"Ha!" Zaria covered her mouth, too late to stop the loud bark of laughter from coming out. "Sorry, but please tell me that sniffing you and helping to buy body wash doesn't mean we have to start dating. I am not going to date you, Director Chiu."
"No." Chiu Leong smiled as well and followed her to the apples, pushing the cart along. Pushing a cart in a grocery store was something that he could honestly say he had never done before. His housekeeper did all the grocery shopping, except for the odd thing or two if he had a craving or needed something like he did this day. "It takes more than sniffing someone to be considered dating a person. I should warn you, you shouldn't do that with anyone else."
Zaria froze, her hand hovering over a large green apple. Panic flitted across her face. "So I did do something really inappropriate! I am so sorry, Director Chiu, I can assure you that I meant nothing by it!"
"It's alright, I know that you didn't." He smiled and reached past her for an apple and put it with his shower gel in the cart. "I understand that you are not from here, and things are likely different where you are from."
"Unh, I can't use that excuse anymore. I need to understand how things work here. That has to be my first priority in a new place, learning the customs. Otherwise, I will end up in jail or married off to someone because I let him carry my shoes."
Chiu Leong chuckled and moved past her to a display with carrots. "Carry your shoes?"
"Oh, yes, Secretary Liu called me Mrs Gu when she was sitting with me at the hospital because I let CEO Gu carry my shoes." She snorted and added three apples to her pile of things. "I don't know what I am doing here..."
Chiu Leong followed Zaria through the rest of the store, giving her pointers on how to navigate social interactions at her new job. She nodded attentively, cursing her new boss the whole way. "So if a man is being overly rude to me and I argue back then it means I am interested in him, but if I put up with it then it means I like it and am interested in him. How do women survive here? Be invisible?"
"I don't think you have any chance of being invisible," he replied with a grin, taking in her doe eyes and red lips, keeping his eyes above her shoulders. "That's what that altercation at Gu Corp was about? Someone thought you were interested in Gu Cheng?"
"They thought I was being rude to get attention, yes. I need to think about how I will go forward. I just want to live a calm and peaceful life while I am here."
"Here, hand me your phone." Chiu Leong reached a hand out in front of her. "Don't worry, I won't keep it. I'm going to give you my number. If anyone gives you trouble you can call me so that nobody gets the wrong idea about you and your boss."
The phone passed into his hand and a moment later came back. "But wouldn't they then get the wrong idea about you and I?" She asked, saving the number under Director Chiu.
"I don't mind! I am happy to be your buffer should you need it. It would give me more time to spend with a beautiful woman." He grinned brightly at her as they walked up to the checkout counter. She stuffed his items into his arms and made him go first, so there was a clear line between their items. Once her cart was paid for and put into bags, she sighed down into the nearly empty envelope and then shoved it into her back pocket before picking up her bags and walking to the door.
" I don't want you to yell at me, but you should really accept a ride back if you are staying in Gu Cheng's building up the hill. That's a couple of kilometers away, and those bags are going to feel really heavy by the time you get to the main part of the hill." Chiu Leong paused in front of the store, his shopping bag in one hand and keys in the other. Zaria could see his little blue sports car not far away.
"No, thank you. It is not that far and I enjoyed walking here. I have been too sedentary lately, I need to start working some strength back into my legs. Have a good night, Director Chiu!" With a wave of her injured arm, she set off toward the road that would take her home. Behind her, Chiu Leong watched until she turned onto the road heading north and passed out of sight.
*****
The slight incline making up the first half of the way home was much more obvious going up than it had been going down. By the time Zaria reached the halfway point, she was sweating, and her bags felt like they weighed 10kgs apiece. She stopped and set them down on the sidewalk for a moment, stretching her back out. While she rested, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned it back on. As soon as the load screen vanished, she could see that she had four missed calls and numerous messages waiting for her.
What store are you at?
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You are still injured. You shouldn't be wearing yourself out so much.
How are you going to carry your groceries back with one arm?
It is not safe for a young woman to walk around alone after dark.
The messages continued, all with similar meanings. Zaria looked up at the sky with its twin moons, the stars dim due to all of the light pollution around her. Her fingers danced across the keyboard. "I am sorry for my impolite behavior before. I will be home soon if you still need a meal made for you."
A few minutes passed, and there was no reply, so she added, "Tonight was my fault, I had a misunderstanding about being free for the evening. It will not happen again."
