I turned around to see Ace looking like he had a part of his life sucked out of him by the time that he arrived at his office. Of course, something like that was bound to happen and I had thought that he would be used to it by now. I guessed that much attention might have been too much even for someone like Ace.

“I think you did great,” I said as I quickly took his suit out of his hands for him.

“Thanks…” he thanked me, and I wasn’t sure if he was thanking me for my words of encouragement or the fact that I had helped him with his suit.

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Not that it mattered at that point.

“I guess that was too much even for you? You’re lucky because you have some free time before your first meeting of the day, so you can relax for a bit…” I said before smiling a little his way.

“Do I?” he muttered although it sounded like he couldn’t care less.

Ace lowered himself down onto the sofa before leaning his head back. I watched as he closed his eyes and let out a long unsuppressed sigh. Just when I opened my mouth to offer him some words of comfort, Ace opened his eyes and sat up on the sofa.

“What is it?” I asked curiously.

“Come here, Rina,” he said as he beckoned me to him with a wave of his hand.

The bright look in his hazel eyes made me hesitate. It seemed like he had just gotten some great idea but for some reason, I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to find out.

“Yes?” I said as I came to stand close to him.

“Sit here,” he said invitingly.

I didn’t have much time to act confused before Ace pulled me down next to him on the sofa. Immediately, his arm looped around my shoulders and pulled my body close against his.

“Ace…” I called his name softly as I tried my best not to lose my balance.

“Rina, a bunch of work is going to pour in now that we’ve won the competition. It happens every year when we win,” Ace said excitedly.

I guessed that having more work was great for the business and all that, but I didn’t quite understand why Ace was so excited about that. Just as he had mentioned, it does happen every year after the end of the competition. Clients, new and old, would flock to sign deals with the company to get their new commercial designed and produced. Some clients would even sign a one year exclusive contract with us to use only our company for their commercials.

“Ok…” I murmured as I continued wondering where this was leading us.

“I’m sure that at least one of them is going to be interesting for you. Why don’t I show you the list later and we can pick your next project together?” Ace suggested before he showed me a very charming smile.

“You mean, you’ll assign me to another project?” I asked to make sure that I understood him correctly.

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“Yup. Of course, I’ll let you choose…” he replied before he smiled at me again.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at his all-too-good offer. Deep down, I knew that Ace was kind, but I also knew that he didn’t always let me get my way, especially when it came to work. If I had to classify him into a type of boss, his type would be the ‘bossy boss’ or the ‘pushy boss’ type. That was why I couldn’t help but feel that he was hiding something because the usual Ace would pick out a project for me. He would make sure to staff me on a project where I would be pushed to my limit. I would suffer and then emerge as a stronger and more experienced person by the end of it.

That could only mean…

“Umm…are you hiding something from me?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“No, what makes you think that?” he replied before his lips curved into a gentle smile.

That was probably when I was convinced that he was hiding something from me. Again.

“Sure. Why don’t we sit down together when you have the list, and we can discuss and decide together?” I proposed.

“Sounds good. For now, let’s just take it easy while we wait for the new projects to come pouring in. I’m sure our sales department is flooded with work requests right as we speak,” Ace said with a joyful chuckle.

“I’m sure that you’re right. Let’s hope that the company does well again this year,” I said wistfully.

…

**A week later**

Everything and everyone seemed to have settled and life seemed to have progressed as per normal once again. It took a few days for everyone to get over the fact that we had won the Ashford competition and for the party vibe to die down. The years before, I wasn’t in much of a position to feel the real change, but I definitely felt it this year. Before, I could only feel that people were festive and then things would get busy for some of us.

This year, however, I felt the change directly. After going through the list of new projects with Ace, he helped to shortlist a few that he thought would be great for me. I didn’t particularly have a preference, but I got attracted to a particular project after learning that Jeremy had chosen it.

“Nope. You can’t work on this one,” Ace said as he shook his head from side to side.

“Why? If I can’t work on this one, then why did you even short list it in the first place?” I asked curiously.

“Jeremy decided to work on that one, so you’ll have to pick another,” Ace replied without any more clarification.

“Umm…is it because we can’t have two designers on this project? I used to work with him before and I think we get along quite well together…” I said with clear regret.

“You should learn to work with other people besides Jeremy. Don’t use him as your comfort zone, Rina,” Ace replied curtly.

--To be continued…

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