”
“I just want to have lunch with you, Tessa It’s okay to take a fifteen minutes break,” Aaron cut her off and invited himself in He then pulled out a chair and took a seat before placing the food on the table. There was some fried rice, smoked chicken, sweet and sour ribs, some fries and a beef burger with a garden salad. All of Tessa’s favorites.
Tessa had no choice but to put her blueprints away and began to have lunch with Aaron. She glanced at him and saw that he had only taken a small portion of the food, so she ended up asking, “Why aren’t you eating more?”
“I’ve already eaten.”
Her eyes widened. “Then why did you buy all this?” Aaron smiled warmly and glanced into her green eyes. “I wanted to spend time with you. I told you earlier. I missed you.
The tips of Tessa’s ears turned red. Was this really Aaron? Did he always have a sweet tongue? Aaron noticed that Tessa was blushing, so he decided to use this opportunity to explain himself.
He cleared his throat and said seriously, “Tessa, five years ago… I didn’t receive your messages or your calls. So I didn’t know about your mother’s illness. I’m so sorry it looked like I didn’t want to help you. It turns out Serena had blocked you and deleted your texts when I was away from my phone. I wouldn’t take a life and death situation lightly and ignore you when you needed help.”
Silence befell them as Tessa took in his words. She recalled how helpless she was back then and her heart ached. What was the use in saying all this now? The damage had been done.
“I came to see you, though. You still ignored me,” she said in a low voice.
Aaron swallowed, his stomach twisting with nerves. Guilt filled him completely. That was one of the things he would never forgive himself for He looked at Tessa, his face looking remorseful and said, “I have no excuse for that. It was pride. I thought you had been ignoring me so I thought I should ignore you a little to make you feel what I felt. It was silly and childish of me and I’m so sorry for that, Tessa. I wish I could turn back time and right all my wrongs.”
Tessa dragged in a sharp breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. She didn’t like thinking about the past because those memories were painful for her. But it was good to know he hadn’t ignored her despite knowing her mother had cancer. Something he said made her glance at him, feeling confused.
“Wait, what do you mean I ignored you?” She asked. Aaron sighed and responded, “I had been calling you and sending text messages but you didn’t reply. The only thing you did was send a text telling me the money I gave you wasn’t enough-”
“Wait, wait… are you saying Nora didn’t give you the money? I had returned those cheques and I didn’t receive any calls from you nor did I send a text of that nature.”
Aaron’s eyes widened and then anger ripped through him when a thought occurred to him. ‘Did someone else cash that cheque and manipulate Tessa’s phone to send me that text?”
There was only one person who had such a high level of tech skill and Aaron felt like rushing to the Winston’s group to strangle him to death.
He clenched his hands into fists. It was his fault that someone took advantage of Tessa. He shouldn’t have let her go.
His eyes watered as he glanced at her, “I’m really sorry. No one would have manipulated the situation if I had stood by your side and protected you. I’ll investigate this matter thoroughly.”
He then grabbed her hand from the table and asked, “Please forgive me, Tessa. I love you and I’m sorry I didn’t realise it sooner. I promise to treat you right this time. Can we start over?”
Tessa could tell that he was sincere but her heart rejected the idea. It wasn’t love that she was scared of but the pain that comes with it.
She took her hand back and shook her head.
“I’ve heard what you’ve said and understood what happened. But I just want to be alone at the moment and focus on myself and the kids.”
Aaron’s heart shattered at another failure in his quest to get a second chance but then, Tessa added another line that made him hopeful. “Since we will be seeing each other more often, we can just be friends.”
