Chapter 5

It's Not Seduction!

Day One - Morning . . .

The day went by too slowly. There was only one task in the office, but I wasn't complaining. I spent most of the day gossiping with Hannah and Noel and most of it was all about Elizabeth's juicy personal life.

The gossiping duo shared that Elizabeth's married but the husband's not really good in bed and because she's sex-starved, she was crushing on Christian. Noel said that watching her try to be sexy was like watching your 90-year old grandma wear a push-up bra and post it on social media.

I laughed at Hannah's imitation too. Okay, she hyperbolized when she almost performed a lap dance on Noel.

Aside from Elizabeth, we also talked about our new officemate from the Risk Department named Brady. Hannah and Noel were very impressed by his knowledge on cybersecurity.

"It's good. He keeps our manuscripts from leaking online. You know how easy it is to have your shit get posted without your consent," Noel said while applying foundation on his face.

"Ana, I heard he's single. If he asks, will you go out with him?" Hannah questioned innocently.

"No, thanks," I answered with two simple words before taking a sip of my Frappuccino.

Hannah and Noel knew about Jose last week. One time at lunch, I scrolled down my feed and saw the photo of him and Leila looking like a perfect couple in Paris. Unlike what I did on the plane though, I didn't lose my shit. Instead, I tried to share the story to Hannah and Noel as calm as possible. And by calm, I meant my mascara ran down my face.

It took almost thirty minutes until I had the strength to unfollow him.

"You're not following your ex again, are you?" Hannah asked with much suspicion.

I shook my head and told her honestly, "Oh no. It's just that I want to focus on myself."

"That's my girl!" Noel cheered. "We should focus on women empowerment!"

The other truth was Brady wasn't my type. He was tall and lanky and he wore plaid shirts buttoned up to his throat. He wore glasses too. Okay, I wasn't that shallow, but apart from his physical appearance and fashion sense, I also shared a few conversations with him in the copy room. He always started out with a weird question:

What's the color of your toothbrush?

What's your favorite number on the air conditioner?

So, what brand of deodorant do you use?

Again, not my type.

Day One - Evening . . .

I was all geared up and ready to fight the bacteria in Christian's home. I hated to sound sexist, but in my mind, his place would be a total mess.

While on the way to the address he gave me, I imagined myself in a karate uniform with a black belt. Then, animated germs were all over the place but I fought them with karate moves. Yes, Ana! Hi-ya! You can do this!

Well, his house wasn't exactly a house. He just referred to it as a house for some reason. The cab stopped in front of one of those luxurious and high-rise condominium buildings and goodness gracious! The place smelled expensive from when I first stepped inside. I was pretty sure that this air freshener cost a hundred times more than my perfume.

As Christian instructed, I approached the receptionist to get the key card.

His floor was at the topmost of the building and he occupied the entire floor. I gasped out loud when I saw the beauty of his place inside.

Each furniture was just so lavish and the walls revealed themselves immaculate as they were all coated in the purest yet calmest of white. The L-shaped leather couch was black and so was the very wide kitchen. I wasted thirty minutes of my time just exploring the place. Okay, it really wasn't that much of exploring, but just more of snooping.

There was a shiny white rack that contained all of his certificates. Most of the plaques and trophies were for their companies, but there were also lots about journalism. Right beside the awards were some photographs too. I assumed he was in Asia in some of those pictures. For some reason, he looked happier when he was in his journalist years.

"Come on, stop now, Ana. Work! Work! Work!" I told myself.

But, what's there to work for? I looked at the place and it wasn't even that messy. Okay, there were a few dusts here and there, but it's nothing I couldn't clean in less than fifteen minutes.

His bedroom was clean too. I expected to see used condoms or dirty sex toys, but nothing. This man was neat and tidy and in fact, I felt like he can clean his whole apartment even without a cleaner.

Why was I even here?

I just shrugged. I must not question why. Rendering two hours per day for five days will deduct a thousand dollars from the debt.

I went to the kitchen and finally found something to do. I emptied the garbage bin and found boxes of food he ordered from restaurants. Okay, these were expensive food he ordered online, but still, it didn't feel very satisfying to just have this for dinner.

Since I was bored and I thought that since he offered me a ride home the other night, why don't I do something nice for him? You know, to kill the time too. I opened his double door fridge and gasped at the food I saw. This fridge was like a whole grocery store in one room.

I tucked my short hair behind my ears and braced myself for an adventurous cooking.

