"Miss Alice, pass me the silver USB from my bag." Junho was analyzing the data charts of The Green Bay. It had been almost seven hours to them in the plane.
"Miss Ali---" When the CEO did not get a response, he turned his head to see his sleeping assistant with slightly parted lips. Her hair was falling over her forehead, covering half of her face. Her lips looked extra glossy today. What flavour of lip gloss she had used? Suddenly Junho felt the urge of finding it out. He leaned in towards the girl slowly, close and closer. It was not he who was driving in, but the gravity was pulling him in; the strong gravity radiating from Alice.
The painful tug on his heart did not cease the leisured inclination of the CEO towards his assistant. Close enough for their breaths to be fused into each other, sparking a fire in the heart of Junho, the subtle pain subsiding, he closed his eyes and levelled his face down, sniffing. Redbud. Had he smelled a redbud lip gloss before? By all means, no. Xiu's favourite flavour was cherry, and that was the only flavour Junho had tasted the most. He did not understand how he identified the flavour of gloss on Alice's lips when he had never breathed in its aroma. But something about it felt familiar, dangerously close to his heart just like the kiss.
"Would like any---", his eyes shot open at the voice of the flight attendant. Abruptly pulling back, he dismissed the girl. Then the reality dawned on him. What was he doing? Sniffing the lips of his assistant? Someone would have taken him as a freak. It was better if he took some rest.
But the CEO could not sleep more than an hour. Alice was still lost in her dreamland. For the rest of the flight, he worked on his laptop. Workaholic he was before Xiu came into his life, but the girl brought out a different side of him. However, after she was gone, things started shifting back to normal in his life. Or it was the start of something brand new.
"Miss Alice, wake up." He stood up from his seat and asked the attendant for a glass of water. Drinking more than half of the glass, he splashed the rest on the face of the girl. She was getting on his nerves. What was she there for? It was not a family trip. Regardless that was not the real reason for the CEO to be pissed off at her but the knotted feeling, treacherous intimacy he had started feeling whenever in closed proximity with her.
Alice gasped out for air. Unfastening the seatbelt, her eyes wandered off in the space. "I'll kill you, Feng. What did I---", taking in the surrounding, the surprised flight attendant following by the passive face of her boss, she quickly jolted on her feet.
"We are leaving." Junho handed the glass to the girl standing beside him and proceeded to the door. Alice was about to follow him when the flight attendant stopped her from her arm. "Mr Geon's bag and coat." Alice looked down and saw a laptop bag and the coat Junho had on before she dozed off.
"Huh, what he takes me for? Nothing like, I'd be babysitting a grown-up a*s, was written in the contract I signed." Gritting her teeth, the girl, nonetheless, picked up the belongings of her boss and stormed out.
"Can you slow down? The flight was damn tiresome." Thank God she knew how to run with heels on to match up with the long strides of Junho.
"Coming from the one who slept all the way." The CEO got in the car. Alice stopped in her track, absorbing that her boss just mocked her but it was not the first time. The shocking fact was she did really sleep for fourteen hours! In a plane! Last night she had envisioned herself throwing up all the way during their flight. However, she had a good sleep, let alone feeling nauseous.
"Miss Alice, are you getting in?" Asked the chauffeur who was holding the other door open for the girl. She quickly hopped in. The drive to the hotel was silent. Junho, as usual, was on his phone and Alice, for the first time she felt as if she was in a wonderland. California was just like how she had watched in the movies. Palm trees were lined up in the streets. Scrolling down the window, a warm, refreshing summer evening breeze welcomed her. Junho however looked unfazed by the scenery. Of course, he had been there many times to be fascinated by it anymore.
"Welcome, Mr Geon." Soon they reached the hotel where a man in his thirties was waiting for them with keys in his hand.
"Here, your keys." While Junho was conversing with the man, Alice was awestruck by the interior of the building. Everything looked so...luxurious. Even the air in California felt so fancy to breathe in.
"If you're done admiring the tawdry hotel, we're supposed to be somewhere in 30 minutes." Tawdry! The hotel was one of the best hotels in the state! Alright, the girl understood that Geon Junho was the billionaire of China but having the name did not mean he would degrade the quality if it were not under The Geon Corporations. Alice followed Junho to come back at him for such a remark but before she could open her mouth, she noticed a white man standing behind Junho with their suitcases.
