"Are you looking for Jess?" the man wearing thick round spectacles asked him when he found him peeking at the lab.

"Yes, is she back?"

Jess was no longer in the fire exit when he went there. He was thinking that she got really pissed at him and returned to the lab.

"Check the ice cream parlor near the parking lot C. She eats ice cream there whenever she is in a foul mood," he said, before disappearing at the corridor to the next laboratory.

'Ice cream, huh.' She doesn't look like the ice cream type of girl, he thought as he made his way to parking lot C. It must be a coincidence that he parked his car today at the same parking lot.

He didn't intend the members of professor Boa's research team to know that he is the next CEO of ANAT and Pharma Co or the fact that he is named after the three generations of men of his family. Thus, the company ANAT - look as though it is the abbreviation of his given full name, he grinned smugly.

That's why he drove a black Subaru today instead of his Audi Q3. He wanted to keep the pretense that he is just a representative of ANAT and Pharma Co. He doesn't want people to kiss his ass wherever he goes, hence, he keeps a low profile in public.

On the company website, the public wouldn't know that he is the new CEO once he takes over the position from his father since they share the same name. Members of the board are the only one who knows the fact that there will be a turnover happening.

The decision of not going on the public with the turnover was from the last board meeting. The shareholders believed that he is still quite young to handle the CEO position. The old geezers on the board didn't believe that he is ready for the political part of the company. That his qualification is more in the research field. He couldn't blame them though - he has a Ph.D. in Microbiology after all.

Walking to the parking lot, he asked himself if he really has the time to play around with Jess. With his responsibility in the company, and his ex-wife taking their daughter to the other side of the world, yet she screamed at him almost every day on the phone to take part in their daughter's life.

How does she expect him to be there for their daughter when she took her miles away from him! Does she really expect him to charter a plane to every recital and school events, he wondered.

He really doesn't have time to chase a woman for a relationship right now, but Jess is like a burning fire while he is a moth, being drawn to her flames. He has this indescribable impulse to own her.

He smirked inwardly at how arrogant his presumption is. Jess would probably chew him apart and spit him out without batting her eyelashes. It is too late to regret and be logical now when he could see her from afar.

She took off her lab coat, exposing a red dress with white daisies printing on it. And just like Oliver Miller said - he remembered the name of the spectacle guy now. Jess is indeed here, eating ice cream under the rainbow-striped awning of a pink ice cream truck.

"What flavor would you recommend?"

She glanced up to now familiar voice, talking next to her, and found the annoyingly handsome man. The reason why she is now in her second cup of coffee caramel ice cream.

"How did you find me?" she asked, instead of answering his question. How did this guy know she would be here in this place.

"You are not that difficult to find," he answered her well pleased with himself. "Give me the same flavor this beautiful girl is having." he winked playfully at the young girl scooping ice cream behind the glass display counter.

She angrily shoved a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. She couldn't believe the audacity of this jerk acting like they are such a good buddy when he couldn't even remember where they first met! 'Asshole!' she screamed at him in her mind. She would love to say it in his face but there are a lot of students around them right now.

"I know I'm such an asshole. I'm sorry," he said with believable sincerity.

Jess looked around how girls gathered around them, snickering in the background. They are all gushing at how handsome this guy is. A surge of annoyance washed into her that a coffee caramel ice cream could no longer pacify.

She grabbed her lab coat from behind the steel chair and left the area, leaving Noah behind who was waiting for his change.

"Keep the change, sweetie!" he told the ice cream girl, as he dashed to catch up with fleeing Jess.

He grabbed her elbow when he finally caught her in the parking lot.

When he grabbed her elbow, Jess's temper snapped. She pivoted and slapped Noah on the face.

He was at loss for words when he felt the inside of her palm across his face. The force she used to slap him was no joke. He felt a ringing in his right ear, that rendered him speechless. He looked stupid gaping at her with a cup of coffee caramel ice in his hand.

"Bastard!" she hissed at him. Yet the moment she felt a certain heat from her palm from slapping his face, she felt a tinged of guilt. A tad bit. She still believes this jerk deserved to be slapped!

Noah without a word pushed the ice cream on her hand and clasped his hand on her wrist and pulled her away.

She felt scared that he would get back to her for slapping him. She was ready to scream for help when they stop next to a black SUV.

He opened the passenger seat of the car, thrust her inside as he walked to the other side to enter the driver's seat.

Jess puzzled on why Noah took her in his car. Her eyes followed him as he crossed to the driver's side.

"Why are you eating my ice cream?" he asked with his eyebrows furrowed, as soon as he sat down on the driver seat.

"You already gave them to me, and it's melting. I had to eat it or it will be wasted," she said nonchalantly.