Leap OF Fate novel Chapter 45

Unable to work for a week, her action items for implementing their expense software for Rain International piled up. Unlike in the past where she would just drop by when they have a meeting, because of her piled up work, she had asked Justin to give her a desk in the Finance department so she could work closely with Arthur and his staff.

The idea of having her close thrilled Justin. He agreed to her request immediately. Her desk was strategically in between Leo and Rich.

The two were chatting while drinking coffee when she came in. She gave them a curt nod and a smile before sliding into her chair. Going through her email as soon as she settled it had been her routine. She had just opened her first email and had barely read the first sentence when she heard the two men on her either side chuckled.

Her brows furrowed when she saw that both were looking at her.

“Come on, Serene, loosen up. Even Arthur does not dig into work soon as his butt touches the chair, ” Leo said in between chuckles.

“Right. Do you want me to get you coffee from the pantry?” Rich chimed in.

Serene rolled her eyes at them. “In case you, uncles have forgotten, I’m a week behind, so I have a huge pile of work waiting for me, ” she said smiling then shifted her attention to her emails.

After a while the two began to busy themselves with work and attending meetings while she continued to dig her way through her 1000 emails.

A message notification showed on her screen halting her momentum. She clicked the notification box to read the message from Justin.

Let’s have lunch. Shall I get you, or are you OK coming up here?

Lunch? Is lunchtime already? Her eyes darted at the time on her taskbar. Indeed it’s just five minutes before twelve.

I’ll come up.

After sending her response, she tidied up herself and then grabbed her cup. She quickly told Leo that she’d take her lunch to which he had simply nodded.

Thankfully, she did not have to wait long for the elevator to arrive. Luck must be on her side because it was empty. She punched Justin’s floor and quietly looked at the digital display change as it ascended one floor at a time.

Justin’s secretary spotted her. She immediately ushered her in without Serene needing to say anything. She blushed at the thought that Justin must have given her instructions.

She gave two gentle knocks before she heard him say, “Come in”.

Sensing the opening of the door, Justin lifted his head from the stack of paper in front of him. His brows unfurrowed and a smile etched his lips from the sight of her. He moved out of his chair and walked towards her wrapping his hand on her waist.

He gave her a long passionate kiss. Knowing that she’s working in the same building as him, he’d been controlling himself from inventing a reason to have her come up to his office. He wanted to hold her all day.

From the few times he’d witness Serene work, he knew that it would blow her top if she found out his thoughts.

“I heated up the food,” he said after reluctantly releasing her. He guided her on the couch. On the table in front of it were their thermal lunch bags.

She walked to it and unpacked the food containers inside. He sat on the couch and patted the space beside him. She sat on the space he indicated and ate her sandwich while he spooned his rice and curry.

As usual, they ate in silence. A feeling of peacefulness enveloped them as they each savor their meal.

“I’m stuffed,” Justin said as he placed his spoon and fork aside. There was not a grain of rice left in his plate.

Serene had also just finished and wiped her mouth with a tissue.

Justin made an excuse that he has something to talk to Arthur about. She just rolled her eyes at him because she knew it was just his lame excuse to send her back. He chuckled not feeling guilty at all after knowing she saw through his trick.

After depositing her in her seat, he no longer bothered going to Arthur’s office to talk and ask him some random stuff. She figured out his trick anyway.

Once again, Serene buried herself in her emails. It was almost two in the afternoon when she cleared her inbox. She stretched her back to ease the tension she felt on her lumbar area.

When she saw that Leo and Rich were no longer occupied, she requested them to do a test integration with the codes she wrote.

Their initial test failed and spat a lot of errors. She worked on correcting each one of them. Once finished, she asked Rich to run the program. Leo had just excused himself because he needed to hop on another meeting.

Rich ran the codes. It failed again and gave out errors. Her brows furrowed because the errors she got were identical to the first one.

“Hmmmm, what could be wrong? I did the corrections but it still gave me the same errors?” she thought.

“Rich, do you mind if I looked in your ERP?” she asked tentatively. She knew that there might be sensitive corporate information she might not be allowed to see. To her delight, Rich rolled his chair to the side, giving her a view of his computer monitor.

She pulled her chair into his terminal and seriously looked at the bunch of data in front of her. From time to time, she would ask Rich a question, he would lean in beside her to look at her question then explained it to her.

The two of them were huddled so close to each other and were talking in a voice just a notch above a whisper when an exaggerated throat clearing called their attention.

“Time to go, ” Justin said, not looking very pleased. She thanked Rich for his help then hurriedly collected her things. Justin’s appearance does not look promising. His brows furrowed and his lips pursed tightly.

Once she reached his side, she took his hand surprising him but improved his mood. Serene was not fond of publicly displaying affection especially in the workplace however, Justin looked like he’s going to murder Rich so, she needed to take action.

They walked hand in hand until they reached their parked car. She just buckled her seatbelt when he came in. He did not immediately start the car but just looked at her with brows raised.

She bit her lower lip. It turns out, he's still not over it. She unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned in to kiss him.

He did not respond to her. Serene almost gave up, but when she gave her lower lip a gentle bite, she felt him reach for the back of her head and deepened the kiss.

She was out of breath when they separated. Justin drove out of the parking slot with a satisfied smile on his face. Serene could not help but shake his head.

It never occurred to her that the man who stood at the helm of the business world was the same childish man she just coaxed.