9 Sweet and Bitter

Cassidy has never been in such an uncomfortable position in her whole two weeks of living in this twenty-six years old body of hers.

It just happened that she suddenly found herself riding on this lavish vehicle, all tongue-tied and wide-eyed in immense astonishment. Seated right in the middle of two stunning men, she ended up staying completely rigid and stiff, a bit intimidated by the fact that this amount of luxury before her isn't even the tip of the iceberg yet.

As they get nearer and nearer to their destination, the picture in her head is getting clearer and clearer - her husband is indeed a wealthy and affluent person through and through.

Cassidy still hasn't even recovered from her surprise when Adrian appeared out of nowhere either. Right when she thought she'd get back home in peace, he really had to bring a blizzard first - acting as cold and apathetic as usual.

"Gosh, this man... He didn't even greet me earlier. All he did was sternly order us to hop inside," she deadpanned in silence, frowning in annoyance.

Glancing at Adrian through the corners of her eyes, Cassidy finds him looking outside of the window, his chin propped over his hand nonchalantly. It's as if she isn't there at all. He isn't uttering any word or showing any sign of asking how she has been doing.

"It would not make a difference if Charlie just took me home, then..." she thought with a small sigh before turning to look at the other side.

Charles is just sitting there quietly, gaze glued ahead. He appears like he's in work mode now with how he seems to be acting as formal and emotionless as possible.

"Or maybe his bossman's blizzard just bites him too?" she wondered to herself, smirking amusedly.

As Adrian kept staring at reflection of the car window, he suddenly saw how Cassidy turned to face his secretary and mustered a somewhat teasing look. This caught him off guard for a bit, getting even more curious as to how close they must've gotten for the past days.

He decided to have Charles attend to Cassidy for now since he knew a lot about the family and their business. He could tell her whatever she wanted to ask and trust that he's saying the plain truth - something that should've been the husband or another relative's job.

What Adrian didn't expect, however, was that they'd start acting a bit more loosened up than before.

The two of them were always keeping things professional between them. They never engaged in casual talks in the open and had never shown such expressions around each other back then.

"Oh, right, Charlie...!" Cassidy chimed in all of the sudden, taking both of them aback.

"Char... lie...?" Adrian spelled out in his head, eyes widening a little in surprise.

"As I was saying, the grannies earlier gave me these lollipops. They told me to hand one for you either. So, here, pick what you like!" she offered blithely before stretching out her hands to show a bunch of candies.

"H-Huh? It's alright, Ma'am. You can just have them-"

"No, just pick. We have to respect the elders and obey them, right?"

Flabbergasted by how she suddenly brought that up - in such a very ebullient manner at that, Charles only exchanges looks with her and sits still, keeping himself from getting too drawn by her bubbliness all the while. While it's true that it's childish for a grown-up woman to make a big deal about something like candies, he can't help but react this way and just play along.

"You can get the rest, Ma'am. I'll just have this one," he eventually replied after a brief pause, picking a coffee-flavored candy.

"Oh, yay...! The chocolates are mine, then."

"What got you so pumped up about those sweets, Eleanor?"

Then, she paused.

Not only did those words come out a bit steely, but the fact that Adrian just addressed his wife for five years by her maiden surname has struck Cassidy dumbfounded. Judging by his secretary's reaction, he appears to be not at all that surprised, which can only mean that this is normal.

"You shouldn't be receiving stuffs from strangers so carelessly. May I remind you that you're still a prestigious individual? For all we knew, they might've put something in there or were just after something from you," Adrian continued, his austere gaze chiding her wordlessly.

"I'm not a princess or something. Why would people their age do that?" Cassidy retorted with a brow lifted.

"Just because. Those kinds of things happen, and it doesn't matter how old or young they are. I know you lost your memories, but you better stop being this naive whether you like it or not... And if you're that excited about eating sweets, just get the maids make some for you once we arrive-"

"Hey, listen here, bossman. I don't need no Willy Wonka to make candies for me..." she then finally snapped, turning to face him with her arm spread on top of the back of his chair.

"These lollipops are special because they were given with love and gratitude, and that's why I'm happy, okay? I'm not some kindergarten to get all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with these. Those people don't know my real identity either, so quit fretting... In fact, they actually took care of me better than a certain someone."

With eyes as wide as saucers, Charles can only watch how Cassidy shoots her mouth off without fearing the usual consequence of getting the cold shoulder from her beloved husband. Adrian, on the other hand, just keeps getting thrown off guard even though he already knows by now that she's not the same person as before.

His wife was far from straightforward, never complaining how he always disregarded her. Instead, she just settled with doing her best to make him look her way.

But now, it seems like everything isn't going to be the same as before.

Satisfied by his stupefied reaction, Cassidy then just proceeds to unwrap a chocolate candy and flick it to her mouth. Not even a second later, her eyes widen and brighten in delight.

"Oh, so sweet!" she chirped, chewing it with a zestful grin.

That's when Cassidy suddenly thought of something. With that, she unwraps another one and offers it to her husband, smiling so brightly that her cheeks are starting to bloom pink.

Surprised, Adrian leans back and flinches a little. He really just couldn't get the hang of her sudden switching and one hundred eighty turns.

"We gotta lessen that bitterness of yours, so here..." Cassidy teased with feigned sweetness.

"Oh, and don't worry. It has no poison or anything."

Seeing the mocking amicable grin on her face, Adrian could sense that his marriage life would be getting a lot rowdier than it had ever been for the past five years from this point on.