Knock! Knock! Knock!
Noelle heard the sound of faint knocking which pulled her out of her thoughts. She was so engrossed in her work that she barely paid any attention to her surroundings. If it wasn't for the other person's persistence, she might have let it be and continued with her work.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
She had only closed the file when the door was knocked once again, not just one time but three.
'Ugh!' She let out a groan internally as she forced her body to get off the bed. There was only one thing which could annoy her. She didn't like it when people tried to disturb her while she was working.
"Coming." She spoke up loud enough for her voice to be heard on the other side of the door.
It made her wonder how some people had no patience at all. She had no choice but to give the other person what they were demanding of her.
"Can you be a little…" She was about to give the knocking maniac a little scolding, but railed off as soon as her eyes landed on his face.
"May I ask what you are doing here?" She mumbled as she eyed him up and down. "I don't remember asking the hotel to book some tours for me." She added lazily as her wandering eyes finally came to a stop on his face.
She had to accept that he was the last person she was expecting to see at the moment. For all she knew and could tell, she never imagined crossing paths with him after their earlier encounter.
"Umm… I-I...." Not knowing how to start a conversation with the lady, the man trailed off his words, not once, but twice. His cheeks were tinted with a shade of light pink as he tried to think of where to start. Should he take a leap and jump directly at the apology? Or should he start by complimenting her attire? Or maybe, tell her how nice she smelled?
'W-wait! Hold your horses man! What kind of creep do you want to become in her eyes?' Corey gave himself a good mental scolding as he tried to keep an uptight front before her.
"I think I know why you are here." Noelle spoke up as she flicked her wrist right next to her face. With her eyes open wide in excitement, she shared her thoughts with him.
"You must be here to tell me how casual I look for my room, right?" Her lips slowly curled up in a smile as her eyes registered his ashen face. "Just kidding, though I won't mind if you point it out. I am, after all, too casually dressed at the moment." She added, feigning a hurtful expression, as she leaned her body against the side of the door.
Corey, on the other hand, wasn't enjoying her sharp sense of humor. He was instead regretting ever coming up to her room and thinking about apologizing to her. He wondered if she was somewhat similar to her step sisters, thinking that they must be sharing at least one parent.
"Don't look so bad. I don't bite." Noelle could tell what was going inside that head of his from his expressions alone. Though she wished to dive inside his head so that she could witness it first hand.
"I thought you might." Before his mind could register what was going to slip through his tongue, the words had already left his mouth. "Shit." And if that wasn't enough, he managed to curse out loud before her. "F@*#!* And not just once.
"I am so sorry. I shouldn't have said that." He tried to salvage the situation after seeing how high her delicate brows had shot.
"Which part? The first one where you think I might bite your head off, or the second one where you cursed?" Noelle, who was clearly enjoying seeing him all worked up about things, muttered with a serious face.
"The first one." Corey answered her without thinking it through. His mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts, all of which revolved around one person, the not-so-spoiled daughter of the Sundseths.
"So you are sorry for making a rude comment about me, but not for cursing before me, a lady." She whispered after giving his words a thought. She was still trying her best to maintain a straight face before him even when she was finding it hard. His flustered self made him look cute to her.
"N-no. I mean I am sorry that I cursed before you." Corey hurriedly added while shaking his head frantically.
"What about the first one then?" She added, trying to make the most of it.
Her words only messed his thoughts further up, leaving him at a disadvantage. Not wanting to continue any further, he brought both of his hands up and covered his mouth, making sure that there was no space left between the skin of his palms and his thin lips.
Meanwhile, Noelle continued to stare back at him with the same expressionless face. "Do you want to say something in your defense, Mr. Corey?" She mumbled as she narrowed her eyes at him only to see him shake his head to the side in a no.
He didn't even let himself have a breath, and made sure that his hands never left his mouth. His antics were only making it harder for Noelle to keep up with her stern facade.
She pursed her lips together as her deep brown orbs stared into his ocean blue ones before she finally decided to let it all go. And like a bubble, a series of giggles burst through her lips, leaving him more than stunned in his spot.
"You are so easy to mess with." She commented in between as she switched from giggling to smiling before going back to laughing, enjoying the show which had brought itself to her doorstep, literally.
After a full minute, she finally forced herself to stop as she stared back at his ashen face.
"So, Mr. Corey, what exactly brought you to my doorstep?" She added in a rather serious tone as she thought it was time to stop with torturing the poor man. Though she had a fair idea what the reason might be, she wanted to hear it from the man himself.