The CEO's Favorite

Chapter Twenty Seven

Gabriel never answered my question. According to him, he was not yet ready to answer my question, but he would soon. In addition to that, he promised he would never be rude to me again. I didn't know whether to put faith in that since he had once told me he wouldn't snap at me.

His excuse was that he'd been hungover, which had me questioning why he'd been drinking. That was another thing he had said he wasn't ready to talk about, but I had a feeling it had to do with the person he lost years ago.

After that day, Gabriel reduced the rate at which he snapped at people. Well, more like, he reduced his interactions with his employees, having the manager interact with us instead.

My colleagues thought it was my doing and they became friendlier to me, which is probably why, "Hey, Aria, we're all going out for a drink. You should come."

One of my colleagues whose name I haven't bothered to learn says. I'm about to decline when Nessa jumps in. "Yeah, we don't always need work to be the excuse to be around each other."

"It's a Friday night. Loosen up." Marcus throws his arm on my shoulder.

"I'll be there." Belle prompts.

Convinced, I smile at them and bring out my phone to call Hilda. Thankfully, she doesn't have anything else to do, so she's okay to look after Lucas for a few more hours.

"I'm not getting drunk though," I tell Belle as I pack up all my stuff into my handbag. My mind drifts to the last time I went out for a drink. That was the day I met Gabriel. If it wasn't for him, I may have been working as a waitress or a bartender at the moment.

"Of course," she agrees, but there's something in her tone that makes me not believe her.

As Marcus, Belle, and I approach the elevator, I'm about to press the button when it suddenly opens, revealing Gabriel. I stare at him, a question in my gaze. We agreed that he would stop coming to my floor, just to keep the rumors at bay.

He gestures for us to enter and we do. "I was just coming to meet you. Are you busy after now?"

Belle coughs and Marcus elbows her, shutting her up. I hold back a smile. "Kinda. I and the others are going out for drinks. It's been a long week."

I don't expect the next words that leave Gabriel's mouth. "Can I come?"

I look like a deer caught in headlights as I stare at my friends for an answer. I don't want to turn him down, but I also don't want to bring the boss to what is supposed to be an informal setting and ruin the mood.

"It's okay. You don't have to—"

"Sure." Marcus agrees for all of us.

My mouth parts in shock. "He can come?"

"He's our boss. Is that even a question?"

"You don't have to act like I'm your boss when we get there though. You can just pretend I'm not there and do what you'd usually do."

"I guess he's coming," I mumble under my breath and Belle nudges me playfully, wriggling her brows.

Gabriel offers to give all three of us a ride to a location after enlightening us with the fact that we'd be too drunk to drive ourselves home after drinking.

As we get to the bar, our other colleagues are taken aback when they see Gabriel with us. They don't know how to act around him and upon our arrival, they all stand up to acknowledge him, referring to him as sir. Gabriel cringes and I chuckle. "None of that here, please. Gabriel is fine."

Nessa throws me a 'what the fuck' look and I just shrug, nodding my head at Marcus. She raises a brow at him, making him shrug as well, mouthing, "He's the boss."