DAVE'S POV
When Nixon broke the news of my taking over the company to my parents, they were over the moon. My dad was all smiles that day and the doctor was surprised to see my father's health improving faster than usual. My Mom concluded that it was the good news that fastened his healing process.Dad joined in by saying if he knew collapsing in the conference was all it would take to make me join the company he would have done it a long time ago.Before we left the hospital that night, he instructed Nixon to put me through everything I needed to know about the company. They planned to officially make me the president of the company when my dad recovers fully.At first, I wasn't happy about my decision to join the company, but seeing how delighted my parents were made it all worth it. Since my brother died, I had never seen my parent that happy which made me satisfied that I had granted my brother the favor he asked of me.That night, Nixon spent the night in my penthouse, teaching me everything I needed to know about the company and filling me in on their newest contracts and investors. It was all time taking and boring, but I knew I had no choice but to endure it.Nixon drove me to work in my Maserati after making me breakfast that morning with the excuse that I deserved special treatment from him since it was my first day as the company's president. I wasn't in the mood to argue with him, so I just let him have his way.He drove into the parking lot of the company and parked the car in my father's spot. I opened the door and climb down from the car myself before he went as far as opening the door for me. As we were about to walk into the company, we noticed a blue Porsche driving into the parking lot. Nixon stopped and stared at the car with a smile on his face, making me wonder who the owner of the car was.My question was answered when I saw Lena come down from the driver's side of the car and to my surprise, that lady at the hospital with the broken phone was with her. I couldn't seem to remember what her name was because I was too angry at her to keep her name in my head."Lena," Nixon called as he approached them. I had no choice but to follow behind him but my eyes were on that lady beside Lena.She looked at the source of the voice and her eyes widened when she spotted me behind Nixon. She said something to Lena before running inside the company before we could get to them."Why is she running?" Nixon chuckled when we stopped in front of Lena."She's still beating herself up for what happened yesterday and kept begging me the whole day to call you to stop Dave from firing her," Lena replied and I chuckled silently. She turned to me. "I know she was rude yesterday and I'm sorry about that. But I promise she is a very nice girl and hardworking too, so please don't fire her." She gave me a pleading look."I have no intention of doing that." I shrugged as I shoved my hands into her pocket. "How is her phone?""Still broken. It would take her a while to replace it because it wasn't part of her budget." She sighed."Okay then, let's go." Nixon placed his hand on my shoulder. "You have a big day ahead of you."We walked into the building with Lena and Nixon behind me, causing everyone to stare at me with a confused look. I ignored them as we stepped into the elevator. Lena dropped off at the fifth floor while Nixon and I continued our journey to the top floor.We alighted from the lift and went into my dad's office. I took my place on his chair before I heard a clicking sound from Nixon's phone. "Did you just take a picture of me?" I raised my eyebrows at him."You don't know how long I have been waiting for this moment, so I have to take memories of it." He grinned as he stared at the phone screen."Whatever." I leaned into the chair. "What am I supposed to do now?"He sighed before he gave me all the pending work that my father left behind and explained how to complete them. "Just do that for now. If you have any questions, contact using the telecom. Key 2 is directed to my office while Key 3 is to Lena's office, not that you have any reason to call her. See you later." He turned to walk out but I stopped him."Wait," I said and he turned back to look at me. "That girl that was with Lena...""Aria," he cut me off and I nodded. "What about her?""Which department does she work in?""She's a designer on team 4," he replied. "Why do you ask?""Nothing." I opened the first document at the top of the pile in front of me and started working on it.As soon as Nixon left, I picked up my phone and ordered a new iPhone 14 online, requesting for it to be delivered to the company today. It was getting near to the lunch break when the phone was delivered to my office.After so much contemplating, I clicked on key 3 on the telecom."Hello," Lena's voice came through."It's Dave. Can you tell Aria to meet me in my office?" I asked."Um, why? Is there a problem?""No, not at all. Just tell her to come see me." I hung up.Staring at the phone in my hand, I took a deep breath. I had no idea why I was doing this but I know guilt was part of it. One way or the other, I was responsible for her broken phone but I wasn't going to admit that to her.A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts. "Come in," I said.The door opened and Aria walked in slowly with her head down, giving me enough time to check out her amazing figure which I only noticed when she walked in. Her light brown hair fell on each side of her face as she put her head down and she glanced up at me from time to time with her beautiful hazel eyes that were clouded with fear.What I did expect was for her to fall on her knees, crying. "I'm sorry for everything I said yesterday. I will do anything you want, I promise. Please don't fire me.""Anything?" I smirked.She glanced up at me. "Yes."The event just took a different turn which was likely to favor me. She just made the wrong promise to the wrong guy.ARIA'S POVMy mother had always warned me that my hot temper and running mouth would get me in trouble one day, but I never expected that day to come so soon. How would I have expected that the simpled dressed guy who bumped into me and broke my phone would turn out to be Dave Mendez, the new president of the company I worked in? What kind of evil spirit was following me? If only I had been a little patient, my job in Styles won't be hanging on a thin thread. When we left the hospital that day, I kept on begging Lena to talk to Nixon to convince Dave not to fire me. Since they were best friends, there was a high chance he would listen to me. Lena disregarded my begging and told me to face the consequences of my reckless actions. Before we left the house that morning, I went down on my knees to pray, asking God to save me from getting fired. My heart thudded in my chest as Lena's car approached Stlye's building. We got out of the car only for me to hear a familiar voice calling Lena.
