AN: Hi guys... So sorry for the wait. When I posted my last chapter at the end of Jan, I went for a holiday. When I came back, this Cornona Virus shit hit India pretty hard. So right now I am at home because of the National Lockdown. But recently I have gotten into Naruto Fan friction. So haven't been motivated enough to post this... But worry not, I have a few more chapters ready and I will be posting them every few days till I run out.

Chapter 12 - The Dinner

I slowed the heat on the stove as I heard the doorbell ring and moved out of the kitchen to the living room to open the front door.

"Hey", she said as he came in giving me a kiss. And moving inside to remove her coat and reveal simple but very tight and very hot top and jeans combo.

"Luv, you look delicious." Looking her up and down and then kissing her. She smiled into the kiss snaking her hands around my neck and the back of my head.

"Oh, you have no idea how much I needed that." She said stopping the kiss but not letting me go from her embrace.

"I kind off did, actually. That's why I called you here for a home-cooked meal too soothe what ails you My Lady.", I said in the British accent again. That got her smiling and slapping me lightly on my chest.

"Hmmm…. Something smells delicious. You are actually cooking?", she asked with a shock.

"Of course," I said moving out of the embrace and moving back to the kitchen with her following me. "I did promise you a home-cooked meal."

As she came into the kitchen she was shocked to see various pots and pans about boiling and simmering. "I just thought you said that to lure me here and to get into my pants.", she told me astonished.

"Oh, I am pretty sure you will be dropping your knickers for me tonight. But the offer of food was real.", I told her with a smirk.

"Pretty confident aren't we?", she said raising an eyebrow.

"In my ability to get you to drop your knickers for me? 100%!", I told her with a grin for which I promptly got a slap on my chest.

"Here taste this?", I said bringing the stirring wooden spoon with risotto in it to her mouth.

"Does it need anything."

"Oh my god! This is really good.", she exclaimed after tasting a bit from the spoon. Then she promptly found another steel spoon from the left drawer and took another bite of the risotto. "Ummm… How did you learn to cook like this?", she asked with her eyes closed still in bliss.

"This thing you might have heard called the internet.", I said snorting. "I have been practicing various recipes for several weeks so that I could lure you here with the enticing food and then repeatedly have my wicked way with you." I told her with a fake evil laugh at the end of which I promptly started coughing. That made her laugh in turn.

Once I finished cooking, I took the Garlic bread and freshly made spicy dipping cheese out of the oven and the microwave and took it to the small dining table in the kitchen. I left the Risotto in the pan to remain hot.

"So what are we having?", she asked me as she was setting the table for both of us.

"Garlic bread with homemade cheese dip, risotto and then finally Freshly cut strawberries with whipped cream," I told her placing the Garlic bread and dip on the table.

"Wow, you went the whole mile.", she said astonished.

"Well, you sounded like you needed it, on the phone. And I had a pretty interesting day myself.", I said taking a seat out for her and watching the pleasure on her face as I treated her like a Lady.

"Oh, it was. And I did need it. Thank you for doing this." She said with a smile and then started her story. "So you know Erlich and Jin-Yang were coming today to my office to pitch their app right?", I nodded in accent to it. "So Jin-Yang's app is about a crowdsourced map which would tell the customers which playground close to them is the least crowded.", she told me as I continued nodding my head and opened the bottle of red wine that was already on the table and pouring us both a glass.

"While they were getting in, they caught me outside the office having a…..", she said but stopped, biting her lip in nervousness contemplating my reaction. I rolled my eyes at that,

"Let me guess, they caught you having a cigarette?", I asked to her eyes going wide in shock again. "You know?"

"Of course I know! We have been dating for months! If I don't know my girlfriend liked to have the occasional smoke from time to time, even after months of being together then we have no business being together. Now continue with the story.", I said brushing her astonishment off which only served to make her more astonished and a bit guilty I think.

"I think those rat bastards ratted me out to Laurie because by lunch I am being called into an impromptu smoking intervention,"….. As she went on explaining I went into fits of laughter. "You know what she told me, she told me, 'No one ever died from second-hand heroine', I mean seriously. Now my office was filled with 'Say no to smoke teddy bears', cards and other stupid junk by the end of the day." By this time I was laughing hard.

