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131


"Aah!" Beatrice yawned for the sixth time, and tap her left palm continuously over her mouth. She blinked her eyes severally just to drive away sleep.

She leaned closer to her table, sorting out the important files that Ben will sign first thing in the morning.

Her eyes darted to her wristwatch on her left hand and saw that it was past six, almost close to seven in a few minutes.

"Goodness, I need an energy drink," Beatrice muttered to herself, her eyelids felt so heavy, but she still stubbornly widens her eyes and stared at the black text on the white paper, closing the dark blue file she just checked through before she placed it among the less significant files, then she grabbed the black file which was the next.

Beatrice yawned again, making it the seventh time, and she turned her head over to Ben's side to check if he was still there, but he wasn't.

'Maybe he left already,' Beatrice thought wearily, staring at Ben's empty seat.

'But how come did he leave, and I didn't notice?' She asked herself, slightly amused, she must have been so lost in her work that she didn't notice when Ben was leaving.

'And he can't even tell me he's leaving,' Beatrice scoffed to herself while going through the black file in her hands.

She kept on working for another 30 minutes again, then She glanced at the remaining files left for her to do.

"It just remains three," She encouraged herself and sighed in relief, she doesn't want to carry over these works to the next morning.

She dropped the red file she was just reading among the less important files and reached for a blue file.

It remains two.

'Almost there,' She enlivened and blink her eyes to clear her sight which was getting blurry at the moment, and brought the file closer to her face, her eyes scanning quickly over the black text.

Suddenly, the file disappeared from her hands and she snapped her face up furiously just to see Ben staring at her with his forehead furrowed at her.

Then her glare dissolved, and her lips parted in a keen expectancy.

"I've thought you've gone home," Beatrice uttered as her musing took a sudden and arbitrary twist.

"You should rest, Beatrice," Ben said, a line appearing between his brows, then he stared at the file in his hands and dropped it on her desk.

"No, I can't unless I'm done with my work," Beatrice spoke stubbornly and leaned forward stretching her arms to take back the file Ben collected from her, but before she could reach the file, Ben grabbed it from the table quickly.

"Hey!" Beatrice snapped annoyingly, her brows drew together and her expression hardened.

"I'm telling you to take a break and go home," Ben ordered, and Beatrice sighed and leaned back on her seat and eyed him with frosty calmness.

"I'm not going home until I'm done with my work," She stood on her grounds while trying to keep her tongue in check because she was exhausted already, she can just shout at him harshly due to frustration, so he better leave her the way she is now.

Ben was thrilled by her determination, that the corner of his eyesight twinkled.

"I thought you've gone home already, why are you here?" She asked, still putting her tone on a calm level, then her eyes flickered to his, and they held contacts.

"I haven't and as your boss, I'm telling you to stop working," Ben's voice was very deep emanating authority in them.

"Give me the file, Ben," Beatrice uttered in a growl, her gray eyes had turned dark due to Ben's annoying presence, if he wasn't here she would have been on the last file and be pleased that she was done.

"Are you going against my order as your boss?" Ben growled, giving her a serious look, but Beatrice was unfazed by him.

"Yes!" She shot back at him and Ben was taken surprised, Beatrice stood up from her and drew the chair back a bit.

"Yes, I'm going against your order, now, give me back the file," Beatrice fired at him and Ben glared at her.

"Why are you so stubborn?" Ben asked her, and Beatrice breathed out before marching over to him and snatching the file away from him.

"I have two more of this left to tend to, if you hadn't appeared here and taken out of my time, I would have been done by now," She flared at him as she turned scarlet every ounce of sleep and tiredness in her earlier had disappeared because of Ben.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm not going anywhere not even my home until I'm done with today's business, I'm not shifting anything over to tomorrow," She showed him the file while Ben was amused by her attitude.

A slight smirk crept on Ben's lips.

"You are so daring, Beatrice," Ben taunted, while Beatrice breathed in and out deeply while she glared at Ben.

