Second Chance with My First Love

Adam didn't bother disguising the annoyance from his face and looked at me with evident anger. His lips moved, but he didn't say anything as he stood and advanced toward me.

"Pick it up," he said with a voice as cold as winter.

Unfazed, I didn't move and stood toe to toe in front of him.

"No," I said with a voice that, surprisingly, did not flutter.

I thought I saw surprise mixed with amazement in Adam's eyes. But even if I did, the man had easily swept any emotion from his face, his eyes turning wintry blue in an instant.

I shivered but refused to wrap my arms around me to stop myself from trembling.

"It's so not like you to be stubborn, Sophia," the man said, contrasting the fact that he remembered me as much as he wanted to hide it. "Take the dress and put it on."

When I opened my lips to say something, Adam beat me to it. "Don't make me repeat myself, Sophia. If you don't like to put the dress on, consider yourself out of work right this minute."

The confidence I was able to muster to stand up to Adam shriveled into nothing while the anger I felt toward the injustice of this all burned hot and deep inside my gut.

I gritted my teeth and swallowed the bitter words I wanted to shout at the man. I was tempted, too, to grab the dress and throw it in Adam's annoyingly serene but cold face. But then, I stopped myself, knowing full well that I shouldn't do anything to lose my job. It was the only thing that was keeping me alive right now, so I couldn't afford to live without it.

While Bob tried his best to keep me happy, I was still in a loveless marriage. And my family was… around.

'To each their own,' I always thought. So I smiled through gritted teeth and hoped my smile would still look like a smile.

"I apologize," I said in defeat, took back the dress, and gripped it to my side. "I'll change and meet you downstairs."

Even though the white dress represented purity with its color, it left nothing to the imagination. It was a dress made to entice, and it did so by hugging every curve of one's body. So when I put it on, if I could have, I would have avoided the mirror to avoid looking at myself in the dress.

I couldn't, though. The bathroom in the company building was furnished with full-length mirrors on its walls. Even the elevator I rode to get to the lower ground was designed with mirrors! So by the time I exited the elevator, I was ready to run away.

"How could he?" I kept asking myself. How could Adam force me to wear the same dress he'd given me on our first anniversary as a couple? It was supposed to be our "thing" because it was my first time wearing such a dress, and I only did so in front of Adam.

Yet the man wanted me to wear it to show a stranger — No! Derek, of all people. It disgusted me! And by the time I rode Adam's car without looking at him, I was ready to run and forget about keeping my job.

But I didn't. Regardless of my inward rants, my feet moved on their own and followed Adam inside the restaurant.

...

I didn't understand a word Adam and Derek were saying throughout dinner, mostly because I wasn't listening and had no intention of involving myself more than what was asked of me: to wear the dress and accompany Adam to the business dinner.

So I sat, quiet as a mouse, beside Adam while Derek discussed business with him across the table. As much as I hate Adam at the moment, I would still prefer sitting beside him rather than Derek. While the latter tried his best to hide it, I saw how he had been leering at me since I entered the room with Adam.

The way Derek looked at me when Adam wasn't looking and his subtle questions to get me to join their conversation were enough for me to tremble in fear and anger at both of them.

I didn't know what terrible deed I had committed in the past to deserve such a punishment from the heavens, but it seemed to me that whoever was in charge wasn't satisfied with only having me meet Adam again. So, they even made him my boss, who only had to use his authority to involve me with Derek.

Helpless, I secretly checked the time. It was now past seven in the evening, and I had not yet called Bob to inform him that I wouldn't be able to join him for dinner.

"... you'll excuse me," Adam's voice snapped me back to my senses. Frowning, I watched as he stood from his seat. "I need to use the men's room a bit."

"A—"

I wanted to protest and stop him from leaving, but Derek interjected, saying, "Take your time, Adam." He smiled at me, and my hand turned cold. "I'm sure the lady over here can keep me entertained for a bit. Isn't that right, Sophia?"

I couldn't speak and looked at Adam with pleading eyes. But intentionally or not, he didn't look at me and smiled at Derek. "That's why she's here." Adam looked at me, warning me to behave. "I'll be quick."

The thing I most feared happened the instant Adam shut the door to the private room he rented for this dinner.

"So, are you supposed to be Adam's secretary of some sort, Sophia?" Derek asked as he slowly stood and made his way to me.

I forced out a smile and tried my best not to stand up from my seat and run toward the door. "I work for Adam, but I'm not his secretary."

"Hmmm." Derek was closer now and stood beside me, his long legs directly at my eye level. He half-leaned at the table and crossed his legs, an act which boldly implied he was confident with his sex appeal.

Derek wasn't half-bad, if I may say. Whenever my workmates talked about him, I had always imagined him to be a man in his forties with balding hair and a bulging stomach.

But surprisingly, I was wrong.

