Madi's POV:
After his confession about his past and the real thing that happened between him and Stacey, I finally understand his rage for his ex, but there's one thing I couldn't ask with him. If he still in love with her. Maybe I'm just scared to hear what he will say.
When we got back to Chicago, he suddenly seemed to have become my tail. Every morning, he always knocks on my room and is already in his uniform, so I have no choice but to get up and get ready for work too as he goes straight to the kitchen, waiting for me to come down and eat breakfast together.
And we always come to work together, which is why I have earned another awkward stares, glares and smirks from his fan club in the company, especially from their leader Jenny and her second-in-command Ailene.
And when we were in the office, he would always send messages and call using his personal phone, instead of using the intercom. And during the lunch break, he's now the one waiting for me and not Sandy. He would appear from my office door before noon.
Well, Sandy is still calling me but 'our' boss always came before her. And because he's the CEO, we can't avoid those malicious stares from almost every employee inside the canteen. I remember once I asked him why he eats in the cafeteria when he is the boss and he can go to all the fancy restaurants outside the building, but he said it will only take extra time unlike sitting in the canteen
We became close and open to each other, well except for my feelings for him. He started again calling me, love and since I have the dumbest heart, I just let him do it again. I realized how simple a person he is. You can take and drag him to the cafeteria, you can eat some street food near the local market. Yes, he's cold, arrogant and a jerk most of the time, but what many others don't know about him is that.. he has a big heart for children.
And about his revenge plan, we avoided talking about it. Well for me, it's pretty good not to talk about it anymore or better stop from doing it, but since I know how it hurt him to lose his baby, I just didn't open a topic regarding that matter.
He has become more of my friend and sometimes acts more like my boyfriend, especially in the office. He won't let me eat with Troy even though I have Sandy next to me. He's like a jealous and possessive boyfriend especially when Greg comes and visit me in the office.
And one time we had a board meeting and he accidentally called me love in front of the board members and two of the company's biggest investors. And to our surprise, Sandy became our guardian angel at that time.
FLASHBACK...
I was in his office and reminding him of the board meeting at two in the afternoon because there were only ten minutes left for the meeting.
"Love, have you given the documents we need to Ms Aguilar?" he asked me but his eyes were still on his computer screen.
"Yup. She's already in the meeting room." I answered while waiting for him to get up.
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah, I'm just waiting for you," I said raising an eyebrow. He looked at me and smiled.
"Okay. Let's go," he said getting up and walking towards the door.
I followed him out, but because I remember leaving my phone on my desk, I told him that I would just follow him in the meeting room. I took my phone along with some documents needed for the meeting.
The moment I walked into the room, I found him standing in front and there's a whiteboard behind him. Sandy was checking the reports on her laptop for the PowerPoint presentation. And maybe because he used to call me love every time and everywhere, in the car, in the cafeteria by a whisper, in front of Sandy, at home, in his and my office, he forgot that we're not alone and we were in the meeting room.
"Love, can you please pass the folders to the members? Thank you."
All eyes turned to him and on then me and then on him again. My breath stuck in my lungs and I don't really know how to react to that. He's already in his lapel, so his voice can be heard even in the furthest corner of the meeting room. And there's one thing that shocked everyone. He said 'Thank you', which is now a new word to you find in his vocabulary.
"Love! You looked so LOVEly today, Ms Davis, right, gentlemen?" And suddenly all eyes have turned to Sandy when she spoke out loud. "You looked so beautiful, LOVEly and blooming Ms Davis! Sir, what can you say?" then she asked Gabriel, but there's a board member who answered her.
"I agree with you, Ms Aguilar. Ms Davis here is getting more beautiful and lovely each day."
I blushed when almost everyone gave their comments. And then we heard Sandy sing...
"Love.. love.. has come my way, everything is gonna be okay... And it will always be a happy day because love has come my way..."
She even mixed it with some hand gestures and winked at me. All the members in the room clapped their hands after her mini-performance. And even though I was still in my shocked state, I also clapped my hands to make her act normal and natural.
"Okay, let's start this meeting. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen." Gabriel said in his serious and cold voice after all the chaos that he himself had created.
END OF FLASHBACK...
He even comes with me every time I visit my restaurant. For Noelle, she knows our situation so she hasn't asked questions about why he's with me. But George and Arielle, I just told them..'we're dating'.. so things don't get complicated.
We eat dinner together every night, eat breakfast together, go to work and go home together even after work. Sometimes, we're having our lunch and dinner in restaurants. He even took me to the shopping mall and bought all the dress he thought would fit me. Of course, I complained, but he still insisted on buying all those stuff for me.
We even watched movies in cinemas. And there, I found out that he's a huge fan of brutal horror movies and psychological thrillers. Which are my most hated movies, it gives me nightmares at night and it can drive me insane after watching those movies. But since I'm the Queen, I'm always dragging him into drama and romantic comedy movies, which he also enjoys at the end.
It's been almost a month since we started opening up to each other and it's been over two months since we got married. We have become more comfortable with each other, now we can share jokes and sometimes personal jokes but it has become part of our daily bonding.
But as they always say.. 'sometimes you need to know your place in someone's life, because you might get hurt if you expect too much..'
In all those happy days, memorable and carefree moments that we shared together, they were all the happiest memories I had with him.. that I never know... will also be the most painful memories I will carry and will have in the future. Because sometimes, happy memories hurt the most.
We're having lunch at home, Saturday noon, when he received a call from Stacey. I admit I was surprised by the call, but I just remained quiet. It's been more than a month since I heard her name from Gabriel.
He excused himself for a while, but he answered the call in front of me. They didn't talk that much. He ended it immediately with a scowl on his face.
"Stacey wants to talk to me." He said and brought the glass of water into his mouth.
"W-What did she say?" I asked him as I continued to slice the steak on my plate.
"She said she wants to talk to me and it's important."
"Hmm..." I said nodding. I couldn't explain the sudden feeling of unease that had crept into me.
He no longer touched his food, but I continued mine to show him I wasn't affected by the call. I don't know, but there's something inside me telling me that it was something I wouldn't want to know until the end.