“Who said that I don’t like you?!” Vincent froze as soon as he what Lance said. He became even more embarrassed and his heart started beating like crazy.

When he entered Lance’s office and saw the nameplate on the desk, he already had a bad feeling, and when he saw the picture on the desk with Lance and his mother, Vincent became very frantic and nervous. He had done something very embarrassing to Lance and he didn’t know how to face him. He thought about leaving instantly, but he knew it would affect Abby, and he didn’t want to cause any trouble for her.

Before Vincent could even decide what to do, Lance walked into the office. As Vincent suspected, Lance could still remember everything that happened at the club. Lance made sure that Vincent knows that by teasing him every chance he got.

Vincent tried his best to be patient, but somehow he just couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted to leave, but Lance’s last sentence just made him froze where he was. Embarrassing as it was, hearing someone as handsome as Lance say that made him somewhat happy.

“You’re going to stay, right?” Lance asked slowly.

Vincent looked at him and then sighed. “I guess so.” Lance smiled at him. He found it very hard to keep on looking at Lance’s smile; it simply made him more nervous.

Vincent knew that it would be very difficult to work with Lance; he couldn’t even look at Lance in the eyes without feeling nervous.

The frosted glass wall that separated his desk from Lance’s office kept Vincent from going crazy; Lance’s stare was making him really uncomfortable. And he couldn’t help but feel suspicious.

There were files on his desk, every single one about an incoming food expo, but one folder got his attention; it was a folder of all concessionaires that would sell chocolates. He read the contents of the folder and smiled to himself.

Even though he is very doubtful about the job he took, it was still a dream come true. He always wanted to experience working in a big company. He never had the chance, because even before he graduated, an offer for him to study and work in Europe came.

He looked around the department and noticed a few people staring at him and then giggling. He was looking around when Fredrick Jones, who he met earlier, approached him. “Here is your company ID. Now you are officially a member of Frost Industries’ planning department.”

Vincent couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you.” He said.

One of the female employees approached Vincent with a cup of coffee and offered it to him. “I’m Haley, by the way.” She introduced herself with a smile.

“Vincent.” Vincent replied as he took the cup of coffee. “Could I ask you something?” He asked, hesitating for a bit.

“Go ahead. You can ask me anything.” Haley replied with a bright smile.

“Does Dir. Wolfe has a habit of teasing his employees?” Vincent asked hesitantly. The way Lance talked to him in the office felt like he was being teased, although it was not really hateful, it worked a lot in testing his patience.

Haley giggled. “You’re funny… Dir. Wolfe is a very professional man; he is friendly and nice, but he is serious about his work. I can’t see him doing something as childish as that.” Haley smiled at him. “Now that I answered your question, you must answer mine. Do you have a girlfriend?”

Vincent was a bit surprised by Haley’s straightforwardness. “No…” He answered hesitantly.

Haley smiled meaningfully. “Really...” Vincent knew what that smile meant. Haley then took out a calling card and leaned towards Vincent, her face was so close to his, and Vincent felt really uncomfortable. She touched his face from the upper cheeks down, before putting the calling card inside Vincent’s chest pocket. She smiled flirtatiously at him.

What the hell was that…? Vincent thought.

“Vincent, get in my office, now.” Both Haley and Vincent were surprised to hear Lance’s voice over the phone. It scared Haley so much she almost lost her balance. She moved instantly away as she looked at Lance’s office with an expression of fright.

Vincent couldn’t thank heavens enough that Lance called. He wanted Haley to just move away, but he didn’t know how to make her do so without being rude to her. He stood up and walked into Lance’s office in a hurry. “Yes, Dir. Wolfe, is there anything you need?” Vincent said as nicely as he could.

Lance looked very annoyed at first, but when Vincent asked him, he looked a bit confused, a bit lost for words. “That folder fell.” Lance then said, in a eureka-moment tone. He pointed at the folder on the floor in front of the desk.

“Huh?!” Vincent was dumbfounded.

“That folder fell, pick it up for me.” Lance’s confident tone came back. Vincent did as he was told, and then handed the folder to Lance. He looked at Lance, quite irritated. “You could go back to your desk.” Lance said as he looked at the folder and avoided Vincent’s stare.

Vincent was trying so hard in trying to keep his patience. You called me, just to freaking pick up a folder?! Couldn’t you just stand up and get it yourself?! Vincent wanted to shout so badly, but he held back for Abby’s sake. He looked at Lance before turning around and walking towards the door. Before he left the room, he looked at Lance back once again with a very irritated expression.

“Am I being bullied?” Vincent asked himself as he sat down quietly.

That went on for hours. Lance would call Vincent at least every 10 minutes for very trivial things. Lance would ask him the most obvious of things and make him do the most trivial chores. And every time, he would stare at Vincent first before even saying anything. It was as if he didn’t know what he wanted Vincent to do, to begin with.

