"Good morning Caroline." I greet the receptionist and the only response I get is an eye roll.

She always does that. Did I do something wrong to her?

"Elizabeth. Boss is not here yet." She speaks, always speaks in a bored tone. She takes out a gum from her bag and starts chewing it.

Oh. Okay.

I place my bag on the floor and start working.

Knock! Knock!

"Come in." I say absentmindedly.

"Hey Elizabeth. Is Eric here yet?" I look up and see Richard leaning by the door.

"Hey Richard. No, he's not here yet but should be here soon." His face shows confusion. Huh? What happened?

"Really? So he decided to take a half day today? He never does that."

Half day? How's that possible? I look at the time and what I see makes my face pale.

"Oh my God!!! It's lunch time!" I exclaim. "And he's not here yet. How did I miss this?" I ask myself.

"I don't know. Did you call him?" I shook my head.

Wow. Time really goes fast. I was so engrossed in my own work that I didn't realize that he's not here yet and it's lunch time.

All this time I didn't even rang in his office once.

Good job Beth. Good job.

I take out my phone from my bag and call Rick. He picks up after seven rings.

"Hey Eric, whe-"

"Good night." He cuts the call.

Asshole.

"He cut my call. The asshole cuts my call. Who does that?!"

Richard raises his arm in surrender. "Geez. Calm down woman. What did he say?"

"Good night." His brows furrow in confusion.

"Good night?" I nod my head.

"Well I guess it's time to give him a surprise visit." He smirks.

*****

Richard and I reach Eric's penthouse. Instead of pressing the doorbell, I take out the key and unlock the door.

Yeah.... We exchanged keys last week on New year's Eve. I had to stop myself from jumping in excitement in front of him, but I did jump in excitement when I reached back home.

We enter the penthouse and meet with silence.

It's way too silent here. It's not supposed to be silent. Lydia is supposed to greet us but it looks like she's not here.

I remove my heels to avoid any sort of noise and tip toe to the living room. Richard follows my actions.

"Hmmm-Hmmmm" What the hell?! Is somebody crying or moaning? The sound echoes all over the penthouse.

"Do you know what is going on here?" I whisper to Richard. He shakes his head.

"Hmmm-Hmmmm" The sound is coming from Eric's room. Is he moaning?

Oh my God!! Is he cheating on me?

I grab the nearest flower vase and march to his bedroom. Luckily his bedroom door was unlocked and I burst it open in anger.

"ERI-" I raise the flower vase high up in the air but what I see makes my anger fly out of the window. Richard bursts out laughing.

What the fuck?

The room is a total mess. It's like a burglar broke in, created a mess and left. The wardrobe is open and all the clothes are out instead of in, there are lots of coffee mugs lying on the floor, one of them is broken.

The floor has a different kind of mess. There are lots of tissue paper lying on the floor. Some have even formed a group and are rotating in a circle by the wind. There are few magazines and comic books too.

My eyes trail from the floor to the bed, sorry, messed up bed and the person sitting on it.

There are lots of files lying around along with empty plates and boxes of tissue papers. It looks like something spilled on the bed and an attempt was made to clean it but it got worse.

My eyes follow to a pair of feet and slowly trail up to its owner. He's wearing a grey trouser and a sweatshirt, sorry, two sweatshirts. I can clearly see a red one beneath the black one. He's holding a cup of steaming coffee on one hand and a tissue on the other.

Something glassy is covering his eyes. The steam of the coffee fogs it up so he removes the glasses, cleans it and wears it again.

Glasses? Tissue papers? Coffee?

His expression clearly shows that he is surprised and gives me a 'have you gone crazy' look.

Oh my God. Eric in glasses. The glasses have Eric, wait, what am I saying? Eric has glasses. He still has his glasses. The sweatshirts are doing a great job in revealing his muscles. He takes an awkward sip of his coffee, emitting a moan and does not takes his eyes off me.

Click!

I snap out of my daze and see that Richard just clicked a picture of us in this state.

Darling, the vase is still high up and in your hand...

Oh hell.

I quickly place the vase on the table beside me and give him a toothy smile.

"I'm so sending this to the boys. This is so hilarious!!" Richard starts laughing again and leaves out of the room, holding his phone.

Eric still doesn't takes his eyes off me and takes another sip. The steam again blurs his vision, but this time he wipes the glass with his thumb.

He clears his throat and opens his mouth to speak but instead he coughs. He clears his throat again and takes a long sip of his coffee. He opens his mouth to speak but starts coughing again.

He blows his nose with the tissue, throws it to the bin right beside the bed but misses and the tissue lands on the floor.

I can easily guess how the mess on the floor was created.

He takes out a tissue paper from one of the boxes and wipes his nose. He clears his throat again, takes a sip of his coffee.

"Do....do I need an explanadion?" His voice is way too heavy for my liking, but it's groggy and sexy. It makes me want to jump on him.

I shake my head vigorously.

"Good." Then he sneezes.

*****

After blowing his nose for the fiftieth time, coughs that I've lost count of and sneezes that I didn't even count, I cleaned his room.

It turned out that he gave Lydia a leave as soon as he found out that he's running with cold. Which idiot does that?

Your idiot.

That's true. All the great stuffs like this is done by my Eric.

"Lida." Rick calls me as soon as I leave the kitchen.

"You can't say my name properly and you were working in this condition. What were you thinking?" I cross my arms across my chest and raise my eyebrow.

