Another Confrontation

"So, I should call it off, right?" Marks asked tentatively.

"Call off what?", Dalia asked without looking at him. She was in the 'spa room', sitting on a recliner and having her nails done while she read a magazine. "I said, call off what?", she repeated in a harsher tone.

Marks suddenly regretted speaking. When would he learn never to talk business in the presence of domestic staff?? Months of insults should have taught him how to control his mouth by now. But it was too late to go back now; he had to keep talking, especially now that she was interested in listening.

"The assignment, you know. The one we gave that secretary girl to watch… ahem."

He was silenced by a powerful glare her and he quickly looked down to avoid getting roasted any further by her eyes. There was complete silence in the room except the occasional 'swish' sound of Dalia turning the pages of the magazine. Marks sat in his position, only daring to shift once or twice, each time attracting a glare from her.

When a