?

Because Ace had asked me to wait for him at his place, I decided to order in a simple dinner. It was when I had finished eating that I realized that Ace did not mention when he would be back and that was probably because he didn’t know.

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The dining room was quiet, and it felt quite lonely to be eating alone. I wondered what Ace was up to and I hoped that everything was going well on his end. Not knowing what to do, I pulled out my laptop and decided to do some work to pass the time. It was ironic how my date night with Ace turned out to be a working session, but I thought that it would be better to get some work done than to just sit around and worry.

After a few hours of working, I realized that it had gotten quite late and there were still no signs of Ace. I hoped that he had a chance to eat something for dinner. I stared at the entrance of the place as I started to worry about him. Debating with myself just made me feel even more hesitant about giving him a call so I just reached for my phone and started dialing his number. I waited impatiently as I waited for Ace to answer his call.

In the end, the line never connected; however, the door to the suite did open. I got out of my chair so fast as I raced toward the door to welcome him back home. I was glad to see Ace, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the shock that accompanied his return. My feet refused to take a step forward and I was too shocked to realize what kind of face I was making at that moment when I saw that he wasn’t alone.

“Ace…” I whispered his name in shock because I didn’t know what else to say.

Ace took a few steps forward as I stayed glued to the same place. He looked at me with a conflicted look and he seemed apologetic for what had happened. It was like time stopped for a few seconds when I came face to face with our apparent visitor.

“Elizabeth…” I mumbled her name softly.

“Sorry for barging in…” she said before she grinned at me.

“Come in. You can sit wherever you want,” Ace said as he gestured with his hand for her to enter.

“Welcome…” I murmured as my mind went momentarily blank.

Why is Elizabeth here? Why didn’t Ace mention anything about bringing her over?

Elizabeth smiled a little at me as she walked past. I turned and watched her take a comfortable seat on the sofa in the living room where she joined Ace. Tension seemed to escalate in the room, and it took a lot of willpower to force my body to move toward the sofa. I eventually took a seat on the sofa as my eyes flickered from Ace to Elizabeth and then back again. I stared at Ace as I implored him with my eyes for him to explain to me what Elizabeth was doing in his place.

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It didn’t take me long to figure out that the burning ache in my chest was a mix of anger because it did not escape me that it was very probable that Ace had cancelled the dinner that we had planned because of her. Something must have happened, and I wasn’t willing to wait for much longer to find out what exactly that was.

“Did things work out at work?” I asked to start the conversation.

“Not quite, which is why she’s here with me right now,” Ace replied while sounding uncharacteristically tired.

His response made me feel even more curious than before as I hoped that there was a very good reason for what was happening. Elizabeth did not seem like herself. She was more silent than usual, and she had a distraught and worried look on her face like she was very bothered by something.

“Did something happen?” I asked without beating around the bush.

Ace didn’t immediately reply, and I saw his eyes glancing over at Elizabeth’s face. I stared at her from where I was seated as I waited for her to explain. After a moment of silence, it was clear that Elizabeth was too upset to say anything. That was when Ace decided to take over to explain to me what was going on and why we had an unexpected visitor with us that night.

“I guess something did happen. After I managed to finish up my work for the day, I got a call from Elizabeth that her father demanded to see us immediately. Unfortunately, that was why I couldn’t join you for dinner. Long story short is that the conversation that we had with Chairman Chase did not go well and he’s trying to make it more of a personal matter and that is why Elizabeth is quite upset,” Ace explained.

I could tell that something sensitive and complicated must have happened during the conversation that they had, and I also appreciated the effort that Ace seemed to be putting in to explain it to me; however, I wasn’t quite sure that I understood the whole picture.

“What did the chairman have to say? It’s about the merger, right?” I probed for more details.

“Well, at first, we understood that he called us to discuss the merger and that was why I decided to go. He told Elizabeth to tell me that it was something urgent and I had no other choice. I guess we did discuss the merger, but things got difficult when he started bringing up Elizabeth’s marriage…” Ace explained before pausing.

Her marriage?

Elizabeth still had her mouth firmly shut when I looked over in her direction. She was clearly absorbed in her own thoughts and didn’t want to participate in the conversation with us just yet. I didn’t know before that Elizabeth had a difficult relationship with her father and I wondered if it was as bad as the one that Ace seemed to share with his father.

--To be continued…

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