Chapter 30: Chapter 30

Around a month later…

Celeste woke up in the morning by the continued ringing of her alarm. She then turned around and laid straight on her back as she started counting from 5 to backwards. The moment she counted 0 she hastily got up and made her bed before running straight to the washroom to take a shower.

She came out wearing her office attire which consisted of plain black pencil skirts and a green sleeveless top as it was already summer. She then blow dried her hair and went out of her room. Her apartment consisted of one bedroom, one guest room, two attached washrooms, a kitchen and a small living room. When she came out of her room she found her dog Archie and Her kitten Lilly were cuddling each other Archie's small bed. She smiled and took her phone to take a picture of them. She then went to the kitchen to bring their food. Archie was a golden retriever while Lilly was a grey Persian cat.

"Archie, Lilly, come here." She called out. Hearing her voice they both turned around and rushed towards her. Archie jumped on her while licking her face while Lilly rubbed herself on Celeste's face. Celeste let out a loud laugh before bending down and cuddling both of them while rubbing their backs.

"Aww Archie! Stop! Eat your food first." Celeste said while laughing as she pulled both of them away from her. Archie protested and burked making Celeste smile at him.

"Archie! Behave. I have to go to the office!" Celeste said while making Archie cower a little. She then rubbed Lilly's back while serving her food. Lilly let out a meaw before starting to eat. Archie also started to eat his food eagerly.

Celeste then made her way towards her kitchen and picked up some ingredients to make her breakfast. After making some pancakes she ate them with nutella and raspberries. She then drank a glass of mango juice and made her way towards her bedroom to get ready.

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Celeste was about to go and get her car when someone called her name from behind. She turned around and smiled at the person.

"Good morning, Shawn." She greeted him with a smile.

"Good morning. You didn’t answer my call yesterday." Shawn said with a frown. Celeste smiled at him guiltily.

"I'm sorry, I just fell asleep early yesterday. My phone was on charge and I didn’t hear it ringing." Celeste informed him apologetically. Shawn nodded in understanding.

"It's okay. Are you taking the medicines properly?" He asked in a concerning voice. Celeste nodded with a tight smile.

"Yes don't worry." She informed me with a warm smile. She was glad that there was still someone who cared about her genuinely.

"Are you going to the office? How about I give you a lift and then when your office ends we go out to grab some dinner together?" Shawn asked, his eyes were hopeful but Celeste didn’t notice that. She thought for a moment and then agreed. It's been a long time since she last went to dinner with Shawn. He had asked her a few times in the past few weeks but she was always busy with her office work so she couldn’t agree.

"Sure. But the dinner is on me." She said with a smile. Shawn chuckled and agreed before they made their way towards Shawn's car.

Shawn was Celeste's ex boyfriend. They had dated for a year when Celeste was in her first year of University. But after a year Shawn went to the US to study as a foreign exchange student and they lost contact gradually. Shawn was now a doctor and Celeste had met him again in a hospital almost a year ago when she first moved to Ontario. She was surprised to find him here. It was Shawn who helped her to find her apartment and settle down here. Slowly they again become best friends like they were in their highschool and University days. Shawn helped her a lot with her life for which she would always be grateful to him but there was nothing romantic in between them. They had moved on from their past a long ago and were only good friends.

The car stopped in front of Celeste's office and Celeste came out of her thoughts. She then leaned forward and gave Shawn a kiss on his cheeks like she used to do in her highschool days whenever he gave her a ride.

"Thank you. I will see you after the office ends. Have a good day." She said with a smile. Shawn also smiled back.

"See you later. You too have a good day, Celeste." Shawn said with a smile while waving her a goodbye when Celeste got out of his car. Celeste waved back with a soft smile and slowly Shawn's car disappeared from her sight. She then turned around and was about to enter her office building when her eyes collided with a pair of familiar smokey grey eyes which were looking at her like a predator. He was wearing a black suit with a white shirt underneath. His hair was combed perfectly making him look devilishly handsome. Suddenly she became nervous as her heart started to beat faster but she didn’t dare to express it on her face. She then slowly placed a smile on her face before greeting him

"Good morning, Liam." She greeted him with her soft melodious voice. Liam looked at her from head to toe and then looked away.

