บท 44: Cooking
All morning, Sera had been in dazed as she stared at the codes running on her computer. The unusual stillness in the air that she used to love so much seemed a bit uncomfortable today.
"So, I already signed the deal this morning. I sent you another hundred thousand for your share. Also, the security program that you created was bought by X company. They actually liked it. Ah, the Quinn Media also— "
She nodded at Xu Je'er whose face on her phone. Xu Je'er insisted on a video call her to know if she was still alive or if some dude kidnapped her.
"Hey! Are you listening to me?" Xu Je'er asked.
"Of course. I am just busy with the programs."
"You must be working too hard again! You looked stressed!"
"Yep!" she was obviously working too hard. Her body felt sore.
"Sera! I am telling you, stop working too hard and use this vacation time to relax. Plus, the deadlines — come on. You own this company too. You deserve a break. Plus, we have some junior programmers that could help us."
Sera nodded. "You said something about Quinn Media? Are they going to sue you for what you did?"
"You — Can you stop talking about that? I am proving to my father that I have changed. In fact, I offered to tour him inside our company."
"What did you say when he refused?" Sera asked.
"How did you know he refused to visit us?"
"I would refuse to visit my spoiled daughter too."
"You — Are you really my friend?"
"Nope."
"Sera! How could you be so ruthless? I always thought you are already treating me as a lover! Hmph!"
Sera chuckled. "Did your father invested?"
"Hey! Can you read my mind? How did you know I asked for an investment?"
Sera didn't know what to say. "You are a pampered little princess. You don't have the patience to start a company from the ground up." Sera didn't miss the guilt that flashed in her friend's eyes. "No need to worry. I will talk to Quinn Media for an investment."
"Eh? Quinn Media? The Quinn Media? What are you talking about? Are you hiding something from me? Hey! Quinn Media is a huge company. Why would they invest in us? They only wanted to steal you away from me! That Mr. Quinn must be a pedophile! You know what? You are right, I am thankful that I didn't see him!"
Seeing her silly friend make another assumption made Sera smile. Sometimes, having a friend like this is enough to make her day better. "Alright, I will finish this program. Tell the junior programmers to test the downtime and testing it against identity theft and DoS and DDoS attacks. I sent them an email just now for the instructions."
Seeing her turned serious again, Xu Je'er beamed. "Yes, sir!" With that, the two quickly ended the call. Xu Je'er's call was actually the thing that pulled Sera out of the weird moment that she had earlier.
After the call, she started working. Her fingers flew on the keyboard as she took care of the security in the house, CCTV and alarms, as well as facial and fingerprint recognition.
Luckily, she knew that Mr. Quinn was working on his room so she won't have any problems with letting him in later. After setting up everything, she decided whose identification should she input aside from herself? Should she allow Mr. Quinn to come in and out of this place?
But getting his fingerprint sounded too much, no?
Maybe just face and voice recognition will do. She didn't want to sound like some paranoid. After a few more minutes of working, Sera started stretching. She wanted to go out and get herself some warm water, but decided against it when she thought of accidentally seeing Mr. Quinn somewhere.
Right now, the house was empty, except for the two of them. Who knows if that man would suddenly ask her to pay him on the stairs? Or in the kitchen sink? Or against the two-door fridge?
Wait… what was she thinking? Why was she thinking of lewd things in the middle of the day?
She stood and finally decided to walk out of her office. The moment she took a step out, her expression instantly turned ugly. She could smell something burning.
Alarms rang inside her head as she sprinted towards the kitchen. "What — What are you doing?" she was staring at the source of the smell. It was… uh… meat? Black and charred. "What is that?"
"It's supposed to be steak." His voice was rather down. "It didn't go that well."
"Eh? Why would you cook steak?"
He pursed his lips in response. The action reminded her of a little child…
Wait! Was he trying to serve her food? Was he trying to cook for her?
She approached the burned meat. "Next time, just order something. Or you can eat my food."
"You know how to cook?" his face lit up.
She snorted as she recalled how the food that Cross could make. For some reason, she always found that skill sexy. "Simple ones." She answered. "Don't cook anything. I don't want you to risk burning my kitchen. I'm still working hard to pay for it."
She immediately scolded herself for mentioning the word 'pay' around him. Before he could say anything or do something that might involve pushing her against anything, Sera decided to run back to her office.
Her swift action made him laugh.
Hearing his deep voice echoed, Sera felt goosebumps all over her body as she hastened her steps away from him. Because she was trying to get away as fast as possible, she missed the cunning smile that was plastered across Mr. Quinn's face.
Sera offered to cook for him.
She offered to let him eat her… food.
He looked at the now silent kitchen before he shook his head and walked towards his office as he used his phone to order some food for their lunch. He wasn't really that heartless to let her cook after what happened the other night. So, he would order some food and bring it to her office.
Then, they could enjoy the food together.
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