Chapter 5 Spinning threads

Three months pass by.

Rachel watches the news on her TV about the results declaration of all schools and colleges. She was the lone student of her batch to quit high school, rather marry a beast that likes to bare his teeth at her.

In the evening when Nicholas comes back from his office, tired and weak from exhaustion, Rachel runs to his side, sprinting all the way down from the corridor and the stairs to reach him. Little surprised, he purses his lips at her when she takes his luggage and his coat, folding the coat against her forearm.

"How was your day?" She asks him when he was removing his shoes, spraying some scent into the soles to keep them fresh. "Why are you asking me all of a sudden? You never do this."

He points her out in the bat of an eye.

Blushing a little that she was caught, she diverts the topic all together and rushes him to take a bath and come back down for an early dinner.

She asks all the workers to leave early, she claimed to serve the food to him herself.

He was surprised again when he comes down with damp hair sticking to his forehead. Rachel was carrying a pot of soup which was freshly prepared, carried to the table from the stove. She sees the handsome man ascending when her heart almost skips a beat.

The ground almost feeds on the potluck from the pot, Rachel quickly balances her state of mind hut the redness on her cheeks was giving it away.

"Where is everyone?" He asks with his stone cold yet honey and silky voice.

"I uh... sent them away. I want to be of some help."

"I'm paying them to be of help, you don't need to do anything more than necessary." Says he.

The dinner was served in silence and the silence continues till the end.

Around 8 pm, Nicholas was in his office room in the floor when Rachel comes back down. She knocks the open door twice to get his attention.

"Come in." He says, habituated to the atmosphere of his workplace.

"Um..." As she utters, Nicholas casually looks up at her and makes her blush again. His hair was slicked back with some gel, to keep it out of his face while he worked for a few hours.

"I don't have all day for you, Rachel. Say it." He says. For the very first time, Rachel hears her name pronounced from the man's lips. He sighs again when she doesn't reply, pink dusted upon her cheeks.

He goes back to his work, head down at his desk view.

"Um... I was thinking I could join your company for work. I promise I'll do my best." Says Rachel. She ought to hear something negative, or hopefully an explanation why he wouldn't allow her in the organisation.

"Okay." He agrees, wording out without even looking at her.

"Submit your graduation files and CV to my assistant, he'll take care of the rest." Says the busy man who never makes eye contact with her.

"Um... but I haven't graduated from any institution." Her statement makes him slowly look at her.

"How do you expect me to accept you into my company then?" He asks her sternly.

"When I got married to you, I- I wasn't allowed to attend high school completely either. I'm not a graduated student... because I was married to you." Says the girl. Looking at her, Nicholas sighs and nods his head slowly.

"I'll look into it. For now, you'll join as an intern under a staff member. Is that fine with you?" Says Nicholas.

"I'm perfectly alright with it, sir." She says by accident. Nicholas makes a face, then he breaks into a smile.

This was her first time witnessing his gentle smile.

"It's okay. Don't call me that again, not even in work."

"Yes sir- sorry, yes... um..." she was confused as to what to call him with. Then he replies, in a better and sweet tone of voice he's ever communicated with her.

"Call me Nick, or Nicholas. I think we've had this conversation before." He says, remembering the day of their marriage.

"We did." Blushing in embarrassment, Rachel adjusts her spectacles and begins to leave.

Today, a lot of progress in their conversation has been made.

However, Rachel comes back to her room and as soon as her head hits the pillow, a million thoughts come inside her head.

She forgot to ask many things contextual to her internship. Like, the time of joining, going to the venue, whom to approach, what's even the venue of the building and such things.

Deciding that she would bother him again only after morrow's breakfast.

****

"Good morning." Chirps the girl dressed in neat shirt and black trousers. "Mornin'." Greeting her back, Nicholas takes his seat opposite to her.

"So... about my internship. Do we go there together?"

"Yes. We go together." He says, tucking a kerchief inside his collar as the servants serve their plates. After breakfast, Rachel and Nicholas were driven to the building.

The infrastructure amazes her.

"Do you like it?" Asks the CEO, bringing his hand to cover himself from the scorching sunlight.

"Yes. It's so serene. It reminds me of Saudi's buildings." Says Rachel.

"Have you ever been there?" He asks as they begin to walk inside.

Rachel looks at him with a tight lipped smile.

"I apologize. My bad."

"It's alright. We don't know much about each other." She says.

"Then I hope we can change that between us. Here, that's Mr. Arnold James and he will take care of you in his wing. You will be working under him." Rachel turns to look at the old looking man, humble and neatly dressed.

"Good morning sir, I am Rachel." She introduces herself, reminding herself that she needs no surname.

"Good, good! Nice to meet you too, empress! She looks so modest and sweet, boss! I'm honored to take her into my wing. Pleasure to meet you too, madam." The man says. At several points in his speech, Ravine was denying the excessive and overflowing numbers of sweetness and exclusivity of the old man.

"I plead you to call me only by my name, sir. Please." The two chuckle as Nicholas gives them a gentle smile again.

Suddenly, he places his hand on the small of her back and gives her a gentle push towards the male.

"All the best to you two then." Saying, the two enter whilst Rachel has butterflies marching in her stomach.

A lot of the time passes by, Rachel was easing into the work atmosphere. No one had anything bad to say her, only constructively criticize her to improve her skills better.

Her job description included writing and forwarding emails back to clients within the organization while fact checking with the databank. That was all she had to do for her 9 to 5 internship.

Rachel visits the CEO's cabin after her work, waiting outside on the couch after everyone left for an hour extra.

At around six and quarter, Nicholas walks out to lock his cabin as he sees his wife on the couch, with her head held down.

"Rachel?" He calls to her, confirming the lock as he closes the biometric.

"Rachel." He taps her shoulder, crouching to her height.

He chuckles slightly to himself. He realises she was the heaviest sleeper he's ever seen in his life.

"You leave me with no other option, huh?" Changing his bag straps to sling bag mode, he takes the girl into his arms and begins to walk bridal style all the way to the parking, using the lift.

To his surprise, she weighed lighter than a feather. He shakes his head, amused by her depth of slumber as she doesn't even move an inch and snores her life away on his chest.

"Sir! Oh, madam..." the driver realises and opens the door for the car, Nicholas places Rachel in the car and secures her with the seatbelt.

The car ride was silent again like the way to the building.

Nicholas again carries her all the way inside, allowing no one to touch her than himself because he knows it's not what she wants to discover later.

At night, Rachel was awake as she questions herself why she transported back to her room.

As she goes down, she hears the kitchen being used by someone.

"Oh... hi. Did someone carry me all the way here? I'm sure I was dead as a log." She asks her cold husband.

"Yes. I did." He confirms.

"Oh. Thank you, um.. did your arms hurt? I'll massage them for you-" She says.

"No need for that. Besides, you weigh like a feather. I don't like being massaged either."

"Okay, sorry." Saying, she bring herself something to eat. She was still in her office clothes whilst Nicholas was changed into his house clothes.

"Good work today." Saying, he approaches the girl who was eating with her phone in her hand.

She almost chokes with his stance as he stands beside her, hand on the table and one on her chair.

"Y-yeah. You got the report?"

"Yes. You're a quick learner." He compliments her. She only nods repeatedly, not able to understand why he was complimenting her out of the blue for just a day's work.

Realising that he was making her uncomfortable, he walks away and expects nothing to come from her behind his back. At last, she doesn't say anything as expected.

The couple pass another day in their lives together.

However, they were slowly spinning a thread from both ends. The thread was pulling them closer and closer with each conversation. It was only about time when they will start to form a bond, with their spun threads.