"You did not what?" she asked as sharp pain clawed at the pit of her stomach. She already knew the answer but she for some reason wanted him to say it again.
Leif averted his gaze feeling rather uncomfortable being stared at like that. He wanted to say don't laugh at me when you hear it again because this was quite embarrassing for him.
He had never eaten leftovers in his life because they never had leftovers when he stayed with his father in poor conditions.
They always made enough for the two of them. Even when he returned to the Bardin family he did not get rid of this habit. He never ate leftovers but last night seeing how angry she was and how hard she worked he couldn't sleep peacefully. So in the middle of the night, the dignified president walked out of his bedroom and tip-toed downstairs to the fridge.
He did not even dare to switch on the lights as he took out that sealed container. Leif reheated a meal for himself in a microwave for the first time in his life.
He sat on the barstool in the kitchen and stared at the steaming plate like it was an enemy. After convincing himself that it was just as fresh as before he spun his fork and wrapped a few strands of the pasta in it.
With a light exhale he ate it with a look of great suffering but when the wonderful taste reached his taste buds, his cold aura vanished without a trace.
His eyes gleamed and he ate the entire plate in a heartbeat. It was only after he finished that he felt so embarrassed and he dared lie to Quinn about what happened to the miss leftovers.
She was far from a five-star Michelin chef but there was something special about it that made him unable to stop himself.
What he didn't realise was that he had fallen under the spell that kids fall into when their mother cooks for them. Thirty fourty years down the line they would still come home anticipating the hearty meal made by their mother.
Leif's mother never made anything for him to eat not even baby formula so he had never experienced the comforts of such a meal. Now he had experienced it with Quinn but he hadn't realised it yet.
"You you ate it?... So why didn't you just say so? You almost made me throw away a perfect steak dinner. That's messed up," she said while taking some cutlery and a mat for the dinner plate.
"Wait, you can not eat it like that," said Leif thinking she should at least place it in an air fryer or the microwave to reheat it but the angry Quinn just yelled from the dining table,
"Watch me!"
Quinn sat down and like the cookie monster on crack, she quickly demolished the entire steak with no regard for her image as a lady.
Leif's eyes through fleeting widened slightly as
he stared at her as though looking at an alien creature. How was her body that slender and curvy when she ate like an elephant? Maybe it was all going in the right places.
Realising how his mind had strayed away, Leif stopped looking at her and turned to leave but Quinn stretched out her hand blocking his path.
"You stay and wash it as punishment," she said completely forgetting who she was talking to and Leif made it a point to remind her.
"Quinn have I been too nice to you lately that you forgot what sort of relationship we have?" he said and Quinn got a fright when he looked into those chilling eyes.
Damn, how could she forget? This was the overlord who could decide who lives and who dies in a heartbeat.
"My apologies boss. How could I forget," she said with a self deprecating smile before walking away.
This was what Leif wanted but hearing her say it seemed to tug at the pit of his stomach making him very unhappy. He pushed away this feeling and left for his bedroom.
Meanwhile, Quinn watched the container with a complicated expression. She was well aware of what kind of relationship they were in but she couldn't help herself. Whenever she saw Leif these past few days, she would have this urge to tease him like it was a natural secondary response.
It seemed her tail had grown a little bigger and she was starting to see him as an equal but reality came down heavy and slapped her in the face. She vowed to keep her boundaries and not cross the line again which for her was a very difficult task.
***
Leif soon realised that his words that night were very impactful. On day one, he did not notice. On day two, he still didn't notice. It was only on day three when he had lunch with Quinn and her mother that he finally realised that something was very wrong.
She would talk to him occasionally but she was quite distant and not as enthusiastic as before. She treated him with politeness unlike the one she gives strangers but more like the one she gives distant relatives. Now he understood why his therapist asked if he had fallen into old habits recently. Yes, he had. He was too comfortable because she had adapted to his environment and no longer stood out enough to disrupt his normal routine.
In other words, she had become a part of the furniture with little to no impact on his daily life.
"Mum, I will be right back," she said and got up to go to the bathroom.
As soon as she was gone, Amalie leaned forward and asked, "Leif, did you two fight?"
Leif's thoughts were disrupted thus he turned his head to look at her. Had they fought recently? No, In fact, things had been so harmonious recently that his mind was now at ease. He didn't feel nervous or constantly on guard.
"No," he answered and Amalie was at a loss. These two looked like a couple that was fighting and not just a small fight but the kind that could have one sleeping on the couch.
"Son in law, I know her and she is definitely upset about something. Are you sure you haven't said something or spoken to someone you should not?" she genuinely tried to help him solve the problem but she did not realise how much emotional intelligence he had. In other words, she had overestimated his emotional intelligence.