FORTY TWO( Never mix work with personal issues)

Monday seemed even harder than Saturday, Ethan kept snapping and yelling and giving orders and making fragile females run to the restroom in tears. He was like a terror in their midst and everyone kept wondering why he was so focused on the head chef—Christian and off course Mia.

While he was strolling round and making everyone feel totally worthless and uncomfortable, he reached Mia's work station, she was cleaning a suite under Betty's "supervision" when suddenly, the door opened and Ethan walked in without warning.

Betty immediately got off the couch and bowed at him as she greeted,

"Good morning Mr. Chairman."

Mia immediately stopped too and greeted formally too, waiting for him to scold her like everyone else, but instead he said,

"Miss Anderson, I want to see you in my office in five." Then he quietly walked off, leaving Mia and Betty wondering where his office was.

Later, she found the office which was on down the hall on the east wing of the last floor of the hotel.

The office was larger than Mr. Fisher's own and had a floor to ceiling window behind Ethan's desk that gave an aerial view of the city. Unlike the other offices that where bright and airy, this one quite dark, maybe it was from the tall shelves and heavy furniture or it was all in her head.

George was standing by the door when she walked in, she simply ignored him and walked forward to Ethan's desk. Ethan who was facing the opposite direction immediately swirled his chair and faced her.

"I said five minutes, not ten." He began sternly.

"You didn't exactly point me in the direction of your office, Sir." She replied in a matter of factly way.

"As always, you have a reply for everything. You've worked here for quite sometimes now and you don't know the CEO's office?" He smirked, "I know you're upset, let's have lunch, we can talk always this out."

"I'm afraid I have to decline, Sir." She replied stiffly. It was obvious, she was only forcing herself to add "Sir" at the end of her sentences.

"Apart from our strict no employee dating policy, we are not allow to have pleasure meals with anyone during work hours, Sir. In short, no mixing work with personal issues. "

Ethan smirked,

"Reading out my own rules to me, touché."

"If that's all, I'd like to return to my station now, Sir." She replied stiffly,

"Mm." He nodded and gestured for her to leave.

"Thank you sir." Mia murmured as she walked away.

Once she was out, Ethan let out an exasperated sigh,

"That crazy woman! Who the hell does she think she is!" Ethan thought.

"Sir, you have a meeting scheduled for noon." George told Ethan, but he seemed angrily lost in thoughts.

"Sir? Sir." He called,

"Sir, I—"

"That damn woman! She doesn't even have any respect for me anymore!" He snapped.

Then he took a deep breath and let out a small sigh,

"George." He suddenly called,

"What's the next thing on my schedule today?"

"…Um, I just told you of the meeting at noon." He replied,

"Right. Let's head out now. We don't have time to waste on petty issues." He said as he got up and straightened his suit.

"Um, Sir…The meeting's at noon, right in this building, it's just 8:30 now." He chuckled awkwardly.

"…Ahem!" Ethan cleared his throat,

"I knew that."

---

"…And somehow, by just changing the design of these complimentary gifts, sent our sales off the roof, apparently the new design was quite appealing to the target audience…"

Ethan was in a meeting with the board members of the hotel but suddenly, he completely zoned out; something he had rarely done, and somehow, the only thought he was having were "Mia thoughts."

"…Must have Miss Anderson—"

"Huh?" Ethan suddenly perked up as the man spoke, then rudely interrupted him,

"Can you rephrase what you just said?" He asked in his most polite voice,

"Sir?" The poor man chuckled nervously,

"You heard me."

"I said the target audience must have misunderstood the previous package design and that's they weren't drawn to it."

"Misunderstood…Oh." Ethan mumbled,

"Please proceed." He gestured.

After that small incident, he tried as he could to keep his head in the meeting till it was over.

That evening, he had dinner with Leila Shim of Shim Advertisements, and somehow Mia's name once again managed to creep into the conversation.

"…The couple sips their drink and smiles in satisfaction of their stay at the hotel…So what do you think about the ad, Mr. Regal?" Leila asked curiously,

"Well…" Ethan began as he crossed his legs,

"It's better than the first ones your company presented, with a little revision, we could work with this—"

"Oh thank goodness Mr. Regal!" She clasped her hand in the air, "I had our best team work on this for an entire week! Miss Anderson will be so glad, she's been so frustrated and worked up—"

"Excuse me, did you say…Miss Anderson." Ethan cut in,

"Oh, no…I said Miss Henderson, she's the team leader of the team I was talking about." She chuckled awkwardly.

"Oh." Ethan simply mumbled with a puzzled look.

"Mr. Regal." Leila called as she pulled her chair forward and leaned in on the table,

"All we talk about when we meet is work, you can at least try to be less formal with me, we're basically the same age and—"

"Miss Shim." Ethan cut in with an irritated look,

"Huh?"

"If that is all, I'll take my leave now." He said as he got on his feet. "And one more thing, if you're going to be like this in our future meetings, then I'd advise you send someone else in your stead…You should never mix work with personal pleasures."