Chapter 5- The Deal

I glared at him witheringly urging him to start with his "talk". He peered at me, uncomfortable with the silence, and finally said, "You know this is your mistake right?"

I didn't say anything in reply, just looked at him, staring him out with utter disbelief. This man is the most infuriating specimen I've known and I'm quite sure I'll ever know. "So I was saying it's your mistake these people saw me with you. Only if you hadn't thrown those nonsensical tantrums and had accepted my offer of babysitting Kia, I'd have not come to that park and you and I wouldn't have been spotted together."

I shot him an extra sweet smile and turned to open the door but he ceased my movements by holding my left wrist. "Jesus Christ! Why are you so stubborn?", he grumbled under his breath.

Me?

I'm the one who's stubborn.

What a joke?

"See Mr Arnold.", I took a deep breath."I'm actually trying my best to control my anger but if you do not stop with your outrageous comments I'll definitely lose my calm. If because of me, you had to come to the park then you shouldn't have passed a judgement of me being some kidnapper without knowing me and let's say for once I'm letting that sh*t slide, the second time we met, you asserted me for being a freaking stalker and then again instead of asking for a damn apology you have the f*cking audacity to command, yes that's the keyword, you freaking commanded me to work for you and that's not it, you again come to me, blame me for all this mess and then you tell me, "I cleared my throat and mimicked him, "I'm not mad, you mad woman."

He looked at me as if I was some alien." You skipped the detail where I called you a kid." I didn't respond to him, just rolled my eyes.

"I let it slide because you backed off those bloodsucking reporters, not that I asked you to. I'd have handled them."

"Of course, you'd have.", this time it was him who rolled his eyes."Okay fine, maybe.", I gave him a pointed look." Christ, this woman.", He closed his eyes for a second and then continued." Fine, Miss Summers, I was also at mistake but it was you who always provoked me because of your always ready to fight attitude."

"I object at the word also, you and only you're at mistake.", He was about to say something but I didn't let him and continued."Now we are done with the question of who's at mistake so let's come to the slightly bigger matter which is how do we cease these reporters and how do we clear off this sh*t."

"It's easy, I pay them to delete all these bloody articles and you work for me in order to pay back. Do you..", I interrupted him getting confused. Why do I need to pay?

"One second, one second, why would I pay you? You were the one who came to the park, you were the one who wiped that damned ice cream off my face, I swear to God I'll never eat ice cream from today-" he raised an eyebrow at my statement-"in a park, but that's not a point you are again distracting me. What I'm saying is why did you do that?"

"It was a spontaneous reaction.", he answered dismissing my question.

"There you go."I clapped my hands in victory."It was your spontaneous reaction that threw us, wait not us, me. Your spontaneous reaction threw me in this ditch and you tell me to pay back. Do you know that man bloody snatched my wrist leaving nail marks on it? Because of who? You?", I seethed.

He looked down where his fingers were clasped around my wrist, his gaze stuck on my skin where the nail marks and fingerprints were eminently visible and for that single moment, his eyes flashed with guilt."I-"

I looked at him intently waiting for those three words but that's when you know it's Mr Nicolas Arnold we are talking about. Where I expected him to say I'm sorry, he said, "Get me first aid."

The driver passed a first aid kit to Mr Arnold and he dipped cotton in an antiseptic liquid and just when I thought he was actually feeling guilty, he passed the cotton to me."Clean it."

"What a jerk!", I mumbled under my breath wiping my skin with the cotton.

"Wouldn't want to repeat my ice cream mistake now, would I?", his lips curled in a diminutive smirk.

"Right.", I clenched my teeth to prevent the hiss from leaving my mouth due to the antiseptic liquid.

"Let's start this fresh, be the babysitter for Kia and I'll clear all this mess, you've my word. See I can't let Kia with any random person especially after the last case so I req-ahem I uh ask you kindly to work for me. I can't be with her 24/7 and no way in hell can I leave that little devil alone."

"Fine.", I sighed."Only for Kia."

Relief flashed on his face and he ordered his driver to start the engine but the very next moment I stopped him.

