My Boss Is Secretly A Softie - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Friends don’t kiss Ela
“Oh yeah, there was this one time we wanted to write a song as well, right?” Elara spoke gleefully as she showed a certain page to Terrence who lay beside her with his right arm almost completely covering Elara.

Their month-long vacation was finally coming to an end and Elara decided to review the journal she had kept about it with Terrence just to reminisce about the moments they spent together.

She had acted out of character today by not keeping her usual morning routine just to be able to review the journal with Terrence who was surprised she even kept one.

When asked why she couldn’t wait, she simply replied that she was just too excited. That was when it dawned on Terrence that despite Elara’s mature attitude, there was this spoiled side to her she didn’t mind showing him.

It made Terrence realize just how much she trusted and loved him, except not in the way he wanted.

“I was surprised you can play the guitar,” Terrence commented as he pointed at the picture of Elara holding a guitar.

He was surprised how meticulous the lady was with the journal, even going as far as to print pictures of them together to add inside it.

“Oh, I had it worse; imagine you being able to play a ukulele? How do you even pick up that skill? I mean who learns the piano and then decides to learn an ukulele after? It’s not bad but It’s such an odd combo!” Elara commented with laughter in her words.

Terrence merely smiled softly, shrugging his shoulders in acceptance of her teasing.

Learning the ukulele wasn’t simply something he did out of a whim; those were the days when loneliness threatened to scrape away his insanity, and he had to grasp at anything—mostly working like a dog and learning any skill he could, to numb the feeling.

But the adorable female didn’t need to know about that, far be it from him to taint this infectiously joyful mood they had now.

Elara’s sudden exclamation snapped him out of his daze, “This was the day we had a barbecue with everyone! It was so much fun! Remember how Merlin became the mvp of the trip? Using his old man skills to rizz everyone up.”

Terrence scoffed lightly, “He was mid at most.”

“…..”

Confused at the sudden silence of Elara, Terrence turned to find her ogling at him like he had grown extra heads.

“What?” he questioned the frozen woman.

“You… Did you just say mid? A whole CEO using slangs words,” Elara gasped dramatically, her eyes glinting with a teasing light.

“… Noone says I can’t use it, that’s just unfair,” Terrence muttered, an odd shame overwhelming him.

He knew the lady was mostly joking and that he had every right to use them despite his status, but something about Elara’s reaction had him flustered.

“Oh my the ‘hello fellow kids’ meme sure comes to mind,” Elara said with a playful shrug.

“I’m not that old…”

“Okay, fellow kid.”

Terrence: (눈_눈)

Elara: (≧◡≦)

Perhaps in a bid to lift the male’s sullen mode Elara quickly brought up a joyful event, at least to him. When he had finally beat her in chess and had him gloat about it all day to her helplessness.

“You sure don’t act your age, angel,” Elara softly complained as she reenacted the ‘trauma’ of that day, which she secretly enjoyed.

Why wouldn’t she? It wasn’t every time her angel acted that cute! All she had to do was pretend she was annoyed at losing to have him taunt her playfully for the rest of the day not knowing how cute it was.

Although she liked winning, maybe if she had such a reward in exchange for winning then she wouldn’t mind. Even when he lost, her angel was also cute, sulking and acting all clingy in search of consolation!

Wait! Was there anything he did that wasn’t so damn endearing?!

“What are you thinking about?” Terrence’s light tap on her nose brought her back to reality.

The mischievous woman had somehow dazed off mid-way and seemed to be reminiscing about something with shimmering eyes. Her eyes only ever sparkled that much when talking about her loved ones and when he found out, he found himself jealous—not of her having them but of them having her.

Just how did her thoughts drift off to them? Was she that excited to finally leave and meet them? The idea had him furrowing his brows as a pout formed on his lips.

“I was thinking about how cute you were, angel,” Elara suddenly spoke, causing the jealous man to soften, “So stop being so jelly.”

Ignoring the flushed Terrence, Elara went on reviewing the journal, pointing out to her partner any interesting thing she wanted him to check out, and after a while, they reached the end.

“Well, this holiday was very eventful. Is there even anything we didn’t do??” Elara wondered while updating the journal.

“Games?” Terrence commented.

“I don’t do that,” Elara spoke with averted eyes, “If I’m gonna play with you then I’ll have to learn a bit more. Although I don’t mind losing to you that much, it’s still too much of a huge hit on my ego to lose too devastatingly.”