"If you want anything, please let us know, Mr Geon." After showing them their rooms that were across from each other, the man excused himself.
'He looks highly respected here.' Alice thought.
"Alright, so you've got 15 minutes. Don't dress formally. It's an informal business meeting over everyday dinner. If you know what does it mean. Do you, Miss Alice?" Junho unlocked the door of his room with his card key and looked back at Alice.
"Of course, I do, Mr Geon," Alice replied as calm as she could. The lofty boss of hers would not let a chance slip by to insult her.
"Good. Let's meet here in fifteen minutes." After saying that he locked the door.
***
"For goddamn sake, if you don't open the door, I'll break it, Miss Alice!" Well, fifteen minutes should be enough to put on a dress and some light make-up. Yes, they were more than needed Alice knew which dress to wear.
"Would it hurt if he was a bit more specific!" There the girl was, locked inside the bathroom, on the edge of pulling her hair while scrolling through her phone, reading how to dress informally for a business dinner in a hotel. Everything was flying on the top of her head. All she could see was one thing, mini dresses. But only had formal suits and sneakers! Well, except the high heels she was wearing.
The CEO had been banging on her door for five minutes. How could she open the door and showed up in the same clothes? He would drink her blood without a second thought!
"Alice, open the damn door. I'm saying this for last time!" Oh, did he just skip the honorifics? Alice was so dead.
"In five minutes, Mr Geon!" Rushing out of the bathroom, she went to her room and opener the suitcase. Perhaps she could find something less formal. A blazer with pencil pants would do it, right? Taking clothes out one by one, the train of profanities continued until the bag was almost empty, well, almost.
Her eyes went wide when she saw the dress. Feng! She was so busy looking after office matters that she did not get time to do her packing. That was when she asked Feng to do it for her. The boy, definitely not-so-short-sighted like his friend, also folded a bodycon dress, in case she would need it.
"Oh my God! Feng, my saviour! Let me treat you when I get back!" She hugged the dress as if her life was dependent on it. Shortly, she changed into it and put on the heels. She did a little makeover and let her hair untied. She liked it that way better. Now that she was ready within ten minutes, there was one problem.
"You f*cking stubborn thing! Just do it!" The zipper.
"Five minutes are over, Miss Alice!" Came Junho's voice from the door. The CEO was more than just annoyed at his assistant. Not that she was getting them late for the meeting, it was the first time Junho was waiting for a girl getting dressed up. Being a model, Xiu would always be ready on time. But Alice was late in everything she would do!
"Come on, please, please, please." If it were not for the makeup, the girl would have started crying. Who would not when you have a demon-like boss at the door waiting for you over ten minutes?
"If your pussycat is afraid to show up in front of our business partners, just tell me already. I'll go myself!" And there he hit the nerve. Pussycat and her? Damn, boy, you did bad. Abandoning what she was doing, she strode towards the door and pulled it open.
"Excuse me? You called me a pussycat?" She snapped at her boss. Nobody was allowed to talk down at her.
"If you---", Junho opened his mouth but the instant he took in the appearance of the girl, it fell shut.
In off the shoulder, long sleeve off-white bodycon, that was barely reaching her knees, was standing his assistant who had started giving him those weird feelings lately. Her red lips were screaming the dominance and he wanted to tame them so, so bad. Ehhh, what did he just think?
"I mean...w-e are getting la-te. If you're rea-dy, shall we go?" Did he just stutter! No way in the universe had he stuttered in front of anyone except the little girl from his childhood. He was not hallucinating. Was he?
"Yeah, just let me get the documents." When Alice turned around, Junho's jaw dropped on the floor. His eyes never left the back of the girl until she was disappeared behind the wall.
"Get a grip on yourself." He muttered loosening his tie.
"Okay, let's go." After a few seconds, Alice came back and was about to shut the door when a hand came holding her wrist.
"Don't you think your dress is a bit too revealing for a business dinner, Miss Alice?" Junho did not know what part of it he disliked, whether everybody seeing the girl in that dress or he losing his control over himself.
"Sorry but I don't think I ag---", the dress was the length of her knees and had long sleeves. Alice did not wear such type of dress but she was certain it was not too revealing for a business dinner. That was until the thought came into her mind; the zipper.