My Boss Is Secretly A Softie - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Back to square 1
Elara arrived home by late noon, and as soon as she ventured into her house, a thick sense of nostalgia overwhelmed her, causing a smile to break through her rigid expression.

Despite it being only a month she still couldn’t help but sigh happily at finally being back to her home sweet home.

Keeping aside her luggage she turned on the lights and was pleased with herself for cleaning up before leaving, now all she had to do was unload her luggage later.

She decided to leave that aside for later and instead changed into something more casual before moving into the kitchen to prepare a quick meal of noodles.

After eating, she burped in satisfaction before taking out a bottle of water, lamenting the emptiness of her kitchen as she drank. She’d have to go grocery shopping soon now she was back.

The lethargicness of not only arriving home after a long journey but having a good meal as well finally hit her and she unhesitatingly threw herself to her soft bed before drifting off to sleep.

By the time she woke up, it was already nighttime, and she had slept for 4 hours straight. That was when she felt like she had actually returned and, after taking a quick shower, took her business phone to attend to all missed calls.

“Hello? Yes, I’m back. A fan event? Not sure… Can I get back to you later?” Elara questioned.

“I’ll have to check if my schedule is free to conduct one, and if not, then we’ll just make do with doing it online,” she responded with a frown, “I have done a couple this year, so it should be fine, right? Yes. Thank you, the trip was fine. Bye.”

After concluding her call with her editor, seeing no other contacts apart from a few she decided to handle later, she picked up her personal phone.

“You!” Star’s exhilarated voice came from the other side, “I’ve been calling since morning! Are you back or not?! Did something happen?!”

Elara chuckled nervously, “Nothing much I was just in a hurry to return home.”

“….why?” Don’t you wanna spend more time with your pookie bear?

“Why? ‘Cause I missed home dummy!”

“Hey, don’t come at me. Weren’t you the one who would rather spend more time with your boss bestie, and suddenly you’re missing home? That’s so sus…”

“Believe what you may, lady; all you need to know is that I’m finally back, and I can’t wait to treat your annoying ass for helping me hide everything from Terra. She never called! Not even once!” Elara said excitedly, cleverly diverting the conversation.

“Hm, I am good at what I do. But I’m so busy so maybe during the weekends?”

“Whenever you’re free, I’m the one owing.”

“Well bye, enjoy your home sweet home till you get sick of it once more.”

“Sure thing lol.”

A smile etched on Elara’s face as she ended the call before moving on to the other missed contacts, ignoring the topmost one.

She called her family and had a rather lengthy conversation with them, which ended up with her having to send money to her two naughty siblings even after all the cash they were receiving. Lastly was Dominic, with who she exchanged just a few words and asked about certain private matters such as progress with a certain tomboy.

It wasn’t going that great but progress was still progress. The hangout with Star now became a three-way thing but knowing Star, Elara was sure she wouldn’t mind.

The last call was with Mrs Anne, and after attending to all calls, both official and unofficial, except for a certain person’s phone calls, she kept her phone aside and decided to have fun with her PC.

***

Elara stood staring blankly at the hoodied male before her who, even with a dropped head, still somehow managed to tower over her.

If he had puppy ears and a tail, Elara was sure they’d drop down pitifully, and somehow, this made her feel guilty when she obviously wasn’t the bad guy at all!

Gripping the edges of the door she tried to steel herself to slam the door shut but failed even after propping herself many times.

Looking at the soft-looking blonde hair that popped up slightly from the hoodie cap, Elara sighed in exhaustion. This was too annoying.

***

When he had woken up to an empty bed with no sign of the woman he slept with in his hands, the panic nearly drove Terrence mad.

Because of the strong alcoholic content of his wine, he had been knocked out to bed so strongly that he slept like a baby from morning through noon, and when he awakened to an empty bed and room, his stomach did a god-awful flip in horror.

He rushed out of his room hazardously breaking open Elara’s door only to find it empty with no traces of her. He tried to keep calm, he really did, but by the time his calls were thoroughly ignored by the female, he went ballistic, contacting Merlin and yelling at him in a panic, nearly scaring the poor man to death.

“Master, calm down,” Merlin consoled fearfully but was met with the man’s blazing temper.

“Where is she?! Why didn’t you wake me up, Merlin? No, why did you even let her leave without me there?! Have you lost your mind!”

‘Sir I should be the one asking you that TnT.’

