“Long time no see you, Cassandra,” a deep voice greeted from behind her, Cherrie stiffened, damn, she cursed inside her head, what the hell, the first, okay, second day after she’s back and she already met him? Inside a bookstore from all the places?
“What’re you doing here Liam?” Cass asked him curiously
His gazed bored into her, “Nothing,” he said after a minute
“Nothing?” she asked incredulously, she couldn’t help herself, ,”You aren’t the type who want to hang around in a bookstore,” she accused him
A small laugh escaped his mouth, and she couldn’t resist to saw his face, which was a mistake, since all she could focus in were his sensual mouth, “No, I’m not,” he admitted, “I saw both of you come here and I’m kind of curious when you stopped in this section”
“From where?”
He nodded at the café across the street and she stared at him like he was some kind of alien, “You know what section we stopped into?”
He shook his head, “No, but I had a feeling that I would see something rare if I came in here,” he looked at the cookbook in her hand, “Don’t tell me that you don’t know how to make a salad?” he asked her and she could hit his smug face
“I could make a salad, thank you very much,” and added, “These are for Cass, now, if you would excuse us, we’ve much more important thing to do,” she drew Cass with her before Liam could said anything else
“Really, what happened between you and him?” Cass asked her curiously, and she sighed loudly, she hadn’t give up the subject when she told her to shut up in the car, and certainly not now, if this was any indication
“Come on, Cher, you couldn’t blame me for want to know, you know all my secrets”
She glanced at Cass, who was more concerned about Liam than her bet, “I’ll tell you about it if you could make three dishes perfectly, or at least edible”
“It’s not fair!”
“All is fair in war and love,” she said calmly
Cass gave her a dirty look, “Just remember you’re the one who said it,” when she nodded, she went to kitchen and proceeded to prepare everything
“What do you want me to make anyway?”
Cherrie thought for a while, maybe she was a little rash when she said that to Cassandra, but she remembered the memory as if it just happened yesterday instead of three years ago, and she shut her memory down before it could affect her, no, she thought, it’s necessary, even if it was Cass
“You don’t have to make those dishes today, Cass”
“I want to,” she just smiled when she heard the determined voice of Cass, this would be a long day, she thought
“We’ll see about it,” she smiled, and then added, “For appetizer, how about Chef Salad?”
Cass didn’t say anything about it, even if she clearly wanted to, instead she just nodded and started prepared everything
An hour later or so, Cherrie had to stop her from her attempt to destroy her kitchen, even if she wasn’t aware of it, and smoothly she took care of whatever left from the ingredients
“Seems like you wouldn’t know what you want to know for quite some time,” she smirked at Cass who glared back at her
“It just that I don’t have enough ingredients to make that stupid salad,” she snapped
Cherrie shook her head, amused, “The ingredients that you spent is enough to feed thirty starving people,” when Cass opened her mouth again, she added, “and that’s only for chef salad”
“But I already follow that stupid cookbook that you bought”
She rolled her eyes, “which is exactly the reason I wonder why you couldn’t make one salad,” that statement just earned a shrugged from Cassandra
“What are you doing with the rest of the ingredients?” Cass asked her suddenly
She eyed her warily, “I don’t know yet, why?”
“You could cook, couldn’t you?”
“Yes, why?”
“Why don’t you make some lunch for us?” she suggested finally
“If you want, it’s okay with me”
“It’s settled then,” she smiled
Cherrie just shrugged and eyed what’s left from the ingredients, “What do you want to have for lunch anyway?”
Cass thought for a while before decide, “How about escargots de Bourgogne, seems delicious”
“I don’t have the ingredients, you could forget it”
“I thought that you prepare all ingredients for me to use today?”
“No, I just prepare most of ingredients, besides, you wouldn’t add any snails in your lesson today”
“Don’t you have faith in your friend,” she muttered, audible enough for Cherrie to heard
“I was there when that French chef swore that he would never, ever teach you again, the same that told his colleagues about you, I believe?”
Cass rolled her eyes, “He was exaggerating. My dish wasn’t that bad”
Cherrie burst out laughing, “Sure, and pigs fly”
She glared daggers at her friend before dropped the topic, didn’t see any point arguing with her, “how about moules a la crème Normande?”
“No mussels, so no”
“Since when do you become so hardhearted?” she whined
“Since we don’t have either mussels or snails,” Cherrie replied easily
“Why don’t you prepare them?”
“How should I know that you want to eat something exotic for lunch?”
Cass sighed, “What do you suggest then?”
“Pizzaiola? But of course, if you still want your escargot or mussels, we could always go to a French restaurant”
The other women sighed, “Fine, you know that you already win, so why you don’t start make it?”
Cherrie grinned at her, “Just want to make you admit defeat”
Cass arched her finely shaped eyebrows at her, “Not happening in your case and Liam, believe me”
“Ah, well, there’s always next time”
“And you certainly could always hope,” Cass smirked at her annoyed face, “since you already promised”
She tried to clamped down the images at her head with distracting herself at cooking and it did wonders at to shut her brain up
“It’s delicious,” Cass commented while she put another forkful of pasta in her mouth
“Thank you,” she smiled at her compliment before continued to eat her food
“Who taught you to cook by the way?”