"It's not funny!", she exclaimed indignantly. "It's a little funny love. You have to admit that.", I told her taking a sip of wine trying to bring my laughter under control. "I will do no such thing.", was her indignant reply but a little quirk of her lips. "And the story is not over yet. So Erlich and Jin-Yang came in the morning to pitch the app idea to me. After lunch, I called Erlich up and told him how much trouble he got me into because of their big mouths. I also called to tell him about the app.", she said finishing the last of the Garlic bread as I took away the dish with garlic bread and bowl with the dip back to the kitchen and placed them into the sink. Then I got the risotto out of the pan and into a serving bowl bringing it to our dinner table. "So how was the app actually? Any good?", I asked serving her a good helping of risotto and then serving myself.

"Ummm… Richard, I said this before but, wow this is too good."

"Thanks. Now on with the story."

"Impatient aren't you? So the app worked fine, in terms of concept. But then I figured, the same app could also be used by pedophiles to find out which playgrounds are least crowded and which would be their ideal hunting grounds.", I visibly cringed at that. "Yeah, that's exactly the face I made when I figured out. Then after lunch, I called Erlich and told him that. And I still don't know how, but he made me arrange a meeting between him and Laurie the same day. "How?", I asked astonished.

"I don't know how! It's like, we know he is a dick. But when he gets talking he has an uncanny ability to get his way!", she said still confused about how Erlich manipulated her to get her way.

"So anyway, we get to the meeting with Laurie, with Jin-Yang, Erlich and me. And he managed to twist the whole pitch and change the use of the app from finding playgrounds to finding crowdsourced smoker hot-spots to avoid. You should have seen it, Richard, he played Laurie like a fiddle.", this time I gave an astonished expression with a raised eye-brow.

"Yeah. And Laurie seemed really interested as well but then Jin-Yang in the whole view of the whole office lit a cigarette saying something about a special occasion." At that, I started laughing out loud again and Monica joined me after a few seconds trying and failing to stop the tsunami of laughter.

"So you are telling me Jin-Yang's chances of getting funded literally turned into smoke", I said as I continued laughing. "That was a bad joke!" she said but didn't stop laughing. "But all kidding aside, my image and credibility took a big hit today."

"Luv, you are smart, beautiful, determined, tenacious, beautiful; did I say beautiful twice; anyways what I mean is you are a fighter. I know you will be fine. Because that is the woman of my dreams I fell in love with and if you need me I will always be there for you to have a shoulder to lean on." I said bringing her hand to my lips and kissing it.

She smiled at that and then suddenly her smile dimmed and took the hand away. "What is your damage Richard?", she asked me with her narrowed eyes. "I am sorry, what?", I asked her in confusion.

"No man can be this perfect, you are ambitious but down to earth; you are ruthless and cunning when the situation calls for it but when you are with me or with your friends I have never seen you be anything but gentle and caring; you shower me with so much love and understanding that I am overwhelmed; but when we have sex it's like I see another whole facet of you, you demand my attention, you demand my obedience, you demand that I submit myself completely to you and somehow you have made me like….no love it.

Richard, we have been together less than a year, and somehow you have managed to make fall head over heels in love with you. And every time I imagine my life without you somehow I feel a crippling sense of loss, anxiety, and depression even contemplating it.

What are you doing to me Richard Hendricks.", she said in a trance-like state.

I didn't say anything, I just got up from my chair, took her hand and led her to the bedroom not coming out of it till the morning to have our strawberry with cream as breakfast.

XxxxX

It was 10 am and a Saturday. Both of us had decided to skip work for the day and take a 'us' day to spend together. We were sitting together in corner of the L shaped sofa with my back to the comfy corner and Monica's back to my chest. Both of us were in bathrobes which were only enticing our libidos more. But unfortunately, after a whole night of fun, we had decided that both us stank and we needed to take a shower, brush our teeth and get some food in us before we could continue last night's festivities.

Both of us were now sitting on a sofa joined together, watching some game on mute and having the cream-covered strawberries.

"So you didn't get to tell me last night, how your day go?" Monica said sitting in between my legs with her back touching my chest as I fed her a strawberry covered in cream with a spoon.

"Of course I didn't, before I could you were dragging me in the bedroom trying to squeeze the life out of my balls." I joked saying completely opposite of what happened.

