"I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize. My younger sister is the same." he gave her a kind smile. The kind that an older brother gives to a sister.

Jess stared at Oliver feeling warm. She never had an older brother, and this feeling is unfamiliar to her. She is the firstborn of her wild father.

"Thank you." she felt grateful that Oliver understood. Most people thought she is being a snob and rude whenever she can't react quickly when they approached her. It's difficult to explain to them that she simply couldn't remember people's names!

Thus, it feels nice that for the first time someone understands her and didn't make a big deal of her forgetting their names.

She was so grateful that she insisted to buy him a meal. They ended up in a small Mexican family restaurant ten minutes drive away from the university.

Lunchtime was already finished, so there were just a few people in the restaurant. The place was a good place to talk. They had enough privacy while enjoying good food.

She was enjoying her Quesadilla when the person she never thought she would see in this place walked inside the restaurant. She automatically raised her hand to shield her face. She didn't know why.

But she didn't want Tiefenbacher to know she is here! 'Why is he everywhere?'

Oliver looked at her with a questioning look on why did she suddenly hid behind the menu.

"Where did Tiefenbacher sit?" she leaned towards him and whispered.

"About three tables away from us," he said, bending over his plate and whispering too.

Meanwhile, three tables away from them the source of their conversation sat down with a furrowed eyebrows.

"Give me the details," he snarled at his secretary who dropped the chicken fajitas that was on his fork to answer his boss that seemed to be in a terrible mood.

He pushed the Ipad in front of Noah, as he slowly eats his meal. He was outside the office for it was his lunch break. But his boss suddenly called him saying he needed the information he got for Luke Ravenport.

He told him that he is still outside and would be back in the office within an hour but he couldn't wait. He asked him where he was and decided to drop by. He even offered to just email the files to him but he still came.

Now, his enjoyable lunch turned into another stormy atmosphere. He wondered what was happening with his boss to be always in a bad mood. As far as he knows, his family in China is doing fine. There was no problem with the company than the usual.

That's why he couldn't understand why his boss has been acting like he was being deceived. He suddenly wants an extensive background check with the candidate for the internship. Which he couldn't understand when all of them have already been checked by the company HR.

Also, they should have been in Germany the other day, but someone else was sent to deal with the meetings at the headquarters while he stayed back here in California.

Now, he is obsessing over a mere applicant.

"He isn't gay but bisexual? Is this what is it?" he asked in a serious tone, which made Antonio almost choked on his fajitas.

He wondered why his boss was worrying over someone's sexual preferences.

"If we are going to base it from the files we got, we could assume that he is. He got his high school classmate pregnant," he answered his boss' inquiries like talking about other men's sexual preferences was a normal conversation for late lunch.

"What the hell!" his nose flared in anger. He was about to say something to Antonio when he heard a familiar voice in the almost empty restaurant.

--

"He heard you," he said in a hushed tone.

"What? Is he looking at us?" She slapped Oliver's shoulder with the menu that she was holding. They were finishing their meal with the intent of eating without Noah realizing that they were also in the restaurant.

However, Oliver told her a mind-boggling gossip. It seems that the other girls in their team were telling everyone she was dating Noah! Apparently, someone saw them leaving the laboratory together early in the morning.

She knew people tend to talk behind her back but to gossip about her and Noah was just unbelievable.

"Yeah, he was looking here. Should I acknowledge him?"

"No!" Pretend that you're engrossed talking with me, don't let him know we were talking about him!" she told him in panic.

"Our eyes already met. And he stood up from their table," he said in a monotone, reporting to her everything that was happening on the other table behind her.

She chewed on her lips and wondered why in the world was she panicking that Noah would see her having a meal with a classmate.

"Uhm, Jess I think I really should acknowledge him now." Oliver suddenly grinned awkwardly.

"Don't mind him. It's not like he owns this restaurant!" She told Oliver but in actuality, she should tell it to herself.

"He's coming, and he looks really mad."

Oliver continued his monotone reporting as he raised his hand and smile at someone behind her. Most likely it was Noah!

"He's approaching our table?" She asked Oliver while controlling herself not to look back to check on Noah.

"Yeah, I think he's coming to our table."

"Oh, fuck me!" She blurted out in exasperation.

"I would love to Jess." He told her in all seriousness.

"Huh!?" she asked in confusion, then realized what Oliver was talking about.

If the situation were different she would really find it funny but as Noah approaching their table, she couldn't laugh at Oliver's dry attempt to humor the situation.

"I would love to but I think I shouldn't because Noah looks like he's going to kill me."

She was about to reply to Oliver when she felt the object of their discussion standing behind her. Her body felt goosebumps as she shivered as if his presence was cold air.

"Fancy seeing you here, Miss Zimmerman."