~~~~~~~~~~~Samantha~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was annoyed and frustrated at the thought of me spending the whole day with Oliver. But my boss had left me no choice and here I was standing in front of Oliver's cabin. I could already see people watching me through the corner of their eyes, probably wondering what this girl who our boss had kicked out for stealing is doing here.

I wanted to run. Run as fast and as far from here as I could. But could I. Not really. Avoiding everyone's curious eyes, taking a deep breath I knocked on Oliver's cabin door.

"Who is it?" His arrogant voice hit from the other side.

I peeked my head in and said, "Samantha, er... Sir!"

Before I could blink, I saw him getting up from his seat and rushing towards me and in no time he was standing in front of me with the door opened for me.

"Er.... Thank you", I said tugging a strand of my hair behind my ears.

"Max told me that you refused to take cab?" He said as I took the seat.

"I don't need any favours from you. I can afford my conveyance", I said.

"Of course you can. But you are working from me, and I expect you to dedicate all your office hours for the business. Cab would have reduced your travel time. I have been waiting here since last fifteen minutes."

I glared at him with as much poison I could pour in these two eyes of mine as I could and said, "I work for Mr. Richmond, not you".

And as opposed to my expectation, he gave a loud laugh and said ,"Well, I guess Mr. Richmond and I are not on the same page yet then. Because he said that you will be working along my side till everything is finalized." Pausing for few seconds he picked his cell phone and dialled a number and brought the reciever to his ears.
I was getting impatient. Who is he calling? Is he calling Mr. Richmond?

"Who are you calling?" I asked not able to take it anymore.

"Your boss, who else?" He said casually.

I immediately snatched the phone from his hand and cut the call.
"Hey, what happened?" He asked

"No need to call Mr. Richmond. I am here, isn't it?" I said.

"Yes you are. But I don't want to delay things. Because if you'll question my every move like this, refusing to take cab, arguing every now and then. Then I don't think I will be able to finalize the deal".

I was so mad right now that I could have melted all the ice on North pole in one second with the temperature at which my head was boiling. But I remained silent.

"I'll try not to create any issues anymore Mr. Taylor", I said in a low voice.

"Good. That's better. Can you get me my favourite coffee then?" He said.

I gave him a cold state and then stood up to grab a coffee for him.

*********
"Would you care telling me where are we going?" I asked not able to hold my curiosity anymore after half an hour of long drive.

"We are going to meet our interior designer to look at the catalogues and finalize the details", he said taking another rough turn which brought me lean to his side once again.

"Why do we need to go somewhere to meet him? Why can't he come to the office?"

"Her?" He said giving me a wide grin.

"What?"

"Her, not him. She is a girl. A very good friend of mine. I am sure you'll love her too."

I rolled my eyes to his comment and turned my face in the opposite direction. The view outside was beautiful enough to distract my attention away from this irritating person I was stuck with.

*************

As we reached our destination, I saw a beautiful Victorian style house standing tall next to calm lake giving it a picturesque view.

"So, how is it?" Oliver asked smiling at me.

"What? This house?"

"Of course".

"It's beautiful. But we are not here to see this house", I said slamming down the door of my side of the car.

"Whoa, relax Sam. Have some patience. Amy will be here soon", he said checking the sides of the door to see if my aggression caused any physical damage to his expensive car.

Ignoring it I moved towards the lake. It was a beautiful lake. A small yellow boat tied to a side of the lake with a pair of black swans swimming at one corner peacefully.

"Swans are my favourite birds", Oliver startled me.

"Hmmmm".

"Wouldn't you ask why?" Gosh he'll never stop bothering me.

Giving a big sigh I asked,"why is that Mr. Taylor?"

"Because once they choose their partner for life they stick by them their whole life. No matter what", he said.

I looked into his eyes. For a tiny little second it seemed that he meant what he said. I saw honesty and sincerity in his green eyes. I moved my hands and placed them over his face never losing my stare from his and he leaned closer to me.

