"What will it take for you to stop messing with me?" Liam let out a sigh, feeling like his mind was really going to explode if this lunatic kept her antics up.

But he should have known that she didn't have any intention of stopping. At least not any time soon. "I don't know. Let me keep messing with you for a little longer. When my mood is much better, I will let you off."

"Even though I did nothing to upset you?" His eyes narrowed.

"You did everything to upset me." She crossed her arms.

"What the heck did I do?" He almost roared at her.

"I don't know! I don't f*cking know, okay? Just the sight of you is a trigger. My life has been hell ever since I met you." She accused him so righteously that if there were onlookers, he would never have been able to prove his innocence.

He looked down at her while wondering why a woman would be so irritable. "Are you on your period?"

"What does my period have to do with you?" She snarled. "And no! I'm not having it right now."

If this was the normal her, he did not wish for her when she was in pain and needed someone to vent it out on.

"I'll offer you a piece of advice." Her eyes looked so murderous that his advice was shoved back down. Never mind. "I will collaborate with you."

"What?" She was taken aback.

"That will make your mood slightly better, right? I hate to be shot lying down." He explained.

"What do I gain from that?" She sounded like he was the one making a major gain from this.

"You will no longer need to do that." He pointed at the shredder. The paper bin below it was full to the brim. "I don't need to check to know that those are imperfect proposals that you have tried writing in the past couple of days. The one you wrote first is the one you find most perfect. I bet it took countless papers too."

He was right that she didn't want to argue with him.

"What will you gain?" She knew that he was not merely helping her out.

"Smart woman. Don't worry. I'm not trapping you." He grinned.

"You are right. I wanted a cosmetic brand but I could not create one. I may as well collaborate with one I think will be worth my time."

For the first time, her face softened into a smile. "Thank you for the high evaluation."

"Let's discuss the details over a cup of coffee." He suggested, wanting to get out of this office before something more incriminating could be captured to land him in trouble.

"Sure. There is a Reynold's downstairs." She led the way.

There wasn't a long queue at this hour so it was their turn in a few minutes. "What will you have?" He asked her.

"Double espresso. You?"

He responded by ordering a double espresso and a skinny cappuccino. They sat near a window to discuss.

"So, why didn't you go ahead with your dream, you know, the cosmetic brand one?" She couldn't hold her curiosity any longer.

"Because of ALY's." He sipped his cappuccino, seeming absent minded.

"Whoa wait." She blinked. "You were afraid of the competition?" She almost wanted to laugh at him. He gave up his dream because of the existence of another brand? "Well, breaking news. ALY's is now going straight downhill and its competitors are on the rise. You could have been one of them. Nothing is ever permanent."

He chuckled. "I could not compete with its creator. We were close and…let's just say I had more potential which made her uneasy and afraid to start hers. So I paused because of her."

"Okay…" That was not how she expected it to turn out. Was it a woman?

"Samantha Fort." He dropped the name.

"Wait." Ximena felt like her mind would blow from the explosive news.

"Yes, she is the woman I thought I loved." He sighed and took another sip. "I only meant to wait until she got on her feet but she had different plans. She stole all my ideas and used it to create ALY's, using a different name from her own so I wouldn't immediately know."

"Oh wow." She frowned. "I don't know much about her but she was a b*tch. May her soul rest in peace though. But now I'm no longer shocked about you being an asshole."

"Thanks." He stared hard at her.

"No, for real." She laughed. "But… the woman you thought you loved? You didn't actually love her?"

He had never quite talked about it, but he couldn't turn down her bright eyes that begged to know more. "I spent years lying to myself. I would force myself to have an awkward conversation because she and I barely had anything to talk about, and she would get mad if I didn't talk to her a few times every day."

She laughed at him. "That's just messed up."

"I know. A conversation can never feel forced around the person you love. I was just blind and deaf—and a big idiot too." He didn't want to talk about how it ended up between him and her so he skipped off before she could probe. "I love someone else now."

"And I don't think I want to know who that is." She teased.

"Because you will be jealous?" He teased right back, for her to almost choke on her drink before she frantically shook her head.

"Of course not. Because I will pity the poor woman."

They talked for almost three hours and had a few refills before they finally remembered why they were here. After discussing the details, she walked him to the parking lot.

He turned to wave at her. "It was nice chatting with you, Ximena."

"Nice of you to not scold me, Liam." She waved back with a smile.

…

Throughout the drive, that smile was stuck on his mind. It was not forced, not sarcastic and not evil like her other smiles. It was genuine. And she looked so beautiful with a genuine smile.

Although he tried not to let his mind trail down, he couldn't help recalling the scene when she unbuttoned her shirt. She had only undone three buttons so he didn't see much, but what he was was enough to make his thoughts run wild. Her boobs were neither too big nor too small, just enough to fit in his hands.

He cursed. Why was he thinking about the body of a woman he wanted nothing to do with? Collaborating with her was already a stretch.

Frustrated, he walked towards the elevator only to see the doors almost close. Zaria was inside. Yes! That was the woman he should be thinking about. Not her best friend. It would be screwed up to love one woman but cast lustful glances at her best friend.

"Zaria!" He called so she would stop the elevator for him. He thanked her when he got in.

"Which floor are you going?" She asked formally.

"The same one you are going to." That sounded creepy, considering he didn't even know where she was going.

She nodded and pressed her floor number silently. She didn't try to strike a conversation with him and that made him uncomfortable. Was she still avoiding him?

"Can I ask you a question?" He started before he could think twice about it.

"Go ahead." She didn't turn to look at him.

"What made you choose him and not me?"

"Excuse me?" Her attention was finally piqued but not in a good way. She was now looking at him like he was crazy. Not that he wasn't.

He considered pretending he didn't ask anything and telling her to forget that this conversation happened. However, he wanted to know. In what way was he not good enough for her?

He chose his words and spoke. "When we met, you hated him to the core but you had nothing against me. You were friendlier with me. You would do nothing but scold each other whenever you and him met. But with me, we would have reasonable conversations that made us happy."

"Mr. Preston." She turned to glare at him sharply in warning.

He ignored her warning and asked, "So in the end, why did you choose him? Why not me?"