If You Love Me

Chapter 10

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Plan's POV

Everything happened so fast that I found myself just going with the flow.

Before I knew it I found myself inside Chao's car and he was driving like a maniac zooming in and out of the freeway lanes.

There was a tense silence during the trip. I did not dare to talk. I was too scared to say a word. I just kept praying silently that we would not get into an accident. I took a quick glance at his face. He looked tense and angry. I prayed hard that when we got back to the office he would not give me a scolding or worse that he would not fire me on the spot.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity Chao's car was pulling into the company parking lot. He parked his car in his designated spot that was labeled 'Owner/CEO'.

I was about to open the car door with the intention of running as far away from him as possible when suddenly he grabbed my wrist.

"We need to talk," he said grimly.

"Yes, sir," I said, my heart in my throat, my voice hardly above a whisper.

I tried not to flinch when he placed his hand heavily on my shoulder.

"Listen, Plan," he began, his eyes fixed on mine. "I am going to overlook the fact that you bungled up your interview because it was your very first time to be sent out on such an important task. What I'm finding hard to overlook is your acceptance of an offer by another company without consulting me. You have forgotten that you are still in my employ. You cannot go around accepting other jobs while you are still tied to a contract with another employer. Do you understand what I'm saying, Plan?"

I was so embarrassed about my gigantic failure that I found myself hanging my head and before I knew it tears were falling down my cheeks.

"There, there, now," Chao's warm arms immediately enveloped me.

I found myself sobbing into his chest.

"I'm sorry ...I'm so sorry," I said over and over. "It won't happen again. Please give me another chance."

"I'm not going to dismiss you from your job," he assured me.

Then he broke away to glance at his watch.

"It's almost the end of work hours," he remarked. "You look too emotionally drained to drive yourself safely home. If you give me your address, I will take you home in my car."

I gave him my address. He looked it up on his phone map.

"It's not too far from here," he said. "I will take you there, but first you must be hungry by now.  Let me treat you to dinner."

The mention of dinner suddenly made my stomach start to grumble.

"Which restaurant are we going to?" I asked, all my previous anxiety and sadness forgotten.

"Actually ... " Chao paused for just a second before he said, "I'm a really good cook and I was thinking I could whip up a really fantastic dinner for you at my place."

"That sounds marvelous!" I gushed already imagining all kinds of delicious dishes laid out on a table for me.

"Cool! Let's go!" Chao said, firing up his car once more and soon I found myself being driven first through a bumper to bumper freeway but eventually going into an exit that led us to a quiet tree lined avenue with houses discreetly hidden behind tall concrete fences.

After a few minutes, I saw Chao take out a remote control from his glove compartment and soon a huge black wrought iron gate slid quietly open for Chao's car to drive through.

I gasped as I stared at the huge mansion and wide expanse of greenery that could easily be mistaken for a golf country club.

"Let's go inside," Chao said, putting the car on park and stepping out of it.

A uniformed staff immediately appeared to take his car key and to drive it into a private garage.

I stifled a gasp when I felt Chao grab my wrist and pulling me up the long and wide flight of stairs leading to a foyer.

A row of uniformed servants greeted him at the foyer.

He stopped to address the servant at the very end of the row. She seemed to be the head servant.

"Tell Praew not to cook dinner for me. I will take over the kitchen this evening," I heard Chao say to her.

"Who is Praew?" I asked, starting to get curious.

"He is my personal cook," Chao replied. "He is an excellent cook but I believe that I can cook better than him."

"That remains to be seen," I remarked cheekily which made him chuckle.

"How can you compare when you haven't yet tasted any of Praew's creations," he tsk'd tsk'd after those words.

"Okay, I will give you the benefit of my doubt," I said, feeling recklessly cheeky with no less than the owner of the company I was working for.

"Make yourself at home here," Chao said pointing to a ridiculously large sofa as we passed through the wide expanse of his living room.

"No," I declined. "I want to watch you preparing our dinner. Maybe I could even help you prepare the ingredients."

He stopped in his tracks to look intently at me.

There was a few awkward seconds of silence before he spoke again.

"Thank you for being honest about not trusting me," he said, a hurt look creeping into his face. "But I promise you that I won't put anything in your food to put you to sleep while I take advantage of you."

Blood rushed up to my face at the thought that he had accurately read my mind.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

"No need to apologize," he hastened to assure me. "You haven't known me long enough so it's understandable."

We walked farther on where we turned into a corridor and soon I found myself in the largest ever kitchen I had seen in my whole life.

Suddenly I found myself being lifted by my waist and being set on top of a granite counter top.

"Sit tight right here," he ordered me and then turned to walk towards a large black and silver refrigerator.

I was tempted to jump down to join him but I was afraid that I might sprain an ankle. That would give him an excuse to keep me here in his mansion overnight.

But wait, why was I entertaining those kinds of thoughts. It wasn't like Chao was some kind of predator ready to pounce on me and rob me of my virginity.

So I sat tight just as he instructed, not realizing that I had tightly kept my fingers crossed.