"I'll be a babysitter to Kia till the time you don't find a suitable one. Deal?", I stated stretching my hand in front of him.

He considered my offer for a second and shook my hand, "Deal."

The ride to his company was rather comfortable, at least I was not finding words to curse him and he didn't seem to be being all grumpy too. We stopped in front of Arnold Industries which of course was buzzing, employees were rushing here and there may be because their boss who looked calm a few minutes ago had suddenly gone all grumpy again.

I expected them to gawk at me due to all those news and articles but to my utmost surprise, not a single one of them paid a glance towards me but that didn't suppress the whisperings that were ringing in my ears.

"She's the same woman who boss went to see at a local park.", a woman's voice resonated in my ear. Where I was like let them whisper, who cares. Mr Arnold didn't seem to share my views. His steps halted almost immediately and a deafening silence engulfed the floor.

Uh-ho!

He turned to the woman, his hands in the pockets of his formal pants, eyes literally pinning her to the ground." I never knew I paid for gossiping Miss Rose.", sarcasm dripped from his words like anything.

"Tell me, in which clause of the company's contract is it written that gossip is allowed?"

The woman stood silent, her eyes appealing for help from anyone and everyone.

"Speak up Miss Rose.", he thundered all of a sudden making everyone but me flinch.

"I'm-I'm sorry sir. It'll never happen again.", she pleaded, the poor girl looked like she was just three seconds away from crying.

"Of course, it'll never happen again, If I'm right, you will be getting a promotion next week, aren't you?", tears filled her eyes and I genuinely felt bad for her, again I say I can never see someone cry, it's like a weakness of mine.

I didn't have any right to stop Mr Arnold, he was the boss, she was his employee and me, I was just a babysitter of his niece, nothing less, nothing more. So at that moment, I did what seemed right to me. I walked a few inches to my right and kicked a side stool so that the deafening silence breaks and Mr Arnold gets distracted but of course, that damned stool had to hit the cactus plant kept near it knocking it off. 

It may be weird for some people but I'm a person who treats flowerpots, plants with the utmost respect and care and out of habit I grabbed the cactus getting some needles on my hand, but the good part was the plant was saved with the expensive ceramic pot which had some sort of face on it.

The dropping and saving sh*t snapped Mr Arnold's attention to me and he breathed out."Christ."

He grabbed my other hand and quickly walked to what looked like his private elevator. Once the elevator gate was closed, he centred all his attention on my hand which had the cactus needles on it."What the f*ck do you think you were doing?"

"It was just an accident.", I retorted pulling my hand away but he didn't leave it.

"Of course it was."

"What do you mean-oww-what the f*ck are you doing?", I glared at him who was trying to pull the cactus spines out of my hand.

The elevator dinged and we walked to his cabin.

He quickly pulled a chair and made me sit on it. He grabbed a pair of tweezers, I don't know why they were in his cabin, but they were. He pulled the bigger needles out and I fisted my other hand in order to restrain myself from letting any sound of pain escape from my mouth. After he was done, he applied a thin layer of glue on it and told me to wait for some time to let it dry.

I was busy fanning my cacti hand with my good hand when he pulled it back and started pulling the adhesive film from one edge. He worked expertly and in no time all the spikes were off. He pulled a cool toner type of liquid out of his shelf which again left me baffled. Bloody hell! What is this Doraemon sh*t?

"So care to tell me why did you push the stool?", he questioned, his gaze still on my hand.

"Why would I do such a thing?"

"Don't lie, Miss Summers.", he rose his eyes to my level."I saw how you tried to discreetly push it off."

Once again I was left stunned, he really is some witch.

"Answer me."

"You were being quite harsh with Ms Rose.", I looked away.

"I would have been harsh if I had fired her.", he retorted sharply.

"She was about to cry and I can't see someone's tears, "I declared affirmatively looking into his eyes.

His eyes softened for a second and before he could say something, an excited cry came from behind making both of us snap our heads in the direction of the door only to see the little ball of sunshine coming in.

"Ari.", she exclaimed and hugged me with all her might. "I missed you."

I laughed at her being all hyper."I missed you too Kia baby."