"Ta-da!" After almost an hour, I was done cooking pasta carbonara and it tasted delicious. After eating my share of the pasta (which I really deserve), I left it on his table.

When he comes home tonight, at least he'll eat and he won't have to wait for an order online. Somehow, that thought made me smile. Wait, what? Where's this coming from?

I just rolled my eyes. Ana, time to leave!

Day Two - Evening . . .

This was one of the worst days of my year. I swear there had been a lot of bad days recently, but this one was top-tier.

Okay, so this started in the morning. My phone completely failed me as my alarm clock didn't work. I woke up quickly realizing that I was already late. In just five minutes, I took a bath, I changed, I ate, and got a taxi. The only problem was: I forgot to wear a bra!

I spent the entire day pretending to be busy just so I wouldn't have to face anybody. I can't believe I missed a gossip session just because I forgot to wear a damn bra! When I had to go to the bathroom, I just crossed my arms. Yup, I looked like a patient restrained in a psychiatric ward. Outside I was quiet, but inside I was screaming out loud.

The initial plan was I go home first before going to Christian's, however he said I needed to come by urgently. What was it gonna be? Be braless and possibly lose my dignity? Or get my bra and possibly lose the $1000 cut? Braless it is!

When I arrived at his place, I saw what the urgency was about. The whole kitchen looked like a mess. Flour was everywhere and sauce was splattered on the wall like a crime scene. The ingredients on the sink were scattered and Christian was in a black shirt with grey sweatpants, looking like he just finished taking a bath.

"Hi, Ana. I'm glad you've arrived. Well, yeah . . . it's a mess," he stated the obvious.

It was my first time seeing him this way. He always looked composed and formal, like he was about to meet the prime minister or something like that. Now he just looked normal and he looked . . . attractive. Damn it, Ana! Don't think like this.

I crossed my arms as I walked to him. Goodness, in times like these, I wish I had long hair.

"Not to worry, Christian. I'll clean this up for you," I forced a smile.

"Thank you," he said politely.

The whole time I was cleaning, I was doing my best not to face him. When I needed to get something that required facing him, I did it in a flash. He must never see the shape of my nipples on my blouse.

I could tell that he's really confused by my weird way of cleaning up, but there's no way he could know that I didn't have anything under my blouse.

"By the way, thank you for the pasta you cooked last night. You cook well."

"Thank you," I said, trying to conceal my nervousness. He's being unusually kind to me tonight, but I didn't have the time to appreciate it. I was just too uncomfortable.

His voice still sounded serious but somehow it felt softer, "I was having a rough time last night because of this meeting with an international investor. My brother and I tried our very best not to lose our temper so you can imagine how I've felt. When I come home, though, there's the food you cooked and I was . . . less angry."

"Uh-huh," I replied absentmindedly. When the counter was clean, I picked the mop but the stain couldn't be wiped off. As usual, I tried my best to not face him.

What's wrong with this? The mop won't work! I grabbed a cleaning cloth and knelt on the floor to get the dirt off. When it wasn't working, I bent closer to the floor to wipe it with full force.

I heard Christian say, "So, what can you say about cooking me dinner and..." his voice slowly trailed off and I realized the reason why. I was wearing tight pants today and my butt was up in the air. Fuck!

Completely panicking, I turned around and avoided his gaze by continuing to wipe the floor and oh fuck! That was the biggest wrong moves of all wrong moves. I was on the floor facing him, bent down the floor, and the loose opening of my blouse completely revealed my breasts. I snapped, looked up, and met his shocked gaze.

His posture stiffened and his cheeks instantly turned red.

"AHHHH! DON'T LOOK!" I immediately screamed wrapped my arms around my body.

He felt the awkwardness and looked away, "Hey, I'm sorry, okay? I-I didn't mean too ..."

Suddenly, he snapped out of nowhere and shot me a menacing look, "Why am I the one apologizing? You're the one trying to seduce me here!"

My mouth formed the biggest O. "Excuse me? Me seducing you? That's never going to happen!"

"Then what do you call that, huh? Your ass up in the air, your breasts showing-"

"I didn't mean to, okay?! I woke up super late and I forgot to wear a bra!" Damn it, why did that sound so much worse than it already was?

He just gulped and with his calm voice, he said, "It's okay, Ana. Don't think about it too much."

He awkwardly added, "There's nothing to look at anyway."

Huh?! "What do you mean?"

