Chapter 170

170 Winning Over My Mother

After taking our seats, we started off on the food. I watched a little anxiously to judge Ace’s reaction to my mother’s homecooked food. I wasn’t the one who made it, but I couldn’t help feeling nervous to see if he would like it. My mother, on the other hand, seemed quite confident in the result of her cooking.

“It tastes like home, I guess. It’s very delicious for sure, but something about it makes me feel very warm. It’s like eating love and care,” Ace told my mother with a charming smile.

I didn’t think that he was completely lying about what he thought but his word choice and the way he smiled at my mother also made me think that he was definitely sucking up to her. My mother laughed a little shyly before she smiled and thanked him. The conclusion that I quickly reached was that she was already under his spell. I began wondering if there was anyone that Ace couldn’t manage to win over as I stuffed some food into my mouth and began chewing on it.

“Your daughter is so mean, ma’am...she told me that she will break up with me for sure if I was the father of that baby. She didn’t even think about it when I asked her what she would do if that was the case...” Ace complained openly to my mother.

Why do I feel like he’s already on her good side and I’m being painted as the villain here?

“Rina, don’t be so mean to Ace...” my mother turned to say to me with a clear warning in her tone.

“I’m not the one being mean to him. He was the one who caused so many misunderstandings...” I retorted.

“I surely am to blame. Don’t blame Rina, mother,” Ace said in tone so gentle it was like he was talking to a baby.

My eyes bulged when I realized that he had already started calling her ‘mother’ and that she didn’t seem to mind. My mother just laughed along to whatever he was saying. I made a mental note to ask Ace what he done to my mother when we were alone. Seeing them talk and enjoy their time together made me feel a lot better in a way that I couldn’t quite describe. I guess I was glad that the two of them got along and that my mother enjoyed his company. Clearly, Ace has got her figured out and wrapped around his fingers.

.....

After wrapping up our meal, I thanked my mother before telling her that we should be heading out. My mother was understanding like she had always been and wished us good luck. I didn’t want to tell her that this was probably just a small bump in our journey together and that there were more detrimental hurdles that lay in store for us such as getting the Chairman’s approval of our relationship, for example. Things were complicated but telling her all of that could definitely wait for another day.

It was a long ride from my mother’s place to Ace’s place in the heart of the city; however, the ride wasn’t boring at all. The ride also gave us the time to reconnect and silently mend our bonds.

“I’m a little worried about Project Alpha...” I mumbled admittingly.

“Why? Isn’t everything going well?” he asked.

“Well, I guess but I’m still worried about potential delays,” I said before I sighed softly.

“We still have time. Thankfully, it didn’t take us long to make up, otherwise the final storyboard review might need to be pushed back,” Ace said jokingly.

“Never. I’m professional enough to separate my personal life from work. I would have attended the meeting with you even if we were still not on good terms,” I told him defiantly.

I probably meant it; however, I had to admit that I wasn’t sure how well I could have pulled it off. Jeremy, being as bright as he was, would have probably sensed that something was off right away since he would be in the meeting with us. That might have been very awkward indeed.

“Is that so?” Ace asked teasingly before he turned to grin at me.

“Have you taken a look at it?” I asked hopefully.

“Let’s not talk too much about work right now. I’m on leave and you’re supposed to be sick,” Ace reminded me with a hint of disapproval in his tone.

It was clear that he didn’t want to talk about work anymore, so I decided to change the topic to something else. Since the CEO was on the leave, I had to be respectful of his personal time too. Leave days were precious even for the CEO, I thought with a smile on my lips.

After a long drive, we finally arrived at Ace’s place which turned out to be one of the high-rise luxurious condominiums. Ace had a private elevator that shot us right up to the penthouse floor. A while ago, this would have surprised me, but I’ve learnt for a while now not to be surprised with these things anymore. I just had to imagine the best of everything and then some extra layers of special on top of that and that was probably what Ace had or had access to.

“My bedroom has a nice view,” Ace stated confidently during our ride up.

“What about the view of the other rooms?” I asked teasingly.

“...you can see for yourself,” Ace muttered.

I giggled a little at him and the elevator opened after it came to a stop. Ace offered me his hand and led me out of the elevator. The fact that the elevator opened right up to the entrance to his room told me that there was only one unit on the entire penthouse floor of this building. Impressive, although, no longer surprising to me.

“Wow! The view from up here is amazing!” I cried out as the view of the cityscape captured my attention.

I quickly approached the wall of clear glass and looked down and then around at the great view that seemed to make the city stretch out endlessly before me. Ace chuckled behind me before he came to stand at my side.

–To be continued...