Chapter 44

PRETTY DELICIOUS

Diane’s P.O.V.

These were merely paper dolls and toy houses by Denise. It would only be a year before she finally became a teenager, but she was still fond of playing these.

“No worries. Denise might say that I am not fulfilling my promise as her new big bro. Hmm, but may I know what you are working on? I mean, the one you are finishing earlier?” he curiously questioned me with light wrinkles on his forehead as he gave me some of the paper dolls.

“Ah, that? Our documentary thesis,” I replied. “What’s left is just double-checking of wordings, computations, and I would be all set. However, I have this one problem that I couldn’t solve for almost two hours, and the deadline for submission is today. My friends would kill me for sure, but I don’t know what to do anymore. Hmm, wait here!”

After placing Denise’s things on the cabinet at the side of the couch, I climbed upstairs. I went to my bedroom, picked up the laptop, and quickly returned to the living room.

I placed it on top of the coffee table with the problem on screen, then went straight to the kitchen while carrying the grocery bags that he gave me. I immediately placed the pork and the chicken in the freezer so as not to damage them.

When I returned, I gave him one from the two glasses of mango juices that I was holding. I rushed back to the kitchen and got some home-made chocolate cupcakes from the refrigerator. Denise and I baked them yesterday because I couldn’t sleep before going to work.

My baby sister got so engrossed with baking aside from playing with her paper dolls. It was a good thing because when she had no classes, I was confident enough that she would only stay here in the house. She already knew how to bake lots of desserts all by herself, sometimes with the company of Karen’s thirteen-year-old brother—Michael.

“Denise and I baked the cupcakes. I hope you’ll like them,” I boastfully mentioned.

“Really? Then I might eat them all! Now I know why these cupcakes look pretty delicious, thanks!” Liam exclaimed while getting a cupcake and put it into his mouth. He made a bite while his eyes never left me. “Hmm, I loved the taste… it made me remember something delicious from last night,” he commented before licking his lips, and that made me blush again.

I wasn’t born yesterday, and I wasn’t too naive to know that he was talking about what we did inside his car last night. He might be referring to my lips, isn’t he? Or the hickey he left on my skin? I ended up gulping and averting my eyes away from him.

He might have felt the awkwardness that started to reign between us. That might be the reason why he spoke again after eating the cupcakes. “Anyway, I can help you with this one. This is just Taxation and Business Math. Wait,” he told me, and that made me look at him again.

He took a sip of his mango juice before he grabbed the laptop and started typing on it. I quietly stood in front of him while I couldn’t help but stare at his handsome face. I raked my eyes around his perfectly toned body covered by a black polo shirt and pants. Minutes passed, but still, I couldn’t get enough.

Until… “There, it’s done! You don’t need to worry about anything now,” he said while handing me back the laptop. I clasped it using my left hand while my right fingers were scrolling the mouse pad. My eyes stretched as I became bug-eyed while reviewing what he had done.

Wow, really? But why so quick? There was no way he could immediately answer this without knowing the background or statement of the problem! And his solutions are indeed accurate, huh?

How was he able to do this in just a short time? Like in just three minutes? I’ve been solving this for two hours already! In fairness, he was also good at using ‘ACC MZ Xcel,’ huh? This is a new software that was only released last year for Accounting students.

“I thought, you will help me in solving this? So, why did you do everything?” I smilingly questioned him. He was amazing, and our feelings were indeed the same. I couldn’t help but fall for him even more with each passing day.

Now, my problem was over. I only needed to polish the whole document for any grammatical errors. My formula was indeed correct. I just blindly selected the wrong cell. Instead of D2, I mistakenly used E2, and it caused a spider-web error resulting in ‘Unknown References’ and ‘Can’t Solve’ issues.

It looked like I should see an eye doctor now and have my eyes checked if I should wear glasses. Because of what Liam did, our thesis was close to printing. I would just send the final file later to Lorenz’s e-mail so he could print it.

He took a sip on his juice again before saying, “I don’t want you to get so tired, sweetie. You, working on this for two hours already, makes me think that I should have come here earlier. You could have spent that two hours with me. Well, I guess this is the first time I would be too proud of developing something like the ACC MZ Xcel. Also, I don’t want your friends to kill my soon-to-be girlfriend!” He teased me.

“Hmm, thank you for solving this.” That was all I could say. With his pick-up lines, I suddenly became speechless until I remembered what he said before that. “But, seriously? You’re the one who developed this software all by yourself?” I couldn’t believe it. Liam was indeed smart.

“Yup, I enrolled for an online programming class before. Your current version is only for college students like you, but the advanced version is quite complex. I patented them both. It is regularly used by EGC and even purchased by other accounting firms,” he explained before he continued.

“Anyway, thank you is good, but I think I need more. Come here, can I receive a reward for doing those calculations? How about a hug or a kiss?” He spread his arms wide like he wanted to receive a hug from me while pouting his lips at the same time. Liam even closed his mesmerizing eyes.

After placing my laptop on the center table, I approached and sat beside him while being tongue-on-cheek. That was when he opened his eyes and looked at me. He couldn’t believe that I ignored him.

“Of course, you can solve it because you are indeed the developer of the software—so there’s no doubt that you already memorized it. And you think you’re lucky enough to receive my kiss just like that? I didn’t know you’re this conceited, Liam. Get your reward from planet Mars!” I shrieked and burst out laughing while playfully palming his cheek away from me.

“Is that so? How about bringing you into that planet, huh?” Liam refuted as he held my wrists before friskily pushing me. I tried to push him back but to no avail.

Liam was indeed strong, and my might was still not enough. I also got easily distracted by his fabulous dimple and muscular arms. We continued to playfully push each other until I got defeated and felt my back softly pinning against the sofa.

We stared at each other for a long time. It was as if his stares were melting me before he decided to remove some of the hair strands on my face. After that, he stared at my lips.

Moments later, his face slowly came closer to me while I couldn’t even blink. I could smell his fresh breath, making me feel intoxicated. It smelled like a mint, and I just couldn’t get enough of it. He kept on moving towards me until…