His face had gotten redder and said uncomfortably, "I mean your ass and breasts aren't really that big to look that."

That was uncalled for. "Take that back!" I threw the cloth at him.

Day 3 - Morning . . .

This day was just one of the worst. I went to work saying that it's going to be a beautiful day, but here I was looking like I just ran on a treadmill for five hours non-stop. The whole office was going crazy because of this demanding author.

His book got released today and after one critic deemed it 'the novel of our generation', production just went crazy. The demands of the readers increased and so did the author's.

The author was releasing 20 more versions of the story making our editors go over 600 paged manuscripts in just one day. And for me? The author said there should be different covers for each version and I was running out of creative juices over here.

To make matters worse, Elizabeth was yelling at us. Literally, the whole office looked like a factory and we were the exploited workers while she just yelled at how useless we were.

"Elizabeth?" we heard Christian call her.

"Yes?"

What the in the world? When she looked back at him, her whole angry demeanor changed and her voice was just sultry. And everything Hannah and Noel gossiped about just made sense. She looked like she was trying so hard to seduce him. She twirled her hair strand around her fingertip.

This clearly had no effect on Christian when he asked, "We're having a hectic day over here. What's with all your yelling?"

Her voice faltered, "I'm j-just trying to make things faster and-"

He cut her off when asked everyone, "Team, was her nonsense screaming effective?"

We all shook our heads and said no together. Elizabeth gasped and almost looked betrayed by it.

Christian then told her in a calm yet icy manner, "See? Elizabeth, why don't you answer queries from bookstores instead? That way you can actually help."

With that, he exited while Elizabeth just froze.

Hannah, Noel, and I glanced at each other and smirked. She deserved that.

Day 3 - Afternoon . . .

The whole day just got busier. This author was the most demanding person we've ever worked with. His book was all about this dystopian society and it featured robots and all. Imagine all the robotic aesthetic I had to illustrate the entire morning (and I wasn't done yet)! And to make my matters worse, he requested an illustration in some of the pages.

I needed some air so I went inside the elevator and frowned as Christian was already there. I held my head up high and stood right next to him. I was showing him that I wasn't bothered with what happened last night.

"Hi," he said in his usual serious tone.

"Hello," I replied confidently.

When the elevator door closed, a deafening silence was heard between us. I knew he was thinking about yesterday and that bothered me. Okay, let me clear that up. I was no longer bothered when he saw my private parts, but I was bothered that he though my breasts and butt weren't anything to look at.

With that though, I straightened my back to emphasize my bust. He probably thought I was an A-Cup, but I was B-Cup! There's a huge difference in that.

From the corner of my eye, I could see that he was glancing at me.

I smirked. See, Christian? Not anything to look at, huh?

I cleared my throat and decided to start a conversation with him, "So, Christian, uhm . . . Elizabeth, huh? Thanks for calling her out. Her yelling wasn't helping."

He formally replied, "Normally I'd ask to speak with her in private, but she was getting out of hand. That wasn't professional. It was borderline abuse. She needed to be called out."

"Agree with that. And, I'm sure that when you speak with her in private, she'll just seduce you like what she did in front everyone," I mindlessly said.

Christian turned to look at me and smirked, "Who can blame her?"

My eyes went wide. I couldn't believe my ears. "Excuse me?" Was he being serious?

"Who can blame Elizabeth for seducing me? I mean you did."

"EXCUSE ME?!" My voice raised higher than the Everest.

Christian laughed. Oh, he evil laughed! He looked like that purple devil emoji!

"When did I seduce you?!" I asked completely horrified.

"Last night in my kitchen? Did you forget?" He raised both of his brows and he feigned a sound of shock that at that I 'forgotten'? Well, what's there to forget if it never really happened?

"For your information, I wasn't seducing-" I was cut short when the elevator opened and Christian practically sprinted out. He gave me one last glance and his expression was sadistic.

I stayed in the elevator, completely shocked. I didn't even know how I got to the rooftop.

Day 3 - Evening . . .

Luckily, I completed all artwork within work hours. If I were still doing overtime hours in the archive room, I'd completely pass out. We worked non-stop for this project, but we knew that it will pay off.

When I got inside the cab, I was telling myself that at the end of the day, I still drew art that was going to be seen by millions. I smiled at that thought. Then as we passed by the high buildings in Seattle coated in its grayest hues, I realized that I never thought of Jose the entire time I was in the office. Not even once. I found my smile growing wider.