"Oliver, I..." I stammered with all the emotions flowing inside me, struggling to pour out when a sharp croaky voice brought me out of this dream and I immediately moved back from him.

"Oliver, sweetheart you are here. Come here", the lady who didn't seem more then 27-28 and engulfed Oliver into her embrace and placed a kiss on his cheek.

I moved my stare away from them as Oliver's eyes met mine.

"How are you Amy? What happened to your voice?" Oliver asked.

"Oh nothing. It's just I caught some cold. By the way who is this young lady?" She asked turning towards me.

"She is Samantha my girl..." Before he could finish his sentence I intervened ,"I work for his partner, Mr. Jacob Richmond".

"Oh Mr. Richmond. He is a handsome man. Isn't he?" She said winking at me.

"He sure is", I said tugging a strand of my hair behind my ears.

Oliver gave me a long look all the way back inside Amy's house which I just avoided looking at.

"Sam, you can have some rest at the guest room if you want. I am sure you'll be pretty tired", Amy asked.

"Oh no I am fine. I just want to finish all the work so that we could head back home before it's dark", I said sitting at the couch.

Amy gave Oliver a little stare and then said, "Of course. I'll bring my catalogues and then you can finalize the designs".

I nodded.

The next five minutes me and Oliver were sitting in silence, with none of us willing to talk. But still he was sparing me with his stare. He had his eyes fixed on me since we came in the house.

I sighed for the nth time and picked out my phone to call Ben.

"Hello sweetheart. Missing me already!" Ben picked up the phone sounding as cheesy as always.

"Stop it Ben. I just called because I forgot to tell mom that I am out of town to meet the interior designer and will be a little late today".

"Don't make silly excuses to call me Sam. You can hear my voice whenever you feel like. I am all your you know."

"Yes, she knows that you are a pig!"  Julianne's voice came from far.

"Ouch. Don't get jealous my love. You know Sam was always my first".

"You...."

"Ouch .. ouch.. ouch" And then all I could hear was their silly pillow fight.

"Guys! Hello!  .... Great. Bye" I said before putting the phone off.

"Guys I am really sorry. I was so sure that I have brought back my laptop, but it seems I left it at my clients' office yesterday", Amy announced entering the hall.

"What? So you mean we drove all the way here for nothing?"Oliver spoke.

"Er... Well.. no if you could just give me half an hour to get it back."

"Very well, we'll go with you", I said thinking of me staying with Oliver alone if she leaves us.

"Oh no, please. You both stay here. My client will not be pleased to see uninvited guests. I'll be back soon.i promise", she said grabbing her car keys.

"But wait...", I ran behind her towards the front door.

"Later sweety. I'll be back before you could say 'America'", she said winking at me and left in her car.

With a disappointed face I moved back inside where Oliver was sitting on the couch still giving me a strange stare.

"What?" I asked.

"So, you find your new boss, handsome?" He questioned in a sarcastic tone.

I rolled my eyes before sitting at the farthest corner of the couch to him.

"Of course, you won't answer. After all who am I to question you. Just a business partner of your handsome boss. Isn't it?"

"Yes, Mr. Oliver. That is exactly what you are", I said crossing my arms over my chest.

"Sam please, can't you give me one more chance?" His voice mellows down the moment he heard my firm reply.

"I cannot bear to be with a person who could think that I was a thief".

"Sam, I never thought so" he tried explaining himself , but my angry stare stopped him for a sec.

"Alright, maybe for a few moments I did think that you stole the designs, but all the circumstances were against you at that time, and my mind might have agreed with the facts, but trust me Sam, my heart never, not for a single second beloved it." He said moving closer to me.

"Please Oliver, I don't want to hear all this. It doesn't matter anymore."

"Why not. Don't you love me now?" He said moving even closer to me.

I looked straight into his eyes and taking a deep breath said, "no, I don't love you anymore. It's over." I could feel a painful lump forming inside my throat as soon as those words came out of my mouth and I got up to go somewhere away from Oliver's stare.

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