Derek might not look as handsome as Adam was, but he had a good build, a thick matt of brown hair, and an amiable smile. If I wasn't married and hadn't known that Derek hid his perverted side under his smile, I might have wanted to get to know him better.

But I wasn't, and it was getting harder for me to breathe since Adam had left the room.

'Where is he?'

It had been more than five minutes since he'd left. Surely, Adam was on his way back now. Right?

I was a bundle of nerves and was afraid I would ruin this business meeting. Derek was interested in investing in our company, which would greatly help the business. So if I did something that would make Derek back off from his investment plans, all my efforts to keep my job a few minutes ago would be for naught.

"So what do you say about ditching this meeting and going somewhere… fun?" I heard Derek say a few minutes after. I understood what he meant, and I was sure my face turned red with anger. But the man must have read it as me blushing in happiness about his proposal because the next thing I knew, he started caressing my bare arms.

I shivered in disgust, but again, the man took it as a response to his "teasing."

"You like that, don't you?" he asked, smiling like a wild beast. That was when I knew I was in so much trouble.

Forget about keeping my job. I wouldn't sit there and wait for the man to pounce on me! I might not be as rich as Derek or Adam, but I had my pride as a woman.

"Adam might have lost his way here," I said while slowly standing from my seat. "I should go look —"

"Come on, Sophia. Adam is a big boy." I didn't know it was possible, but Derek's eyes turned fiercer, and his usually gentle smile turned into a scowl. "Stay here and keep me entertained." He must have seen my reluctance because he added in a threatening voice, "You wouldn't want me to withdraw from this deal, would you?"

"Of course not," I said, letting out a nervous laugh. "That's why I want to call Adam."

Derek laughed then, but I couldn't tell why. I also laughed a little and tried to talk, but I could only whimper when the man grabbed me by my cheeks.

"P–Please, it hurts," I pleaded through the pain from Derek's tight grasp. When I saw the anger in Derek's brown eyes, I knew I had dug my own grave.

I figured then that he was a man who wouldn't take no for an answer. As suffocating thoughts flashed inside my head, my whole body trembled in fear.

"Maybe you didn't understand what I was saying a while ago," Derek said in a voice that sounded so much like the grim reaper. "I'll forgive you for that. So let me say it in a way you would. Let me fu—"

"What's going on?"

Derek's hand fell on his side, and I quickly backed away from the man.

Relieved that Adam came back when he did, I felt like I could almost — almost forgive him for forcing me to wear this dress and leaving me behind. But with the relief came the dread that Adam was no longer the man I once knew.

“Adam,” Derek’s amiable smile was back. "Sophia and I were just playing around. You don't mind, do you?"

Adam's gaze fell on me, and I should have said something then but decided to shut my mouth instead.

'Let him think what he wants.' I thought stubbornly. With or without Adam's permission, I would damn well get out of this place as soon as possible.

Adam looked at me with a frown, quietly asking me if Derek's words were true, but I merely looked at him and stayed quiet.

I had no idea what Adam was thinking, but after a few seconds, he said to Derek, "Get out." Adam didn't even bother looking at the man.

"Excuse me?" Derek asked in bewilderment.

"I said get out, Derek," Adam replied, his eyes as cold as steel when he looked back at him.

"Adam —"

"Don't make me repeat myself," Adam added.

Derek looked at Adam, then at me with disbelief, then smirked. "You'll regret this, Adam," he said and left, cursing.

Left alone, Adam and I stared at each other for a full minute before I broke our eye contact.

I walked over to take my things, turned to look back at Adam, and said, "I'm leaving."

Adam didn't say anything. Not that I was surprised. Since we met again, Adam had nothing to say to me. But it was honestly— a relief. I had no words to say to him, too, anyway.

"Was I wrong then?" Right before I opened the door, I heard Adam ask.

Frowning, I turned around. "What?"

"I thought you were in trouble with Derek a while ago, so I saved you. But was I wrong?" Adam raised a brow. "Are you leaving so you can catch up to him?" I heard a tinge of anger in the way he said those words, but I stopped listening to the word "save."

'Save me?' Was he hoping I would thank him for "saving me?" If it weren't for him, I wouldn't even have to meet Derek in the first place and get myself in trouble!

So, save me? Really?

I couldn't believe Adam dared to say such a word. For three years, I had been living miserably since he left. He owed me, not the other way around.

"...guess you weren't satisfied…," Adam continued, his blue eyes flashing with contained fury.

I guessed it wasn't enough that Adam came back to embarrass me. For revenge, which I believed was his reason for showing up, he would do anything to break me into pieces — an impossible feat since I was already in pieces after he left three years ago.

"...running to meet Derek."

Adam's words were a blur. And before I could stop myself, my lips moved on their own. I wasn't sure what drove me to say those words. But looking back, I thought it was those words that sealed my fate from that day forward.

"Don't be silly," I rebuked him, my voice bordering on bitterness. "Why would I want anyone to satisfy me when I already have a loving husband?"