Nothing productive happened at all, and it was frustrating him. “I’m definitely getting bullied.” He said to himself.

When lunch finally came, Vincent was really relieved. Finally, he could have a break from Lance’s bullying. Haley came up to him and asked him to join her for lunch and Vincent happily accepted her offer. He didn’t know anyone in that office and was happy to spend lunch with someone. Anyone but Lance, at that.

A man came into the department. Vincent recognized him as the man Lance was with at the club, the man who caused the fight. Vincent avoided the man’s view before asking Haley who it was. To his disappointment, it was the owner’s son, William Frost.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Even after Vince left his office, Lance continued on staring at him. It was difficult seeing Vince through the frosted glass, but he could still see his figure. Lance found himself staring at Vince through the glass for so long that his productivity suffered. He could’ve poked a hole in the glass with how intently he was staring at Vince’s figure.

He couldn’t understand himself either. He was acting totally different towards Vince. He had never teased his employees before. He was a very professional boss, but the moment he saw Vince’s expression, he just wanted to tease him more. He just wanted to see that cute expression of his over and over again.

All intentions of going back to work were shattered when Lance saw one female staff approached Vince’s table. It looked like they were talking about something, then the woman leaned forward and touched Vince’s face. Lance lost his patience then and slammed the folder he was holding on his desk. The folder then fell to the floor on the other side of the desk.

Being so irritated at that sight, Lance called Vince in his office.

“Yes, Dir. Wolfe, is there anything you need?” Vincent asked in a nice tone.

Lance realized that he had nothing to ask of Vince at all. That call was on a whim, merely a way to keep Vince away from that woman. Lance panicked for a while, not knowing what to do, and then he remembered the folder that fell.

“That folder fell, pick it up for me.” He said as confidently as he could. Vincent did as he was told, and then handed the folder to him. “You could go back to your desk.” Lance said as he looked at the folder and avoided Vincent’s stare.

He knew what he did was very childish, Vince was probably thinking that he was being lazy or worse that he is bullying him. That’s not what he wanted at all. Why was it that he couldn’t keep his cool every time that Vince was near?

Even though he found himself acting very different every time Vince is near, that he always ended up teasing him, he couldn’t help but want to see Vince even more, and that wretched frosted glass was on the way.

So every time he would want to see Vince he would call him and make him do trivial kinds of stuff and ask obvious questions. When he got a little embarrassed about what he was doing, he would merely call Vince and ask him something very obvious over the phone.

Finally, lunchtime came. The first thing that came into Lance’s mind was to see Vince. He wanted to ask Vince to have lunch with him. He simply wanted to see Vince more. The glimpse he had every few minutes before wasn’t enough. He just couldn’t get contented with it.

The door of his office opened and William walked in. “Your new assistant is very popular.” William said with a smile. “I heard he is good looking, I haven’t seen his face but seeing how your female staffs are reacting, he might be something. Even Haley Baker is interested in him.”

“Haley Baker?” Lance sounded very worried. Haley Baker was an exceptional employee, but she was also the company’s vixen. She only dates rich and good looking men. And most of the time, she gets the man she wants.

“I’m telling you, that man is trapped. The only guy I know that ever refused her advances was you. That man must really be something, he is just your assistant and yet Haley became interested in him.” William joked.

“Where is he? My assistant?” Lance stood up, panicked. He didn’t want Haley to get any closer to Vince. He would do everything to make sure Vince would not fall for Haley.

“Ohh… I think Haley just invited him to lunch…”

Lance instantly walked out. Vince was nowhere to be found. Lance’s mood became really bad after that. He felt really annoyed and irritated. He went back into his office and took Vince’s resume. “Huh!” Lance sounded very annoyed. “What kind of man doesn’t have a mobile phone?!” He slammed the resume on the desk. He called Jones after that and told him to tell Vince to go straight to his office when he comes back.

“What wrong with you?” William asked curiously. “Let’s go, I’m hungry.” He said ignoring Lance’s bad temper.

“You go on ahead. I lost my appetite.” Lance sat down on his chair and started working with a very annoyed expression on his face.

“Okay, if you say so.” William left him alone.

The silence was helping him calm down, but only after a few minutes, someone else came in. “I heard from my brother that you haven’t eaten yet, so I brought you a sandwich.” Carys Frost sat on the couch across Lance’s desk and took out the food that she brought.

Her timing was the worst, as usual. She was the last person Lance wanted to see at that moment. She was very clingy and always acts like Lance’s girlfriend. He really wanted to tell her to leave him alone, but being the company owner’s daughter and William’s sister, he really can’t act rude to her.

“I’m not hungry, Carys.” Lance said as patiently as he could.

“Come on just one bite.” Carys walked towards him and pulled him out of his seat.

