My Boss Is Secretly A Softie - Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Friends
“Spicy? Don’t you hate spicy food?” John asked after sipping the soup before him.

His question stopped Elara, who had a spoonful halfway to her mouth.

“I can manage,” she shrugged before pointing at the glass of milk. “Besides, I’m not that fragile.”

He sighed. “Fine then. Eat up, you have to hurry to work.”

“Thanks.”

She managed to finish everything without even a sip of the milk, leaving him surprised.

“I practiced,” she explained as she placed her essentials in her bag. “You were always considerate enough to avoid spicy or salty food because of my taste. So I practiced. I don’t know exactly why, considering the fact I never once thought of contacting you. I guess I still had you in my mind regardless.”

John huffed. “Don’t force yourself to play pretend repentance with me.”

Elara smiled.

“I’m not playing, though.” She put on her heels and was halfway out before asking, “Anything you want me to buy for you on my way back?”

John pondered for a bit. “Cake. Apple-flavored if possible.”

“Got it.”

He watched the busy lady drive off and suddenly felt a wave of loneliness overwhelm him.

But just then, his phone buzzed, and there was Elara’s message, which gave him the shock of his life: You should hang out with my friends today. They are at XXXXXX. I told them you will be coming. I swear you won’t regret it.

His face darkened, and an explosion went off in his head.

“And she didn’t think to inform me? Damn, lady!”

***

Elara stretched her sore body and fingers when a dark-eyed male placed a cup of hot coffee on her desk.

“Thank you, Divine.”

“You’re welcome.”

He was about to leave when she suddenly asked, “Say, you have a friend you hurt real bad in your young, stupid years. You tried to bury all memories and feelings for them. And then years later, they are back—broken, out for vengeance, but still soft-hearted. You’re in a cohabitation situation to brush up good grace, but you can tell this is about a fragile makeover that could come crashing down at any time and won’t exactly fix anything in the long run.”

She paused, as if to recall something, then continued. “You don’t mind never being forgiven, as long as they heal. What is the realistic thing to do, in your opinion? I would like a fellow writer to advise me. It will help flesh this arc much better.”

Divine blinked, then thought for a while. “Have you considered therapy? You know, therapy and mixing with other people could help. If he’s in a good place, he’s more likely to heal. Instead, this cohabitation thing feels like something that would lead to a dark romance with an obsessed ML and a guilty MC going along with everything. Honestly, why not do just that?”

A layer of sweat dropped.

‘When did I even mention gender? Well, whatever.’

“It’s not a dark romance novel, but one with the healing tag.”

“Then take my advice. Therapy. New people. New experiences. Making new, better memories with the friend… You know, suppress the bad memories with good. Even if they still have a fractured relationship, I can guarantee, the broken friend will at least be better.”

Elara smiled. “You’re really good at this.”

“Ah, yes,” he bragged. “I write psychological novels, so you bet I do a lot of studying in this area. If you need my help, I’ll be happy to help—as long as I’m not doing any work.”

She watched him slip away before huffing at his exasperation.

‘Lazybones, ready to run away from work at any chance. At the very least, he’s not trying to saddle any work to me.’

Although his advice was solid, especially therapy. That was very important.

Her alarm rang, and, staring at the time, she felt her heartbeat increase.

She gulped. “Heavens bless. Hope I don’t fuck this up.”

***

“Angel…,” Elara muttered but was ignored by the male who clung to her like a child. Everything was fine, except him burying his face in her bosom. He truly was daring.

She sighed helplessly. “We should—”

“Just a bit,” he muttered.

Elara stared at the wool of blonde hair before her helplessly and couldn’t resist patting it.

The other stiffened, then stared up at her with sparkling eyes, which left her malfunctioning from the immense cuteness.

“I brought double lunches,” she said in an attempt to have the male release his tight hold on her.

“He didn’t suspect anything?”