Terrence smiled, he could already guess what Elara was onto—she didn’t want to bore him with her bad skills. But contrary to the lady’s thought, he didn’t mind; in fact, the idea that she had something she sucked at which he could teach her how to do excited him. But then again, any chance to be with her did.

“Well then, let me teach you sometime, okay?” Terrence suggested lightly, causing the distracted lady to finally look at him intently.

His heart skipped three consecutive beats from the suddenness of her gaze on him, staring at him unblinkingly.

“…what?”

Elara smirked, “You’re cute when you blush.”

“…..”

Terrence: You little…. (￣︿￣)

***

“Miss, your cooking skills will be dearly missed,” a blonde-haired lady with brilliant brown eyes spoke cheerfully.

The staff, excluding Merlin and the permanent ones, would be leaving today, with Elara following up tomorrow.

Emma fearlessly greeted Elara, even accepting her embrace despite Terrence’s fierce gaze, but Thompson could barely shake the smiling lady’s hands before dashing away.

He wasn’t sure how females around him had more balls to ignore the big boss’s glare but he wasn’t risking anything, come what may.

As the duo along with others, Thompson couldn’t help looking back at the indelible lady. Although he had spent only a month on her, mostly avoiding her, he still couldn’t deny that she left a deep mark on him.

She just had this certain charm to her that drew others in regardless of status difference leaving one with a consuming desire to approach. It was undeniable—her charisma was maxed out to an extreme value.

Maybe he had looked a bit too much when sharp gray eyes met his brown ones, startling him to look away, and the next thing he heard was his aunt’s mocking laughter.

Looking at the aggrieved male, Emma spoke, “Bewitched?”

“Huh? No!” he immediately denied.

Sure, even he couldn’t help but be drawn to the lady, but he’d rather keep to himself than risk offending the big boss. Although if she had approached him, then maybe he would have risked it… what the hell was he thinking?!

“You can’t deny it with that look on your face,” Emma teased.

“What look?” he asked incredulously.

“A look like you’re parting from your Juliet. Isn’t it intriguing how, despite your fear, you still fell for her regardless?”

“I…” Thompson was too stunned to speak, indeed without even knowing he had developed a crush on Elara!

Was that why… the boss glared more at him than his aunt?! He had thought it was because he was a man.

“You’re lucky you listened to your instincts and avoided that lady like your life depended on it, ’cause it did. You do not want to offend someone of that caliber,” Emma spoke, taking out a piece of candy from her purse before tossing it into her mouth.

“But how…?” Thompson asked, still shocked that he had a crush on Elara.

“Don’t blame yourself, darling; people like that woman are just like that. They subconsciously charm everyone around them into thinking favorably of them, and this type of people are usually grouped into two,” Emma stated before biting into her candy, a crushing sound escaping from her action.

“Either they do it consciously or subconsciously, and from what I’ve observed from Miss Elara, she’s probably the latter. Someone so good with people that even without trying she can establish friendliness with most people.”

“Good thing the boss is in good hands because with how hard he’s fallen if Miss Elara was a bad person, she’d have him dancing to her tone rather effortlessly.”

Thompson gulped, the thought of someone like Terence completely under Elara sent a chill down his spine.

“Don’t worry too much about the boss is completely head over heels with her. I think it’ll be more of a case of mutual destruction than a one-sided carnage, but your simple mind will probably not understand this,” Emma concluded before tossing another piece of candy into her mouth.

Thompson scoffed in annoyance, his aunt was underestimating him too much. Of course, he understood that someone like Terrence couldn’t be that easily taken out, or he wouldn’t be where he is today; however, he still couldn’t help but wonder just how people even end up possessing that amount of charisma.

“Easy, studying people helps, and practice makes perfect,” Emma, seemingly reading his mind, responded, “Anyways, from what I see, though, their relationship has probably reached a critical state.”

“How? They’re gonna break up?”

“Why do you look excited, you think you even have a chance with her? Will you even meet her ever again?” Emma scoffed at the painfully naive fellow.

“Rude!”

The blonde lady ruffled the hair of her unruly nephew with a sigh. A sheltered kid like him probably wouldn’t understand how complicated relationships could get, especially with those kinds of people.

However, she couldn’t help but wonder just how long it would take for the duo to stop playing safe with each other and come clean. When would this safe game end and who would end it? Judging from the glint in their eyes, probably a certain someone.

And just as she predicted, the very next day something did happen.