Zach didn't utter a word as he watched Bella return to the car and get into the front seat next to him. He turned to look at her, waiting to at least get a sort of apology from her for keeping him waiting for that long, but Bella simply took out her phone and didn't so much as spare him a glance as she continued playing her Candy crush game from the point she had left it off the previous night.
Bella raised her head to look at him when she noticed he was yet to start the car after some time, "What? We are not leaving yet?" Bella asked with a raised brow.
It then occurred to him that she had no intention of either apologising to him or thanking him for waiting for her, so he took in a deep breath before turning on the car's ignition and driving off.
He found it very annoying that such a new and young employee could be so disrespectful and ungrateful to him when even Dan Williams, with all his wealth and affluence, wasn't this rude or mannerless.
He turned on the car's stereo and put one of Dan's songs on to discourage any form of communication with Bella as he tried his best to stay calm so he wouldn't say anything he might feel sorry for later.
After playing the game for over an hour, Bella noticed her phone's battery was low, so she dropped it on her lap and looked outside the window, "Can I change the song? The lyrics are kind of corny," Bella asked with a yawn.
Zach gave her a non-committal grunt which she interpreted as a go-ahead, so she went on to change the song.
"Are we ever going to get there today?" Bella asked again after a while, with a bored yawn.
Zach, who was still seething inwardly, pretended like he hadn't heard her and just kept driving.
Bella took one look at the cold expression on his face and could tell he was very angry with her. She felt partially guilty for keeping him waiting since she had spent over two hours with her family, but she also felt justified since she had asked him to leave without her, but he had stubbornly insisted on waiting.
Zach turned to look at Bella when she suddenly turned off the music to get his attention. 'Now what?' He asked himself.
"How much longer is this journey? I'm tired already. When are we getting there?" Bella complained.
He bit his tongue to hold back the sharp response he had wanted to utter but said, "Soon" instead in a curt and unfriendly tone.
As far as he was concerned, Ben wasn't his employer, and he was under no obligation to be friendly with him.
Fine, she had wanted to teach him a lesson, but maybe she just might have gone too far or probably had gone about it the wrong way. The last thing she needed on her first day at work was to be enemies with the handsome Chauffeur.
"Okay, I guess I owe you an apology," Bella said, turning in her seat to look at him guiltily.
"You think?" Zach asked sarcastically.
"I'm sorry. I really had to take care of family issues, and I knew it was going to take some time; hence I asked you to leave initially. Why did you have to be so damn stubborn and wait, anyway?" Bella muttered under her breath, making Zach wonder if she was actually apologising to him or complaining.
"Mr Stuart..." Zach started, his voice was still stern and unforgiving.
"Ben will do. I'm really sorry, so you don't have to sound so standoffish," Bella hurried to say before flashing him an apologetic yet disarming smile.
"Let's be very good friends, please," Bella said, poking his side with her elbow.
"You can stop doing that now. I'm driving," Zach said without looking at her.
She felt immensely relieved when she saw the smile that twitched on the corners of his lips. For some reason, she knew she was going to be needing this friendship with Zach.
"I'm very sorry. I will try my possible best not to annoy you again, even though I can't really promise you that. I can be pretty annoying, but trust me. You're going to live for my troubles," Bella assured him, flashing him a toothy smile.
"You should look ahead now. We just arrived at the gates of the mansion," Zach told her before looking out of the window so the sensor on the gate would capture his face.
The gate automatically opened after that, and Bella quickly understood why he had chosen to wait for her. Not only would she have been unable to locate the house, but she would never have been able to get in without help.
"Thanks for waiting," She told him quietly before turning to look ahead. She could literally feel her eyes pop out of their socket, and she could swear her heart stopped beating for a second when she spied the beautiful glass mansion ahead as the car drove through the driveway, which was framed like a passage by welcoming cypress trees which lined both sides of the road.
Even though anyone could tell it was a glass house merely by looking at it, you just couldn't see through the glass to know what the interior of the house looked like.
"You.. mean.. this is his home?" Bella asked in awe, unable to tear her gaze away from the mansion, which looked like a giant ice cube with a beautiful front yard pool. It was nothing as she had ever seen before. The view before her just seemed like a building brought out straight from a painting.