"Good morning. Who was that?" He suddenly asked out of nowhere making Celeste look at him with surprise in her eyes.

"That's my friend Shawn." Celeste said while looking away from his eyes. Suddenly Liam's eyes turned cold as he remembered something.

"Shawn Anderson? Your ex-boyfriend?" He asked. His voice was unusually cold and his expression was full of pure anger. For a moment, Celeste was dumb founded looking at his cold face. She then slowly nodded.

"Oh I see." He said with a nodd. Celeste looked at him and frowned. It wasn’t unusual for him to know about Shawn as she herself had told him about Shawn. But he was behaving really weirdly from the past few weeks which was unusual for him.

Like he would call her in his office for absolutely no reason and hand her work that wasn’t really her job to do. He would then make her sit in his office and tell her dondo the work there. She would find him staring at her from time to time which made her feel really uneasy. Not in a bad way though. The thought of being close to him excited her yet at the same time scared her to the core. She tried her best to stay as far as possible from him but he made it harder for her.

She didn’t know why but she sometimes thought he was doing all that deliberately. But she couldn’t say anything to him. He was her boss after all.

"We are getting late. Let's go inside." Liam said. His voice was devoid of any emotion as he made his way inside the tall building. Celeste who was lost in her thoughts came out of it and nodded at him before following him inside.

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It was almost lunch time but Celeste was stuck in Liam's office with him. He had handed her a few files and ordered her to review them and make a report on them. She wanted to go to her desk and work peacefully there but Liam forbade her from doing so. He made her sit on the sofa and do all the work there. Celeste stretched her back as it started to ache for seating there too long. She wanted to go out and eat her lunch. She looked at Liam who was busy working on his laptop. She scowled at him. She felt really frustrated and annoyed at him. What had gotten into him? Why was he behaving so weirdly?

There's already many wild gossip going around the office regarding them. She was sure as hell he knew about them as it was his own office but he pretended as if he didn’t know anything. A few days ago, few of her female colleagues had asked her what was going on between them. Celeste denied it and said they were old friends. She knew they didn’t believe her but she didn’t care. Some people also went far by calling her names like gold digger, social climber, bed warmer of the boss and so on.

Excuse me! She was his ex wife for God's sake and it was his who lost his mind. Why were they blaming her? She didn’t know. At that moment she felt really annoyed at Liam for coming back and robbing off her peaceful life.

"It's almost lunch time and I'm hungry." She whinnied while looking at him. Liam looked at her and then thought for a moment.

"Okay. Let's go." Liam said while getting up from his seat.

"What no!" Celeste let out a squeak.

"You don't want to have lunch?" Liam asked with a raised brow making Celeste again scowl at him.

"I mean yes. But I can go alone. You don't need to accompany me." Celeste said while getting up.

"I'm not accompanying you but you are. We are going on a business lunch with one of my business partner and you need to accompany me as my assistant." Liam said with a sweet smile on his face while grabbing his phone and car keys.

"Why me? Can't you take someone else with you?" Celeste pleaded with him. She didn’t want to go anywhere with him. Why was he making everything hard for her. Watching him everyday in front of her eyes already gave her enough heartbreak and she didn’t need more.

What if she fell for him again? She couldn’t afford to lose herself again. It wasn’t fair to her.

"No. Let's go. They will be arriving any time." Liam said while holding her hands and pulling her with him. Celeste looked at their joint hand with wide eyes. She tried to struggle and get free but he didn’t let her, instead he made his grip more tight making it impossible for Celeste to struggle.

Celeste sighed and mentally prepared herself for what was coming next.

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