Carys practically forced him to eat, and finish everything up. She tried to feed him, but Lance refused politely, in Carys’s disappointment. Lunchtime was soon to be over. “You should go back, I have to work.” Lance tried to stand up but Carys pulled him back on the couch.

“Wait.” She took out a chocolate bar. “I went to your favorite chocolate café and bought you this.” She said excitedly. She opened the bar by herself and broke a tiny piece from the bar. “Have some first.” She tried to feed it to Lance.

“I’ll eat it later.” Lance said exhaustedly.

“I won’t go until you eat this.” She moved her hand closer to Lance.

Lance sighed and opened his mouth, but even before he could eat the chocolate the door of his office opened. Lance turned his head and saw Vince standing by the door, looking surprised. “It looks like I’m interrupting something. I’m sorry. I’ll just come back later.” Vince said.

“Wait!” Lance stood up. “Stay.” He told Vince. “You should go back.” He told Carys.

Carys stoop up, she looked very cranky. She turned her head and looked at Vince. Anger was apparent on her face. “Great timing.” She said sarcastically at Vince before bumping into his shoulder as she walked out.

“You wanted to see me?” Vince walked in as Lance went back to his desk.

“Where did you go?” Lance asked seriously, trying his best to hide his irritation.

“Lunch.”

“With whom?”

Vince was about to answer but he stopped. “Why I do have to tell you that?”

“Because I’m your boss, and I’m asking you.”

Vince scoffed sarcastically. “Wow. It’s not in the contract that I have to tell you every single thing that I do in my personal life.” Vince sounded very stubborn.

“Just let me remind you; you are here to work, not to date.” Lance said with conviction as he looked sharply at Vince.

Vince looked confused for a moment. “Who’s dating whom?!” Vince sounded very defiant. “I’m not the one who was acting all cozy and snug with someone inside the office.”

Lance was surprised, he never expected Vince to be that defiant. “Hey! Are you talking back to me?! That girl is the owner’s daughter, my friend’s sister.” Lance found himself explaining. It seemed that Vince misunderstood, and he didn’t what that. He didn’t want Vince to think that he is dating Carys.

“Ahhh…” Vince sounded sarcastic. “So you’re dating the owner’s daughter. Good for you.” Somehow Vince sounded very annoyed.

“Why are you still talking back?! I’m not dating her, understand?!” Lance was slowly losing his patience.

“Why are you explaining? That’s none of my business.” Vince grinned.

“You…!” Lance stopped and sighed. “Forget it. From now on, you’re not allowed to go anywhere without telling me.” Lance said dismissingly. Vince was about to talk back. “From now on if you don’t do anything I tell you, if you talk back to me, it would reflect on Abigail, understand? You don’t want her to get fired because of you, right?”

Vince looked very surprised. He then looked at Lance with a serious expression. “I understand, but… stay out of my personal life.” He said seriously before leaving Lance’s office.

“You’re really something.” Lance said as he smiled to himself. In normal circumstances, Vince would get fired for being so defiant, but the situation was different, Vince was different.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“He’s angry because I went out for lunch, but he was having a good time in his office.” Vincent said childishly annoyed as he sat down.

When he saw Lance being fed by some woman, his mind just snapped. The next thing he knew was he was already in an argument with his boss. “Why am I so affected?” He asked himself.

“Is everything ok?” Haley approached him. “We heard the Director shouting, it’s the first time we ever heard him that angry.” Haley sounded concerned.

“Really?” Vincent looked at Lance’s office.

The door of Lance’s office opened suddenly. Lance walked towards Vincent angrily and then pulled him out of his chair by the wrist. Everyone in the office was staring at them, both confused and surprised.

Vincent stayed calm and quiet so that they wouldn’t attract more attention than they already did. Lance brought him to the parking lot and made him ride his car. “What are you doing? Where are you bringing me?” Vincent asked as he looked at Lance.

Lance started driving off. “Just keep quiet and wait.” Lance said.

Lance brought him to a mobile network shop. “What are we doing here?” Vincent asked.

“I’m going to buy you a phone, obviously.”

“What? Why? And could you stop pulling me?”

Lance loosened his grip on Vincent’s wrist, before finally letting him go. “Because you don’t have one… and because I need to contact you from time to time when you are out of the office. Why don’t you have a phone anyway?”

“I threw it away when I was studying in England.” Vincent said, suddenly becoming shy.

“Threw it away? You studied in England?” Vincent was surprised that Lance knew nothing about it, it was in his resume.

“It’s in my resume…”

“Ohhh… I haven’t read your resume.”

“You haven’t and yet you hired me?”

“Yes, I hired you without looking at your resume. What can I do, I like you.” Lance suddenly blurted out. A salesperson approached them even before Vincent can react.

Vincent didn’t know what to think about what Lance said. What kind of like was he talking about? Why would he say that? Vincent was too shy to even speak after that.

