Carl's eyes widened like they wanted to pop out of their sockets as soon as Cassandra locked lips with him. He was shocked and confused at the same time.
After realizing what just happened, he angrily broke free from Cassandra with a scornful look on his face. The kiss was so quick and unexpected.
"What the hell?" Carl questioned in a husky tone feeling very pissed. There's no way he would've ever thought that Cassandra, his substitute secretary would be crazy enough to kiss him on the lips.
Meanwhile, Cassandra's mouth was wide open. She was also shocked that she just that she forcefully kissed her boss. It's not her fault, she got carried away by staring at his sexy pink lips.
After coming back to her senses, her face was now filled with regret for what she has just done.
"I'm… I'm sorry…" Cassandra stuttered, already shivering in fear of what would happen next.
The look on Carl's face made Cassandra swallow hard. She was extremely scared and she knew she was done for.
Carl used the back of his hand to clean his lips like he was disgusted. He lifted his eyes and he saw Anne's departing figure, leaving the hallway.
Carl's heart skipped a beat. He could tell it was Anne leaving the hallway because he recognized her from any angle.
He wasn't sure if Anne caught him kissing Cassandra since everything happened fast. Although, he didn't reciprocate the kiss. It felt more like a three seconds peck on the lips but what was running through Anne's head at the moment was; Carl kissed another woman.
"Anne!!" Carl yelled, chasing after Anne meanwhile, Anne was also walking as fast as she could so he would not catch up with her.
However, since Carl was very athletic, he was still able to catch up with her.
"Anne, wait up," he pulled her arm and she turned to face him looking very furious yet beautiful.
"What is it?" Anne angrily said to him.
It's been a week since these two met and to them, that one week felt like a whole year. It was like torture without talking to each other.
Carl was just staring at the beauty in front of him and he wasn't looking bad himself. He looked really charming and irresistible in the black suit he was putting on.
Anne was looking at Carl with anger because he just kissed another woman but her eyes couldn't deny the fact that Carl looked more handsome than he was the last time she saw him. Maybe it's because she hasn't seen him for a while now. Carl looked so hot and it made Anne think to herself if Carl had been doing fine without her. It made her worry inside of her that Carl has completely forgotten about her.
"papers," Carl said, stretching forth his hand to Anne after catching his breath from his little run.
Anne had a puzzled look on her face not understanding what Carl meant by the word papers.
"Noah told me you're with my papers... I need them" he said calmly. He looked so formal and Anne found it weird.
"your papers?" Anne scoffed.
She now realized that Carl was talking about his important papers that were with her.
"So that's the only thing that matters to you right now. Your goddamn papers!" Anne said, holding in her tears.
She was very hurt and Carl added more salt to her wounds by stopping her just to collect his papers. She was expecting Carl to give her those cliché excuses like; It's not what you think, I can explain or it's not what it looks like. Instead, he asked her for his papers like she didn't matter to him at all.
Anne felt a thorn poking her chest at Carl's nonchalant behavior towards her. She felt nothing to Carl and it was hurting her a lot. He didn't even look like he missed her nor feel bad for kissing another woman.
"Just hold on, I'll give you your papers," Anne said bringing out the folded papers from her purse.
The next thing, Anne angrily tore the papers into pieces.
Carl gasped looking at Anne in disbelief.
"Here are your stupid papers," she said and threw the pieces of paper on Carl's face.
"ANASTASIA!!!" Carl glared at her.
However, Anne immediately turned her back and left with rage.
Carl took a deep breath.
He wondered what could've made her so angry to the extent of tearing his papers into pieces. Yes, those papers were important but at least, Cassandra had the original copies.
'Could it be that she saw Cassandra and I…' Carl thought to himself.
He wanted to think that Anne acted that way because she was jealous but he shook his head. He couldn't imagine that this same Anne who ruthlessly rejected him would be jealous if he was with another woman.
He turned back and saw Cassandra who had been watching the whole scene staring at him with guilt.
Cassandra also had no idea that Anne caught her kissing Carl. She wondered to herself who Anne was and she was curious to know what gave her the audacity to disrespect Carl like that.
"Sir.. Sir… I'm so sorry, what happened was an accident…" Cassandra begged Carl with pleading hands as he was walking straight to his office.
"Sir… please forgive me" Cassandra continued begging, following Carl from behind. She knew she was in serious trouble that could cost her her job.
Carl was now at the doorstep of his office. He turned his neck to look at Cassandra who looked very remorseful.
"Please sir," she pleaded desperately as her life depended on her job.
"You're fired!" Carl said coldly and he got inside his office, slamming the door shut in Cassandra's face.
…
Meanwhile, Anne could be seen leaving the company with rage. She regretted coming to Carl's company in the first place.
"Anastasia!" Noah called Anne from afar.
He was standing in an open space in front of his car that was parked along with other cars. He was wearing a blue buttoned-down long-sleeved shirt that he tucked into his black jeans while his feet were graced with Nike sneakers making him look very smart and handsome as well.
