"Nonsense. We made an agreement and I'll pick you up as your boyfriend." Loriel smiled at her. "Then I'll take you to Chef Lucy for your baking lessons."

It was actually a good idea since Loriel never met the chef yet. He had been wondering how Chef Lucy taught Elise baking.

"Ah, if that's what you want to do, thank you," Elise said. She didn't want to argue with him about it and it didn't actually interfere with her idea to surprise him with fruit cake.

If anything, Elise was happy about him promising to pick her up.

***

Marc was sitting in his office, sulking. He couldn't get his mind off the Ritz Gala event from last night. It took place every end of the year and it was where all the A-listers and socialites in the world met.

The event was very exclusive and anyone always felt so honored to be invited. However, it was also something that Marc Sanderman detested because of the 'world's most eligible bachelor award' that the Ritz Gala association presented annually.

He was on this list for the fourth year now and every year his ranking went higher, except this year. There were many new faces that became the crowd's favorites.

Well, Marc loved the fact that people thought he was most eligible bachelor material.

It meant that he still got it.

But Marc Sanderman disliked being compared, scrutinized, and ranked against other men, especially the newer men coming in and stealing the spotlight and his previous rankings. Well, he didn't really care about those other people, but he really didn't want Terrence Chan to win.

All Marc Sanderman cared about was defeating his old rival, Terrence Chan to keep his pride. He was so happy when he saw the organizer announced that this year's winner for the most eligible bachelor was Elios Linden.

This was not surprising because the man was currently one of the most popular and most searched men on the planet.

Marc thought his rising popularity must be due to his ownership of Virconnect, Splitz, and RMI. He was indeed a very strong contender. However, when Marc saw the man in person, even he thought Elios deserved to win. The man was very impressive.

Elios was imposing, super handsome, and had this mysterious aura about him that made even men feel in awe when they looked at him or heard him speak.

Marc agreed that Elios should win the world's most eligible bachelor award. Initially, Marc thought anyone but Terrence Chan was okay, but after he saw Elios, he wholeheartedly agreed that Elios should win.

However, that bastard dared to leave the Ritz Gala event just one minute before the announcement? He did it as if to give the world the middle finger and said he didn't care one bit about the award.

Dammit. His absence forced the organizer to immediately announce the new winner to save face. Since Terrence Chan was in second place, the award was immediately given to him.

Marc felt like eating his shoes when he witnessed Terrence pretended to look shocked and accepted that stupid award with a sheepish smile.

Who cared about the Prince of Malta or whatever his name was and the new upcoming Elios Linden from RMI? They were just lucky that from the Ashborn and Sanderman family line it was only Marc on the most eligible bachelor list.

If Loriel Ashborn hadn't decided to stay away from the spotlight, then their bloodline would have surely triumphed as the best amongst the entire world. If not the absolute best!

Marc Sanderman knew that. And yet the man was sulking in his office and he had even pulled out the celebratory wine he intended to drink once he beat Terrence Chan.

But now it was to drink his cares away.

He poured wine, one glass after another, and drank his expensive wine to console his heart.

Ahh… he intentionally came to work to keep himself busy. There were a few other employees in the office. Those who would take overtime and do extra work at the office because they needed the extra money or they simply didn't have a social life.

There were still some documents that Marc needed to check in later in order for the company to always be on top of its schedule.

While other people were relaxing, Marc Sanderman and the people who were willing to work extra hours for extra pay were here to help usher in the new year completely prepared.

Marc suddenly received a call. "Hello?"

He blinked out of his stupor and realized it was his grand-uncle. Did he hear about the results on the awards night and decided to comfort him? Marc Sanderman had been so glum about it and he was excited to finally have a listening ear.

Ahh.. maybe his uncle should step up next year and bring the award to their family. Loriel would definitely become a new crowd's favorite because he was incredibly handsome, imposing, and powerful. Women would want to be with him, and men would want to be like him.

"Ah, Elise will be here? So she wants to get the holiday overtime benefit?" Marc Sanderman blinked and then chuckled nervously. "Of course, I'll make sure that there's not much work to do for her here… Well, there isn't actually much to do at all. Of course, you can drop by and visit here too if you want, uncle."

Loriel naturally called to check up on Elise because he was worried about her. Marc Sanderman thought for sure that both Elise and Loriel would have been on a flight to Japan right now since they were eligible for it.

And there was that 20k gift card to shop in Bloomingrose!

Elise could have gone shopping for today and bought stuff to her heart's content if she had wanted to. The work ethic that Elise had seemed to be even better than Marc's now that he thought about it.

Here he was, sulking about not winning the awards night when everybody else in his company was going to work.

Marc Sanderman needed to pull himself together.

.

--------------

From the author:

If you haven't already known, "The Cursed King" is set in the same universe as all my other books: "The Alchemists", "Finding Stardust", "The Prince Who Cannot Fall In Love" and of course, "The Cursed Prince". They just have different timelines.

It's so much fun to write them together and do crossovers from time to time. ^^

Elios Linden, who should have won the 'world's most eligible bachelor award' is the male lead in my book "The Alchemists". It has 4 different love stories with 4 different doting husbands.

If you read "The Alchemists", you will meet Elios Linden in Volume 2 of that book. He is a really interesting character. A villain but a doting husband who won't hesitate to destroy the world to save his wife.