A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Plan's POV

My brain conjured up several images of how a field reporter, after coming back from a night affair with Chao, could cause him to walk like some zombie with a ball and chain tied to his ankles. And the images my brain brought up were scary. I felt like I had just dodged a bullet.

"Thanks for telling me," I turned to Mean who was focused on his driving, his eyes looking straight ahead, but he gave me a quick side glance before responding with, "Any time, sweetheart."

Wwwaaaiiittt ... did I hear him right, or were my ears playing tricks on me???

Should I confront him about it or should I pretend that I did not hear that one last word after he said 'any time'?

I decided to pretend that I did not hear it. I crossed my arms and looked out the window at the other cars.

Mean followed the directions on his GPS and in just a short time we were turning into the street where my apartment building was located.

As we were nearing my building, we noticed from afar several police vans parked on the street right across my building. Some of the police officers were tying some yellow tape across the entrance to my apartment building to keep people from entering the building.

"Thank you for the ride," I said to Mean as I unfastened my seat belt and got ready to get off his car.

"Wait!" Mean warned. "The police might not allow you to go inside."

"But I'm a resident of that building!" I protested.

"That's not important to them if a crime scene is being investigated," Mean reasoned out.

"There's only one way to find out," I said, getting out of his car, determined to convince the police officers that I needed to go back inside my unit.

I had crossed the road and was just a few steps away from the entrance to my apartment building when I heard a deafening shrill whistle that made my ears tingle and made me cover my ears to protect my eardrums.

"Hold it right there, young man!" a police officer yelled at me.

Another police officer approached me.

"I live in apartment 207 up there," I said to the police officer, pointing to my bedroom window on the second floor before he could say anything to me.

"Even if you're the apartment owner or manager, we won't allow you to go inside the building until we have completed our investigation," the police officer informed me in a firm voice.

"What happened in the building?" I asked.

"I cannot provide you sensitive information," the police officer replied.

"Where am I going to sleep tonight?" I asked the officer, my lower lip starting to tremble. "I don't want to sleep on the street!"

"Don't you have any friend or relative who can put you up for the night?" the police officer asked.

"No," I replied at the exact same time that we heard someone honking his car.

I looked at where the honking came from.

Mean's car was still there! And he was motioning to me to go back to his car!

I ran back to his car without looking to my left or to my right and almost got run over by a passing taxicab.

"What did the police officer tell you?" Mean asked even if I could tell that he already knew what my answer would be.

"He said that I should spend the night with a Mr. Mean Phiravich Attachitsataporn," I said cheekily, already opening the passenger car door and settling inside.

Without looking at him, I fastened my seat belt and looked straight ahead of me.

"Stop it!" I complained when I felt him ruffling my hair.

"Let's go, kid," he said, with a big smile on his face.

I was very impressed by his spacious and luxurious condo unit. He told me to make myself comfortable on the couch while he walked over to his kitchen and put a tea kettle on.

"I am going to fix us a cup of lemon grass tea," he announced. "It's going to calm our nerves and will help us to sleep well after a stressful day."

"Thank you," I said as I sank into the wide and spacious brown leather sofa in his living room.

"You can watch TV while waiting for the tea to be ready." he said, disappearing into his bedroom.

I turned the TV on. There was some comedy show going on and I decided to watch it so that I could forget the day's stressful events.

Soon Mean came back to the living room.

"I think the tea is ready to brew," he said, pouring out some boiling water into two cups and placing a bag of dried lemon grass into each cup.

He brought the cups to the living room and we watched TV together while sipping our tea.

"I'm gonna go take a shower first and then you can take yours after," he announced after we finished sipping our tea.

While he was in the shower, I decided to look around his unit.

There were two bedrooms, his bedroom and another one whose door was closed. I went over to open its door but to my surprise it was locked. I decided to go inside Mean's bedroom instead.

There was a large bed and at the foot of the bed were two sets of pajamas lying side by side. I wondered whether he was going to let me use the other room or if he was going to let me sleep beside him on his bed. I told myself not to worry. He seemed like a trustworthy guy.

"The set of pajamas on the left are yours," I jumped at the sound of his voice. I had not heard him come out of the bathroom which was inside his room.

I turned to look at him. He was wearing nothing except a large navy blue towel draped carelessly around his waist.

I tried not to look at his broad chest and the drops of water that were still clinging to it.

"There's a fresh set of towels and brand new briefs laid out on the metal rack inside the bathroom," he said. "They are yours to use."

"Thank you," I said, wondering how many times I had said thank you to him from the moment that I had sat in his car the first time until now.

I took some time inside the shower stall of his bathroom, enjoying the warm spray, enhancing my circulation, making my muscles lose their tightness, brought about by all the stressful events of the day. That, coupled by the lemon grass tea I had drank, started to make me feel weak and drowsy.

I dried myself with the towel before putting on the briefs. Then I wrapped the large white towel around my waist before stepping out of the bathroom.

"I have placed your pajamas on the bed in the other room," Mean announced when he saw me coming out of the bedroom.

For some reason I felt disappointed that I was not going to sleep in his bed tonight.