Chapter 2

• “And you are trying to hit on me? Does this that you don’t have a girlfriend that will be mad?” Celine asked in her taunting voice, and the stranger laughed a bit charmingly.
• He extended his arm and showed his hand for a handshake. “Callahan, by the way. Callahan Alec Simmons…”
• She took it and shook his hand. “Celine…”
• “Celine?” Callahan demanded.
• Celine’s life has been so private since day one that she cannot expose herself so suddenly. Knowing she belongs to a family that is leading big businesses in so many countries and her father is well-known as a business tycoon, claiming that she is an Everson is quite a big scoop and scandalous in the business world that one of the heiresses is exposed.
• “Celine. Celine Montgomery,” she said, using her mother’s surname because it was more lowkey and less suspicious because her mother’s surname wasn’t really a big deal. Other than that, her mother’s identity has never been exposed as that of the business tycoon’s husband, so she would be free from danger as well.
• “And how old are you?” Callahan continued asking.
• “Just right enough to be called an adult,” she shrugged. “You?”
• “I could say the same,” He smiled a bit. “But I saw you reading a book earlier. Let me guess, you’re still studying, right?”
• He was looking at her as if he was a bit weighing in if she was still very young.
• Celine shakes her head and laughs. “I’m about to take my Master’s if that information would make you feel at ease at least,”
• Callahan sighs in relief. He was worried that Celine was just looking a bit mature for her age and he didn’t want to be called of other things just because he was showing interest to a young-looking woman.
• “Which school if you don’t mind me asking,”
• Celine was kind of stunned at how Callahan seemed to be interested in her because he was asking personal questions.
• So, instead of saying a famous school that might shock him as to how she would even go there, which might jump him to the conclusion that she’s rich and pretty influential, she only said a school that seems a little private that the upper classes would probably afford and in another country, so there’s no way in hell they would bump into each other.
• But to her surprise, Callahan claimed that it was where he enrolled too.
• “I just have a vacation here because of my parents. They have a big business, a company,” he continued nonchalantly.
• Celine’s brows raised as she nodded without paying too much attention to it.
• “And how about you? Your parents? What do they do?” he asked.
• “Ah… nothing much. We only have a small farm, and I would help them sometimes with harvesting. It wasn’t really a big deal because there were days when we couldn’t even hit the target.”
• “Hmm. That’s quite interesting. I like farms.”
• Celine only smiled and thanked the waiter for suddenly popping in as she placed her orders. Another waiter arrived with Callahan’s order, as Callahan ordered him to place it on Celine’s table instead.
• Though Celine seems a little interested in his presence as it showed in her expression, she wouldn’t lie to herself and say that, in the back of her mind, she enjoys the company of Callahan.
• For the longest time, she liked traveling alone when she got bored, but she didn’t realize that talking to someone would be that entertaining.
• And in just a minute of sitting with him, she already found her lips stretching for a smile that, even when she went back to her hotel room, she could not erase.
• Unable to suppress her happiness, she called Gaile right then.
• “Yes, Celine,” Gaile’s usual cold and serious voice said, welcoming her.
• “I want you to enroll me in this school,” she started.
• “Enroll? You were just enrolled in a prestigious school for elites. Why do you want to change it?”
• Though Celine knows that Gaile would still obey her orders, she still needs to know the details about it as it will be included in their report to be submitted to her father who’s always too busy to check up on his kids individually and who was in another country.
• “I just want a new environment,” she chanted.
• “You met a man named Callahan Alec Simmons?” Gaile said.
• Celine groaned and tossed herself on the bed as she caressed her necklace.
• “When can I have my full privacy?” she groaned.
• “When you’re not an Everson anymore, I guess?” Gaile murmured.
• “Just enroll me, Gaile. I want it done today,” she said impatiently.
• “Your papers are now getting processed. I am just waiting for the school’s confirmation. Oh, there you go. Congrats. You are now enrolled in a school that’s three times cheaper than the school you were enrolled in a minute ago.”
• Celine smiled, as she was a bit excited to see Callahan there.
• “Other than that, I want you to find me a land. More on a farm. Like a family business. More like in the outskirts where there were horses and trees. And make sure there is a house there. Then designed it with me as an only child. Just that. Just put Roel as my father and Janna as my mother for a little less information about my parents.”
• “Oh, dear. You don’t look like any of the people you’ve chosen at all for them to be assumed as your parents. Are you, what, trying to look like you were adopted?” Gaile’s voice was dripping in sarcasm as Celine could imagine her in the monitoring room with the different angles of CCTVs on a big screen together with the other monitoring team who were busy on their computers.
• “Well, then find one for me. Just let me be an only child so I won’t have to find someone to pretend as my sibling. I can work with that information,”
• “Are you trying to impress that man?” Gaile asked, doubting.
• “Gaile, if I am trying to impress him, then I should have revealed that I am an Everson.”
• “Well, you have a point. I just found a land for you. I will meet up with the seller so I can check it today. Is that all?”
• “One more thing…” her voice turned a bit softer and little.
• “No sex, Celine,” Gaile said straight, to the point that Celine could imagine how the others who heard her glanced at her immediately.
• She groaned and shut her eyes. “Why? I’m already an adult. I’m about to take my master’s. I’m kind of curious—”
• “Then should I buy you a vibrator and deliver it to your room so your curiosity will be answered?”
• “Oh, never mind! I’m hanging up!” She ended the call and breathed out frustratingly.
• She closed her eyes and put her hand on her forehead, as she couldn’t take the face of Callahan out of her mind.
• But then, her interest won’t always be so great that it will turn into an obsession as she could even act like she doesn’t like him and show less interest, which is why she appears so cold and distant to others.
• But deep down, Celine can feel things as she can imagine herself jumping on him in her mind. She won’t really do it in person, but she knows she’s wild in her mind.
• She started roaming around to buy some souvenirs even though she wouldn’t be giving them to anyone. She went to a store and looked at the things when she saw Callahan buying stuff too.
• Her eyes drifted to the snow globe he was holding. Her brow shot up while she got a bit curious if he was buying it for himself or for someone special.
• Callahan suddenly glanced at his back, roaming his eyes around while waiting for the cashier to pack it, when she felt Callahan’s eyes stop on her.
• She pretended to be busy with the things displayed, as she didn’t want to be called someone who followed a man after having dinner with him yesterday, but she couldn’t take her mind off him.
• “I found you again,” Callahan said as soon as he walked toward her and stopped at her side.
• Celine remembered how she gave him the hotel info because Callahan asked where she was staying at the moment and he might visit her. And she waited a bit for him until she fell asleep while sipping wine.
• Celine only smiled and busied herself with the things being displayed, as she was more trying to be invested in them instead of being too obvious that she was actually bracing to see him again.
• “Your hotel room last night was out of order as it was in maintenance and the keeper told me the one occupying it changed rooms. She didn’t tell me the details since it’s confidential for them to leak information. It’s quite unfortunate.”
• Celine cannot say anything because, as far as she remembers, she was waiting all night while drinking wine until she fell asleep.
• Oh, Gaile and her ways to stop what’s on my mind. She really thinks I’ll have sex with Callahan so she used her power to control things just to stop it?
• “Ah yes. I didn’t know you’d visit me.” She smiled a little and grabbed the thing that interested her to buy it.
• She walked to the cashier while Callahan walked with her.
• “I’d be flying back tonight. Might as well see each other at school?” He smiled.
• Celine nodded. “Yup… See you…”
• Callahan nodded a bit. Celine faced the front and placed the souvenir she was buying for herself.
• “Can I get your number this time?” she heard Callahan’s raspy voice, pleading a bit.