Chapter 190

190 Late Night Search

My throat felt parched and that was what led me to wake up in the middle of the night. The bedroom was dark when I opened my eyes sleepily. I should get a drink of water from the kitchen. I tried my best to get out of bed without waking Ace. However, I couldn’t quite sense his presence with me in the dark room and when I felt around his side of the bed, I couldn’t find him.

Where did he go? It’s so late in the night.

Drowsily, I got out of bed and made my way out of the bedroom. I had no idea where Ace went in the middle of the night. Maybe I would find him on my trip to the kitchen to fetch some water. It was dark and silent outside as I made my way to the kitchen. I couldn’t find Ace anywhere and that fact rushed me to grab a bottle from the fridge before quickly drinking from it.

I walked along the hallway while I thought that it might be best to grab my phone and give Ace a call. That was when I heard the sound of something moving inside one of the rooms. The sound stopped but not before I figured out that it was coming out of his study.

Don’t tell me that he’s up and working in the middle of the night.

I approached the door of his study on my tiptoes, although I had no idea why I was sneaking up on him. Not wanting to disturb him might be a valid reason; however, it was probably more because I wanted to observe Ace working. The light leaking out slightly from the crack in the ajar door convinced me that he was indeed in his study.

Standing next to the door frame, I peered inside through the slightly ajar door. At first, I couldn’t really see anything. However, after finding the right angle, I could make out Ace sitting at his table with a thoughtful look on his face. I wondered what he was thinking about and what he was working on. He should be sleeping peacefully in bed next to me, but he was working hard all alone in the middle of the night instead.

Before I could stop myself, I pushed the door opened slowly and walked into the room. The sound of the door opening caught Ace’s attention and his eyes immediately fell on me. To my surprise, he wasn’t quite shocked to see me.

“Why are you up?” Ace asked before his eyes returned to the screen of his computer again.

.....

“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied softly as I made my way to his side.

“You should go back to bed. It’s late but you can still get a couple more hours of sleep before morning,” Ace said before he offered me a warm smile.

He didn’t look like he was about to fall on his face, but he did look more tired than usual. At that moment, I wanted to do anything and everything for him to support him. If he had asked me to do something for him at that moment, I would have done anything that he requested. That was how much I wanted to help him. However, I knew that there were many things that I couldn’t help him with.

“You should go back to sleep too. I didn’t think that I’ll wake up to find you working all alone like this,” I told him as I stared over his shoulder to see what he was working on.

A spreadsheet filled with numbers filled my vision and I couldn’t quite understand what he was doing. The numbers were probably financials and some projections that he was working on.

“I didn’t think that you would wake up in the middle of the night, either. Usually, you sleep quite well all the way until morning,” Ace replied before he grinned at me.

“What are you working so hard on?” I asked to fulfill my own curiosity.

“Just some plans for the company. I want to have a meeting with my senior managers about it soon so I’m starting my preparations early,” he replied casually.

“Do you have to work on it in the middle of the night like this? Can’t you do it tomorrow at the office?” I asked as I started to worry even more about him.

This whole business plan and business growth commitment that he made with his father was clearly a real challenge and Ace seemed to be suffering to steer the company in the right direction for him to meet his goals. It felt great that he seemed so committed to meeting that goal so that we could solidify our relationship; however, I didn’t really like to see Ace overworking himself like this. This was the stark contrast to the carefree and lazy CEO that I had first met.

“Nope. I focus better this way. There are always so many things going on at the office. Things that I have to do, people that I need to meet, people that need my help, and all of that. It’s much more productive for me to work alone like this,” Ace replied.

“I guess I’m disturbing you then...” I mumbled.

“I don’t mind having you here, but I think you should head back to bed, Rina,” Ace said before shooting me a pointed look.

Slowly, I lifted my arms and wrapped them around his neck before cuddling him close to me. I could feel his soft hair against my cheek as I leaned my face on his head and held him close.

“What are you doing?” Ace muttered.

'

“Giving you morale support...I guess...” I replied a little shyly but I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.

“I’ve received more than enough of that so please just go back to bed,” Ace replied a little coldly.

Maybe he’s just embarrassed?

I hesitantly let go of him. There were many things that I wanted to tell him. Something along the lines of ‘don’t work too hard’ or ‘you should get enough sleep’ or ‘don’t stress too much’ and other related things. However, I knew that he wouldn’t give up on what he was doing and all my words wouldn’t get to him.

–To be continued...