"ANOTHER DINNER INVITATION"

The hours flew by quickly. I didn't even realize it was already lunchtime if Alicia, my newly hired secretary, hadn't reminded me. "Would you like me to order for you so you don't have to go out?" she kindly asked me.

"Yes, please," I replied, giving her a grateful smile. With that, she left me alone. After a few moments, I found myself once again consumed by my work. Alicia hadn't brought the food I ordered yet, so I decided to use the time to finish up some other tasks.

I was in the middle of my work when I heard the sound of a message alert on my cellphone. I casually picked it up and looked at the screen, unable to suppress a smile. It was Marius.

"Have you eaten yet? Don't work too hard. You might get sick," the text message from Marius said.

To be honest, I didn't know if I needed closure for the annoyance, I felt towards him this morning. Because at that moment, I felt more of the excitement brought by his concern for me, even if it was just a simple text message. And that's why I quickly typed a reply for him.

"Thank you, you too," that's all I said, even though the truth was I wanted to tell him that I had already ordered my meal.

"We'll have dinner again later, okay?" that was his reply to me.

At that moment, my heart skipped a beat. Although there shouldn't be such a feeling, considering we're just friends. I couldn't help it or stop myself. To the point that I couldn't even explain why.

"Not sure, because I have a lot of work to finish," I replied to him. But the truth was, I liked the idea of being able to have dinner with him again.

I waited for Marius' reply, but I was disappointed. Maybe he wasn't upset with me. So I thought maybe this time he would follow what I said. Until lunchtime arrived, the one Alicia ordered for me, and I still hadn't received a response from Marius.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, while I was still busy with my work, Alicia knocked on my door.

"Yes?" I asked as she entered.

"Somebody is looking for you," she told me.

My eyebrows furrowed in surprise. "Who?"

"She said his name is Marius," Alicia replied.

As I heard that name, a familiar yet unexplainable nervousness engulfed my chest. And because I didn't want Alicia to have any assumptions or thoughts, I decided to let Marius in.

"Hey," he greeted me with a smile.

"Why are you here?" I wasn't annoyed anymore. That was the truth. But because of the discomfort, I immediately felt due to his presence in my office, I couldn't hide it.

"I just wanted to see you," Marius replied as he took a seat in the chair in front of my working table.

I sighed at his words. Then I picked up the phone to call Alice. I asked her for two cups of coffee, one for Marius and one for myself.

"Do you have something important to discuss that's why you came here? And another thing, aren't office hours until 5 PM?" I asked one question after another.

Marius nodded and met my gaze. "Yeah, but I finished all my work early just to come and see you."

I was taken aback by what he said. Or maybe it's more accurate to say I was shocked. The immediate thought that entered my mind was, what could be the reason for him to do what he said?

"Why would you do that?" I asked him, unable to hide the trembling in my voice.

Honestly, I wanted to break eye contact with Marius in those moments. But because the truth was that I wanted to salvage my ego since his voice stood up for me earlier, I endured. Despite the fact that I no longer enjoyed the intense pounding of my heart.

"Why not?" Marius replied with a sweet smile.

I swallowed hard at that question. I quickly thought of a possible response, but just then Alicia knocked on the door, halting any other words I wanted to say.

"Thank you, Alice," I instead muttered.

Alicia exited, leaving the entire office in silence. I refocused my attention on the paper I was reading when Marius interrupted me. Though the truth was, my attention wasn't really on the paper but on the man quietly sipping his coffee in front of me.

"Let's have dinner?"

Unable to bear the silence anymore, that's what I heard Marius say.

"Are you serious? Didn't we just have dinner together last night?" I asked him, my tone conveying my disbelief in his words.

"Do I look like I'm joking? And what's wrong with that? Don't married couples eat dinner together every day?" he questioned me before taking another sip of his coffee.

"They're married, for heaven's sake. What are you talking about?" I replied, laughing softly as I shook my head at the paper in front of me.

"Then pretend we're married!" he responded, unabashedly lifting his head to meet my gaze.

"Oh, really?" I asked, still looking at him, feeling the corners of my mouth twitching into a smile.

"Well, what do you say?" he asked with a laugh.

I stared at him for a few moments. Honestly, I couldn't be sure if those words really came from him. And it felt like if I continued to gaze at him for a while, I would find the answer to that question. But because of his soft laughter, I quickly regained my composure.

"I can't, I have a lot of work to do," I replied in a soft but firm tone.

"Well, in that case, I'll just order dinner and we can eat it here. What do you think?" he said, showing no sign of wavering in what he wanted to happen.

I sighed at that moment. I felt like getting annoyed. But because I had already accepted his friendship earlier, I felt guilty about snapping or giving him attitude again.

"Sam," Marius called out to me when I remained silent.

At that point, I had no choice but to acknowledge and meet his gaze.

"Alright," I replied, shaking my head slightly as I chuckled softly.

"Alright?" he asked, clearly asking me to clarify what I meant by my answer.

"I'll have dinner with you. But not here in the office, okay?" I told him.

Marius shrugged his shoulders, not hiding his beautiful smile from me. "That's my girl," he said, and if I were to judge by the tone of his voice, he seemed quite far away.

I didn't say anything in response to Marius' comment. I could feel in my heart that he had stirred up a different kind of emotion. And I had a feeling that I could hide it if I just smiled. So that's what I did.