Chapter 3

Knock. Knock.

"Come in."

Eric comes inside Axel's office. He put some papers on his desk at the side.

"So where is she?"

Axel asked after grabbing those papers and started going over them.

"She is out for lunch right now."

"Is she alone?"

"No."

"I'll have to wait until she's alone. It's not good to approach her in public. For now."

"Should I book the whole restaurant, Sir?"

"Sure."

"Is there anything else?"

"Yeah. Send Lexi in. I want to know what she has found out so far."

Axel signs those papers and hands them back to Eric, who then starts moving towards the door.

"Got it. Then I'll take my leave now."

~~~~~~~~~

Aylin had reached the restaurant on time. She didn't put that much effort into her outfit but unfortunately for her, that damn Sam (his father's assistant) saw her leaving like that and told this to her father. Her father then had her get ready by professional makeup artists and designers.

'That damn snitch Sam. Can't look the other way even once.'

She grumbled, biting her lip.

The guy she was supposed to meet was a millionaire heir. Well, who cares who he is? She's just going to do what she always does.

Right when she was getting frustrated by waiting, that guy came and sat in front of her.

"I'm sorry, I'm slightly late. There was too much traffic."

He said.

"Hmm."

Aylin replied in a monotone.

This was her technique. She would make a dead face and barely speak anything. And when she would go home, she would tell her father to refuse the proposal. Although her father would get angry with her attitude but since he is looking for someone much better, he wouldn't throw a fit.

Her stares were making that guy nervous.

"Umm..then would you like to order something?"

"I just had breakfast."

"Oh. Then something to drink?"

"I already ordered it."

"Oh. So...ummm...is there anything you would like to talk about?"

She shakes her head in response.

"How about we first both tell about ourselves to each other? I'll go first."

He waits for her reply but seeing her frozen and not bothering to speak anything, he then starts talking,

"As you may know, my name is Tobias. I am 25 years old. Currently, I am employed as a CFO at my father's company. Although I will inherit it later on. My dad wanted me to learn the ways around the office by being in a position. I am also a huge fan of sports. Soccer and tennis are my favorites. Oh! This reminds me, your father told me you also enjoyed watching soccer. Who is your favorite player?"

"...."

He smiles in return waiting for her reply.

"...Aren't you going to say anything?"

"...."

Seeing her non-responsive reaction, he reaches his hand out to touch her hand while saying,

"I know this was arranged by our father but I'd like you to be more comfortable. There..."

He stops talking as Aylin quickly pulls her hand away and starts glaring at him.

"Oh...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

His phone suddenly starts ringing.

"Excuse me for a moment."

He then leaves to answer his phone.

As soon as he gets up, Aylin takes a sigh of relief.

'I am sorry for being so rude but it can't be helped. Now let's make up an excuse to reject this guy and tell this to dad.'

She takes out her phone and messages Sam.

'Tell dad I reject this proposal. This guy has a low status. He is only a CFO. Did you even check his background before letting him agree to meet me?'

That's when her drink comes. She takes a sip and again sighs,

'Just what the hell am I doing...I wish I could be something else right now...I wish he doesn't come back. Don't come back. Don't come back. Say you have work to do. Leave. Go. Shoo.'

She starts staring at Tobias's back through the window.

Tobias was standing outside, talking on the phone, and could feel someone strongly staring at him which made him feel uncomfortable.

"What are you saying? Come back now? But dad knows I am meeting with Mr. Abbott's daughter right now. No, I can't. Huh? You're saying it is his order? But doesn't he know how important this is for us if this works? I don't want to lose this chance. This is a breakthrough for our business. What do you mean he says he won't take no for an answer?..... Fine. I am coming."

After his call ends, he sighs and comes back inside. Instead of sitting down, he says,

"I am so sorry. There is an emergency at the office so I have to leave."

This makes Aylin subconsciously curl her lips without knowing about it,

"Is that so?"

Seeing her smile, makes him slightly blush.

"So you can talk and smile."

Immediately correcting her face, she glares back at him,

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't mean to offend you. I apologize. But sadly I do have to leave right now...if it's possible then should we schedule this another day?"

"I'm busy."

"Oh, you're busy. I can understand. Then would it be alright if we exchanged numbers?"

"I don't remember my phone number."

"...but your phone's right there...you can check.."

She again glares at him and he instantly adds,

"or not. You don't have to do anything. What's your Facebook or Instagram ID? I'll follow you."

"I'm not on social media."

Aylin slips her coffee, lying to reject his every offer. But it seems he also refused to back down.

"Is that so? Then you can save my number, right?"

"My phone's dead."

He looks at her phone that had flashed just a few moments ago when she received some messages. But he didn't dare to question her and instead called the nearby maid for a pen. On one of the tissues, he writes his number and name down.

"Here you go. Do call me. I have to go now. It was nice meeting you. Hope to see you soon. Bye."

After he leaves, Aylin finally smiles happily and starts humming to herself while drinking her coffee.

"Oh look who it is. Fancy seeing you here, princess."

A voice called out to her as the person who said that sits opposite her. Her eyes go round upon seeing who it was.

"Axel?"

"Yes."

He smiles brightly at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A moment ago before Tobias had left, Axel who had booked this entire restaurant so that it would be empty, sat behind Aylin without her knowing about it. He wished he could sit in the opposite direction to see her face but that would ruin his plan to surprise her. He didn't want her to notice him. Not yet. Because he didn't want to intrude on what was going on. However, upon seeing Aylin's dull reaction, he realized she didn't want to meet this guy.

When that guy grabbed her hand or at least tried to, Axel had enough of his patience. He ordered Eric to get that guy out of his sight and away from her. This is why Eric faked that call to Tobias and had him leave.

