Chapter 2

I felt like my words were biting me in the ass at the moment.

That little lady, Ms. Belcalis, worked so efficiently and diligently that I now had a brand new stack of paperwork to go through at the end of the day despite the fact that I had come in this morning with a completely empty to-do list.

We visited 7 potential sites for building the new headquarters, met up with 4 different architectural firms, and spoke with 5 different construction firms for quotas within the last 12 hours. With all the driving between different sites and negotiations with the heads of each firm, we ended up skipping lunch and barely even had a chance to sit down.

Her options were so well researched that I had no qualms and had no trouble narrowing down on a single location for my new building, along with an architectural and construction firm to lead the project for me, even though it had only been the very first day on the project.

To add on, she managed to go through the entire day without exchanging a single word with me or anyone else, only giving nods and shakes here and there. Even when she was negotiating the price with the firms, all she had to do was hand them different copies of a contract and wait to see if they agreed to it or not. And if they disagreed, she would simply hand them a slightly altered contract and repeat the process again and again until they reached a consensus.

I was quite surprised by this negotiation method, but the firms we met with seemed to have no issues with it. Apparently, they had all worked with Ms. Belcalis at some point in their lifetime and were used to her lack of speech.

It made me wonder if she was actually mute and not just a quiet person.

Either way, I was quite amused by how a petite little lady could lead a roomful of hot-headed CEOs without a single word and was also very pleased with the result of her work within one day's time. But at the same time, it also meant that I had a new pile of contracts to look over at the end of the day to finalize the terms with the firms we selected.

I sighed as I looked at the 479 new messages in my email inbox despite already being filtered for junk mail and then at the clock above my doorway that read 8:13 PM. I guess I won't be leaving early today, either.

Putting on my computer glasses, I quickly got cracking down on approving the different contracts. I needed to finish these today because only more work would appear tomorrow. I couldn't have these things piling up on my desk. It would only create a slowdown in the overall efficiency of my company.

I soon lost track of time as I fell into my single-tracked, heavy work mode. An hour or so passed by uninterrupted until I heard a light knock on my door.

Without looking up from my screen, I instructed, "Come in."

The door cracked open, allowing some of the fluorescent lights from the corridor to shine inside as said intruder entered my office.

I paused to look up from my laptop and found Ms. Belcalis standing silently next to my door. Noting the clock that showed 9:07 PM on the wall above her doorway, my eyes widened in surprise.

"Are you not going home yet?"

She hesitated and shuffled in her spot without a response.

"Were you waiting for me to finish?"

This time she nodded timidly.

Guilt instantly weighed down on my chest.

All of my employees knew that they didn't need to wait for me to finish to go home because I often worked late. I wasn't so cruel that I'd force them to work longer than necessary, but she must've been waiting for me to give the okay to go home and ended up staying here until this ungodly hour.

"I must've forgotten to tell you this earlier, but you don't need to wait for me to go home. I often stay here long after work hours for my own work, so please don't worry about me and just go home whenever you finish your work." I quickly closed my laptop and gathered my stuff from my desk before abruptly standing up and walking over to Ms. Belcalis. "Did you have dinner yet? Maybe I can buy you something to eat as an apology for keeping you here so late."

She took a step back from me when I neared her and held her hands tightly to her chest. She firmly shook her head and diverted her eyes from me as she inched back, trying to make an even larger gap between us.

I stopped mid-track a few feet away from her, surprised by her reaction, not wanting to make her any more uncomfortable than she already was. I wasn't sure what I had done wrong.

I had never had a woman back away from me before. It had always been the other way around, where they would shamelessly throw themselves at me.

"Um... I'm sorry for keeping you here so late. I should've told you beforehand." I nervously rubbed the back of my neck. "Please let me at least give you a ride back home. I would feel awful knowing that I let a young woman like yourself walk through the dark street of New York like this."

Her breath hitched as she suddenly took a large step back from me, hitting the wall in the process.

My eyes rounded in surprise. "It's okay if you don't want to. I won't reprimand you for saying no to me." I quickly added, "I can leave first if that makes you feel better?"

She slowly nodded in reply but otherwise remained completely still against the wall.

