Never Meant To Be Apart

28. Inside out

The sun was shining on top of the tree which scattered it's sunshine to a million little suns in between it's leaves.

The cool breeze was giving a pleasant effect to this warm summer day as we sat beneath the tree on a mattress with our picnic basket enjoying a Sunday morning in this beautiful park.

Ben decided that we should go on a picnic. It was weird and nearly impossible for a CEO to enjoy a Sunday morning without the threat of being attacked by criminals or whatever he had his body guards for.

So, two trees away from our picnic spot were sitting two of his body guards all in black suit with goggles looking out of place with the whole picnic scenerio.

They were looking kind of creepy to be honest but I had to ignore them as we had no choice.

Now I think of it they were kind of weird and creepy in appearing out of no where and I am quite sure when Ben decided to spend the night at my house they mist have been on guard just outside the apartment.

"So, what do you want to eat first? Hamburger or sandwich?" He asked me interuppting my train of thoughts.

He and I had spent our morning preparing food to bring with us. Since he knew how to cook and I was not bad at it we worked in sync with him occasionally stealing kisses 'by accident'.

He looked so adorable wearing a new shirt and a pair of jeans which his creepy body guards brought with them. His manly intimidating 'I-am-CEO' look was replaced by a boyish carefree aura that made my smile involuntarily just by looking at him.

"You know you ate looking creepy staring at me while smiling like a psycho killer." He said while tilting his to one side and giving a lopsided grin.

I pouted to give an angry expression which was hard to keep with him being so full of life sitting across me.

"And now I want to kiss you fiercely. What is wrong with me. " He chuckled and I scowled in response which made him laugh further.

I ignored his stupid laughter which sounded sexy as hell and took out a hamburger for me and a sand which for him. I then proceeded to take out two cans of beerbut was stopped by Ben who held my hand.

"May be you should drink something else besides alcohol " He laughed nervously as if feeling part guilty saying those words.

I looked at him feeling the guilt and pulled out a juice can instead. His words were something that will be keeping me up tonight since I didn't want to think about it now and ruin the moment.

To diffuse the tension I decided to say something may be flirt back that will if I knew how to flirt.

"And what were you doing all morning trying to find excuses to kiss me. " I asked failing miserably at my attempt to flirt.

"Trust me, I am not done yet." He winked at me which made me blush a little.

He has always been straight about his intentions that somehow aroused me more than batting angry by his bluntness.

"Why you don't have any girlfriends of yours to that ?" I retorted .

He frowned but composed himself after few seconds

"No. I have my eyes for only one who is sitting across me looking hot and cute both at the same time. "

The answer caught me off guard. I was speechless so I did what a childish person like me would do. I stuck my tongue out at him. He gave a hearty smile which made my smile back.

The day went by with us enjoy the breezy summer under the tree lying down making shapes out of clouds for sometime and reading for the other time.

My sour mood from last night had vanished with the hangover headache and was replaced by a euphoric state.

We ate lunch at a local cafe nearby the park and spent the evening walking around the local shops eating fast food that left no space for dinner.

After dropping me to my apartment and stealing yet another kiss in the name of good bye he left for his apartment and I ended up watching reruns of 'Friends' for the rest of the night.

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"what is up E.T.?" Ed asked as he plopped to the chair across me at our desk.

"Your fly is up. You shmuck" I retorted back.

"Love you too sweety. Now let's get to work." He spoke with a tinge of sarcasm. My sassy ass had to answer that.

"And you know how to work. How? " I answered back.

"Mark is calling us sass queen. Hurry up we can play this love game someother time " He said as he walked to his office.

Mark had been missing from work for the past few weeks now. The reason was a mystery to all of us and asking Ed was like banging your head on wall; Useless.

Sitting behind the desk was Mark who looked very awful. He had large dark circles under his eyes. I had no idea how to ask or what to ask so I chose the easier path of not to ask. I walked inside quietly and adjusted myself on the couch as Ed talked crap. He too didn't ask him anything which meant he already knew what was going on with Mark so I just needed to ask kiara about it and I will get the needed infrormation.

" There has been a development in investigation of Mr. Evans case. Turns out the warehouse where drug dealing was taking place was bought by him only to give it to his rival as some form of agreement and he was in middle of changing process of ownership which explains his name and says he had no idea about drug dealings going on. We were not able to find any other evidence to support this accusation. It is but obvious he wants to talk his way around to free himself and we will not be left with anything but a deranged reputation of our newspaper which could cost ourselves our job. So what we have to do now is damage control to cover up for this thing singer we are not left with any option. Any ideas?"

" I think for now we should stay low. We can throw a fund raiser or something in a meanwhile. It will help people and also put our mms in good books."

Ed said with an unbelievable serious tone. I was shocked to hear something smart coming out of his mouth and so was Mark but he didn't say anything about it.

" good idea. I'll talk to Ben about it. Mean while you can get back to whatever you were doing. " He said.

I stood up to walk away but was interrupted by Mark's voice.

" Becca I have to talk to you. " He said.

Ed winked at me and walked away while I replied with an eye roll and turned around to face Mark once again. He had a grim expression on his face.

He handed me an envelope what appeared to ba an invitation.

" This is my wedding invitaion. I hope you will free yourself on 12th to attend it. " He smiled a forced smile.

I was speechless. Although I had no feelings left for him. Whatever we shared for the brief amount of time was forgotten by my mind as a mere illusion or misunderstanding and now that I was sought of seeing Ben, it felt stupid when my emotions decided to play a sad tune instead of happy one for him.

I forced a smile and congratulated him while taking the invitation and promised to RSVP him.