Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 255: Do You Like It?

Chapter 255: Do You Like It?

After a long and exhausting search. Derek had nearly jumped for joy when he had come across the crafts fair. He had chosen it as the venue for their first date as a couple, mainly because he had been focusing on Emily’s love for embroidering.

It had seemed like exactly the place where she would feel at home. So he had decided that that would be where he would be taking her. During the drive to the fair, he had been ninety-nine percent sure that he had made the right choice.

That Emily would be very happy with the location of their date. But even if he had been ninety-nine percent sure. There was still that one percent left to the side. Such a tiny fraction of doubt. It should have been easy for him to dismiss it. To cast it aside as nothing more than a nuisance.

Something so insignificant that it did not bear paying any attention to. But that was the thing with doubt. It did not matter how small, a little bit of self-doubt was. It had a way of wriggling through the cracks in a person’s mind, and making them start to second guess themselves.

For the most part, Derek had managed to keep up a cool and unbothered front in Emily’s presence. But from time to time, he had felt the nerves kick in. Whispers at the back of his mind becoming loud enough for him to hear.

What if she does not like it? What if she finds it boring? What if it is too cheesy for her taste? What if she would have preferred it if you had taken her someplace expensive? And just lavished her with gifts like you did with all of your other girlfriends in the past. The whispers said.

No, I know Emily. She is going to like this gift. Another whisper, this one defending Derek’s choice, had said. Even so, the self-doubt had still been there.

What if Emily really did not like the craft fair? And her being herself. She would try to spare his feelings, to not let him know that it was not something that she was enjoying and she would lie about it.

’Oh Derek, it’s great, I like it,’ she would say. Both of them knowing the moment the words left her mouth that they were untrue. But at the same time, the two of them not willing to acknowledge that it was a lie. Would Derek have been able to go through the date?

Doing his best to make Emily happy while knowing that she too was faking it to make him happy.

He did not think that he would have been able to survive that. It would have been a huge blow to his ego. But as it turned out, Derek need not have worried,

about what the whispers at the back of his mind were saying. That one percent of self-doubt was completely unnecessary.

He had made the right choice in deciding to take Emily to the craft fair. Something confirmed by the way she reacted, the moment that she realized where they were.

There was no faking the absolute joy that had flashed across Emily’s face, the moment that she had taken everything in.

And now as he pulled into the parking lot, Derek was glad that he would no longer,

be having to focus on driving safely. After a bit of driving around, he finally found a spot and guided the car into it before switching it off.

No longer occupied by the vehicle, Derek turned his attention to Emily. Then he just sat back watching her. Without even meaning to,

Derek found himself smiling just as widely as Emily was. But unlike her, his smile was not focused on the things outside. Instead, it was fixed on her.

Watching her as she took everything in, Staring at the nearest stalls to the cars. She pointed at some weird contraption.

"Derek, look! Wool!" A spinning wheel being operated by an old man who was adding what looked to be some sort of hair to it. It was too far for Derek to make it out clearly. But if Emily said it was wool, then most likely it was wool.

He trusted her judgment on these things. Still in the car, Emily swivelled around and her eyes caught sight of something. Whatever it was, it was something very exciting to her because Emily let out a shocked gasp and in the next second. She was fumbling with her seat belt,

trying to get it off. The moment that it un-clipped, she was out the door, leaving Derek behind.

It almost seemed as though she had forgotten that he was there. While Derek was happy that he had not been wrong in guessing that the craft fair would be something that she would love.

He wondered if he had made a mistake of a different kind.

What if Emily loved the craft fair a little bit too much? She had already forgotten that Derek had been with her in the car. Did that mean that he would spend the rest of the date mostly alone, just trailing behind his Emily?

Watching as she ran from this stall to that.

Not liking that thought in the least. Derek had to fight off a frown. He released his seatbelt, and got out of the car.

He had just finished locking the car when his worries about being forgotten were swiftly put to rest.

"Derek, let’s go. There’s a lady over there. She’s screen printing!" She said.

Her slight frame materializing right next to him like she had just ghosted herself there. Her small fingers slipped into his and she all but dragged Derek towards the stall that she was talking about. When they finally got to the area, that she was talking about. Emily showed him the art pieces that the older woman behind the table had created. They watched her work for a little while. Applying different kinds of paint onto some sort of weird screen thing.

Derek was certain that it was more complicated than that, but with his lack of skill or interest in the type of printing that the woman was doing, he did not really care. But what he did care about was when they walked away from the stall and Emily leaned up. Planting a sweet kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you Derek. This is the best first date that anyone has ever taken me to," She said her face was glowing, and in turn Derek felt his own heat up.

The heat not just ending at his cheeks, but making a home for itself close to his heart.