Ben opened his mouth to talk, but he was shut off by Beatrice.

"Don't try to act all bossy on me, Ben, your duration for that is over," Beatrice said firmly, pointing her index finger to his lips, Ben gazed at her pointed finger towards his lips speechlessly then he flickered his gaze back to her face.

Beatrice inhaled sharply once more when her gaze traveled to her pointed index towards his alluring lips and her gaze rested on his lips, she sighed when a nasty thought crossed her mind and she withdrew her finger away from him immediately and coughed slightly, clearing her throat then she flipped her hair to the back and began to stride over to her seat, not waiting for Ben's response to what she just said.

Ben was still stunned and just decided to leave her alone when she said it remains just two for her. He knew Beatrice won't back down even if he decided to stand his ground with her, he watched her seat on the swivel chair and how she moved closer to the table than she opened the files in her hands and began to read the text.

Ben smirked and stood in front of her, his hands shoved into his pants suit.

Beatrice, on the other hand, tried to concentrate on her work, but she was distracted by Ben's intimidating presence, and she dropped the files on the table in frustration.

"Will you just stand there and stare at me?" She questioned him, feeling irritated a bit.

"Do you have a problem with me standing in your front?" Ben asked deeply in an icy tone.

"I would like to have a little space, I don't feel comfortable when people watch me work," Beatrice uttered sheepishly.

"Get on with your work, I'm not disturbing you," Ben said arrogantly and Beatrice closed her eyes in agitation, then chewed on her lower lips a bit harder than necessary.

She opened her eyes shortly and muttered under her breath, "Such a pain in the ass."

"I heard that," Ben informed, but Beatrice ignored him and tried to focus on her work.

'Who cares whether you heard it or not?' Beatrice thought annoyingly to herself and flipped to the next page of the file, her eyes scanning through the text quickly.

Fifteen minutes later, Beatrice was done with checking all the files as she smiled happily to herself.

"I'm done!" She said suddenly and stood up from her seat and stretched herself, spreading her arms wide in the air.

"Good, let's get going?" Ben said, and Beatrice looked at him like he was an alien.

"Let's get going. Together?" She asked for clarification as she grabbed her phone and handbag.

"Yes," Ben confirmed, then took a glance at his Rolex wristwatch.

"We are not going together, are we?" Beatrice questioned, she still looks confused.

"Did you bring your car?" Ben asked her in a boring tone.

"I didn't," Beatrice furrowed her brows at him.

"I'm taking you home, then," Ben offered, and Beatrice narrowed her gaze at him.

'Why?' She asked in her mind.

"I can grab a cab home," She declined.

"No, I'm taking you home," Ben insisted and Beatrice stared at him skeptically.

"Fine," She grumbled.

Her eyes were trying to penetrate through Ben to see what he was up to, but she couldn't even do a simple reading on him, or know what he was thinking about.

"Are you done staring at me?" Ben asked her, a taunting smile appearing on his lips.

Beatrice parted her lips and tried to talk, but no words could form in her mouth, she didn't even know what to say to respond to him.

Without saying anything, Beatrice made sure she had switched off her system, then she began strutting towards the door while Ben followed behind her.

~~

"Where are you going to?" Beatrice questioned being at alarm when she noticed Ben was taking a route different from what she had told him earlier.

"You must be hungry, and it's late, I'm taking you to a restaurant, you'll be too tired to cook tonight," Ben said thoughtfully, his gaze fixed on the road and Beatrice found herself smiling at him.

'So, sweet of him,' Beatrice thought because honestly, she would be too tired to prepare any dinner for herself tonight.

"Thanks," She mumbled and turned her head to the side of the window and stared at the streetlight that shone brightly on the road as cars zoomed past them shortly Ben overtook a Jeep and continued driving at a certain speed on the road.

Finally, Ben parked in the restaurant park of Xi'an famous foods, a popular Chinese restaurant in New York.

"Wait!" Beatrice gasped happily, staring at the restaurant through the window. 

