Chapter 331 - 331 Facing the Inevitable

331 Facing the Inevitable

The unexpected rain that I thought would be short and temporary ended up lasting a few days. On and off, the rain fell from the sky and made the weather completely unpredictable. Although I knew that I shouldn’t let something like the weather affect my mood, it was still hard for me to control myself and I ended up feeling quite gloomy at work. Travelling around with an umbrella in my bag at all times became a burdensome necessity.

Despite the gloomy weather, everything at work was working out so superbly that it was fabulously surprising. Sometimes people tell me that it’s more exciting to leave the result unknown right until the end or the last moment. I would agree with that on some cases; however, when it came to the result of the competition, I wanted to be assured way earlier on that we would turn out to be the winner. I didn’t mind at all if there was absolutely no excitement in the result announcement or the ceremony that would be held to dish out the awards.

“Let me do that for you,” I offered as I reached for Ace’s necktie.

“Thank you, Rina,” he thanked me with a pleased smile.

Everyone’s attention would be on Ace when he gets up on that stage so I felt like the least that I could do was to help tie his necktie for him. Ace already looked so strikingly handsome in his formal suit and was beyond presentable. I was so sure that all photos taken of him at the ceremonious event tonight would turn out stunning. Charismatic and smart, Ace was the perfect face for the company on top of being more than qualified for his role as the CEO.

“All done…” I said before lightly patting the tie in place.

I could feel Ace’s eyes on me and when I tilted my face up to look at him, our gaze met as his hazel brown eyes held mine. Something in the way that he looked at me made me feel all warm and giddy inside. For a moment, I didn’t know what to say and perhaps that was because there was nothing that needed to be said between us. Counting down the days to the day of the closing ceremony of the Ashford competition had been tough for me emotionally.

Time did not stop to wait for anyone and there was no choice for me but to force myself to be as best prepared for it as much as possible. The evening of the award ceremony was now upon us and there was no other option than to face it straight on because turning back was never truly an option in the first place. If Ace was excited or disturbed in any way by the upcoming ceremony, he did not show it at all. The advice that he gave to Jeremy to look confident was an advice that Ace seemed to abide by very strictly.

“Thank you, Rina. You should get dressed too,” he said with a gentle smile.

.....

“I’m not going up on stage, so I think I’m dressed fine enough this way,” I replied before taking a few steps back to put some distance between us.

My eyes swept down Ace’s body from head to toe and I had to say that he looked very ready to take on the world and what it may have to present. As for me, I felt comfortable enough in my regular business suit and matching skirt. The regular white blouse that I had on felt like a good luck charm to me and that gave my confidence a boost even though I knew that it was just being a little superstitious.

“Are you sure? You can choose to turn up in a dress if you want. It might make the photos turn out better,” Ace suggested.

“That’s not necessary. I’m hoping to hide away from the cameras anyways. I guess I’m nervous enough about this. If I dress up for it, it’ll make me feel even more nervous. So, let’s try to keep this like any other business conference or something along those lines,” I said before laughing nervously.

“If you say so…” Ace said before putting the matter to rest.

“It would be strange if I turn up all dress up while the other people on the team turned up in their regular suit,” I muttered.

“Who knows? Everyone else might turn up all dressed up and you might be the only one in your regular suit,” Ace teased.

“I doubt it…” I retorted softly.

His comment did leave me slightly worried that that may be the case so I ended up taking out my phone and texting a few of my colleagues including Jeremy to ask about what they would be wearing. The lastminute wrap up for the project took a lot of time and was very complex so that the last thing on my mind was to ask what other people were planning to wear to the closing ceremony of the competition.

…

“Please just ignore me and do what you always do…” I told Ace while we sat in the back of his limousine together.

Since the event was a very high-profile one, Ace’s driver was driving us instead of Ace driving himself. In the end, I ended up turning to the event in my regular business attire. Everyone else was meeting us at the venue while I accompanied Ace as his secretary. That being said, I had to make sure that Ace would behave in front of everyone, especially the press so that unnecessary attention won’t be directed our way.

“I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. You’re here with me so how am I supposed to just ignore you?” Ace asked with a disapproving shake of his head.

“Just focus on the event and I’ll try my best to stay out of your way. I’ll blend into the background with the team,” I replied a little sternly.

“You worry too much,” Ace said before turning away from me to look out of the car’s window.

–To be continued…