~~~~~~~~

And here he was now, sitting in front of a shocked Aylin. Her surprised face made him slightly chuckle. How cute, he thought.

"What are you doing here?"

She asked.

"I could ask you the same thing."

He answered while picking up the tissue paper on which Tobias had left his number. He didn't even bother to ask whether Aylin wanted this or not and started to tear it into pieces.

"I was on a date."

This irked Axel but he calmly retorts,

"It sure didn't look like one."

"Because it was a so-called setting up by my father. But enough about that. I don't even want to talk about it. You tell me. What are you doing here? What if someone sees us?"

"This is a restaurant and I came to eat. Plus relax, it's all empty. I've taken care of everything."

"I see."

He stops playing with the torn pieces of tissue and instead looks straight at her eyes,

"Although I have something to ask you. Why did you block me?"

"Block you?"

She asked, puzzled.

'Did he call me? How did he get my number? No, wait. That's not important. He has resources to get any number he wants. What's more important is how could I block him! Stupid Aylin!'

She internally screamed as she opened her phone and started going through the list of blocked numbers.

"I called you earlier. Before I could introduce myself, you said it was the wrong number and then you blocked my number. I understand that seeing our family's business feud you may not want to talk to me anymore, but I feel a little sad. You didn't even recognize my voice."

He starts to tease her when he notices her flustered face.

"I am so sorry. I tend to get a lot of random calls from random strangers. They all want to either somehow woo me and make a connection with my father or gain favor from him. I have changed my numbers so many times because of this as well. But honestly, it's so annoying that this is my method to deal with all of them. I don't want to keep on changing my phone number. Also I am sorry for not recognizing your voice.....it sounded deeper and different on the phone."

She explained. She didn't know which phone number was his so she shyly looked up and asked,

"Umm...I know it's late but which one is yours?"

"Give me."

She hands her phone to him and he unblocks his number and saves it.

"What are you doing?"

"Saving my number."

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Your phone's private right?"

"Yes..."

"Then it's fine."

"But..."

She mumbled as she took her phone back. She notices he had saved his name as Axel and did not add the last name.

"I hope you won't block my number again."

He remarks.