As I arrived at Christian's place, the mere sight of the L-shaped leather couch tempted me. Who was I to resist? My whole back drooped from the drawings and my hands were practically shaking. I had to rest first before cleaning up (if there's anything to clean really). I sat on the couch and closed my eyes. Alright, just five minutes. Five minutes and I start working.

Okay, five minutes . . .

When I opened my eyes again, I yawned and lazily thought that it was time to start the cleaning. I grabbed my phone and freaked out when it was already 2 A.M. I looked at the windows and the blinds were closed. I checked the wall clock and mirrored the time on my phone.

I was worried that Christian's gonna be mad, but when I tried to move, I realized that I was wrapped in a warm blanket. No, this was the most comforting eiderdown I ever felt around my body. This kept me warmer than the beddings in my Paris hotel.

Noticing the notification on my phone, I opened the unread message.

From: Stranger

Hi, Ana. When I came home, you were already snoring on my couch and you were drooling too. I hope you don't mind me taking your shoes off and giving you a blanket. Anyway, I'll be out the entire night. We have a situation with this investor. If you wake up and it's too late to take a cab home, just stay and go home in the morning.

I smiled at that. I knew he was an asshole earlier, but I felt grateful that he wasn't mad. I wrapped myself around the most expensive bed covering I ever used and fell back into another slumber, smiling to the sequel of my dreams.

Where was I again? Oh, jet skiing with Hugh Grant!

Day 4 – Evening…

I can't believe it's my fourth day as Christian's substitute housekeeper. One more day and $1000 cut is deducted from my debt.

The days just went by slowly. I guess it just felt different if you liked your job. Wait, what? I liked my job? I smiled at that. Carrick gave me a kudos for the front cover of the books as critics said that "it added much depth to the symbol of the story."

I was proud! And I was prouder knowing that I had never read a single sentence from the book. Noel just spilled the entire plot whilst he painted my nails purple.

When I arrived at Christian's place, the whole ambience felt . . . heavy. My smiling face turned upside down in slow motion when I saw Christian pacing back and forth. His hand was on the back of his neck and he was breathing in and breathing out. His coat was on the arm of the couch and his white shirt had signs of creases.

"Good evening, Christian. I'm here now. What's the agenda?" I sounded weird.

He stopped pacing and when he saw me, he immediately said, "We lost him."

"Who?"

"The investor," he said.

"HE DIED?!" I was too shocked.

"No! He withdrew from the company!"

"Oh," I expressed in relief. That was much better than them dying, right? Right?!

He looked at me incredulously before he ranted, "You know all the months we have spent together making sure that our visions will come into fruition? We all agreed that the future was all about technology. Now, he goes and invests in a company that has this traditional view? Imbecile."

To be honest, I didn't know what he was talking about so I just focused on what I can do to make things better.

I gently told him, "Christian, I know I can't help much but would you like me to cook carbonara again? I mean, you can eat while you rant. At least, you'll get to each delicious food while you talk about your bad day."

"I'm not in the mood for pasta," he said straightforwardly.

"Okay, then, what can I do to make you feel better?" I mean, I didn't really like Christian from the moment I met him, but lately I was thinking that he couldn't be that bad.

Christian thought deeply before sighing, "There's one thing you can do to make me feel better. Follow me."

I followed him down the hall. He led me to the door beside his bedroom's. I never what's inside so I was curious.

"Let's go to my playroom," he casually revealed.

I gasped out loud-loud enough to make him flinch and drop the key on the floor.

"What?!" Playroom?! Suddenly, a montage of BDSM played in my head. I imagined all the whips, the chains, the ropes! Oh, my goodness! I wasn't into this.

"What's the matter?" he raised a brow.

"I'm not into this," I defensively wrapped my arms around my body while he stood there looking confused at my shocked expression. He just shook his head and twisted the door open.

When he flicked the lights, I almost melted of embarrassment.

The playroom was an arcade! I immediately regained my posture and displayed a nonchalant smile.

"Oh! A playroom!" I said in realization.

"Okay, I know what you thought and I'm not into that-"

"Ah, stop! Let's play, okay?" my smile got even more forceful now.

Completely understanding that I was so embarrassed about what I thought earlier, Christian led me to his 'stress ball': the Dance Dance machine! I immediately jumped in excitement at this sight. This was my fun times in high school with Kate. We aced this!

