51 His Beloved

When Reuben Ming entered his apartment building, it was already 2:00 in the night (well technically morning) after he had completed his overtime work.

He had sent his driver and Asst Kim away on time and spent his extra hours working alone on a new project that had caught his interest.

This apartment that he had bought was in a high rise luxury apartment building that he had invested in when he became the President of Ming Enterprises.

As travelling from his ancestral house to the office took him at least 45 minutes journey, buying this new place made sense to him.

The night time security guard who sat at the lobby of the building saluted at him when he saw Reuben walking in.

Everyone knew that Reuben had a love for real estate and owned several high end places across the country. After all the Ming Enterprise was one of the largest real estate companies in the country.

He intentionally hid the fact that this building was also one of his properties to keep his mother far away from the place.

'I had to threaten Asst Kim not to expose my apartment's location to my mother, only then did I agree on giving him my address.' He walked into the elevator and hit the *P* button.

It required a special key card to activate the elevator to reach his penthouse and in a few seconds he reached his floor.

The elevator directly opened up in his living room. The house was bright with the city lights coming in through the floor to ceiling windows.

The other floors had two apartments each, but his penthouse had the entire floor to himself. He even had access to the rooftop from his penthouse which is completely restricted to the other people living here.

This apartment was minimalistic and neat, he had decorated the place according to his choices without worrying about his mother's judgy eyes.

There were no unnecessary decorative pieces because it was a waste of money and space as no one would ever enter his apartment, other than himself and a few of his employees like the maid and Asst Kim.

Throwing his suit jacket on the couch, he shook off his shoes and rested them on the coffee table in front of him. He let out a huge sigh and sank his exhausted body into the soft couch.

*Brrrr…*

But his rest was short lived because his phone vibrated and he picked it up in case it was an emergency.

'Mom? Why did she message me this late in the night? Is everything okay with dad and grandpa?' Hurriedly opening the text he received, he felt like smashing his phone.

His mother had thought that sending him pictures of girls at this godforsaken hour was a good idea.

'Arghhh!!! I need to talk to Wade and convince him to get those jewelry for me or else she is going to keep this up forever!' Pulling his thick black hair, Reuben groaned.

*I am trying my best Mother, let me sleep for now!*

He replied to her text and after deleting the nth picture of unknown socialites, he tossed his phone aside.

'Just because Olive got pregnant with that jackass Kim, mother is pestering me to find a girl. I'm still too young for this!' Thought the 28 year old virgin.

He got up and poured himself his usual glass of cognac and sipped it lightly while walking to his bedroom.

His bedroom was as massive as can be. There was a huge king size bed with grey satin fitted sheets and a super soft mattress. There was also a balcony that had a lounge chair and a tiny table beside it.

The wall above his bed had pictures of all the major events and achievements in his life.

He looked over all the pictures and reminisced about them.

His father holding him on the day he was born, his first steps, him playing with two other kids, the first laptop he received for his birthday, his two best friends since kindergarten, at the airport hugging his mother on the day he left the country for his heir training and the day he came back after so many years all grown up.

Then he moved to the adjacent wall that continued with his memories.

The day he went to surprise his friends after his return. This picture was unlike the rest where he was smiling, this one had his brows furrowed deep and he was glaring at his mother who was standing behind the camera.

He remembered coming home and telling his mother what had happened to him when he went over to his friend's house and her response was to bring out her camera and click his picture.

'This is also a big milestone in your life.' She said while laughing her butt off.

Shaking the bad memories out of his head, he moved onto the next pictures.

The letter of admission for his university, graduation day with his best friends, him and a cute little nerdy girl.

'I can't believe how they pushed me towards her, a moment before the picture was clicked.' He complained every time he saw it, yet he never took that picture off his wall.

His first day at Ming Enterprise as an intern, every single one of his joint ventures and projects with his friends, the day he took over his dad's position as President and an article from a newspaper. He smiled at it and turned away.

The last picture was taken a couple years ago and there were no further significant moments in his life after those.

