Prime Minister's Son

Chapter 12: Back by Christmas

Tine's POV

I walked inside the residence, adrenaline still pumping through my brain — May be it was the car drive or may be it was Sarawat. I didn't know just yet, but I was hoping it was really just the car.

Sarawat made me feel happy and sad at the same time and I really had no idea what to do with all of the feelings that had. May be I was just meeting Sarawat too much these days. I needed to bury myself in work to truly detox.

Sammy was already waiting for me in the living room when I arrived— looking happy and proud.

"Tine! Today's event feedback looks great. I can't believe Sarawat saved you from that tough question. He handled the situation pretty well. I should definitely look into the person handling their PR"

"Sure. Whatever. Anyways, Sammy, I want to start working on Mom's reelection campaign at least in some capacity. We already discussed this before. My college is done and these stupid meetups with Sarawat is all I am doing these days."

Sammy took a deep breath and I already knew where this discussion was going to go. "Let me talk to your mother about this and get back to you!"

"Come on Sammy! You know I am good at this. You don't even have to hire me in a professional capacity or give me a job title. Just give me something, anything to work on — I am bored out of my mind"

"Okay fine. I have some voter demographics reports that need to be done and the last intern completely botched it. But fair warning — It will require a lot of research and hours of your time."

"AWESOME! I'll take it. Just email me all the details and I'll get started"

"Okay but you have the charity football game with Sarawat in a few days and that is compulsory, don't use this report as an excuse to get out of it."

"Ughhh sure. I can't wait for these events to be over. Meeting Sarawat everyday is exhausting"

"Really? Didn't you just arrive here driving Sarawat's very expensive car? What part of it was exactly exhausting for you? I work 15-hours a day and I would really like to know, Tine"

"Umm..well.. Damn how do you even know that already? I stepped out of the car like five minutes ago."

"Its my job to know everything here and don't drive his expensive cars out during the day —Remember our agreement Tine.

"Yes, of course. I remember."

"By the way, I came by here to give you the final guest list for the New Year Eve's Youth Ball. Most have already RSVPed. I don't see Sarawat's name here. Should we invite him too? He is your 'best friend' after all."

New Year Eve's Youth Ball was the annual party hosted by me and Pear. We started this tradition from the first year of mom's term as the Prime Minister. The guest list included all the young celebrities, businessmen, sportsmen, and big names in the country. There were only two conditions to attend the party — You have to be in your 20's and you can't bring your phone inside. Everything was off the record -- no phones, no cameras.

Pear became my co-host for the party because she was helping a lot with the party anyway and we didn't want to be termed as each other's dates.

"You know what, let's leave Sarawat out. I don't want to babysit him all night. We'll just make up some excuse that he was busy or something"

"Sure Tine. Your party, your call. I won't force you on this one. Oh and here's some news for you --

your father is coming for Christmas next week. Your mother has already scheduled family dinner for Christmas eve"

Confusion filled my head. "Sammy, why are we going to have a family dinner and pretend like we are a family when we know exactly how its going to turn out?"

"It was your mother's decision. Lets be positive about this? May be it won't turn out like last year"

"Yeah, I am not so sure about that. Anyways, I'll take the guest list and review it one final time. "

Going back to my room, I jumped on my bed. It was only afternoon but it felt like a whole day had already passed. Pictures from the events had already started going viral online and our names had started trending. I looked at a few, no actually I saw all of the photos. Strangely, Sarawat was only looking at me in most of the pictures. How did I not realise that he was looking right at me?

Thankfully, the photographers that were following our car hadn't gotten any pictures at all. But I knew I needed to be more careful in the future. I had big plans for my life and none of those included driving Sarawat's Ferrari in the middle of the day.

Somewhere between scrolling through my phone and thinking about my five year and ten year plan, I went into a deep slumber. By the time I woke up, it was already evening and I had two notifications waiting on my phone — One was an email from Sammy with details about the voter demographic report, and another was a message from Sarawat.

Sarawat[04:50pm]: Leaving for China tonight for some work. I really wanted to play football with you, but I don't think I can, at least for now. I'll be back by Christmas

Tine[06:05pm]: Don't care, Doesn't matter

So, I won't be meeting Sarawat for a whole week, huh? I opened my calendar to check my schedule. The next event with Sarawat was only scheduled after the first week of January.

It wasn't a week. 

I won't be seeing for Sarawat for 17 days. Seventeen.

Good, I guess. I'll just have more time to work on my report and less time to think about him. He always brings trouble with him anyways. I should be happy.. but why do I not feel happy?

I was double checking my calendar when my phone started buzzing. It was Sammy, again.

"Yes Sammy. I received your email and I am starting the report today."

"No, that's not why I called"

"Oh, what happened?"

"Nothing serious. Just your football event with Sarawat has been cancelled for now. I just got a call from their PR head. Apparently he will be out of the country. I am guessing he'll only be back after New Year's so I don't think it should affect the rest of of the events"

He told me he would be here by Christmas.

"O-okay. I didn't feel like playing football anyway."

"By the way, did you cross check the guest list for the party? Does it need any changes?"

"It mostly seems fine. But Sammy.."

"Yeah?"

"Lets invite Sarawat to the new year's party well. He will probably not come anyway, it will be a nice gesture to just invite him to the party"

"Sure. I think its a good idea. Should I send the invite to Sarawat and plus one?"

"Plus one? He doesn't have a girlfriend, why does he need a plus one?"

"Its new year's Tine. People usually take their dates out for parties."

"I don't"

"Because you are... well, you"

"Well he doesn't need a plus one either. Lets just invite Sarawat and Phukong. They can be each other's plus one."  

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A/N: Next chapter, Sarawat comes back. There is a long late night drive and a lot goes down at the New Year party -- SUPER EXCITED about writing it