Breaking Free, Loving Again -The Flash Marriage with Mr. CEO - Chapter 814

Chapter 814: If it’s with you.

When Ryan came out, only Michael was sitting at the table. His brows furrowed, and he approached the table. “Let’s go,” he said.

Michael glanced up at him with confusion. “We are leaving?” he asked.

“Do you want to stay here forever?” Ryan snapped.

Michael stood up at once, shaking his head. “No, sir. I didn’t mean that. I was just asking.”

“There is no need for you to ask. We are leaving now, and that’s it.” Saying that, Ryan already tucked his hands in his dress pants’ pockets, ready to walk away. However, Michael stopped him again.

“Sir, aren’t we waiting for Secretary Zenith?”

Ryan paused at that and turned to look back at him. “Zenith?” he asked, and Michael nodded.

“She said she would be back soon.” He then gestured towards the transparent glass wall on the side, outside which they could see Zenith standing with David. “She said she had something to talk to him and then left. If we aren’t waiting for her, shall I go and inform her about it?”

Ryan’s gaze was glued to her before he shook his head. “No need to make haste,” he said, adding, “Let her talk. We will wait for her.”

Michael leaned a little and asked, “But aren’t we rushing somewhere?”

Ryan turned and looked at him coldly. And Michael at once understood the cue. Straightening his posture, he said, “We aren’t rushing anywhere. I just misunderstood. Haha … sorry sir.”

Outside the restaurant, Zenith fidgeted with her fingers. “I am truly sorry, David. I really didn’t expect the evening to turn out like this.”

“How can you not?” David asked, raising his brows at her as though he didn’t trust her. “You can’t be that blind, can you?”

“Huh?” she asked with a frown of confusion.

And he laughed. His gaze darted to look back in the restaurant. Jutting his chin towards Ryan, he said, “Only a blind can’t read his intention towards you. He wears it so clearly on his face. Just a look at him, and anyone could tell he doesn’t just see you as his employee. You mean more to him than he could actually express.”

Zenith heard him and turned to stare the same way. Her gaze paused at Ryan. She still couldn’t tell. Not because she doesn’t trust what Ryan confessed to her, but because she could bring herself to trust herself. Does she really have something that could romantically attract him?

“He loves you,” David answered her, even though he didn’t hear her inner doubts. “And that’s visible in his every little reaction. He wouldn’t have let you come to this date even if he wasn’t sure of how he feels for you. But given how he took you away with him, it’s clear that he had realized his feelings.”

Zenith turned to him, and her gaze softened. “David, I am sorry.”

“You don’t have to be,” he shook his head, smiling. “This was not a date, and you mentioned it the moment you asked me out for dinner. Tonight was more like a compensation for what happened yesterday.”

She pursed her lips because what he said was entirely true.

“You are a good man, David,” she said, her voice soft. “And trust me, you —”

“Don’t make me trust anything, ma’am,” he interrupted her. “If you do, my feelings might deepen for you. And I can’t fight a man as capable and powerful as him. So…” His words trailed off as he raised his hand already in surrender.

Zenith looked at him and smiled. She offered him her hand. “It was nice meeting you. No doubt my aunt praised you so much.”

“Oh, please, don’t mention it.” He took her hand and gave it a firm yet friendly shake. “I have always been pleasing among the ladies. If your heart weren’t with someone else, I am sure you must have also liked me.”

She nodded. “Maybe.”

“See, I knew it,” he snapped his finger and pointed out. “But it’s fine. We can be friends.”

“Sure, we will be.” Zenith accepted before finally bidding him goodbye.

When he was gone, she turned to look back. Ryan was still looking her way, and there was something in his gaze that made her heart flutter. Maybe not his gaze, but his words. The words with which he confessed his feelings. She couldn’t just forget them.

Since the moment he said it, it had been ringing in her ears.

