Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 107: Bopped

Chapter 107: Bopped

Derek Haven had always had a bit of an obsessive streak in him. That was something that was as true as the sky being blue. His mother, being his mother did not call it obsessive though. She called it being ’determined’. His uncle, who did not see the need to hold back his true thoughts on a matter, had never once held back on what he thought about that particular trait of Derek’s.

He had called Derek, bull-headed, he had called him a leech. Sticking to a point and then sucking on it slowly until there was nothing left. And then he had also called him a stubborn mule that did not know when to give up.

While both observations described the same thing in vastly different ways. Derek did not disagree with either of them, they were both right afterall. He was stubborn, and once his mind was fixed on something. He never gave up until he obtained it.

That was just the way that he was.

It was there in the way that he swam night after night. Chasing sleep that would never come. And it was also showing itself when it came to the Emily situation.

For days Derek had been coming to Bee’s diner. Veering off what would have been a shorter route home, and taking the longer road, all so that he could get to see Emily. And for many nights, that was all that he had accomplished. He had seen her, but he had never been able to work up the courage to go in and face her. But he had still come, night after night.

And now he had finally worked up the courage to come in and let himself be seen.

When he had spied her from outside, he had seen that she was dancing. And not only dancing, but slow dancing with a mop. The ridiculous scene had been enough to bolster him to open the door. He had expected the sound of the bell above the door to startle her into stopping, but Emily had not heard it. Instead, she had continued to sing something about, mamas, papas, customers, and waitresses. He had stood back and watched, enjoying seeing her looking so carefree.

When she had turned around and seen him, Derek had known that the show was well and truly over. He had wanted to speak up.

To say something cool, like "Miss Molson, fancy seeing you here,"

Or maybe "Hey, Emily, long time no see," But his throat had refused to work. His body remaining frozen on the spot as she had shimmied closer.

When she had raised a hand, he had braced himself. If a slap was all that she gave him, then he would consider himself to be the luckiest man on earth. He deserved more than just a slap. He deserved way, way worse for what he had done. In fact if she demanded a pound of flesh, Derek would very willingly hand her the knife and stay still while she carved it from him. Getting the justice that she deserved.

But the attack that he was expecting did not come. Instead of a punch or a slap. Derek watched as Emily folded most of her fingers away, leaving just the index digit straight. And then....she bopped him.

He blinked, wondering if it was all some wild hallucination. What if he was still at work? Stuck in his office while imagining how their encounter would go if he actually got up the guts to go and face her. But just as he was beginning to think that he was imagining things, Emily bopped him again, and Derek realized that it was all very real.

"Derek?" He watched as she looked from her finger to him, then back to her finger, and then back to him. She was the one that had bopped him on the nose, but she looked just as confused as Derek felt. In fact, it seemed as though she was waiting for him to explain.

Unsure how he would answer the questions that she was clearly having in her mind since he was not a mind reader. Derek tried to look for ways to break the awkward mood. He thought about lightly teasing her over her dance moves with the mop, but he stopped himself.

He had no right to talk about what she did in her place of employment. Especially since he was pretty sure that the only reason that she was working there was because Derek had sabotaged her chances of getting a job anywhere else with his lie.

Derek was still in the middle of chastising himself about daring to think that he could talk about her workplace when she invaded his personal space again. He could only watch as she began to move, this time her hand was going super slow, and once more, it settled against his nose, the pressure light.

She took in a sharp breath and hastily stepped back.

"Derek! What are you doing here?" She asked, her face beet red.

You should not be feeling embarrassed, he wanted to tell her. If anything, he was the one who should have been embarrassed. Seeking to break her out of her discomfort, Derek let a smile slide across his face. His body completely relaxed.

" I was feeling famished, so I decided to stop by. It is lovely seeing a familiar face, but it would be even better if I could have something to eat before keeling over," He said it all in his smoothest voice, and it worked.

Having something to focus on broke Emily out of her frozen state and she was suddenly moving. She brought him to his table and them gave him the menu.

"Go over it and I will come back to take your order," She moved away after that, leaving Derek to stare blankly at the menu, his mind racing. He had done it, he had finally managed to come in. But now that he was there, he seemed to have forgotten why exactly he was there in the first place.