'Is it just me? or the fact that my last memorable moment in life was so long ago is just so pathetic?' He wondered and looked at the phone that he had kept to charge on the dock.

'Should I take mom's advice and meet one of those girls?' Scratching his head, he pondered over his dilemma.

"When in a puddle, sit in a puddle." Laughing at that horrible pun, he walked into his bathroom to say hello to his beloved.

"Hi baby, you miss me?" He said while running his hands all over the curves of his jacuzzi. He switched it on and moved to stand in front of the mirrored wall to take off his clothes.

The large mirror reflected his body as he slowly took off each piece of clothing.

First the tie came off, then undoing his diamond cufflinks he placed them on the counter and then took off his shirt.

The chiseled and perfectly defined abs that could make any young woman's or man's nose bleed were soon visible.

The huge V on his hips made it look like an arrow which pointed to the prize that was hidden underneath his pants.

He took off the leather belt and unbuttoned his trousers, letting them slide down he took them off completely. He stood there looking at himself in his high cut boxer briefs.

After removing the final cloth covering his body, he looked at himself in the mirror.

'The result of those high intensity workouts sure are showing themselves.' After admiring the body that he worked hard for, he stepped into the tub.

'I can't think of anything that could give me as much joy as soaking in my tub after a long and tiring day at work.' Placing a towel behind him, he rested his neck and closed his eyes.

After his relaxing bubble bath, Reuben put on a bathrobe and got on his bed.

'Now that my mind is clear, how the hell could I even think of accepting mom's idea of meeting girls?' He hit his forehead for even thinking of doing such a stupid thing.

"Don't forget Reuben, all those socialites only want one thing and that is prestige. They don't care about who they marry as long as it's someone from a noble family." He chided himself.

"And do I need a bimbo to boss me around? No way in hell!" He shook that mental image from his head and laid on his bed.

After checking if his alarm was set at 6:00, he went to bed.

------

*Beep Beep*

Stretching his body and sitting up on the bed, Reuben faced the rising sun and smiled.

"What pleasant weather it is!" He went to the bathroom and quickly washed up and changed into his workout clothes.

He had set up a home gym and used it everyday to maintain those sexy muscles of his.

Working up quite a sweat after his cardio workout, he wiped himself off with a towelette and moved to the pool next door. He had an indoor pool that faced the sun in the morning.

Swimming right after his workout helped him reduce his muscle inflammation and fatigue.

After 10 laps in his pool, he climbed out of the pool. The beads of water dripping off his body and rolling down was a sight to behold.

He stood in front of the window and wiped his wet and glistening body. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he walked to the kitchen to prepare his breakfast.

Since he usually ate out for his lunch and dinner, he always tried to eat a healthy breakfast at home.

While cooking his oatmeal he chopped up strawberries and bananas. He garnished his healthy oats with berries and bananas and sat down to eat it while watching the morning news.

By the time he got ready for work, it was already 8:45 but it was fine since he just needed five minutes to reach his office.

Hearing the doorbell ringing, he walked to the door next to the elevator and opened it.

"Good morning boss!" Mathew Kim said while panting to catch his breath.

If someone wanted to come up to his floor without the keycard, they would have to reach the floor below him using the elevator and then climb up the stairs to reach him.

"Asst Kim, instead of your pancakes and sandwiches, try eating oatmeal for breakfast for a change. Look at that paunch." Reuben sneered at him.

'Baby told me that I am not fat! This Emperor must be blind!' He touched his tummy and pouted looking at it.

Sucking his stomach in, Mathew smiled at his boss.

"I'm fine boss, let's get to work." He picked up his boss' laptop and pressed the elevator.

"Hmm. Let's go." They rode the elevator in silence and boarded the car that was waiting for them at the entrance.

While the car was moving away, Mathew Kim looked at the name on the entrance of the building.

*RESTRINDIGO*

'Only boss can think of such an unusual name for a building.' He chuckled and shook his head when the other two men looked at him.

If Reuben knew that Mathew was mocking his naming skills, he would have kicked Mathew out of the car and made him jog to the office.