A Third Chance In Love

CHAPTER 8 - Choosing A Party Dress

Although with resistance deep inside, Aloida was forced to reach for the debit card offered by her boss.

“Thanks,” she murmured before she put the debit card inside her skirt pocket. “Is there anything you need more, Sir?” she asked, after that.

“Nothing more. You can leave the office early to buy your dress,” he simply said before he continued to read the opened document on his desk.

“Yes, Sir,” Aloida murmured before turning her heels outside of her boss’ office.

She packed her things early and went out of their department with a bit of a smile on her lips. She just sent a message to her boss saying she’s about to leave the office. She did not want to face him again, or else she might throw the debit card in his face.

“Maybe that conceited man thought I was too poor to afford a party dress, hmmp,” she thought as she walked toward the elevator, going down to the ground floor, where she parked her old car.

Unfortunately, her car gave her a headache at that moment when it did not want to start its ignition. This had been the usual problem with her old car. Actually, she wanted to dispose it and buy a new small car that would not cost her that much, but she was delaying that plan. She wanted to be a regular employee first of Bloom Corporation before she dared buy a new car.

“Damn! Why give me a headache again today, Oldie!” she hissed and sighed after that, wanting to give the car’s steering wheel a hard punch.

“She was in that predicament when she heard the honking of a car nearby. When she checked to look at whose car it was, she was surprised to see the latest Maybach car of her boss honking a few feet away from her car.

The mirror in the back passenger seat of the Maybach car was lowered and her boss’ face was framed therein. He was looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Need a ride?” he asked while looking at her and then to her car, which she was still trying to turn on the ignition.

She shook her head. “Nope, maybe I just need a little time to make this old baby move,” she replied instantly after glancing at him. She regretted doing so, however, when her car seemed to be going to fail her at the moment.

“It won’t move until it is repaired,” he said again, chuckling this time. “Better come with me. I am going to the mall too to buy something,” he added. His driver got out of the driver’s side of the car and opened the car’s back passenger door.

“Ms. Jeansen, please hop in,” the driver said, with a formal tone.

She sighed in resignation. Why is even his driver as stiff as his? She thought as she decided to alight from her old car. She got inside the car and sat beside her boss.

“Thank you,” she just almost murmured those words of gratitude to him.

He just shook his shoulders and told his driver to go.

They were silent inside the car as they traveled to the mall. Only their breathing and the low love song echoing inside can be heard.

They were near the mall when Mr. Montaro, the boss, glanced at Aloida. “You can come with me. I will be visiting the boutique, I usually have my suite couture for me. You can choose nice gowns there,” he then said in his usual bossy manner.

Aloida thought for a while and then got inside her bag the debit card her boss gave her a while ago and handed it to him. “Alright, Boss, I will come with you. Here, I will just return your debit card, since I think I will not be using it anymore in that favorite boutique of yours.”

“Just keep it. You may need it in the future,” he said, not even glancing at her. He was busy scrolling something on his mobile phone.

Aloida looked at him with a furrowed forehead before putting the debit card inside her bag again. “Maybe he is testing my honesty if I will use the card for some other things and without his permission,” she thought, feeling offended.

...

As they entered the boutique which Aloida knew to be for the elites only, she tried to act as natural as she could be. Anyway, she was ignorant of places like that. In fairness to her ex-husband, Agustus showered her with material things even if she did not ask for them. He would usually take her to expensive stores to buy dresses and pieces of jewelry.

This favorite boutique of her boss, however, was not one of Agustus’ favorites. This was the first time that she had entered it. She had heard that most of the clients of this boutique were known celebrities, influential, and billionaires.

“Mr. Montaro, good day, Sir. Your suits were all ready,” the store Manager, a tall, beautiful, and elegant woman in her late twenties, greeted him with the utmost politeness and with such a warm smile. He just nodded at her, and introduced her merely as Aloida, without telling who she was to him.

The Store Manager’s smile slowly faded as she looked at Aloida from head to foot and then let out a fake smile. Aloida suddenly felt a sting in her heart. The Store Manager did not hide her interest from her boss at all, to the extent of sizing her up, as if sizing up a possible opponent or rival.

“Oh, hello Ms. Aloida, welcome to our store. Please tell me what you need, and I will ask one of my staff to assist you,” the Store Manager said with that fake smile of hers. Aloida simply smiled back and then looked at her boss beside her.

“She needed a nice party dress or gown. Assist her personally, and let your staff pack my new suit. She can have whatever kind of gown she wants, the cost is on me,” Mr. Montaro stated in his bossy manner that made the Store Manager stiffen and look at Aloida with a sudden glint of jealousy in her eyes.