Arvil shot her an amused smile. They could be friends; he was fine with that.
"All right," he chuckled. "We can be friends, Ms Riley. I have no problems with that."
group
Daisy smiled, nodding once in satisfaction. “Good. Then what do you want for your birthday?”
Arvil let out a small shrug. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "You can get me whatever. Anything would do."
group
“Helpful,” Daisy laughed softly, shaking her head. “All right, I’ll figure something out, I guess.”
Arvil opened his mouth to reply when the door opened and a familiar black-haired male walked inside. He had a stack of papers in his hands, and Arvil nearly groaned.
"Good afternoon, sir," his aloof assistant, Noah, greeted without a hint of pleasantry in his voice. "Unfortunately, the papers I have in my hands do not contain your death certificate, but I can have that arranged if you'd like."
Arvil did not know what he'd ever done to Noah to deserve the death jokes which he wasn't even sure were jokes at all. For all he knew, Noah was serious.
Then Noah's eyes went towards Daisy and he stared at her silently, shutting the door behind himself.
"Good afternoon, ma'am," he greeted her, walking toward them and setting the papers next to Arvil's computers. "You'd best get working instead of fooling around, sir. There is more where that came from.
group
Daisy blinked when the man walked into the room. Who was that?
“Um… Hi?” she greeted him back, looking at Arvil again in confusion.
"Daisy, that's my assistant, Noah Sinclair," he said, pointing to his assistant. "Noah, this is my girlfriend, Daisy Riley. Daisy, don't take anything he says seriously. His taste in humor is quite… different."
group
“Ah. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sinclair,” Daisy re-greeted him with a nod.
Noah nodded once at Daisy, then turned his stare back on Arvil. He continued to glare at him until the CEO gave a heavy sigh and picked up a document.
"Fine, I'm getting to it," he muttered. "Can't you give me a break?"
"You used up all of your break privileges last week, Mr. Davis," Noah said, recalling the time he cut work twice. Both times, it was to see Daisy. "Also, do not forget; you have an appointment at three-thirty with a shareholder, as well as preparation for the charity event on Saturday."
Arvil sighed. When he decided to create a company, he did not think he'd have to do all of these. Then a thought came to him.
"Would you like to help?" he asked Daisy, tilting his head to the side. "If you're available."
group
Daisy glanced at her phone, checking the time. “Well… What would I need to do? I just have a bit more time before I should be back home.”
Arvil shook his head. "Not today," he said. "The charity event Cyber is holding is for the three orphanages in this city. We've already selected gifts for each child, but we need to put them in boxes and wrap them up."
group
“Oh! When is that? I’ll check my schedule and see if I’m free. If so, I’ll definitely be there,” Daisy agreed, giving him a small smile.
"Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, starting from ten in the morning," he replied. "It would probably go on till the evening, depending on how long we stay with the kids."
group
“I could be there most of the day during the weekend and in the evening on Monday?” Daisy said with a shrug.
Arvil smiled at her.
That sounds perfect," he said. "And if something comes up, don't be afraid to let me know."
group
“Yeah, of course. Speaking of which, I think I’ll probably be needing your phone number? And you’ll need mine, too,” Daisy said as she pulled up her contacts list.
As Arvil pulled out his phone, he felt the stare of his assistant. Oh, of course. What kind of a couple didn't exchange numbers? But he pretended to ignore it.
"Give me your phone," he said. "I'll put mine in, and then call my number."
group
Daisy handed her phone over, realizing her mistake as she did so. She felt the eyes of Arvil’s assistant on them both but ignored him. They were getting each other’s phone numbers. No big deal. The man didn’t have to know how long they’d been “dating” for…
Arvil typed in his number and saved it in her phone, and then called his phone to save hers.
Finally, Noah spoke up.
"If I may ask, how long will you be keeping up with this lie?" he asked calmly. "I'll need to know in order to handle the media better."
group
Daisy blushed hard as Noah spoke up about the lie. She gave Arvil a questioning look, wondering how the assistant knew.
“Um. At least a few more months, until people won’t suspect anything,” she said, putting her phone back in her purse.
Arvil rubbed the back of his neck. Nothing could escape his assistant, could it? Besides, Noah could keep secrets like the dead. And he was a wonderful actor—his face showed nothing. Which was why when he told death jokes, Arvil could not understand if he was truly serious, or just joking.
"All right," Noah nodded, turning to Arvil. "I will check up on you in an hour. I'd suggest you finish these till then."
An hour to finish this pil—Arvil sighed. There was no use arguing. Sometimes he felt like Noah was the boss.
"Fine," he muttered. "I'll finish this."
Satisfied with the reply, Noah bid Daisy goodbye and walked out.
"Well," Arvil leaned back into his seat, "my assistant."
group
Daisy simply watched the men converse about the paperwork Noah had brought in. Arvil had seemed just as shocked by what his assistant had revealed that he knew as she had. That was surprising. She may not know the man well, but she hadn’t thought he’d tell anymore. Noah saying something had confused her, but her “boyfriend’s” equally confused look just made her wonder how the assistant knew.
“He seems like a very interesting man,” she mused, still somewhat in shock.
"He is," Arvil answered with a shrug, eyes skimming over each word. "He likes to keep the company scandal-free. So whatever he does, it's to keep me from getting a bad image, and also harming the company in the process. He's good at sniffing out secrets. Oh, this idea is actually pretty good… might give it a go…"
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“How does he know? How did he know about this?” Daisy wondered, not sure if even he knew. She wasn’t upset, not at all, but she was confused and slightly amused. The guy knew how to find information, that was for sure. Being a journalist, she had to know some things like that, too.
"I've given up trying to figure that out myself," Arvil admitted, flipping the document to read its back. "Noah keeps an eye on things better than anyone I know, but only on things that affect him and others around him. Or he probably heard us talking. I've long stopped trying to understand him."
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Daisy hummed, nodding. “Okay, then,” she said with a soft laugh. “I guess I should head back to finish up my work. I’ll see you this weekend?”
"All right," Arvil nodded, pursing his lips. "See you this weekend. Have a good rest of your day, Daisy."
group
“You, too, Arvil,” Daisy said with a smile as she stood. “I’ll probably end up bringing lunch again sometime. Do you like anything specific?”
Arvil removed his eyes from his papers and instead set them on her.
"Not really," he finally responded. "I generally don't go out for lunch—there's always so much to do that I usually forget—, but sometimes Jordan orders takeout, and I just go with whatever he decides to give me."
group
“All right. Text me if you think of anything, then,” Daisy said as she made her way to the door.