“No… I had a co-worker buy me lunch while I made this for you.”

Terrence stuffed his face out of his cozy space again and stared up at her.

“Don’t do that again. I’ll make lunch for you too, and we’ll switch whenever we meet.”

She smirked. “Deal.”

***

Elara grunted as she threw aside her heels and trudged to the living room before throwing herself on the couch in exhaustion.

John, holding a game controller, peeped out before walking up to her.

“How was work?”

“Exhausting. I kept typing and typing, and there was still no end to it. I still plan to type a bit more by midnight.”

He handed her a cold glass of water, which she gulped greedily before thanking him.

“What about you?” she asked curiously. “How was your day?”

He glared at her, then snatched away the glass, leaving her stunned. Was he still angry?

“They were awesome. I can see why you chose them over me.”

She grunted guiltily. “Not gonna tell me more?”

He scoffed. “We hung out at the library and played games throughout, except the redhead. He read throughout the whole He’s a bad gamer and would rather not pull down our team—which I was very grateful for, honestly.”

“Nice. So you did have fun. What do you think? Wanna do it more? They’re always off to one adventure or another. I would have followed them if I wasn’t so busy.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on,” she pressed on. “It can’t be worse than staying cooped up all day. Pretty please? If you don’t like them because they are my friends, I can hook you up with others.”

He sneered. “You sure have a lot of friends.”

“Oh, you have it wrong. I have only four friends. Terra, the two you saw, and…”

She smiled, “You.”

John froze, but before he could respond, she continued.

“I don’t make friends that easily. The other people I know are just acquaintances.”

He was silent for a while before asking, “Why? You could make lots of friends. Lara said she liked hanging out with people. Was she lying?”

She chuckled. “No lie, Johnny. I just prefer to make friends with a very special sets of people. I can still hang out with others, but my real friends are these tiny groups.”

“Then why couldn’t we be friends back then?”

Their eyes met. He had a light furrow, and she, an exhausted gaze.

‘Not this… I don’t want this now.’

But she answered anyway.

“I was scared of Lara. You see, I would rather have it all buried than face it. I didn’t lie, though. You really are my first friend. I was just too cowardly then.”

“And after all these years, only now did you realize this?”

She smiled stiffly. “Better late than never, eh?”

He rolled his eyes and left the lady to herself.

By the time Elara went to the dining room to fix the table for her dinner, she found it waiting for her on the table.

Her eyes softened, she really couldn’t make it up enough to this soft-hearted tsundere.

***

Meanwhile, in a dimly lit room sat two people tapping along their game controller which made clicking sounds that resounded through the room.

Star groaned in annoyance at another losing round before tossing aside her controller rabidly.

Her eyes wandered to the ginger beside her with teasing eyes, which triggered her even more, leading to a play wrestling that led them to the ground.

Remembering something, she asked, “Why didn’t you play with us then?”

His brown orbs met hers, blue and shimmering with a curious light.

“Hmm,” he hummed absent-mindedly, a low bass drifted, tickling her ears lightly.

“I don’t like playing with others except you.”

She frowned, her squinted eyes filled with displeasure, “He’s our new friend, did you not hear??”

He shook his head stubbornly, “Even if it was Terra….”

He frowned on remembering a certain disturbing thought, “And even if you both tie me up like you did when we were kids.”

Star chuckled mischievously then smirked, “Just treat him nice. For Elara.”

His pale lashes fluttered, “Okay.”

After all, he owed everything to her. His recent closeness with Star, the partnership—everything. He never really liked anyone but Star and could barely tolerate Terra— even in their little group of four, he was practically invisible. But he didn’t mind. After all, he was only here for Star.

That person was smart enough to notice it and decided to make a bargain with him.

He had fulfilled his side of the bargain by staying in their mini-friend group, despite the annoyance of a certain pink-haired fellow, but because that person helped him so much in his pursuit, he still wanted to help her as much as he could— it was only right.