DAVE'S POV"Are you sure?" I asked with a smirk on my face."Yes." She nodded.Standing from my chair, I walked to the front of the desk where she was kneeling and perched on the edge. "Stand up," I ordered and she complied. "You said you would do anything, right?" She nodded with her head down and her hand held tightly together in front of her. It was funny as she was sweating under the air conditioning in the office but I couldn't bring myself to laugh at the moment. "Okay then. From now henceforth, I want you to get me coffee every morning. Not just any coffee, I want it from Brendan's cafe before eight in my office."She glanced up at me with shock written all over her face. "Coffee?" she asked and I nodded. "Just Coffee?""Why? You can't do it?" I raised my eyebrows at her. "Of course, I can." She smiled. "All I need to do is get you coffee every morning and that's it?" "Not really. But for now, I just need coffee. If I need anything else later, I'll let you know." I smirked
ARIA'S POVUsing all the self-control in me, I managed to get into the elevator before I jumped and squealed, hugging the new phone to my chest. When the elevator stopped on my floor, I hopped to Lena's office and barged inside without knocking. "Look who got a nice phone," I announced as I waltz inside holding the phone packed up as my partner. A clearing of the throat made me stop and I looked back to see Nixon staring at me with a raised eyebrow while Lena was busy laughing at my expense. My face was red with embarrassment that I wish I could just disappear. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were busy. I'll come back later." I turned to leave but Lena's voice stopped me."I'm not that busy," she said when she stopped laughing. "So what did Dave say? You were saying something about a new phone." Turning back to them with a smile on my face, I raised the phone pack for them to see. "He got me a new phone." "Really? Dave got you a new phone?" Nixon stared at me shocked. "Yes." I mo
ARIA'S POV The rest of the week ran by quickly with me serving coffee to Dave as promised every morning. That weekend the President was discharged from the hospital and they were planning a company party for the next weekend to officially announce Dave as the President.Sunday was a free day, so I took that opportunity to video chat with my brother with my new iPhone. The rest of the family joined the video chat and I seized that opportunity to boast about my new phone. I explained how I got it to them, leaving out the part of me serving coffee to Dave every morning. They didn't need to know that.That beautiful Monday morning, I rushed to work because my team was running behind with the project that we were supposed to submit that Monday. Other teams turned in their projects as expected, so Lena gave us the grace of two more days. After delivering Dave's coffee as usual, I joined my teammate as we strived to complete the project before the deadline. We didn't even get to eat lunch
ARIA'S POVWith a scowl on my face, I walked into my team's room, mumbling to myself. I sat on my seat and tossed the flash drive on my desk, cussing at Dave in my head."What got you all worked up?" Summer whispered as she leaned closer to me.Before I could reply, Celestine's voice boomed in the entire office. "That's enough talking, Aria and Summer, get to work. We began working on our project and I made a mental note to start with the design Dave gave me once I was done. Like the last time, our team didn't go for lunch as we were planning to finish and submit the project that day.It was an hour before our working hours were over when Celestine collected all the designs and saved them in her flashdrive before submitting them to Lena. Not long after Celestine came back, the door opened again, drawing everyone's attention. Lena peeped in with a sheepish smile on her face. "Can I talk to Aria for a minute?" "Sure," Celestine nodded at me.I stood up and walked toward the door wher
DAVE'S POVGoing through all the designs Lena submitted to me, I groaned in frustration for the tenth time. I had gone through two teams' projects and none of them were to my liking. I went through the third team's project and thankfully, I was able to find two designs that were good enough. I was hoping to get something good from the infamous Team 4, but I received a report from Lena later that day that they were running behind and she had to give them extra days.Out of frustration, I called my Secretary using Telecom. "I need you to get me all the resumé of all the current designers in the company. " "Yes, sir," he replied and I hung up.While I waited, I decided to go through the fifth team project and I had to admit that it was better than the last three teams. My Secretary walked in with a load of documents in his hand and placed it on my desk."The files are arranged according to their teams and each team file is arranged according to when they joined the company," he explain
DAVE'S POV"Whose date?" I asked, feeling more confused about the entire situation."Lena's." He buckled his seatbelt and proceed to get out of the car. "Let's go." I held him back by his arm, staring at him like he has gone mad. "What is wrong with you? Why would you want to do that?""I wouldn't have to if you had canceled that 'No dating in the company' rule as I requested of you.""I'm not even the president yet and you are already trying to make me change the rules." I stared at him in disbelief. "It's not as if I'm the only one that would benefit from it." He scoffed as he leaned back into the driver's seat. "What do you mean?" I cocked an eyebrow at him."Do you believe I'm the only one that is being hindered by that damn rule? There are so many people seeing each other in secret in the company. Once that rule is out, they would be able to come out with their relationship. And besides, you think I don't know that you have something for that Aria girl." He smirked."What are
ARIA'S POVAfter Dave left, I went into Lena's apartment, using the spare she kept under the flower pot near the door. I took my shower first before going into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Contrary to Lena's words, I prepared dinner for the both of us because I had a feeling something was going to go wrong during the date. Don't ask why because I had no idea why I was feeling that way. When I finished cooking, I ate my phone in the living room while watching TV. Not long after I finished my food, the door flew open and an angry Lena walked.Just like I predicted, something went wrong.She dropped her bag on the couch I was sitting on as she began to pace around the room in silence. I knew she was waiting for me to ask what happened, so I decided to put her out of her misery. "What happened?" "You can't believe that douchebag left me in the middle of our date and he didn't even bother to pay the bills before doing so." She raised her voice.The words that wanted to come out of my