Date The Boss

4 - Dirty Talk

It was only 5am when he got in his car and drove off. Twenty minutes later, he parked his car under a tree, put on his baseball cap and stepped out. 

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as the crisp early morning air blew on his face. He started jogging. The rising sun shedding light on his path as he ran through a familiar 2-kilometer route, one he took daily on his jogs. He circled the whole area twice before walking to one of the smaller paths to an isolated patch of grass. 

He wiped the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand and took long deep breaths before stepping on the grass and headed towards the lone grave surrounded by well-maintained pink rose hedges. 

"Hi, Isa," he smiled, then sat on the damp grass. "Did you miss me? I miss you everyday… Especially your smile and the way you tickle me to wake me up every morning." 

He reached down to touch the gravestone that read: Isabela Rivers. 

His little sister who was ten years younger than him was born with a weak heart. She had been in and out of the hospital ever since she was a baby and had endured three major surgeries. 

The family worked together and filled their home with love for Isabela until their Mom, Anna, suddenly passed away in a car accident when Isa was 8 years old. Everything went downhill from there, their Dad got into drinking to drown away his sadness and Aiden was left to take care of his sister, his father and their restaurant. 

He was forced to grow up and be the man of the house and he struggled to juggle all his duties with the family and business and his studies. 

Then on Isa's 13th birthday, she also breathed her last. This loss sent his father on a tailspin to depression which left Aiden with no choice but to send his father to the US with his aunt to get the best treatment he can. 

The family he fought to keep together eventually fell apart and now the restaurant was all he had. 

"Just keep smiling up there, okay? I'm not sad anymore. I miss you but I'm not sad anymore. It's been two years. You don't have to be worried about me. Like what you said, I should try to find my happiness." He smiled just as Niara's face came to his mind at the thought. 

"And Dad? He... Well, it won’t be for long. Dad will be okay too. I can feel it. When my plan succeeds and the restaurant recovers, I will grow our business and open more branches just like we dreamed. I’m sure that will make Dad happy and he will finally be like he was before." Aiden sighed. 

"Isa, big brother has to go now, okay? I have a lot of business to do. I’ll be back again tomorrow." Aiden said a prayer for his sister before jogging back to his car.

When he was about to open his car door, he saw something that he didn't expect to see in that place, at that hour. 

It was Niara, in a simple white spaghetti strapped dress and sneakers with a baseball cap on her head, walking out of one of the mausoleums. She appeared to be crying or had been crying by the way her beautiful brown eyes and petite nose swelled red. 

"Niara!" He called before he could stop himself. 

She looked up and saw the man from a distance. Her eyes and mouth widened in surprise. She then squinted her eyes and pressed her lips to a thin line when she realized who he was. She marched directly at him, eyes piercing and furious. 

"It's you again. What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?" She snarled, stopping just a few inches from him. 

He held his breath as his heart pounded wildly in his chest when he felt the heat of her body radiate on his skin and her scent filled his nostrils. It's amazing how her mere closeness can cause that much reaction from his body. 

"Stalking you? No." He smiled.

"So what are you doing in this place at this hour?" She asked.

"Jogging. Isn’t it obvious? Look at my clothes and I’m also all sweaty now."

"You really expect me to believe that you jogged in a cemetery this early?" She raised an eyebrow and kept looking at him suspiciously.

"Yes, because that's the truth. I jog here everyday. And you? What are you doing out here alone at this hour? You certainly don’t look like you’re out for a jog." He said out loud and then thought to himself. "You look like you’re marrying me." 

"That's none of your business." She snapped and rolled her eyes. 

"Fine. So grumpy." He sighed. "Do you need a ride? I can take you home. I mean. I mean I can drive you home to your place. Not my place. Unless..." He smirked.

She glared at him and stepped closer, her eyes intently set on him, making him step back and lean against the side of his car. 

"You’re really quite arrogant, aren’t you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "You think because you’re so handsome that I will fall for you just like that? Do you think that you're so hot, standing so close to me, that I can't keep myself from pressing my body against you?" She continued in a lower sultry tone, looking at him through her thick lashes. "My breasts melding on your hard chest, my breath on your sweaty neck, my hands making their way down from the muscles of your shoulders to your bulky arms then on your hips slowly making their way down your crotch where my soft palm would cup that hard bulge in your shorts?" She said each word, moving closer to him and by the time she finished, their bodies were pressed together, her lips were almost touching the base of his neck, her breath was on his skin and her hand was hovering over his crotch.

"Uhm... s**t. I don't know." His breath hitched and he could feel the angry pulsating hardness in his pants screaming "f**k YES!"

"You don’t know? Well, I do.” She smirked. “The answer is. Not. A. Chance." She whispered and walked away. 

