As the elevator bell dings and the doors slide open, I stride to the pantry while Chloe's little feet are hot on my heels. She needs to run a little to keep up with my speed. When I see John standing by the counter, busy arranging the food on the service trolley, I let out a relieved sigh.
"Oh, John! I thought no one was here when the caterer delivered the package. You really are our savior!" I beam as I walk to the trolley to check the meal for the lunch meeting. Two big platters full of sushi rolls and four different sauces are arranged in the middle of it, a platter of Japanese fried snacks, a gigantic bowl of mixed salad, and some beverages. My stomach rumbles as a result.
"Of course, miss–"
"I told you to call me Charlie."
"Charlie. Tanya texted me about the accident. Poor girl. She should take a taxi or get a driver for herself. I always wonder how she got her driver's license...Uh, hullo there, little one." John grins when his eyes spot Chloe who is hiding behind me and poking her head out, probably checking where all this delicious smell comes from.
"Hello."
"I'm John. What's your name?"
Chloe scoots to my side and shyly extends her hand. "Chloe. It's nice to meet you, sir John."
John laughs and takes her small hand. "Nice to meet you too, Madame Chloe."
I chuckle witnessing their encounter. I have no idea why Chloe always addresses men at my work as sir, except for Dave, of course. He and his wife are huge fans of my girl, and their boy happens to be Chloe's classmate.
"Alright. I'm going to get ready for the meeting," I say as I glance at the clock. "We still have twenty minutes until the meeting starts."
"I'll be at your service shortly, Madame," John bows at her before shifting his gaze to me. "Where do I deliver her lunch?"
"She will be in Mr. Knight's room," I reply, ignoring his exaggerated gasp. "Thank you for doing this, John."
With that, I grab my daughter's hand, ushering her to leave the pantry room. I can hear a reluctant groan escape Chloe's throat, but she needs to wait a bit for food. She has to be somewhere else right now and I've been anxious about this the whole morning.
Chloe is meeting her maybe daddy.
I keep convincing myself that there is nothing to worry about. No one knows what's going on inside my head. No one has learned my suspicion of who Chloe's father is. And it's all just speculation for now. Nothing has been proven yet.
Mr. Knight is sitting on his desk, eyes fixed on the phone in his hand, when I knock on his open door. "Good afternoon."
The man who is wearing a casual navy suit lifts his gaze from the cellular phone and his green irises lock with mine. He opens his mouth, about to say something, but immediately closes it again when his eyes catch a movement behind my hips. He knits his eyebrows as my daughter's face emerges. That's when the two pairs of emerald orbs meet, gawking at each other.
I hold my breath in anticipation. The situation reminds me of a scene in a Mexican telenovela my mom used to watch. When something big takes place, the camera switches from one face to another face, zooming in and out, suspenseful music blaring in the background. This is exactly that. Only, there is no camera and no suspenseful music since what we hear right now is the song Do You Want to Build a Snowman coming from the television screen.
I clear my throat. "This is Chloe, my daughter." I wrap my hands on Chloe's shoulders and give her a gentle push so that she takes a few steps forward. My eyes never leave my boss's which are now glued to my daughter's figure. "I'm going to get her settled first then I'm all set for the meeting."
Noticing that the pairs are still having a staring contest, I softly brush Chloe's chestnut bangs backward as I bend over to her ear. "What do you say when you meet a new person?"
As if being woken up from deep slumber, Chloe jerks her head and blinks. "Hello, sir. My name is Chloe. It's nice to meet you."
Mr. Knight props himself up from his desk and gives Chloe a tight smile. "Likewise. And I'm Ashton." He then walks to the sofa where I see children's books piling up on the coffee table, and a few puzzle boxes are arranged next to them. A jar of candies, which I swear wasn't there yesterday, sits in the middle of it. "Daniel brought these for your daughter. He said she can have them if she wants because his kids are now too big to keep this stuff."
"Oh, wow!" I gasp before nodding at Chloe who looks up at me, asking for permission. "Very generous of him. I need to thank Mr. Tan personally for this," I say while eyeing my eager daughter.
"Can she read?" Mr. Knight asks when he sees Chloe pick up a Cinderella book.
I shoot him an 'are you serious?' glare. First, diapers, now this. Was he born as a teenager?
He stares back at me and shrugs. "I don't have kids. And I don't study the phases of children's development."
"I can read books, but only the ones with lots of pictures," Chloe answers proudly before grinning like a mule eating briers. "Your eyes are also green, like mine! Or are they contact lenses? Mine are real though."
Mr. Knight frowns. "Why would I wear contact lenses?"
"To change your eye color?"
"But why?"
"To look cool. K-pop boys wear that. They also wear high heels like mama's she-letto!" Chloe's eyes widen in excitement. "Diana keeps a lot of pictures of them."
"Come again? Who is wearing your mom's high heels? Who's Diana?"