"This is the Chinese restaurant we both come to when we were in high school," She beamed happily and without waiting for Ben's response, she unbuckled her seat and unlocked the door, and came out.

Ben smiled at Beatrice, he was happy that Beatrice remembered they do come here whenever they had a test, anyone who failed among them will buy a meal for the next person until the month ends and well, he always failed physics, and he would be the one to buy her Chinese hand-pulled noodles.

Ben removed his gray suit, throwing it to the back of the black leather seat of his car, he loosened his tie too and also threw it into the back seat.

"God! These ties are chokers," He muttered to himself, stretching his neck side to side before he unbuttoned three buttons of his blue shirt and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to his elbow and ran his hands through his hair before he got down from his car, staring at Beatrice who had a bright smile on her face while she stared at the restaurant.

Beatrice wondered what was taking Ben so long in his car, so, she turned her head over her shoulder and saw Ben staring at her.

"Come here," She gestured eagerly at Ben with her hands telling him to move closer to her, and he nodded closing the door of his car before he pressed the button on the key of his luxurious car.

The car beeped, showing some yellow lights by the side of the car, before he trotted his way to her.

Beatrice's gaze flickered over Ben's new look, she noticed how hot he looked with a few of the buttons of his shirt unbuttoned, showing her a sneak peek of his chest and how the sleeves of his shirt he just rolled up tugged at his muscles.

'Beatrice, you are zoning out,' Her mind chastised her, and she snapped out of her weird thoughts about Ben.

"What made you think of this place?" Beatrice smirked at him, trying to look unaffected about Ben's appearance, and Ben just smiled at her.

"I just missed this place," Ben answered, and Beatrice nodded, shifting her gaze to the entrance of the restaurant.

"Yeah, me too, it's been so long I've been here too, come on let's go inside," Beatrice told Ben, and they began making their way to the entrance of the restaurant.

They could feel the soothing and warm aura the restaurant was emanating.

~~

"Hmm! I've missed this so much!" Beatrice nodded in bliss after she used the chopsticks to put hand-pulled noodles in spicy soup into her mouth and began to munch on it.

She ordered spicy and tingly beef hand-ripped noodles in soup, it has flavorful chunks of spicy and tingly beef served with hot sauce and Chinese pepper.

Ben, on the other hand, ordered a spicy cumin Lamb hand-ripped noodles in soup, and he savored the sautéed cumin lamb mixed with the wide and tender hand-pulled noodles.

"So hot!" Beatrice gasped, using both of her palms to cover her mouth, as she tried to cool down the hot noodles in her mouth before swallowing them.

"You are rushing," Ben chuckled, while Beatrice's eyes glistened at him as she began chewing the noodles.

"I love it hot, it tastes so better than when we come here those times" Beatrice smiled at him, then she stretched her arms and used her chopsticks to take a piece of Ben's sautéed cumin lamb and Ben snapped at her.

"Hey!" 

"What? I just want to taste yours and know how good it is," Beatrice giggled, putting the steamy flavored lamb into her mouth and began chewing on it and Ben stared at her.

"It tastes amazing, but mine is better," Beatrice boasted and Ben's lips twitched and the corner of his lips curled into a smile.

He remembered back in those days when they were together and Beatrice will suddenly steal out his food and will say the exact words she just said now.

Beatrice's gaze met his, and she saw the spark his eyes held while gazing at her.

She darted her eyes to the cup of water on the table and drank it, before placing the cup back on the table.

Then she pointed her chopping stick towards Ben and stared into each other faces.

"Why do I think this feels like old times?" She questioned in a low tone, her eyes prying at him as she lifted an eyebrow at him.

Ben chuckled, the corner of his lips twitched as he lowered his gaze into the bowl of his steamy noodles.

He began using his chopsticks to play with his noodles while Beatrice stared at him.

Then his gaze flickered back to hers, his heart beating at a steady rhythm, "Because it does," Ben responded as their eyes met and held each other, feeling the tension surrounding them.