Michael showed him a thumb-up, and she nodded to him before walking back inside the restaurant. As she stepped inside, he asked, “Secretary Zenith, we have been waiting for you. Are you done?”

Zenith nodded. “Yes, it’s done. We can leave now.” Her eyes briefly paused at Ryan, only to find him staring at her as though waiting for her to say something.

And she knew what he was waiting to hear, but she wasn’t sure how she should tell him.

Michael turned and looked at Ryan. Finding him looking Zenith’s way, he cleared his throat to draw his attention. But when his attempt failed, he used his voice. “Sir,” he called out softly and politely, “we can leave now.”

However, Ryan still didn’t respond. His gaze remained fixed at Zenith.

“Sir —”

“You are dismissed for the day,” Ryan said before Michael could speak anymore. “Pack your things and leave.”

Michael blinked and looked at his laptop. Although he came to understand that they were never there for work purposes, he was still doing something urgent, and he wasn’t sure if leaving suddenly like this was really right.

“But the work?”

“Leave for today, Michael. Do the pending work tomorrow,” Ryan’s words came, carrying an impatient edge that made Michael nod in understanding at once.

He grabbed his laptop and quickly turned to leave the restaurant.

Once he was gone, it was only Zenith and Ryan left. Their eyes stayed on each other until Zenith could no longer look at him.

Looking away, she quickly said, “That project needs to be submitted by tomorrow. We shouldn’t have asked him to leave like that.” She meant Michael.

Ryan shook his head. “It’s fine. We have the whole tomorrow in our hands. We will finish it before the deadline.”

She nodded and took a step to grab her bag. “Then I will leave as well,” she said, her voice coming slightly breathless as though she was nervous. “I will see you tomorrow, sir.”

And with that, she turned to leave. However, before she could take even a step, her arm was held back.

“What did you tell him?” he asked, his voice came laced with a subtle fear. “Did you accept him?”

Zenith paused for a moment. Mustering the strength, she turned around and stared into his eyes. Shaking her head, she replied, “I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?” Ryan’s lips curved up. But when he saw her serious expression, he held his smile back and asked, “Why? Didn’t you say that he is a good man and you might truly consider him?”

She nodded. “David was really a good man, but I didn’t deserve him.”

Ryan’s brows furrowed as though he didn’t like her demeaning herself. “Zenith, you —”

“He deserves someone who could give him the efforts he truly deserves. And I am not the one. I can’t cherish or love him the way he deserves, for I already have someone else in my heart. And with him there, I cannot be honest with anyone else.”

Ryan paused. His hands suddenly felt clammy. He stepped a step closer to her and asked, “Who are you talking about?” he asked, his words were careful. “Is it me?”

Zenith didn’t respond. She just stared at him, trying to solve the conflict she was feeling inside. Conflict between her heart and mind.

“Zenith,” he called softly, shifting on his feet in anxiousness. “Please tell me. Is it me?”

“Sir,” she finally spoke. He looked at her, giving her a nod of encouragement, urging her to speak further.

“Didn’t you ask me for a chance?”

Ryan halted. “Yes, I did,” he said.

“Then I am giving you that chance,” she said, deciding after a moment of deep thought. “Will that be enough?”

Although she had loved him silently for years, it was still hard for her to accept it. How could she accept it when she doesn’t believe it herself that she deserved him?

Ryan smiled. Reaching up to cup her face, he said, “That’s enough. That one chance is all that I need to make you see that we aren’t that incompatible with each other. Rather, you complete me in a way like no one does.”

He held her hand and brought it up to his lips before pressing his lips onto it. “Thank you, Zenith. Thank you for giving me this one chance. I will make sure to use it to the best.”

Zenith’s eyes brimmed with tears. She nodded to him. “Now, shall we leave? We can’t stay in this restaurant forever.”

“Trust me, I can,” Ryan said, chuckling softly. “If it’s with you.”

Zenith couldn’t help but blink at his words. “Did you just try flirting, sir?”