Lance started to talk to the salesperson, picking a phone by himself. “Wait a minute. I haven’t decided what phone to get.” Vincent complained.

“You don’t have to pick, this one is alright. It’s the same as mine.” Lance pulled out his phone and showed it to Vincent with a smile.

“So? I’m the one using the phone, not you.” Vincent walked towards Lance.

“I’m the one paying for it.” Lance talked back.

“What? Pay for it? When did I agree to that? I’ll pay for it myself. I can pay for it.”

“I want to pay for it. Why, is there anything wrong with that?” Lance sounded very determined.

Lance practically forced Vincent to let him pay for the phone, even threatening Vincent about Abigail’s position. The phone they picked was exactly the same as Lance’s. “Here.” Lance handed the phone to Vincent after tweaking it for a while.

When they went back to Lance’s car, Vincent’s phone suddenly rang and when Vincent looked at the screen, the name registered was ‘My perfect boss’. Vincent chuckled sarcastically. “Wow. Perfect boss?”

“What? Are you objecting? Listen, I’m first on your sped dial. No matter what, you have to answer my call or text, and if you ever ignore my call you’ll regret it. Just see.” Lance threatened him before smiling. “Ahh… that’s right, you said you studied in England. What did you study there?”

“That’s the whole reason why reading your employees’ resume is important. I took a master’s degree for two years, then the other two years I used to study chocolates.” Vincent replied with a smile. Talking about chocolates just makes him really happy.

Vincent loves chocolate; eating it and making it. The last two years in Europe were very memorable for him because he learned many things about chocolates. He learned how to roast cocoa beans properly, and what ingredients would go well with chocolates.

“You studied chocolates?” Lance was looking at Vincent with very curious yet gentle eyes.

“Yes. I love chocolates. And that’s all on my resume. I can’t believe that you haven’t even read about it. That’s very rude.” Vincent smiled very beautifully and then looked at Lance. He saw Lance looking at him. Lance’s eyes were somewhat passionate. “What?” Vincent asked in nervousness.

“Really? I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that it would offend you. It’s just that the moment I saw you in my office I already made up my mind. I thought that whether I am impressed with your resume or not, I would hire you. I just wanted to keep you on my side that badly.” Lance said with a smile. Then he looked at Vincent with a gentle expression.

Vincent didn’t know what to say at first, but he realized at that moment that Lance wasn’t as bad as he thought at first. “All day long you’ve been bullying me. I thought you hate me because of what happened at the club, but I guess I was wrong. Of all the bosses that I had, you are the only one who bullied me. They said that a third-grade boy would always tease the girl he likes. Could it be that the reason why you were bullying me was because…” Vincent said jokingly. Lance was too serious at that time that Vincent felt really awkward with him. He simply wanted to lighten up the mood. He expected Lance to deny it and shout at him, but Lance only looked at him. Vincent looked away. He was oblivious to how he looked at that moment.

“You? Just what kind of a man are you?” Lance suddenly asked with a gentle voice. “The first time I met you, you were being harassed in the dance floor. I thought then that you were a vulnerable person that I need to protect. Then at the office this morning, you were very shy and timid. Oh how cute. I thought. But once you opened your mouth all that you do is talk back to me. Not cute at all. I already know that you are very popular, but I never thought that your charms would work on me as well.” Lance said seriously as he moved closer to Vincent.

Vincent became very nervous and moved away a bit. “Why are you like that? Are you playing with me? I am not doing anything to you…” Vincent tried to sound very intimidating but he was very nervous.

“Not at all. I think that it’s you that’s playing with me. Even though you talk back a lot, and you don’t think before you open your mouth, every expression you make just makes me want to get closer to you. Why do you keep on making me like you?” Vincent swallowed hard as he heard it. He was so nervous that his heart was racing. He was confused and had no idea what was really going on. He didn’t know what to say or feel or even do at that moment. Vincent looked away. “You, do you like me?”

“We should probably go back to work…” Vincent said nervously. He couldn’t answer Lance at all, he was very nervous at that moment and all he wanted was to change the topic. He moved away and looked outside the window. He felt like his heart would burst if he kept on looking at Lance’s eyes.

Lance then held Vincent on the shoulder, turned him around, and pulled him closer. Lance moved close to him, their faces were so close that Vincent could feel Lance breathing. He tried his best to avoid Lance’s eyes but when he finally looked at it, he was immediately tantalized on how gently yet piercing it looked.

“I really like you. The moment I saw you at the club, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I like you.” Lance said very gently.

“I…” Vincent’s voice was trembling. “I…” He couldn’t say it at all.

“Say it or I’ll kiss you.” Lance said with a gentle voice, looking at Vincent straight in the eyes.

Vincent just wanted to melt at that moment. Why does Lance keep on torturing him?