He makes himself comfortable on the couch and shrugs himself. "Avoid you."

What?!

"You were trying to avoid me?!" I shout at him and he lets out sneeze.

"No. I was dhinking aboud you." He wipes his nose and pushes his glasses up.

I let out a snort. "It's funny how you try to say the letter T or Z but end up saying D." He scowls.

"Nod funny." I let out a chuckle.

"You should take a warm bath or a shower while I make a special drink only for cold." He nods.

He gets up from the couch, removes both of his sweatshirts and take slow steps towards me. He clears his throat and whispers seductively in my ear.

"I will. If you join me." My eyes widen. He wants me to join? Ha. That's funny.

I smirk inwardly. Time to play.

I pull him closer to me and trace my finger on his chest and his V line which makes him groan. I kiss his chest, trail up to his neck and bite it. He lets out a moan. I pull him down to my height and try to whisper seductively.

"I will. But in one condition." He lets out another moan.

Seducing classes by Arianna Smith. Contact her if you wanna learn how to seduce your man. I joined and look where I am now.

"Say my name. Say my full name." My finger starts tracing his abs and he groans in frustration.

"Say it." My finger trails from his abs to his biceps.

It's all mine.

He bites my earlobe and I bite my lower lip to stop letting out a moan.

"Elidabed. Elidabed Green."

I try to muffle my laugh, but I know it's useless so I burst out laughing. Eric scowls at my sudden change of behaviour and I hold my stomach as it has started to hurt by too much laughing.

"You.... Your expression.... Was...... Oh my.... I should... I should have clicked a picture." I speak in between my laughter.

He groans in frustration. "I dhink I should nod dake warm shower bud I need a cold one ride now."

I start laughing again when he said ride now instead of right now. Eric just shakes his head in annoyance, removes his glasses and heads to his room for a cold shower.

I finally stop laughing and watch him close his bedroom door. A big smile is plastered on my face.

God!! I just love this man.

*****

After Eric took his time in the shower, which was an hour, he finally started to feel sleepy.

It's almost night and it's time for me to leave, but I don't wanna leave. I have never stayed the night at his place in these past three months.

"It's bitder." His voice is improving.

"I know."

"I don't like it." He coughs.

"I don't care, you are drinking it." I take a bite of my cookie.

"I don't wand to." He pouts.

I sigh deeply, not knowing what to do.

"Drink or I'll call the doctor and ask him to give you flu shots."

"You wouldn't." He challenges me.

"Try me." I open his laptop and download Netflix for the sixth time.

"I won't drink it. Coffee was bedter." He folds his arms and gives me a stern look.

Like it's gonna work on me...

"Rick....." I give him the meanest glare.

"Fine." He brings the cup near his mouth, but spills it on his shirt.

"Oops?" He smirks at me.

Does he think that I'm a fool? I'm pretty sure he must have learned this trick from Melanie.

I don't say anything and only pass him the big jar of medicinal drink to him. He scowls and fake cries.

I roll my eyes at his childish behavior.

"Drink."

After throwing tantrums and many accidental spills of my special medicine for cold, he finally drank the whole cup and not the jar, well, half of the jar.

I let out a big yawn and finally get up from the couch.

"I have to leave." But I don't want to. Eric grabs my hand. His hands are warm. Feverish warm.

"Don't. Please." His eyes are showing an emotion which I'm having a hard time believing it.

I pull him closer to me and check his temperature with the back of my hand. My eyes widen in worry.

"Eric! You're burning with fever."  I start panicking. Oh dear God! Why is this man so careless?

I walk to the kitchen, turn on the gas, start heating water then I start taking out the ingredients I need for making a soup.

"Why in the world is he so careless? Can't even take care of his health. I'm pretty sure he must have not taken any medicine for fever along with his cold ones." I speak to nobody as I chop the vegetables.

Suddenly I hear a chuckle behind me so I turn around, pointing the knife at him.

"Don't you dare laugh, you asshole. Just go to your room, lie down and wait for me." I say, narrowing my gaze at him.

"You're not my boss. I am."

"Oh really? But right now I am and I'm ordering you to go to your room." He stomps his feet and walks away.

I think the fever has gone to his brain.....

After he finishes drinking the soup, he lets out a big yawn. Aw.... So cute.

I take the bowl from him and cover him with a heavy blanket.

I switch off the lights and hear him call me. "Elidabeth."

"Yes Rick?" I place the bowl on the table and walk towards his bed.

"S.... Stay." Is he begging me to stay? "Please." Yup. He is.

His blue eyes are shining in the dark and I drown myself into it. How can I refuse him?

"Okay. I'll take the guest bedroom." I turn around but he grabs my wrist.

"Stay with me. Please." His voice is desperate. A smile appears on my face as I push back his hair which was on his forehead.

"Okay." I can feel his happiness radiating all over the room.

I walk to the other side of the bed and lie down. I feel some movement beside and the next thing I know is that he pulls me to his side, buries his face on the crook of my neck and sighs.

His warm breath gives me shivers and I stiffened at our close proximity.

"Good night." He pecks my cheek.

I finally relax as soon as I feel comfortable with him and let out sigh.

I face him and trail my fingers on his face. I think he's asleep.

"Good night Eric. Love you." I whisper in almost an inaudible sound and let myself succumb to the darkness.

Soon I feel something warm covering my body and a whispering of 'I love you too'.

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