Chương 27: Coldness(1)

The place where the men's and ladies' rooms were located wasn't far from the garden where they had been eating. Because Liz had been decisive enough to go after the CEO soon after he left, she easily managed to catch up to him before they reached their destination.

It was an empty hallway, and there were sounds of construction from far away which masked the sounds all around them.

"Mr. Will-"

Calling him with a hesitant voice, Liz became puzzled as to why she had following him in the first place.

As she tried to decide about what to say, the CEO turned around.

Putting both hands behind his back, he looked into her eyes and waited for her to speak.

This only made Liz more flustered.

In fact, she felt a frustration coming over her as she realized again that something was definitely happening to her each time she looked into those striking eyes.

She was usually never like this; the Liz that everyone knew was someone who was never at a loss for words, instead, what was more common was her making the other party speechless by being her usual witty self.

Yet, right now, she was like a bumbling bimbo who went tongue-tied whenever she looked into a handsome man's eyes.

She hated it. But she didn't know how to stop it.

As she started to stammer out something, the CEO raised his hand and said, "If you think I was offended by your eating habits, you can save your breath. I guessed that it must have been a reaction to finding out that you were bugged all along. Is this true?"

The cold voice made her go silent, and she only nodded in response.

"I thought so. That is an attitude you have to change. At Happle, we constantly test our employees in myriad ways. If you are in any situation, always assume that you are watched. The story about previous employees leaving because of the environment is false. They. Just. Didn't. make. The cut."

Each word harshly hammered into her, and Liz had half a mind to retort. Yet, she swallowed it down and decided to first listen to everything the CEO had to say.

"As of now, you have passed your first test. In this world, everything is all about results. I don't care whether you reunite the Mayor with his granddaughter. I don't care if you were lying. You got the signed document, so you are keeping the job. Everything else doesn't matter-least of all what people think about your eating habits. Is there anything else?"

Liz was speechless. If her eating method hadn't been a problem, then why had she had to endure this tirade in the first place?

Of course, in her time working for others, she had been subjected to much harsher words and had even been called things she wouldn't repeat without twisting her expression into disgust.

Yet, for some reason, this particular one hurt.

Lowering her head, she shook it, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to fall.

She had no intention whatsoever of showing weakness in front of this man whose acclaimed cold nature had been on full display.

Indeed, she had just been thinking that all the rumors about him being the 'coldest CEO in New York' were false.

She had been proven dead wrong.

At this moment, she took one resolution that she swore she would stick by if she were really going to work for a long time under this man.

She would be as professional as possible, and she wouldn't care about anything else except 'results', as he said.

Turning around, she walked back to the dining area, with both her appetite and mood turned to dust.

...

Meanwhile, in the Men's room.

The CEO who had just entered was looking at himself in the mirror while doubting his actions for the first time in years.

Usually, he would just have ignored her actions and given her the same information nonchalantly. Yet, she had somehow elicited in him the need to speak like so.

What was it? Why was he being affected by her? What was different about her?

He had been asking himself this since the moment he had seen her pure expression near the limousine, and he hadn't found an answer yet.

This frustrated him to no end. He was used to being clear about everything, so this was like a nail which drove itself into his mind with irritating pain.

Now, he realized that he had taken out that frustration on her without even meaning to do so.

With this realization, the CEO of Happle, Inc. decided to do something to apologize to an employee for the first time, as she really had passed the test with flying colors and had actually deserved praise.

He was going to take her out to dinner.