"Okay! Time for a meeting," I cut in. This conversation isn't going anywhere, and the meeting starts in less than fifteen minutes now. "Chloe, we will be just a few doors away. It's the last door down the hallway. If you need anything, go look for Sir John in the pantry–"
"Sir John?" Mr. Knight asks, but before I answer him, he seems to be able to connect the dots. "Oh!"
"If it's urgent, you can always come to me. Okay? Your lunch will be here soon." I glance at the jar of colorful sweets. "And no candy before lunch."
"Yeah, okay."
"We won't be long. I will be back before Elsa's movie is finished."
"Then we go to the arcade?"
"Yep."
"Okay. Have fun!" With that, she throws herself to the sofa and snuggles between the decorative pillows, hugging the book she picked to her chest.
What I love about how things work in this company is efficiency. They trim off the unnecessary social convo, which means it cuts down the chance to ass-lick. All issues are broken down into a clear concept map before they start listing the potential problem-solving. In the last ten minutes, they wrap it up by deciding which department is going to execute it. The only thing that slows down the meeting today is the food. But I don't mind, because I'm hungry as well, and the sushi roll is like a bomb on my tongue.
At twenty-past one, the meeting is over but people still linger. Seeing that I can't do my job when the room is still packed, I excuse myself to check on Chloe. To my surprise, the girl is now curling and purring on the yellow sofa, eyes closed while the movie is still playing. She rarely falls asleep in foreign places. Did John feed her a bit too much? Or was she tired out of boredom?
Tiptoeing, I take a blanket from the basket next to the sofa and spread it over my daughter carefully, not wanting to wake her up. I'm not sure how soon Mr. Knight needs to use his room again, but for now, I'll let her be. I can just carry her to the car once I'm done tidying up the meeting room.
When I'm back in the meeting room, there are only three people left. Max, Mr. Tan, and Mr. Knight are engrossed in a casual chat about their youth and reminiscing about the good old days. Well, it's about them being stupid, to be precise.
"How is your girl holding up? Did she manage to throw all our CEO's furniture out of the window?" Max asks when he sees me enter the room.
"Actually, she's asleep right now." I glance at Mr. Knight. "If you need to be in your room, I'll wake her up."
"No. Let the girl sleep a bit more," Mr. Tan replies on our CEO's behalf. "Ashton can use a little boy talk with us here. He needs to get his mind off work a bit."
Glancing at Mr. Knight who just shrugs at Mr.
Tan's answer, I nod. "Ah okay. I'll get the rest of my job done then." With that, I go straight to inspect every table but my ears are at their maximum radar.
"Man, being a dad to a daughter is terrifying. I mean, we know how hormonal teenage boys are and the thing they do to get into girls' pants. We've been there!" Max whines. "I swear, if one of those kids dares to mess with my girl, he will be six feet under before his balls are fully grown."
Mr. Tan chuckles bitterly. "Max, prepare yourself for what is yet to come, boy. Very soon, you will be your daughter's unwanted fashion advisor." Mr. Tan piles up the papers in front of him while shaking his head. "Teenagers nowadays are showing too much skin. It's worrisome."
Max groans as he slumps back on his chair.
"One of the reasons I never want to have a kid," says Mr. Knight flatly. "I just don't wanna deal with all these teenage hormonal impulses and the bouncing rages. I'm not sure if I can deal with the mini-me, let alone having a daughter. I would probably tie her with a rope so that she's always in my sight."
I can't help scoffing, followed by a roar of laughter from Mr. Tan.
"And she will hate you for the rest of her life," the CFO retorts.
"Better than seeing her getting knocked up at a young age."
"That's what condoms are for."
"Don't trust it. It still can break."
"Speaking from experience, huh?" Mr. Tan laughs again. "Did she really never show up again?"
Mr. Knight chuckles before shaking his head. "Nope. Good thing. It means she didn't get pregnant."
"Wait, what? I don't get it," Max cuts in. "Did you say that you possibly impregnated a girl, and she let the chance to drag you into legal marriage slip off just like that?"
"It happened when I was still in university. She didn't know me."
"Ah, that makes sense!" Max clicks his tongue.
"Had a shitty day, hit a party, found a random pretty girl, and got laid. The next morning, I realized my condom broke, but she left already." Mr. Knight winces. "Man was it messy. I had to take a test to make sure I was clean and get mentally ready if she came back to me with a baby bump drama and stuff. The waiting was torture, but she never reappeared at any of those frat parties afterward. So, I assumed there was no baby after all."
"If your assumption was wrong, and she was actually pregnant, your child would be seven years old now, I think. Or maybe eight," Mr. Tan adds.
Mr. Knight purses his lips. "Yeah."
"Ah, the same age as Charlotte's girl!" Max exclaims.
It's when the documents in my hand slip off my grip and are instantly scattered all over my feet.
⭐⭐⭐