19

"I hope you're hungry. I made brunch," Ingrid said when she saw Noah coming out of the bathroom as she peeked from the kitchen.

"You didn’t have to do that, Ingrid," he replied.

Noah was already dressed in a white T-shirt and light blue boxer shorts. His messy hair looked so cute. So, this is what Noah Alfonso looked like when he just woke up. Still handsome. And ridiculously hot.

She couldn’t even remember how many times they had sex last night. All she knew was that the last one happened in her bed around five in the morning. Their bodies were too exhausted; they just fell asleep right after.

"It’s alright. I like cooking," Ingrid said with a smile, then placed the cooked arroz a la Cubana and white rice on the table.

She heard Noah softly say "Wow" as he looked at the neatly arranged food on his plate. "What time did you wake up?" he asked.

"Around ten, I think."

"Ingrid, thank you. But seriously, you didn’t have to go through all this trouble. We're not in the office. I’m not your boss here—you don’t need to serve me."

"You don’t want to eat what I cooked?"

"No—I mean, I do. But you really didn’t have to cook. We could’ve ordered food or gone out to eat."

"I told you it’s okay. And besides, I’m really not used to sleeping in for too long." She sat down at the table and pointed at the chair in front of her. "Sit down and eat." She even smiled at how bossy her tone sounded.

"Yes, Ma’am," Noah said with a grin.

"How was your sleep?" she asked while they were eating.

His eyes sparkled as he looked at her. "It was a dreamless sleep. I can’t remember the last time I had one of those."

"Wow," Ingrid said, amused. "We were just both tired, Sir," she added with a shy smile.

"I guess so. Thank you for having me here, Ingrid."

She bowed her head slightly. "Thank you for having me, Sir."

"You were amazing," Noah said, his voice full of admiration.

"R-really?"

She had been wondering if he even enjoyed being with her last night. Which made her curious—what kind of women had this man been with before?

"Yeah. You're..."

He seemed to run out of words. He just whistled instead, and they both laughed. He eagerly continued eating.

"This food tastes heavenly," Noah said. "It might’ve been a bad idea for you to feed me like this. I might start craving it, just like I crave your coffee." He let out an exaggerated sigh. "What am I going to do if Mariz comes back?"

"That’s not a problem. I’ll still bring you coffee even when I’m back at Raffy’s office."

He gave her a wide smile. "You're so sweet."

"I know," she said proudly.

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Why did you and your boyfriend break up?"

She frowned at the question.

"I just can't imagine what kind of man would willingly let you go."

Ingrid laughed at that—maybe even her toenails fluttered at the compliment.

"Actually, he didn’t agree to it. I was the one who insisted." After a moment, her tone turned serious. "I just got to the point where I realized that love isn’t enough to stay in a toxic relationship. You know that feeling when you realize you’re only fooling yourself?"

She even reached a point where she thought love was just a lie. Though she refused to call herself a cynic or jaded. She just wanted to be practical now. It felt safer.

Noah paused from eating. "Toxic?"

She nodded gently. "My ex wanted everything his way in the relationship because he said he was the man. He was overly jealous and unreasonable at times."

"W-what?"

"A chauvinist, that’s what he was. His mindset about relationships was very medieval." She laughed bitterly. "Actually, there are still a lot of men like that, Sir. They want women to be submissive, maybe because our society is too patriarchal, and many women willingly cage themselves in that kind of setup because it’s what they’re used to. They think that’s how it’s supposed to be."

Noah clenched his jaw, his expression dark. "Is he one of the reasons you left home?"

"Y-yes."

"Well, I’m glad you got out."

"After almost two years," she admitted with a shake of her head, even closing her eyes as if to block the memory of what happened with Eric.

"Hey," Noah said as he reached across the table to hold her hand. "What matters is you’re no longer with that person. You’re here now, away from him, living your life the way you want to," he said encouragingly.

Ingrid smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Sir."

When she looked down at her hand, which he didn’t seem to want to let go of, that’s when he finally released it.

"Do you have plans today?" he asked as he resumed eating.

"I was planning to go grocery shopping."

"Can I go with you?"

She laughed and looked at him. "You’re coming grocery shopping with me? You’re weird."

"Well, after that, we could go somewhere. Maybe watch a movie?" he said casually, taking a big bite of food. "Hey, I want to spend the day with you, but I’m not asking you on a date," he said with a laugh, looking a bit shy when she didn’t respond right away.

"I-I didn’t think it was a date," Ingrid said. "Besides, that’s against company rules, remember?"

"Right. I just don’t want to go home yet. And if you don’t have anything else planned—"

"Okay."

His eyes widened like an excited schoolboy. "Yes?"

"Yes, sir. But what if someone from RTA sees us together?"

"Then we say we just bumped into each other and decided to grab a bite." He winked at her. "Besides, I’ve taken Mariz out for lunch or dinner before."

Ingrid winked back. "Even on weekends?"

Noah laughed. "No. Well, she’s not... you."

---

"You look nice in jeans," Noah said with a smile while they were on the mall escalator going up to the cinema. She was standing in front of him.

"Thanks," Ingrid replied with a small giggle.

He leaned in from behind and whispered, "And I like your hair down like that."

"I couldn’t tie it up; you’ll see the kiss marks on my neck—and that bite mark you left at the back of my head," she whispered back. "I need to buy a good concealer."

"Sorry about that."

"Aw, don’t be. I loved everything you did to me."

Ingrid was only wearing cropped skinny jeans and a white boho top, but she felt incredibly sexy. Noah, on the other hand, was a refreshing sight—faded dark denim, a plain white shirt, and blue Converse sneakers.

"You look cute, Sir," she said with a smile as he helped her off the escalator.

"Cute?"

"Yes. Stunningly cute."

"I thought you were going to say hot." He looked even cuter when he pretended to pout.

"That’s a given. It’d be redundant to say it." Ingrid laughed. "I mean, would you still call a bald man 'bald'? It's already obvious, right?"

Noah laughed. "You've got a point."

Their chosen movie hadn’t started yet, so they ended up going into another cinema. The movie wasn’t even halfway through when Ingrid started feeling sleepy. When she yawned, she realized Noah had already fallen asleep in his seat. She held back a laugh.

"That was a good nap," Noah said with a chuckle as they exited the theater.

Ingrid laughed hard. She had woken up with her head resting on Noah’s shoulder. They both fell asleep.

"The movie was boring. Plus, I ate too much brunch," she said as an excuse. And, well, she was also tired from last night.

They wandered around the mall stores when she told Noah she wanted to go window shopping. He patiently accompanied her, showing no trace of boredom on his face. Noah’s personality today was completely different from the one he had at the office. He was easygoing and so fun to talk to.

They had coffee at a rooftop café of the mall and ended up chatting about all sorts of things. They weren’t even shy about asking personal questions. And this was new to her. She was someone who usually found it hard to share personal information. Even Pat only knew limited things about her. There were things she was too embarrassed to admit.

But somehow, Ingrid felt like she could tell Noah anything. It wouldn’t surprise her if that’s also the reason why she didn’t hesitate to sleep with him. She trusted him that much.

And he believed in her.