Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 134: Why?

Chapter 134: Why?

After the slap, Derek had made it home on autopilot. Barely remembering last minute that he had snuck out, and sneaked back in, making sure that his mother did not know that he had ever gone out at all.

But now he had just seen her off, and all that he had been repressing in an effort to make sure that she did not realize that something was wrong, had come back to the surface.

Pacing around in his living room, Derek tried to process, a hand over his cheek where Emily’s palm had been a few hours prior. She had slapped him. Emily Molson had slapped him. Now, Derek was no stranger to sudden violent outbursts. He had grown up around entitled rich people, who seemed to think that it was their right to be violent. Vases flying, slaps, kicks, screams, spoiled brats who did anything and everything when they were throwing tantrums. But having grown up around that, he had never in his life thought that somebody like Emily, who was normally so calm, would slap him.

And even worse, he had no idea why she had done it.

He had apologized, and he had even asked her to come back. None of those things translated to needing a slap across the face. He had even gone as far as to ask her to sleep with him because he needed the rest.

Which part of that had set her off? Derek went over the events in his head, trying to find where things had gone off the rails, but try as he might, he could not see it. Was she angry at his apology? Was she mad because he had offered her, her old job back? Was it the thought of sleeping with him that— Oh.

Derek’s mind finally caught up with the last part, and he looked at it from her point of view instead of from his. If somebody had just come up to him and asked him to sleep with them, Derek would have been offended too, especially without context. Emily was probably out there thinking he was some sort of creep.

The realization had Derek no longer pacing, but throwing himself onto the nearest couch, and going boneless. Oh, that was where things had gone wrong. He had gone over the possibility of asking Emily to share a bed with him so many times, that when he had said it out loud, he had simply just said, ’sleep with me,’ not really thinking of how it must have sounded to her. She probably thought that he was a pervert.

Looking at it like that, her reaction made a lot of sense. In fact, Derek was beginning to realize that he had gotten off lightly. Any other woman would have brained him with a skillet and then dragged him outside, and proceeded to double down on the beating.

How could he say something so careless and not even realize until a few hours later? He wanted to go back in time and slap his past self for being so dumb.

He had to fix things. But even as he thought of fixing things, Derek was now wary of just showing up at the diner.

What if she kicked him out without even giving him a chance to explain? He could not let that happen. So he had to find a way to at least let her know that he was coming, so that she was not surprised and unwilling to talk when he showed up. And show up he would. He had to do this in person.

During all of the time that Emily had been gone, Derek had never called her, fearing that it would be going too far past the lines of professionalism. Plus just calling her would also have been a bit too impersonal, especially when he had wanted to apologize. But now a call was the only thing that he could think of to give her a heads up on the fact that he would be coming by the diner. Pulling out his phone, he searched for her name in his contact list.

When it showed up, Derek dialled her number, not allowing himself a second to doubt and waste time. Just doing it. The phone rang once, twice, three times. She picked up on the fourth ring.

"Derek?" She said, one word, but her tone was so cold that he was certain it would have made even the Arctic feel chilly.

"Please don’t hang up," He told her.

"What do you want, Derek? I thought my slap made it perfectly clear that I no longer want anything to do with you?" She told him. And he had to suppress a sigh. Clearly things were very bad. He needed to fix things soon.

"I know. But please believe me, it was all a big misunderstanding. I’m going to be coming by the diner tonight to apologize and explain things. Please do not kick me out before then. I promise I will not be giving excuses. I genuinely want to explain things to you," She did not say anything. Just continuing to stay quiet.

"Can I come by?" He asked. He knew that the diner was a public space, that even without her consent he could just show up. But after the disaster that had led to him being slapped, he did not want to make her feel as though she did not have a choice. So even though he did not need to, he still asked for her permission. And he waited with bated breath, for her to reply. She was silent for so long that Derek was certain that she would say no. That she would tell him to never ever show up. That she never wanted to see him again. But instead, when her reply came, it was something positive.

"Fine, you can show up. But don’t think just because I’m allowing you to come to Bee’s diner, that means all is forgiven. You owe me an explanation Derek, and it had better be a good one," She hung up after that. But Derek did not mind it. At least he had a chance to explain things now.