5- Embarrassing Moment

Aiden could not accept what Niara said earlier. Her impression of him was totally different from his true personality and he was determined to show her that if she would only give him a chance.

"It's my fault. Why do I always lose control and become a borderline maniac whenever I'm around her? Whenever I see her, I just want to grab her and kiss her. What do I do with myself? What kind of spell did she put me under?" He sighed as he talked to himself in the rear view mirror.

"Alright, Aiden. Time to get your act together and make everything right. If the Lord still pities you and gives you another chance, you better not mess it up or else she may never talk to you again. This is the only time you were ever interested in any woman, this is the only opportunity for you to be truly happy, don't ruin it." He told himself in the mirror.

"Go, Aiden. Fight! Get in there and grab your happiness with both hands but not literally or else she will definitely kick you in the balls." He said before getting a box of three long-stemmed yellow roses with a note that read "I'm sorry" from the passenger seat beside him.

Aiden braced himself as he marched to the entrance of the fast food restaurant, determined to prove himself to her. When he got to the door, he wondered why the usually chatty guard barely paid attention to him as he pushed the glass door. His eyes were set on whatever was transpiring on the counter.

When he got inside, he noticed how customers turned in the same direction, some even leaving their tables to get closer to the action and others even went as far as recording whatever it was with their camera phones.

"My god! Look at you. How low can you go?" An irritating voice of a woman echoed over the crowded yet weirdly silent store.

The woman was thin with disproportionately large breasts. She had long hair and a long face as she stood arrogantly in front of Niara while keeping a hand hooked around a guy's arm.

"Babe, please stop this. It's embarrassing." The guy whispered and attempted to pull the woman away.

The guy was around a couple of inches shorter than Aiden but still taller than the standard male. He was also fairly attractive with a mix of Asian and European features.

"Why, babe? Are you siding with your ex? Can't you see how desperate she is for attention? Just how bored are you with your life, your Majesty? Is everyone ignoring you now?" The annoying woman mocked.

Niara, though obviously agitated with her clenched jaw and tears that brimmed her eyes, tried to keep her composure. She took a deep breath and managed a tight smile.

"If you're not going to order, Jana, we have other customers to attend to." She told the woman in a shaky but still gentle and modulated voice then turned to the guy. "Xander, please."

"Babe, let's go." The guy, Xander, said and tugged on the woman's elbow.

"Why, Xander? Do you still do whatever your precious princess tells you to do? You still bow to her every word? What? Are you still f*****g inlove with this spoiled little rich girl?!" She yelled.

"That's not it, babe. I'm just saving you from more embarrassment." Xander tried to calm the hysterical woman down.

"Xander, Jana, please leave before I forget our friendship and make the guards drag you out of here." Mark, the branch manager and the guy who attempted to intercept on the day Aiden and Niara first met told them.

"Oh, Mark. You're here too? Psh! Of course, you will always stand behind this princess." She spat, pointing at Niara who kept her chin high although she looked very upset. "When will you realize that no matter what you do, this snobbish princess will never like you?"

"Jana, I don't know what you're still so angry about. I have long moved on from everything that happened. You should do the same." Niara smiled with a tight jaw.

"Hah! There you go. That's what you always do. Pretending to be unaffected and noble when you're actually desperately inlove with my boyfriend and keep trying to steal him from me." The woman, Jana, so embarrassingly continued.

"Good morning, my baby girl!" Aiden beamed from behind them, his voice resounding over the commotion.

Everyone turned to see the handsome Management Trainee in his red uniform holding a box of roses and widely smiling with his sparkling eyes set on only one person... Niara.

Niara looked at him in confusion at first but then quickly caught on with his act. "B-baby boy, you're here." She said awkwardly then smiled more easily when she saw him wiggle his eyebrows in approval.

Aiden strode past everyone without even sparing them a glance, not once peeling his gaze away from her, and went directly to Niara behind the counter. He handed the box to her and leaned to whisper in her ear. "For you, my baby girl."

This made Niara blush and her smile widened after reading the note. "Thank you." She answered.

"You're welcome. I will do anything to make my baby girl happy." He grinned and playfully pinched her nose.

The crowd that gathered earlier to watch the fight, started gushing and giggling after watching the beautiful couple's sweet exchange.

"Oh, what's going on here? Is something wrong?" Aiden asked as he turned to Jana and Xander who watched them with perplexed expressions and mouth agape. "Who are they?" He added as he looked at them intently with cold and silent warning in his eyes.

"Nothing's wrong, dude. They're leaving. Right?" Mark said with a raised eyebrow and his arms crossed over his chest

"Yes." Xander answered and the two embarrassingly scurried away.

Niara sighed and touched his arm. Aiden turned to see her smiling at him sweetly and sincerely like the day they met. "Thank you." She whispered.

"Always welcome. Anytime." He smiled back and thanked his lucky stars for that second chance with her.