"Um... Okay, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then. Stay safe on your way home, and if you are willing, please at least send me an email when you get back safely." I lowered my head to her every so slightly before exiting. "Goodnight, Ms. Belcalis."

I paused momentarily at the doorway, waiting for an answer.

After a pause, she nodded weakly while still avoiding my eyes, but at least it put my mind a bit more at ease, enough so that I managed to finally unroot myself from my position and walk over to the exit.

As I waited for the elevator, I hesitantly glanced over my shoulder and watched her tiny figure creep out of my office into her own room.

I let out a sigh of relief, knowing that I at least didn't petrify her to a point where she couldn't at all.

But it still weighed heavily on my mind to know that the only time I had managed to have broken her facade was when I scared her nearly half to death.

When it arrived, I quickly hopped into the elevator and swiftly made my way back home, trying to clear my mind of all thoughts involving Ms. Belcalis. I wasn't sure what had happened, but hopefully, everything will clear up tomorrow morning with the rays of a new day.

Swinging the door to my apartment open, I was about to toss my bag and jacket onto my sofa haphazardly until I found myself greeted with an annoyingly mischievous grin from a green-eyed monster lying in the middle of my living room.

Slamming the door shut behind me, I scowled at Benedict, not appreciating his presence after such a long day. I roughly yanked my tie off my neck and threw everything onto the sofa without any regard for whether or not he was lying there.

Benedict let out a loud oomph as my heavy bag landed on his stomach and wheezed, "Jeez, what's got your panties in a twist?"

"Do you get a kick out of handing me weird chicks whenever I contract your company for a job?"

He raised an eyebrow as he peered at me from over the back of the sofa. "What's wrong with Danary? I thought you'd like her. She always finishes her job in an impeccable manner in half of the allocated time."

I groaned as I frustratingly ran my finger through my gelled hair, ruining its shape. "There's nothing wrong with how she works. If anything, we're already a week ahead of schedule, even though today was her first day on the job. My problem is her lack of speech!"

He cocked his head to the side. "I thought that would be a bonus? You always complained about the previous representative's, and I quote, incessant chatter."

I grimaced at his retort. He wasn't wrong...

"And Danary does talk, just not a lot."

I deadpanned, "She hasn't spoken a word all day, not even when we were meeting with the contractors."

He shrugged. "I mean, she talks to me. Occasionally. Maybe she just doesn't like you."

I tensed at his last sentence.

Noticing my change in posture, he taunted with a big old grin, "Oh, ho, ho. She doesn't like you, does she?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to stop the throbbing pain associated with the memory of what had just happened. "Maybe? I don't know. I forgot to tell her that she didn't need to wait for me to finish working for her to go home and offered to take her out as an apology, but she freaked the moment I stepped a bit closer to her."

I can't believe the first time I see any sign of emotion from her— something that wasn't a blank face— was when I scared her nearly to death.

He raised an eyebrow.

A moment passed.

Then, a horrified look suddenly came over him. He whispered I a ghastly voice, "Don't tell me you already harassed her on her first day on the job?"

I glared at him and smacked him on the back of the head. "Of course not. I didn't even touch her. I was barely even within 5 feet radius of her."

He winced as he rubbed the back of his head. "Then I don't know. I never had that happen to me, even when I was flirting with her in the past." He paused, seemingly thinking back on the past for a hard minute. "Now that I think about it, no one in my company actually knows much about Danary either. She kind of just keeps to herself and avoids making friends with anyone. You probably already know her as well as anyone else does."

I sighed and plopped down onto one of the stools next to my kitchen counter, rubbing my face in exasperation, thinking about how difficult the rest of this project is going to be if she ends up being that skittish around me for the rest of our time spent together. To think that I was already being driven insane by another woman so soon after getting rid of the previous one.

Before I could wallow any further in my own self-pity, a small chime rang from my phone, signifying an email notification. I begrudgingly pulled my phone out of my back pocket and swiped up to see the email.

Just got home. See you tomorrow, Mr. Cordova. ~Danary J. Belcalis

I instantly perked up at the message, rereading it over and over again to make sure I didn't imagine it.

Maybe she doesn't hate hate me after all.

And for some reason, that thought immediately lightened the heavy feeling on my chest.