"Let's dance," Christian sounded as if he declared a war. He rolled his white sleeves up his elbows, removed his necktie, undid the first two buttons of his shirt, and took off his shoes and socks. He was looking at me as though this was a world championship.

Oh, game on! I matched his stance when I removed my shoes and tucked my hair in my ears.

"Game on!" I announced and we danced for what seemed like hours.

The 2000s music brought much nostalgia and it gave me such good vibes. We followed the arrows on the screen and made sure that our feet corresponded with them. We stepped on the arrows on the dance mat. They lit up in neon and it felt satisfying not to miss a move. Christian stepped on the arrows with such intensity. It was obvious that all the negative feelings he had were vented out in this game.

What made it more fun was that Christian was sharing the same energy as I did. Even when the dance steps got harder and we weren't able to keep up with the arrows, we just laughed. He was finally laughing so this was working!

We danced and danced for more than two songs before we gave up. We were running out of breath when we stopped dancing.

"I'll get some water," he told me in between breaths.

I leaned on the handle bar while he got two bottles of water from the minifridge. He handed it to me and leaned against his handle bar too, mirroring my position.

After drinking, I saw the score on screen and exclaimed, "Hey! I won! I WON!" My score was four points higher. It was a good fight.

"It's definitely not my day," he replied. The way he said it with a grin just made the sentence sound so much different.

"You know what, I never thought that you're the type guy who has a whole arcade in his house. I mean, look! Pinball machines, video games, and claw cranes too! I mean, who plays this?" There were really cute plushies inside.

"Taylor and Gail's daughter, Sophie. That's her favorite machine," he said and that softened my heart.

"That's real nice of you," I expressed.

"Relax. She never wins a toy with that claw anyway," he laughed and I just rolled my eyes.

I told him, "You like to make fun of me, don't you?"

"What's not to like about that?" he asked.

"You know what? You're so full of surprises today. I mean, what's this? An arcade? And you're some kind of bully too?"

"What did you think about me?"

"Oh, you know, you're the type of businessman who only cares about his career. You are an obnoxious playboy who sleeps with different girls a week. You are way too serious. You don't have fun. You never smile unless the company earns a huge profit."

His brows furrowed, "That's weirdly specific, but none of those are true. You just watch a lot of romcoms."

"Yes, I do," I was proud of that.

"Ana, you have to know this: we are like stories. No, we are stories. But we're the ones who choose which angle we'd like someone to see us. Okay, so this is the office? I have to show the angle where I have to be respected as a boss. You want a lover for the night? I have to show that angle of me that craves you to stay until the dawn ends. You want to solve a problem? I'll show the smart angle of me. You want to celebrate? I'll show the fun angle. We all have angles, Ana and this arcade angle? I show it to my friends."

I thought deeply about what he said but the last part caught my attention.

"Friends? We're friends now?"

"Aren't we? I mean, I know all of your secrets," he joked.

I chuckled at that and thought how weird this felt like.

I told him, "Since I told you all about me, then pretty much, that was every angle, right?"

"I doubt," he said, taking me by surprise.

"Huh?"

"You just told me about your failed relationships. That wasn't all of you. I mean, I just discovered recently that you liked Bennie and the Jets, you cooked pasta very well, and that you're practically a pro at Dance Dance. There's more to you than that." he replied, complete silencing me.

I gave him a sincere smile. After sharing all of my secrets, I thought that there wasn't anything else to discover about me, but he proved that wrong with all the things he pointed out. It made me feel better for the first time in these hellish weeks.

Christian then added, "And also that seductress angle? Like when y0u-"

"Oh, stop it! I was not seducing you!" I told him for the millionth time.

He laughed, "Hey, that's only fair. You thought I was going to seduce you before I opened the door to my playroom."

I blushed at that, "Can we just agree that we aren't seducing each other?"

He laughed and disagreed, "I don't know. It's so fun making fun of you!"

"What's so fun about that?"

With a vibrant smile, he faced me and sincerely said, "Because I'd rather you get annoyed with all these teasing than see you cry over a guy who broke up with you in Paris of all places."

I smiled at that.

This angle? This one? The kindness I finally saw? It made my heart thaw.

Author's Note:

Hi everyone,

This is my first fanfiction for FSOG and I couldn't be more excited to take you on this romcom journey. I am having so much writing this story and I hope you're having fun reading it too.

Would love to hear your thoughts too.

Thank you for reading this fic.