Chapter 24: Is This A Payback?

Julia’s POV:

“P-Pardon? What?” Honestly, for a second, I felt as if I must’ve misheard his words on the call which made me sound baffled when I asked him back.

But his tone remained unhinged and with another heavy sigh, he declaimed, “I told you to come and show up at the office right now. I have something important to discuss with you.”

What the heck!? Is this his way of avenging me for disconnecting his call earlier? But even if this was a payback…isn’t it a bit too much?

I was already accompanying him for the whole day with all that tedious shopping and he was the one who allowed me to go home first. Besides, it was already past office time, so why would he make such an absurd demand to go to the office now?

“But Sir…now…I mean—”

“You’ll be fairly compensated for your overtime work today, in fact, I will double your wage. So, tell me the address real quick, because I am very busy to keep chitchatting now.” Without letting me finish, when he sounded very stiff on the call, I realized Damon had already made up his mind for tormenting me with overtime today. I didn’t have a choice to refuse, since I was already in dire need of extra allowance tos start looking for a new apartment.

My tipsy mind had already sobered up from the quick turn of events when I sighed back at him, “I am…close to the office, Sir. No need to send a driver…I can just come on my own.”

“Fine, then show up here as soon as you can.” His stiff voice finally sounded a little eased now after he was successful in making me obey his whims. Keeping a brief pause, he added, “Also, bring a red ginseng wine bottle along with you.”

“Huh? What…”

BEEP! Before I could repeat my words from confusion, Damon hurriedly disconnected the call which flared the feeling of rage inside me. While I stared at awe on the phone screen for a few seconds, Martha asked me curiously, “What did that jerk ask you now?”

“He asked me to show up at the office for overtime, right now.”

“What!?” Just like me, Martha also reacted in a loud, cranky grunt which made me realize I wasn’t the abnormal one to get this kind of pissed at his absurd demand.

Slamming the glass of whiskey hard on the table, Martha vented aloud, “After keeping you with him for the whole day, now that jerk wants to torment you with overtime too? Is he really crazy? Hey, Julia…you’re far experienced and qualified for another job. Let’s just both quit here and leave…”

Even though I was seriously annoyed, but hearing her rant put a smile on my face to watch someone was sincerely concerned for my sake. I asked the waiter to clear the table and helped Martha to stand up since she was quite heavily drunk, as I conversed.

“Unfortunately, I can’t quit this job at this moment, Martha…and as per I know, you also have the housing loan to repay before you quit too, right?”

“Oh, damn! Don’t remind me of that loan now…” Holding my arm as a support, I made sure to pick a bottle of ginseng wine and got a taxi for Martha so that she could reach home safely. When I was done over there, it was finally time to show up at the office just as my annoying boss had ordered me.

Maybe…I was really too quick to assume only good things about him. What if he’s another wolf in a sheep’s mask?

……..

Just as I had expected, all the employees had clocked out of the office but the lights of our CEO’s chamber were still on. Exhaling a heavy sigh, I knocked on his door before opening the door of his cabin and saw he was busy working on his laptop in a serious mode.

“Excuse me, Sir.” My voice must’ve sounded a bit cranky as I was struggling to hide my discontent. Walking inside, I placed the bottle of ginseng wine on his table before urging him, “May I know what I need to take care of, Sir?”

Damon didn’t even bother to slide a glance at my face and seemed a bit sulky towards me. With his left hand, he slid a thick file towards me on the table before conveying his stiff command, “Study these project proposals carefully and submit an outline draft for organizing an event ceremony. I want this task to be finished before tomorrow, so you may go now.”

His cold curt voice irked me furthermore when just with one glance at those files, I realized this task could’ve been easily done tomorrow. There was no need of ruining my peaceful time at the bar…but it must’ve been his way of getting back at me for disconnecting his call before.

Damn! Gritting my jaws in anger, I took the file and didn’t say a further word before I chose to walk out of his chamber. When I grabbed the door knob, I could feel his piercing gaze were locked on me from behind now, but I didn’t bother to make an eye contact.

“Also, thank you for the wine, Ms. Julia.” I heard his curt voice greeting me from behind, but my displeased state couldn’t bother to muster a fake greeting at him, as I chose to walk away outside with just a simple bow.

Headed to my desk, I started preparing for the outline draft which was in fact a tedious job. I didn’t realize when it was close to midnight already when I almost finished the draft and head over to Damon’s chamber quickly to get out of there.

“Excuse me, Sir.” Upon knocking when I opened the door, I saw Damon was chugging the wine directly from the bottle and seemed a little startled by my sudden appearance. He wasn’t wearing his suit coat at that moment, and from the quick jolt, some amount of wine fell and stained on his white shirt.

But he still maintained a stoic expression towards me while grabbing a tissue to wipe the wine stain from his shirt, “Yes, what do you want Ms. Julia?”

“Um, sorry for startling you, Sir.” I felt a bit guilty from watching his expensive shirt stained by the red wine, but walking inside nervously, I placed the outline draft on his table before I mumbled, “I am done with the task, Sir. So, can I go home now?”

“Of course. Wait…I will give you a lift.” To my surprise, he suddenly started to put on his suit coat as if he truly meant his words. But the awkward ambiance between us quickly made me refuse him, “No, I can just take the company’s cab to go home, Sir.”

“No, but—”

“I wish to go home, for now, Sir. Have a good night.” I might’ve sounded a bit stubborn in my tone, but I couldn’t bear to stay there with my overwhelmed exhaustion anymore.

Damon didn’t persist with me any further and after he allowed me to leave, I almost rushed outside to the cab, as I couldn’t wait anymore to escape from that awkward tension between us.

It took almost 1 hour for the cab to drop me near my apartment, and after I managed to drag my exhausted body upstairs, the first sight that almost ran my blood cold from fear was to see…my apartment door wasn’t locked from outside!