The Way to a Man's Heart

Chapter 13

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

Third Person POV

Just before the midday break, Alice called Pavel on his office extension.

"Hey, are you taking your lunch break at the company cafeteria or at the nearby mall?" she asked.

"I think it would be best to take it within company premises," Pavel replied. He didn't want to be late coming back from his lunch break on his first day at work.

"Sure," Alice responded. "That's a good idea. See you at the cafeteria in three minutes then?"

"See ya," Pavel replied before putting the phone down and going back to his office computer.

He was startled when his extension rang again. It was Alice.

"Hey, Mr. Workaholic," she said. "If you wanna be the office hero of the month, skip your lunch and continue working at your desk till kingdom come."

Pavel glanced at his watch. Oh shit. He had kept Alice waiting for more than ten minutes. He had promised to be at the cafeteria in three minutes.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Pavel was beside himself with apologies. "I'm taking the bullet train right now to the basement."

The basement was where the cafeteria was located. It was already teeming with the other employees.

Over a lunch tray with a hot bowl of cheddar broccoli soup and a plate of pieces of teriyaki beef strips with a side of fragrant jasmine rice, Alice tried to get to know Pavel better.

Alice tried her best not to show her surprise when Pavel confessed that he was still trying to get over the fact that Khaotung had ditched him for Khaotung's co-worker Podd, but then again he wasn't totally grieving because he was finding himself getting more and more attracted to his building manager, Mr. Dome Ratthanaphast.

Well, Alice was thinking, if Pavel was into men, then maybe she could do her boss, Mr. Tee Jarujitranon a big favor by bringing them together. Tee himself was still trying to get over a heartbreak. But then again, was it wise to start an office romance between the boss and a subordinate?

Pavel thanked Alice for her company after their lunch break.

"The pleasure was mine," Alice smiled.

"The cafeteria serves really good food," Pavel remarked. "I wouldn't mind taking all food breaks at the cafeteria."

"Me as well," Alice responded. "The franchisee of the cafeteria is a summa cum laude graduate from a well known university that specializes in international culinary arts."

"No wonder then," Pavel said as he pressed the button of the elevator that would take him and Alice back to their floor.

Just before the end of office hours, Alice buzzed Pavel.

"Hey handsome, Big Boss is demanding for your presence at his office," said Alice.

"Any idea what he needs from me?" Pavel asked, starting to feel nervous.

Alice almost blurted 'your dick' but bit her tongue before the words could come out.

"No idea, sorry," Alice said. "Get your ass in there now quick. He's not a very patient man."

"I thought you said he was a nice guy," Pavel chided her before putting the phone down and rising from his chair.

It wasn't as bad as Pavel had expected.

Tee had just shown him a binder that had been delivered during the day. The binder contained several laminated pages of snippets of different kinds of fabric. Tee wanted to get Pavel's opinion on which fabric would suit the men's apparel that Pavel was designing.

At the end of the work day, Pavel drove back to his studio apartment feeling really good about himself. He was financially stable now. No need to dig into his savings which he had set aside only for emergency use.

His thoughts flew to his very good looking building manager. He wondered if Mr. Dome would be open to helping him celebrate his first day at work by going out to dinner with him at a restaurant of Dome's choice.

After parking his midsize SUV at his allotted space in the building parking lot, Pavel walked straight to the building manager's office.

Pavel was just in time to catch him before he left it.

Pavel noticed that there was another guy who had walked up to Dome's office and was waiting to speak with him. He didn't seem to be a tenant. He was wearing an executive suit.

"My office is now closed," Dome said before Pavel could say a word. "Whatever is your concern will have to wait until tomorrow."

And then Dome had turned to Mr. Executive Suit to say, "I told you earlier that there is nothing more to discuss."

At the same time that Pavel turned to look at Mr. Executive Suit, Mr. Exec himself turned to Pavel. Then in unison they pointed to each other and asked Dome, "Who is he?"

"I have no time to entertain any of you," Dome said turning to unlock his unit door. "Now if you would both please excuse me."

Mr. Executive Suit grabbed Dome's wrist.

"Not so fast, sweetheart," Tae said. "You need to know exactly what happened on that day that you came back from Yorkshire."

"He doesn't want to hear it. Leave him alone," Pavel said sternly to Tae.