Risking The Hate

Chapter 23: My house of stone, your ivy grows

Tine's POV

My head was paining, I felt like I might pass out. I took a taxi to the office in a rush, got stuck in traffic but somehow made it to the meeting with just one minute to spare.

Two hours later, I finally got the time to sit down quietly in my office and take a breathe. Sneaking out of Sarawat's parent's house like I was some thief was not how I wanted to start my week, but here we are I guess. I felt colder than usual and even Sarawat's warm suit wasn't working. May be I shouldn't have taken that cold shower this morning — but I also couldn't figure out how to turn on the hot water in Sarawat's stupid fancy bathroom. There were so many buttons and I was running out of time. I just needed to get ready as soon as possible and get out of there. I had already overstayed my welcome.

Knock.

I looked up hearing the knock on the door. Trying to readjust my eyes.

"Come in." I called out.

"Hey, how was the meeting?" May stepped into my cabin. "Okay, you look terrible. Do you have a cold?"

"I don't have a cold." I sniffed and coughed out to clear my throat. "The AC is cranked up. Ask them to increase the room temperature?"

"The temperature is the same. AC isn't cranked up. You are the one who has a cold, Tine. You went to the meeting like that?"

"Of course I did because I am absolutely fine. The meeting was the usual. Boring. Uneventful. Ineffective." My eyes went to the big cup of coffee she was holding in her hand which had the logo of the coffee shop across the street. "Please tell me that coffee is for me."

"It is." She put the disposable cup on my table and I could see something written on it. "Someone ordered it for you."

"Who?" I asked.

"How would I know? The delivery guy didn't give me a name. I thought you might know."

I picked up the cup and saw the message written on it — 'Have a nice day, Teepakorn.' Sipping the coffee, I realised it was the same vanilla latte that Sarawat bought for me everyday in office.

"You are smiling? Wow, you are smiling Tine? So you really know who sent this, huh?"

"I-- I am not smiling." I fidgeted and kept the coffee down.

"That was definitely a smile. I saw it already, Tine. Too late to hide it. Now tell me who sent this for you."

"No-body May." I adjusted my suit a bit and tried to pretend I was looking at something very, very important on my laptop screen. Sarawat's suit really did fit me perfectly but the jacket was just slightly tight on my arms.

"Tine... " Instead of leaving, May sat down on the chair opposite mine. "Is that suit, Prada?"

"WHAT??" I looked up in shock. How the hell does she even know?

Before I could say anything, May pulled on my suit sleeves to check the cuff links. "That's definitely Prada."

"Yeah I just...." I pulled back my arm. "I just bought it last week..."

May squinted her eyes. "You are not someone who likes to splurge and you are definitely not someone who would wear something that expensive to office, which only means two things —"

"That you are snooping into my life too much and making my coffee go cold?"

"No, that means, either you have somewhere special to go after office or... this isn't your suit."