Chapter 11

Cold sweat seemed to be pouring down Ariana's forehead. While still holding his stomach, he asked the taxi driver to quickly pull over to one of the pharmacies on the side of the road.

Because he was late eating dinner, the stomach ulcer that he had always had recurred, and even made him feel very uncomfortable until this morning. As a result, Ariana had curled up for a while on the bed. After feeling a little comfortable, then he tried to slowly prepare himself so he could immediately go to the office.

In fact, Ariana may not have permission to enter. But because she remembered that she had work to finish before quitting, Ariana forced herself to keep going. He prefers to stop first for a while to the pharmacy then return to continue his journey to the office. To hell if later on Axton or Samuel get angry because this morning he came so late than usual.

As soon as she reached the office and walked to the lobby, Ariana was a bit flabbergasted. He could see several of his colleagues in the office clustered not far from the reception desk.

At first he chose to ignore while continuing to focus on continuing the steps towards the room. However, when he was about to walk towards the elevator, one of his male friends called out, even as if he had stopped his steps on purpose.

"Ariana!"

Hearing her name being called, Ariana turned her head. At that moment he also found Jonathan's figure walking towards him while waving as a signal asking him to stop.

"Here," Jonathan called. Making Ariana couldn't help but turn her steps towards the man. In fact, the condition is very, very uncomfortable.

"What's wrong, Joe?"

"You don't know? There are people who have sent you lots of flowers and chocolates."

Ariana pulled her face confused. His eyes immediately moved to follow Jonathan's index finger which was directed towards the reception desk. Right after that, Ariana's eyes caught what her co-worker meant.

From this, Ariana also realized that it turned out that the flower matter that had made several other workers excited had gathered there. If you pay attention, flowers are not a luxury thing. But the many flower buckets as well as hampers filled with chocolate arranged on the table made people excited and of course wildly speculated.

"Ariana, do you have a fan?"

"Cieee, you got flowers from fans, right?"

"Even though Valentine's is still far away. You already got a present."

"Crazy! Surely the sender needs a lot of capital to send flowers and chocolates so much."

"Is this what your boyfriend sent? Very romantic! Introduce us to each other."

"Are you mad at your boyfriend? Use it in bribes of flowers and all kinds of chocolates."

"This must be a delivery from your sugar daddy, huh, Ariana?"

One by one, Ariana's co-workers, both male and female, were busy praising each other and presenting their arguments. Ignoring the excitement of the people there, Ariana advanced towards the reception desk, took one of the flower buckets to check who was the person who had sent this many gifts.

"There's no sender's name, Ariana. In one of the buckets, there's only a greeting card but still no sender's name," said Jonathan as if he knew what Ariana was looking for.

"You just don't know, we have been curious about who sent it." Bella, the receptionist, chimed in with her voice because she was curious about the person who sent the parcel.

Grabbing the greeting card that Jonathan meant, Ariana then opened the card. Read it carefully. Then smiled wryly.

"Ariana, I will do anything until you agree to my request."

Ariana then closed the greeting card again. Not stored, instead threw it into the trash can located in the corner of the reception desk.

Turning to Jonathan, Ariana then approached. Ordered his colleague to share the chocolate parcels piled up on the table.

"Jo, it's chocolate and flowers, you just share it with the others. I don't need it, you see."

"Are you sure? It's a shame there's so much chocolate and flowers that you're giving out for nothing."

"Instead of throwing it in the trash, it's better to share it. So it doesn't go to waste."

Jonathan finally complied. As ordered, he immediately distributed all the flowers and chocolates piled up on the reception desk to the employees of Palma Palace who had been excitedly gathering there.

Don't ask how excited they were to receive the gifts that Jonathan distributed one by one. Very much like a child who gets a birthday gift.

While Ariana, who was still weak from the stomach ache she felt, hurriedly walked towards her office. Just when he arrived and sat down, there was already Chacha who came over.

"Did you know what was going on in the lobby this morning?" asked Chacha to open the conversation. He, who at that time had just made a drink from the pantry, immediately handed Ariana a cup of hot tea.

"Hmm. I know. As soon as we arrived, Jonathan was already excited about giving information when someone sent a parcel."

"You know who sent it?"

Ariana nodded her head repeatedly. Without the need to write a name once, he can guess with confidence who sent the parcel.

"Mr. Samuel is really annoying. Why would he send all sorts of things. Just make a scene in one office!" said the woman then.

"What did you say? So, Mr. Samuel, who sent flowers and chocolates that much?" Chacha asked curiously. If it's true. He couldn't stop thinking that his boss was doing something that he thought was very unnatural and strange.

"Yes, Cha. It was Mr. Samuel who sent it. You can guess from the message he wrote on the greeting card."

"Is it for what purpose did he send all kinds of flowers?"