“Sir, Miss Elara, didn’t want me disturbing you because you were sleeping so calmly…” This was a lie, “She was in a hurry to leave and left very early. If she hasn’t yet contacted you then she’s probably catching up on the sleep she missed.”

This was another lie. She was probably ignoring him out of spite.

And oddly enough, Terrence also understood this without needing to be told. After all, he knew what he did. After muttering a light curse under his breath he cut off the call, tossing aside his phone before moving to quickly prepare to meet Elara.

As the cold water dripped onto his warm body, the temperature difference elicited a light sting that eluded the male, who was lost in deep thought. Did he overdo it?

He regretted, he truly did, and a heavy guilt gnawed at him, leaving him infuriated at himself. But even more infuriating was how, no matter how he replayed the incident in his mind, he found out his mind was determined to make the same decision over and over

again and even possibly do worse.

The alluring image of the woman appeared in his memory once more, leaving him bricked up, causing his fair face to flush red in excitement. Needless to say, the shower took more than the allotted time.

After quickly dressing up he made a quick call to one of the drivers in the resort and was immediately driven off with one of his many cars.

He dropped a message to Merlin to pick up any important documents left in the resort who responded almost immediately with an affirmative answer.

He wanted Elara; however, reason had it that he had to move slowly or he’d make a drastic mistake, and thus, he decided to apologize to her for now and slowly but surely make his way to her heart.

The good thing was that Elara had him in her heart, the bad thing? Not in the way he wanted but no worries, he’d slowly change that. He recognized that patience was a virtue much needed in this and decided to embody it to its core.

He had top-notch chocolates, candies, and snacks ordered and delivered, and after making sure to embody the aesthetics of ‘pitiful’, early morning the next day, he drove off personally to Elara’s house.

That was how he ended up waking Elara up standing before her pitifully with a large bag filled with bribes.

After failing to harden her heart at the sneaky male, all to no avail, Elara sighed loudly in annoyance as she facepalmed.

“Angel,” she finally spoke, “Come here.”

***

Elara poured a glass of soymilk for Terrence before sitting a little distance away from him making him slump sadly at the subtle rejection.

His eyes caught the glaring red marks across her face and neck, and he gained a new understanding of why she was so mad at him. That must be annoying to cover. He should probably do it in more hidden places next time.

He obediently drank his soymilk leaving Elara softening. If only he was more like this—adorable, obedient, and not biting and sucking people like a rabid puppy!

They stood at a stalemate for a while before Terrence finally apologized, “I’m sorry Ela, I shouldn’t have done something like that without your consent.”

Elara squinted her eyes at the downcast male, yeah, she didn’t believe for one second he regretted it! Although she couldn’t see it directly, her superb observation could tell from all of Terrence’s body language he didn’t regret it.

The apology might be genuine but the male’s regret sure wasn’t. How did she raise a white-eyed wolf who now wanted to consume her? She really should have listened to Star…

“You…” Elara started instantly capturing Terrence’s attention, who bobbed his head up, staring at her unblinkingly with a pair of attentive eyes.

‘Pfft—’ Elara splurted inside, ‘So cute! Fuck I should resist. He did that no matter how cute he looked!’

Sadly enough, she found herself becoming one of those fangirl fanatics willing to be a man’s doormat just because of his looks. She never really understood those kinds of people, but now she could somehow relate, which was very sad.

She sighed, there was no way this man didn’t know his charms. He was doing it on purpose. Unfortunately, what had to be done had to be done.

“Terrence,” Elara called out calmly.

“Yes?” he replied quietly, eyes pleading for mercy.

Elara steeled her heart and finally spoke, “I… Can’t date you.”

Without waiting for the male to speak, she continued, “But I can see you’re desperate and probably won’t listen to any reasons I give you, so I’ll propose something different.”

“What is it?” Terrence asked curiously.

“You can pursue me for a month only, and after a month, if I still refuse you, then you agree to let me be okay? To let our relationship be as usual hm?”

Brown clashed with gray and both parties stared at each other unflinchingly. The former was filled with a calm stubbornness, and the other a pondering light.

After a while, Terrence replied with a smile, “Okay. I accept.”

Elara sighed in relief as she thought, ‘This should preserve our relationship after the whole shenanigans…’

Yet immediately, her eyes met Terrence’s gentle gaze and sweet smile, and goosebumps broke across her entire body.

Eh… Did she just make the worst mistake of her life?

Yes. She definitely did.