“Joan,” she smiled at her shocked face
“You’re kidding right?”
She chuckled, “No, and she is an accomplished chef”
“How the hell could that woman find the time to cook in the midst of her super busy schedule?”
“Ask her”
“I don’t even know she could cook, for goodness sake”
“Sure, you assume she has a live in chef cook for her in her penthouse,” she ignored the dirty looks that Cass thrown at her
“She could have one of those housekeepers,” Cass rolled her eyes
“She did,” she said sweetly
“Do remind me why I'm still talking to you?”
“Because I’m amazing”
Cass just nodded her eyes, “Yeah, because you’re the best in what you do”
Cherrie just chuckled and they changed the subject into Cass’s next season collection and enjoyed their meal thoroughly, they stopped catching up only when Cass were called back to oversaw something in her boutique
Exhausted, Cherrie finally lay down to sleep in her comfortable bed only to be haunted by dreams and images so vivid of something that she wanted to forget
She actually awoken before ten in the next morning and have feeling that she wouldn’t enjoy anything that would happen soon
“You already awake?” she turned her head to found Nate inside her bedroom, shell shocked
“Morning to you too, Nate,” she drawled, “now, could you give me my robe?”
He nodded and brought her the robe, “What happened? You don’t usually awoke this early”
“And you don’t usually inside my bedroom if it’s not important”
He smiled, “Nah, Sebastian asked you to go to office today”
She groaned, “Should I? What happened with him? I thought that he’s perfectly capable of taking care of anything?”
“He is only a CEO, and you’re the owner, for goodness sake, you haven’t overseen your company in what, almost two years?”
“But I gave him that job because he is the only one who could, since you two don’t want to”
He laughed, “Am I glad that I’m not! Sebastian and you could argue your point with him later”
“Fine, but tell him don’t expect me in there for at least another hour,” she said while walked to her bathroom
“It would be perfect, he wants you in twelve o’clock meeting,” he laughed when he heard her groan inside the bathroom
An hour or so later, she appeared in her living room with white suits, white blouse and white pants, she’s clearly making a statement, much to Nate’s amusement
“I assume you’re going to the office like that?” he eyed her barely buttoned white blouse
She raised her eyebrows, “Why not?”
When he shook his head and laughed, she walked away, her car keys jingling in her hands, “I’m going, see you later”
“Are you sure you don’t want to be accompanied?”
“Nope”
“You’re just being kidnapped”
“By a hot, sexy guy, do you hear me complained?”
“Well, no”
“Then I’ll see you later,” with the last statement she went away smiling, oh, yeah, her kidnapper was one sexy guy, she wouldn’t argued with that
She entered the tall building that was her company in Manhattan with a full air of confidence, nothing bothered her, even though she’s being stared at from the moment she stepped into the building
“I’m sorry miss, but do you have an appointment?” one of the receptionist asked her after carefully observed her from head to toe, whatever she saw in her, it seems that she decided that she’s a celebrity or something like that
Cherrie smiled with amusement, “No, but Sebastian expected me”
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Casson didn’t said anything about it,” she said in the same tone that she used before
She looked at her watch, it was almost twelve in several minutes, she wondered if Sebastian already cursed blue streak by now, his temper could match her brothers
“Well, how about you tell Mr. Casson’s secretary that I’m waiting in here?”
She looked hesitated, but after a while nodded her agreement, “Miss, could I have your name?”
“Just said that Cherrie’s here,” looking at her expression, she really wanted to know what’s playing inside her head right now
She watched when the receptionist called Sebastian’s secretary and confirmed her presence, her interest growth when she saw the emotions that flickered in that receptionist face
“Miss, please follow me,” she said after a while and lead the way to the exclusive lift that’s have an access to the highest floor
She really, really wondered what Sebastian face would be seeing her escorted like this, and she didn’t have to wait for long, she thought.
Cherrie ignored both the receptionist and Sebastian’s secretary warning to not opened the meeting room’s door, she just went ahead and opened it with style, to everyone shock
“I wonder if you would never come here,” Sebastian looked at her with the impassive face of him
“Good afternoon for you too, Sebastian,” she smiled and took her chair at the head of the meeting room table, “I don’t think that I miss much, do I?”
“I told Nate,-”
“That you expected me in here for twelve o’clock meeting,” she finished for him, “I’m here now, so stop sulking”
He glared at her before he realized that his board of directors didn’t recognize her, and noticed uncomfortable feeling in their face
Clearing his throat, he got the attention, “So, this young lady that just come is actually the owner of this company, Miss Cherrie Larimar”
*** Author's note : I'm really sorry for not updating sooner... anywaay, I'm really, really glad that my friend, MissTrouble123 adviced me to go for PillowHeart when I'm uncertain about my cover.. She's amaziiiiiiiiing!!! Thank youu, girls !! <3
OH, and I hope you enjoyed my story! Please comment, so I know how I'm doing, and if you really love my story, please vote!! <3