Waiters removed the soup bowls and started serving the dinner. Rafael preferred to sit across her and kept the conversation on work and usual life stuff like they had been buddies for a long time.
"I used to think that being the head of a small team was the most amazing thing that happened to me," Marissa pulled his plate to her and started cutting the beef steak he ordered, into small pieces, "but man! I was so wrong."
She didn’t notice what she was doing and cut the whole steak into bite-sized pieces before passing the plate back to him.
He felt his heart skip a beat when realized that was what she used to do when he was blind, but he didn’t remark on the weird gesture. Instead, he tried to focus on her words.
"Are they giving you a tough time?" he asked her while eating his steak pieces and saw her shoveling the spoonful of rice into her mouth, "as a head you have the authority to be strict with them, Marissa. Tell them the consequences for not following your orders."
Marissa stopped chewing her food when found his tone a little harsh.
She couldn’t tell him how Kate and now Delinda were giving her a tough time. If he was trusting her by assigning a designation, then she didn’t want to disappoint him with petty complaints.
She took a deep breath swallowing her worries along with rice.
"Being a head of the small team is so... overwhelming... I don’t know how you manage to be the president of this multinational company," she said shaking her head.
"Trust me. It’s harder than you can imagine," he said taking the sip pf his wine.
"Yeah. I was so delusional about it..." she curved down her lips, "like I always thought being a CEO only meant traveling, having s*ex, drinking, and enjoying life to the fullest."
He seemed amused after listening to the description of the perfect life of a CEO.
"Having se*x? Fullest? Huh. And all that is earned after a lot of blood and sweat, Marissa," he said pouring more wine into her glass.
"Now I know. I’m just telling you my perspective when I was too naïve," she said with a wave of her hand. He was happy when he saw her refilling her plate with rice. He signaled a waiter to refill the rice dish.
She was so busy discussing the demanding life of a CEO that she didn’t even notice.
"Should I order something else for you?" he asked her subtly but choked on his drink when she told him she couldn’t eat much as she was on a diet.
"You tell me," She placed the spoon on her plate, "being a CEO means you need to be perfect. I mean just show the world you ARE perfect no matter what you are going through in your life. Am I right?"
"Damn right!" he poured some chicken gravy into her plate.
"So, tell me something nobody knows about the President of MSin."
He laughed while thinking hard.
"What?" she smiled and focused back on her food, "Can’t come up with anything?"
"No. That’s not the case," he chuckled, "Actually there are so many blunders that I don’t know which one to share."
Marissa’s eyes went wide in shock, "Really? You are kidding. Right?"
He shook his head and poured some more wine into his glass, "Before coming here. I was in Sangua City taking care of some legal matters. There were some internal office matters too. So, during those days, all I was doing, was sending emails for every little stuff. Those emails were usually meant for my legal departments, then nationwide company emails, and then my office emails. There my assistant was continuously begging me to sign the documents. That day he was so tensed that he forgot to bring my coffee."
Rafael washed down the steak piece with a chug of wine.
She looked at him with curiosity, "And then what happened?"
She intertwined her fingers and rested her chin on it, "What if you want to play diplomatically?"
The conversation reminded Rafael of his married life, how she used to ask him questions about his business, and how he used to satisfy her.
He had always known that she was Intelligent and had learned a lot from him when they were married. He had been observing her very closely since she returned to his life and wished she could ask for his help like a friend.
There was someone who must be giving her trouble in office.
"If you need to play diplomatically, Marissa ... then make the person feel like she is the CEO. Make her follow those commands telling her that she is the one who has control over everything," he leaned forward to observe her face closely and said in a horse whisper, "Play smart! Once she is overconfident then show her, her place. Tell her who is the boss."
Rafael didn’t know why she was asking this question. But he needed to know who was challenging her authority. He wanted to deal with the person himself, but he also wanted to see her more confident and more assertive.
He wanted her to trust him and come to him.
But...
He knew it still had time.
One day!
One day, you’ll come to me, strawberry. And when that day arrives, I’ll hug you so tightly and will make you mine.
One day, strawberry. One day!
I am waiting for that one day.
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