Anne walked towards Noah after hearing her name still feeling very upset.
"good morning pretty face" Noah greeted her with a friendly smile meanwhile, Anne had an angry expression on her face.
"Why did you tell Carl I was coming to give him his documents," Anne said to Noah vehemently.
Noah began scratching his head like he didn't know what Anne was talking about. He intentionally wanted Anne to give Carl the papers herself just to tease him.
A few days ago, Carl had told Noah that he wanted to forget about Anne since she doesn't feel anything for him. He told Noah because Noah never skips a day without talking about Anne ever since he met her at Mr. Ross's birthday party.
There was no way Carl could move on if Noah kept on reminding him about Anne and always talking about how beautiful she is and all of that.
"I was going to give the papers to you so you could pass them to Carl," Anne said and Noah chuckled softly.
"Noah, there's nothing funny about that," she said in a low tone.
"I'm sorry sweetie... why are you upset? You don't seem okay." Noah said concernedly.
Anne bowed her head and Noah lifted her chin with his hand. He saw her eyes welling with tears.
"What happened?" he seriously asked.
"I… I saw Carl with…" she sighed.
"…just forget about it Noah, I don't want to talk about it," she said in a shaky voice that sounded like she wanted to cry.
Anne couldn't bear the fact that Carl locked lips with another woman and what hurt her the most was that he was unapologetic about it. She was still finding it hard to believe that Carl has forgotten about her in a week.
'How did he move on so fast?' Anne thought to herself. For the first time, she felt so unimportant in Carl's life.
Noah saw that Anne was really sad and he pulled her into a hug, gently patting her back.
"I know I pushed him away from my life but it hurts seeing him with another woman… it really hurts" Anne whimpered in his embrace.
"It's okay, pretty face... let's get in the car, the sun isn't good for your beautiful skin," Noah said.
They both disengaged from the hug and Noah wiped the tears that were under her eyes with his thumb.
Like a gentleman, he ushered her into his car and they drove off.
Meanwhile, Carl who happened to be watching the entire scene of Anne and Noah from high above in his office window was angry within himself.
"Noah, what are you up to?" Carl muttered to himself with a clenched fist, staring at the giant glass window in front of him.
It was impossible for Carl to hear Noah and Anne's conversation since he was watching them from his office window but he didn't like what he saw.
Seeing Noah and Anne hug like that, annoyed Carl a lot. They didn't just hug, Noah seemed to be caressing Anne's face but that was what Carl assumed since he didn't see them from a closer view. He had no idea that Anne was crying and Noah was only wiping her tears.
Carl couldn't help but wonder where on earth they drove off to. He knows for a fact that Noah is a lot older than Anne but it didn't stop him from thinking otherwise because Noah is extremely nice whenever it comes to women.
He suddenly heard a knock on his door which made him walk straight to his seat to sit down.
"come in," Carl said and Cassandra slowly opened the door and walked in.
"Sir, please forgive me for what happened. I… I didn't mean to… to do what I did, it was an accident" Cassandra pleaded with tears in her eyes. She desperately did not want to get fired.
Meanwhile, Carl was massaging his temple with closed eyes. His mind was still on Anne and Noah so he was barely hearing Cassandra's plea.
"I have nowhere else to go, please sir" Cassandra kept on begging.
Carl looked at Cassandra and mentally groaned. He wasn't comfortable with the way she was begging him like he was a king and she was his worthless slave.
He brought out a checkbook and wrote something on it. "here, take this." Carl said handing Cassandra the slip.
Cassandra collected the slip from Carl and her jaw dropped as soon as she saw the huge amount of money written on it.
"I believe that'll be enough for you to find a new apartment with good furniture and I'm sure you'll be able to take care of yourself with the remaining balance… Uh, lest I forget, make sure you forward those files of past reports to Audrey, the reporter.
You have less than two minutes to leave my company or else, I'm going to call the security to get you out, and let me warn you, they're not friendly…" Carl said, looking very serious.
Cassandra's heart sank hearing she has to leave. She was devastated.
"Sir, I… I…" She stuttered stroking her forehead. Her vision became blurry and the next thing, she collapsed on the floor.
"Miss Hills!!" Carl exclaimed with wide eyes as Cassandra fainted right in front of him.
He rushed to where Cassandra was lying down on the floor and he raised her head up in his arms.
"no no no no… please wake up! wake up!" Carl panicked, taping her face for her to wake up but she remained lifeless in his arms.
Fear gripped Carl's heart.
The one time he became harsh to his employee it backfired.
******
Dexter was taking a nap in his room when he heard a knock. He got up from his bed and went straight to the living room to open the door.
He gasped as soon as he saw who was standing at the doorstep. It was Noah and Anne.
"B… Boss?" Dexter stuttered due to surprise.
"D… Dexter?" Noah playfully imitated him with a chuckle.
Dexter gulped and opened the door wide for his sister and his boss to come in. He wasn't surprised to see Anne because it was her house but what is Noah doing here?
Dexter was shocked.