312 Old me


    “What about you, Karina?” Elizabeth asked as she turned her attention to me.


    “What…about me?” I asked nkly.


    “Does Ace’s father like you? He knows that you two are dating, right?” Elizabeth asked bluntly.


    To be fair, I didn’t think that the Chairman didn’t like me as a person. After all, he clearly hasn’t known me long enough to form any kind of opinion about me. However, there were many reasons rted to my social standing, the fact that Icked many qualities especially when it came to wealth and business assets and all thesecking qualities made him disapprove our my rtionship with Ace. That on top of the fact that we were not supposed to be dating because he is my boss. In the end, it might not be entirely wrong to say that the Chairman does not like me.


    “It doesn’t matter what he thinks of Rina. I like her well enough and that is all that matters,” Ace replied before I coulde up with something to say.


    “Wow. Such bold words…” Elizabeth said in clear amusement as she pped her hands together.


    I nced over at Ace as I thanked him silently in my heart. Ace didn’t seem bothered at all by her words and I thought that maybe I should start doing the same. I prayed over and over again that this dinner woulde to an end soon so that we could finally all go home.


    “Instead of being worried about Karina, I think you should worry more about your husband. I’ve told you many times before that you can’t keep things this way. You have to find a way to patch things up with your father and you have to stop doing things to piss him off,” Ace advised sternly.


    “You’re right. Even I know that you’re right, but I just don’t have the heart to do any of that. Unlike how he is with you, my father has been nothing but cruel to me,” Elizabeth said with a sigh.


    .....


    “He just wants what is best for you. He can be very strict but I’m very certain that he always means well,” Ace replied.


    “I’m not so sure about that…” she muttered darkly.


    A dark shadow clouded over Kyle’s face as his positioned seemed to be discussed openly. I also did not miss the more than subtle hint that Ace made. One of the things that Elizabeth could do to make up with her father would probably be for her to divorce Kyle.


    “We should go home,” Kyle spoke up.


    My best guess was that he probably couldn’t take it anymore and the direction that the conversation was taking didn’t seem to be heading in his favor. Elizabeth turned to Kyle with a deep scowl on her face that bluntly disyed her dissatisfaction.


    “I have a lot of work to deal with tomorrow, so I don’t mind keeping this dinner short as well,” Ace replied smoothly in agreement.


    “That’s too bad. I really enjoy chatting with you. We should do this more often, Ace…” Elizabeth suggested with a smile as she turned her attention back to Ace.


    “Send your father my regards,” Ace replied with a small smile.


    “Sure. He would probably give me another long lecture on how I should have married you back then…” Elizabethined but she ended upughing in the end.


    I had no idea what she had in mind, but I clearly didn’t like what I was hearing. Kyle seemed restless to leave and I hated how this session of farewells seemed to be taking so long. Ace justughed along without replying to her while I wished that he would just inly tell her no.


    “Seriously, maybe we should have gotten married…” Elizabeth said with a dreamy look in her eyes.


    I wanted to stand up and scream in her face. Just how crazy and bold could she be to say something like that right in front of me and her husband. Ace justughed it off like it was some bad joke and Elizabeth startedughing as well. Even if everyone tried to y it off as a joke, I didn’t find it entertaining in the least.


    “We should leave,” Kyle urged again.


    “I think we have an early day tomorrow at the office. Let’s go, Ace…” I quickly agreed as I stood up from my seat.


    “Let’s go, Rina,” Ace said to me as he stood up from his seat and took my hand into his.


    I wondered if he knew how conflicted I felt inside and how our dinner date truly turned out to be such a traumatizing disaster. Just thinking about how much I had looked forward to having dinner with Ace made a pain run through my chest. Ace took my hand and led me away from the table. I didn’t even bother to look back at Elizabeth and Kyle. I was just so d to get myself out of there.


    By the time that we got back into Ace’s car all the rotten emotions inside of me had transformed into a big hot ball of anger. It took all my self-control not to m the car door closed. If Ace noticed how spoiled my mood was, he did not mention it. Ace seemed calm and collected as always and that was probably one in the many rare asions where I did not admire his maturity and control.


    I bit on the inside of my lower lip to keep myself from saying words that I woulde to regretter. The silence in the car felt full of tension but I thought that it was better than us shouting at each other. The truth was, I wanted to scream at him at the top of my lungs for inviting Elizabeth to join us. I stared out of the car’s window at nothing in particr just because I didn’t want to look at Ace and I didn’t particrly want him to see my irritated face.


    “We should be arriving soon. Hopefully, you’re not too tired…” Ace said casually as we approached his building.


    –To be continued…