She elbowed me into the stomach from the front of me. "Oufff, now I know why people say 'Love Hurts'. Oww oww stop pinching me woman or I will start pinching something you will really really enjoy!", I told her removing her pinching fingers from my side.

"Richardddd…", she warned.

"Fine. It's not as amusing as your smoking story but here it goes. So there is this network security guy at EndFrame. Seth Lee, I think his name is. He apparently got fired when Kendall declared the bake-off between us.", I started the story but was interrupted by Monica. "You are still calling it bake-off !?" She asked scoffing.

"Hey, I put some thought into that name. And in the future when they record the chronicles of Pied Piper, they shall forever call this part of our saga, a bake-off.", I said but then I heard her snort again.

"Do you want to laugh or do you want to hear the story.", I asked her ticking her sides making her erupt in laughter.

"Story Story… Richard stop! I am very ticklish.", she pleaded between giggling laughter and I finally relented.

"Fine!" I said snaking my hands around her and finding the perfect armrest. "Um Richard!", she said in an amused tone. "Shhh… Squeezing them helps me think." I said in just as amused tone continuing with the story.

"So this Seth Guy gets fired because somehow Pied Piper became privy to the details of the deal they had with InterSite. As he is the network security officer at EndFrame. He kept sending threatening messages to Gilfoyle and asking how did we get in his system.

Gilfoyle in reply just kept sending him pictures of people choking, followed by pictures of different kinds off balls. Indirectly telling him to…." I was saying as Monica completed for me, "…to choke on his balls. I get it. But did you really break into their system Richard?" she asked in a low voice.

"Do you really want to me to answer that?", I asked her. She didn't reply for a few seconds after which she turned back to look me in the eyes and said, "Yes. Because no matter what, we are in this together. We are going to be together.", she said kissing me.

I sighed with a smile looking at her and hearing that.

"Yes. But Gilfoyle didn't break in... I did. As I was researching EndFrame and its employees I came across selfies employees took in their office that were posted on instagram. In the background of one of those selfies, I saw post-it notes on their computers. I had Gilfoyle clean and zoom on it and it turns out it had their system, Id and password on it.", I told Monica and I had actually done this on a hunch and I lucked out.

"So even if they could prove we bust into their systems, which they have no way of doing, by the way, one of their own employees was responsible was putting a picture with the info in the background on instagram." I told her squeezing… her shoulder to reassure her and then let my hand resume its normal resting place.

She looked amazed at either my luck or ingenuity. I didn't know which.

"So what happened with Seth Lee?", she finally asked coming out of her amazed trance.

"Ohh he got so mad that he waited outside our office to ambush Gilfoyle which he successfully managed to do when all of us were returning home. But the mistake he did was to challenge Gilfoyle to a battle of words. Within minutes Gilfoyle had the man in tears. It was both sad and amusing to see.", I told her with a smirk.

"What will happen to Seth Lee now?", Monica asked from front of me biting her lip.

I heaved a sigh and said, "I already offered him a job, on the condition that he sign a bunch of legal documents that would prevent him from ever betraying us. Other than that I was going to ask you to send some job offers his way through your contacts in the valley. Because I don't think he wants to work for me much less work under Gilfoyle.", after I finished Monica turned back to face me and gave me a kiss.

"You are a kind ruthless man, Richard Hendricks.", she said smiling now completely facing me. "What is that supposed to mean?", I asked her with a smirk.

"I mean, you did what you had to, to save your company. Even if you had to go through people who could become collateral damage on the way. But you didn't feel enough guilt that you acted in a way that would jeopardize what you were building. But you also aren't cold enough to ignore the plight and pain of the person who was affected by your actions, though accidentally. That is the man I love Richard. I know, I am not supposed to. I am supposed to love a kind, gentle and caring man. But men like that are always walked all over by the people of the world.

You are a perfect balance Richard. You are the perfect man. Yin and Yang. Enough good inside of an asshole and enough asshole inside of the good in you." She said giving me a kiss and we began our festivities again.

"My my, Luv you should write poetry... You are amazing... Let me show you my devotio... I mean my appreciation...", I said with a small laugh as we started kissing and lost our selves in our selves...

XxxxX