Ariana immediately shrugged her shoulders lazily. While taking out the medicine she had bought at the pharmacy earlier, the woman chose to drink it first rather than answer Chacha's questions. Ariana thought, the health of her stomach was far more important than discussing Samuel's questions with all her absurd behavior.

However, shortly after taking the ulcer medicine he bought. The arrival of an office boy made Ariana and Chacha both dumbfounded. Not to mention the excitement over flowers and chocolates, this time Ariana received several boxes of food ready to eat for breakfast.

"What's this again?" asked Ariana confused.

"It looks like food, Ms. Ariana. But about who sent it, I don't know. It's the one who delivers the courier."

Ariana shook her head. He was sure this must be Samuel's doing too. Similar to the fate of flowers and chocolates, the food boxes that Ariana had just received were deliberately distributed to office boys and other workers. Even Chacha did not miss taking a box for him to eat in the room later.

"Don't tell me this food is from Mr. Samuel too?" asked Chacha after believing that the office boy who had come earlier had left Ariana's room.

"It was Pak Samuel who sent it, Cha. Who else?"

"For what purpose? How come it's so suspicious. He's no longer bribing or asking you to do strange things, right?"

Again Ariana shrugged her shoulders. Choosing to remain silent because he still feels uncomfortable with the pain he is feeling right now.

"I swear to anything, for now I'm really lazy to discuss Mr. Samuel, Cha. Besides, my condition this morning is not fit. Later, when I'm feeling better, I'll tell you everything what really happened."

"You're sick?"

Chacha had been babbling at length all this time, he finally realized that his best friend's condition was not well. No wonder Ariana had come earlier her face looked a little pale and lethargic.

"My old illness relapsed because I ate late last night."

"So what did you take for stomach ulcers? I thought you took vitamins earlier."

"If it's not really painful, I'm too lazy to take medicine, Cha."

"Then have you had breakfast? Or do you want me to feed you the food Mr. Samuel just gave you?"

Ariana hastily shook her head.

"No. I'm not interested. Besides, before that I had breakfast at home."

"All right, then you just go ahead and finish your work. If you need anything, as usual, you can call me right away."

Ariana just nodded. Then let Chacha leave the room. While he himself went back to work as if nothing had happened before.

***

"How about it, Axton? Ariana doesn't seem to work with the gifts of flowers, chocolates, and breakfast that I sent. As I said, she is really different from other women."

Inside the room, Samuel looked distraught. Previously, he had received advice from Axton about how to win Ariana's heart so that she would agree to his invitation to marry and work together.

However, instead of being submissive, Ariana even distributed all of her gifts to other employees. That woman had also bravely walked Samuel into the room a few minutes ago, without even being afraid to give a warning.

"You don't have to mess around with sending me flowers, chocolates and other things, sir. What you're doing won't work. Alias doesn't make my heart sway in the slightest and then change my mind."

"Ariana, I'm sorry. I just want you to change your mind," Samuel replied later.

"I have repeatedly emphasized, I am not interested. Besides, just so you know, I am a realistic person. Instead of a bouquet of flowers, I prefer a bouquet filled with money. Why don't you give me flowers today. How can that fill me up!"

"So you want money interest like the one that's currently viral on social media?" asked Samuel innocently.

"No! I don't need it," Ariana flatly refused. He is indeed not interested in receiving goods that have an element of strings attached behind them. "Then why did you send so much food? You deliberately wanted to make me fat? Then it would look ugly and in the end no boys would want it."

Samuel pulled her face away. If he was usually the one grumbling, today it was as if he had lost his teeth. He could only gape at the barrage of scolding that Ariana had been throwing. Whatever it was that Samuel did, it seemed like nothing was right in Ariana's eyes.

In fact, he did all of this for the sake of seducing Ariana to melt down and change her mind. But again he was wrong.

"N-that's not what I meant, Ariana. I-I'm just trying to do what I can."

"That's it, sir. You don't have to send all kinds of gifts. Do you want me to reply using witchcraft?"

Because of this threat, Samuel was horrified by herself. This is indeed the millennium era. But the affairs of black magic cannot be taken lightly either. How do you know that she was so annoyed, Ariana even proved her words.

"What should I do next, Axton? None of the methods you suggested could attract Ariana's attention. I don't know what other way could melt Ariana's heart. If this continues, I might fail to get the tender from Mr. William."

"One moment, sir," said Axton. The man looked like he was deep in thought. Trying to find another way to win Ariana's heart so that she would grant Samuel's request. "I think I know a powerful way to win the heart of Mr. Samuel's secretary."

Axton then approached Samuel. Leaning forward, then whispered something in his boss' ear. Maybe you want to explain what other big way Samuel has to do this time to get Ariana's attention.