Untie Me

Wanting to tease his friend, Caleb answered indifferently, "Of course, Katherine and I know each other before she joined our company. She even bought me coffee."

Damien's lip twitched upon hearing Caleb call her by her first name again. 'How close are they? And she bought him coffee too?'

Hearing Caleb's answer and Damien's questioning gaze, Katherine felt that she needed to clear the misunderstanding. "No, it's not like that. Caleb and I… well, h-he's a customer." She stammered.

Seeing Katherine panic, Caleb let out a chuckle.

"A customer?" Damien continued to stare at Katherine who's already starting to have sweaty hands.

Realizing that she wasn't making any sense, she tried once again. "I mean, I met him when I was still working at the store. He was a customer there and I paid for his coffee as an apology for my mistake."

Damien somehow understood what she just said and decided not to press on the matter. Brushing off his thoughts, he turned to Mr. Lim and said, "We'll check the facilities."

They spent the whole day at the resort making sure that everything was running smoothly. Katherine learned that Caleb was actually Crown Resort Group's COO. She had observed how Damien and Caleb's personalities were quite different from each other but both of them complemented one another.

For the first time, Katherine saw how Damien lead his people. He and Caleb were all business all throughout the day and Katherine was also busy learning and taking down everything that was needed to be noted. She had found another reason to admire this Resort King and it was all only because of how he was during the day while he was very thorough in the preparation of the resort's opening.

Damien had the kitchen staff prepare an early dinner for the three of them to eat before heading back to the city. It was already seven in the evening when they left the resort.

"What's your street address?" Damien asked as soon as he started the engine. His hands preparing the satellite navigation system.

"What?" Katherine became alarmed. "Why?"

"I'm driving you home."

'But I don't have a home right now.' She bit her lip as she thought and her heart began to race. "I need to go back to the office. I still have some things to finish."

Damien turned his face to her, "You don't have to do it today. Working hours is over and you've already done enough."

"But-"

"No buts. Tonight, you rest," Damien insisted thinking that he was just concerned about her.

How could he have known what was happening to Katherine?

Katherine clenched her hands upon hearing Damien's words. Uh-oh. What now?

Left with no choice, Katherine could only tell Damien Park her old apartment building's address.

…

The Jaguar came to a full stop in front of what was once Katherine's apartment building and she suddenly felt so attached to her seat that she did not want to get out. Getting off the car became harder for her. What is she doing there sticking around when she was already kicked out?

The next thing she knew, the door of the car opened and Damien bent forward to check on her. She instantly shrank into her seat, feeling trapped when Damien's smiling face was too close for comfort.

A very quick flash of someone's smile appeared before her. A vision of someone with a blurry face but has the exact same smile. It was very quick but it distracted Katherine from Damien's question.

"Ms. Miller," he called her the second time. "Do you want to stay in my car longer?" He teased as he backed away to give her space.

"Thank you, President Park." Katherine got off the car and received the shopping bags from him. She waited for Damien to leave but he waved his hand as if he was telling her to go inside.

Gripping her handbag, Katherine nodded and turned towards the stairs taking several steps up until she heard him drive away.

She breathed out a heavy sigh of relief as soon as Damien was no longer in sight. Katherine had to take the bus back to the city to get to the main office building. Since she was still homeless, she still had to spend the night inside the storage room.

Stretching her arms and legs, she felt her bones crack before she finally laid on the floor. It was the same hard and cold floor like yesterday but who was she to complain?

That night, she had a dream. In her dream, she was wearing an elegant red gown while dancing with a faceless man. She was sexy and she looked very confident in her dance with her sultry moves while the man matched her perfectly, looking like he knew exactly what he was doing.

The dance went on until the music ended and the crowd clapped their hands for them. As soon as she let go of the man's hands, everything went dark and the beautiful classical music was replaced with gunshots firing in different directions. Suddenly feeling her hands have become heavy, she looked down and saw herself carrying two guns.

A sound made her look up and what she saw made her body tremble. In front of her, she saw herself pulling the trigger to a man she didn't know.

*Bang*

Katherine woke up from the gunshot sound in her dream and found herself drenched in cold sweat. She was panting and was confused about why she had that kind of dream. Her heart was pounding in her chest as the scene was still fresh in her mind.

Lowering her head, she looked at her hands and the image of her carrying guns in her dream flashed, making her ball her hands into fists.

It was the first time that Katherine had this kind of dream. A beautiful start with a tragic ending and her dream suddenly became a nightmare. Feeling too sluggish at three in the morning, Katherine fell asleep again.

...

The next morning

Katherine looked more polished despite the nightmare that she had last night. She prepared coffee for herself and realized that her boss was already inside his office. There's a glass panel separating his office from her desk. She saw Natasha standing in front of his table and she figured that they were probably discussing something important.

Katherine and Damien's eyes met briefly before she lowered her gaze and focused on the documents on her desk.

"Ms. Miller, can you bring me a cup of coffee? Thanks." Damien's voice sounded from the small speaker on the office phone, surprising Katherine. He had never used it before, even Natasha told her that. So suddenly hearing his voice from the speaker made her jump a little. She pressed the small button beside it and replied, "Yes, right away, Sir."

Using the Keurig machine, Katherine made Damien's coffee. She was thankful that she listened to Natasha when she taught her how to use it. She noticed that Natasha wasn't a bad person after all the time that they have spent together but she was probably feeling bitter that she was going to leave so soon. When she was finally ready, she knocked on the door while balancing the tray on her hands.

"Come in," he said.

Carefully, Katherine brought the tray inside and placed the coffee on his desk. She did not notice what he was doing at first until she glanced up. That's when she saw Natasha helping him with his tie. She immediately excused herself and was about to walk away but Damien stopped her.

"Ms. Miller, stay." He said before turning to Natasha. "I already told you Ms. Saunders, you don't have to do this."

He backed away from the woman, letting the tie fall back to his chest. He never let other people except Markus Lee help him with his tie or coat. And since Natasha was leaving, she insisted to help him one last time. So when she saw Katherine coming inside the office, she immediately rushed forward and started to fix his tie.

Damien immediately saw through her and it annoyed him. "Thank you for your service. I wish you good luck with your career."

Natasha's hands that hung mid-air fell awkwardly and she clenched her jaw as she bowed her head. "Thank you, President Park," she said before leaving.

The CEO's room was silent when it was only the two of them left inside. Katherine stood tall as she faced the desk. Her eyes avoided looking at her boss until he called her, "Come help me with this tie."

She turned to him and saw him looking back at her with a questioning look. He waved the tie at her as if he was asking her to come.

"Ah, yes. Of course." Katherine walked around the desk and stood before him. Although Katherine was already tall for a woman, she still had to look up to Damien who was a few inches taller than her. She decided to settle her gaze on his tie and her hand raised to touch it but stopped herself.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I don't remember if I know how to do it," she slowly lifted her gaze and stared at him.

"Right." Damien revealed a playful smile as he recalled a certain memory and said, "That's okay, I prefer how skilled you are at untying them more."

Katherine almost choked when she heard his shameless confession.