There was no response. She picked up her bags and began the trek up the hill again. The walk up the steeper section of the hill was more arduous than she thought it would be while walking down it, and sweat was covering her brow even with the cool breeze. As she approached the glass doors to the building, she could make out a familiar figure standing just inside, watching as she approached. Fighting back a grimace, she schooled her face into a neutral expression.
"CEO Gu," she greeted him, walking past him to get to the elevator. A hand reached in front of her, stopping her progress.
"Give me the bags, and I will carry them up." A dark cloud covered his face, and his voice was even colder than it usually sounded.
"Please, CEO Gu," she protested politely. "Things are twisted around my arm right now. It would be more effort to take them off than to just let me continue upstairs with them." The arm dropped down, and she continued onward. "Thank you, CEO Gu. I apologize for taking up your time as you were leaving."
"I am not leaving," came the cold response. His longer legs reached the elevator first, the doors opening as soon as he pressed the button. Zaria stepped inside and stood in front of the buttons, waiting until he was fully inside before pressing the button for the top floor.
"Did you need me to make a dinner for you, CEO Gu?" At his affirmative noise, she closed her eyes together tightly. "I understand. Please give me just a few minutes to put my groceries away, and then I will be over."
" I will eat at your place tonight." Dark eyes watched her reflection in the shiny metal walls of the elevator.
"I understand." Zaria looked straight ahead when the door opened, too tired to pay attention to the person watching her reflection anymore. Her injured arm was shaking as she entered the passcode, and she was thankful that Gu Cheng did not try to reach around her to do it for her. Her eyes blinked slowly down at her boots when she stopped in front of the cabinet, taking a moment to register that she needed to bend over to untie them. The imposing man waited patiently while she knelt down and removed her shoes, carefully placing them in the cabinet and getting out her slippers as well as the ones used the day before by her boss. "Please come in, make yourself comfortable, and I will go and make something for you."
She did not wait for his reply, knowing at the back of her head that she was probably being rude, and walked her bags into the kitchen. Once the bags were balanced on the counter with her arm hovering above them, she carefully untangled the straps and pulled her arm free. Circulation started up again, and she hissed as the feeling returned to the area. She massaged it for a moment with the hand of her aching left arm, dropping her forehead against a cabinet door tiredly.
A sudden motion to her side drew her attention, and she sluggishly stood upright. A muscular arm reached past her and opened the cabinet that she was just leaning against, pulling out a glass and taking it to the fridge door to fill it up. "Sorry," she muttered and began to empty her bags out onto the countertop.
"Stop," a low and magnetic voice sounded next to her ear, and that strong arm turned her around to face the kitchen island. "Take your medication and sit down for a little bit. I will put the groceries into the fridge."
Zaria obliged, walking around the island to a stool on the opposite side. "No, please leave it, and I will get it in a minute. You should sit down somewhere and I will start dinner soon." Two white pills were placed on the surface in front of her along with the glass of water. She swallowed them both with a mouthful of water, grimacing at the bitter taste on her tongue. Her head drooped down and laid against her folded arm on the counter.
Gu Cheng carefully laid out the items purchased and folded the shopping bags, placing them in a drawer. His hand hovered over the large package of menstrual pads before placing them to the side with the other bathroom supplies. "You should be taking better care of yourself during this time of the month."
"What?" Zaria forgot her cool and neutral demeanor as she looked up at him blearily. He pointed at her package of pads. "Oh, I just need those for whenever I start. Not that I need to talk to my boss about that." She stood up and walked around to the main counter, picking up her bathroom supplies and walking out of the room.
The bottle of men's bodywash left behind by younger brother Gu went into the cabinet below the sink along with her bag of pads. Her new bottles went into the basket in the shower stall. A light knock on the bedroom door pulled her from her daze, staring at the bottles.
Gu Cheng stood in the hallway outside of the door, his arms loose at his sides. "You should take a shower. Don't worry about making dinner tonight, I will do it. Just..." he paused, his expression somewhat awkward. "Just don't push yourself so hard." He walked away, leaving the stunned woman staring at his back.
It didn't take being told twice to get her tired legs to walk into the bathroom and close the door behind her. Another garbage bag went around her arm, and she awkwardly took a long, hot shower to soothe her sore muscles. The new body wash and hair items were used liberally, and she even took the time to shave her legs using a little razor that Auntie Wang had given her the week before. For the first time since arriving in this world, she felt completely clean. With an ear to the bedroom door, she listened to make sure that her boss had left before turning back toward the center of the room. The bed looked so tempting when she entered the bedroom that she barely managed to pull the sweat suit she slept in the night before onto her body before she fell onto the bed and drifted off to sleep.