She shakes her head and replies,

"I won't. Now is there something I can help you with?"

"Huh?"

"I mean you called. You must have something to tell me. What is it?"

"Do you think everyone who calls you has a purpose behind it? Can't a person call you without any reason?"

"Isn't having a purpose the reason you call others? Don't you have something to say to me?"

"Actually, I do have a purpose."

"So, what is it?"

"I just wanted to get to know you better."

"...is that so?"

She blushed at his answer and couldn't think of what to say.

"We couldn't talk last night. Which is such a shame. You even looked so pretty."

This makes her face flush. He called her pretty. Which means he did notice her last night. But his next comment makes her confused,

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"How did I look?"

".....I didn't see you."

"Oh, so you weren't taking glances at me last night?"

Being caught, her face reddens due to embarrassment. He knows.

"It must have been a coincidence. I don't remember how you looked."

She lied and thought, 'it's better to lie than to embarrassingly admit that I was staring at him.'

Seeing her reaction, he smiles to himself and decides to change the topic for her sake.

"So about that date you were on before..."

"Why are you talking about that?"

She interrupts him, annoyed about the fact that he keeps reminding her about it. But despite her interruption, he continued to talk,

"Does this mean the rumours are true that your father is currently looking for a suitable man for you?"

She sighed,

"I guess word has already spread everywhere."

"It's hard not to. After all, you're like a princess."

"Please don't start calling me daddy's princess now. It's hard enough already for me that I am only known as his daughter. I don't want you addressing me like that as well."

"I called you a princess because of your looks, not because of your father's status."

This makes her cheeks hot. Why does he keep saying things like this?

"...thank you? But it doesn't matter. All the proposals I am getting are because I am his daughter. And he will select someone for me."

"You don't have any freedom regarding that?"

He becomes slightly surprised because according to the rumours, her father listens to her every single word. Well, rumours are called rumours for a reason. They aren't true.

"I may somewhat have but I do have to meet the men he selects and then decide."

"That sounds rough."

"Yes, it is."

Suddenly Axel recalls something and pulls out three white lilies and gives them to Aylin.

"Here. You looked like you liked them because last night at the wedding you kept admiring them. I could have bought you a whole bouquet but correct me if I'm wrong, you don't strike me as a person who wants to draw attention to herself by carrying around a whole bouquet?"

This gesture makes her heart flutter. She smiles while receiving the flowers,

"You have got a keen observation."

"Thank you. Now, what do you say? Do you want to hang out someday?"

He smiles waiting for her response,

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

He nods, smiling.

Aylin becomes happy at this but seeing the messages from her phone's notifications, her smile goes away.

'I must end this now before it becomes too late.'

She suddenly starts grabbing her things which makes him surprised,

"We shouldn't interact with each other that much. It was fun chatting with you but I'm afraid let us make this our last meeting. Thank you for the thought though. I'll accept these flowers and I won't block your number but I don't think I will be able to answer your calls or reply to you. I'll take my leave now."

Startled, Axel reflexively grabs her hand before she could stand up,

"Wait what? Why? You don't want to keep in touch with me?"

"Then do you want to be just friends?"

She answered with a question that made his face stiffen as he instantly blurted out,

"No."

She gives a soft sad smile,

"I thought so. This is why we can't meet. As you said, rumours about me getting married soon are true. Dad wants me to get married before the end of this year because of some reason. So in any case, no matter how many proposals I reject, I will get married to one of them because that's just how it is for me. Knowing that's what my future is going to be, I don't want to hurt you. I know you asked me out as Axel and Aylin. But in the end I'll always be Aylin 'Abbott'. Sorry."

She gets up without looking at his face. But before she could leave, he asked,

"What about me then? What do you think of me as being one of those suitors?"

Her eyes go round at his questions,

"Huh?"

So how are you guys enjoying the story for far? Please do comment and vote to let me know what you think about it. It would really mean a lot to me. Hope you liked reading this chapter ^^ ❤️