I walk through the office. Lucas said I needed to meet him after office hours. I hope he's cooled down by now.

Taking a deep breath I knock on his office door.

"Come in." I hear his voice.

I open the door and step inside. I see him standing behind his desk with a pen in one hand and a file on the other. His eyebrows are furrowed as he stares deeply at his file.

"Mr. Anderson?" I call out.

He takes his eye away from his file to look at me and instructs me to sit down, then he looks at his file once again.

I pull the chair out making a screeching sound as it slides across the floor, I sit down and pull my chair closer to the table.

He takes a seat in front of me. He puts his file down but his pen is still in between his thumb and his index finger.

"I see you had a talk with my mother." He glances at me.

"Yes." I look away slightly uncomfortable with the way he's looking at me.

"But Mr. Anderson I didn't tell her to say any of that, trust me." I retort quickly.

"I know." Says Lucas with a smile on his features. He recovers it quickly with a serious expression.

"So you're not gonna fire me?" I ask him cautiously.

He chuckles.

"You must really love this job since you're so afraid that I'll fire you every time something happens. So what is it Miss Grayson? You really love working for me or you need the money?"

I look at him trying to read his face to make sure he's not just messing with me. He looks genuinely curious as to why I need this job.

"I'd say the latter but I don't think it would do me very well if I say that I don't like working with you. I need the money to pay for my rent as I live alone. But its not so bad working here." I say looking down at my hands.

"Miss Grayson, you can be honest with me." He says. "If my mother likes you then you're probably not a terrible person. I know you're not exactly the best employee I've had since I've run the company but I gotta admit you do take work seriously. You're still young, you should be enjoying life, making stupid mistakes but you're here. Why?" He looks at me straight in the eyes.

I can't lie when he's looking at me like that. But I can't tell him the truth either.

"I can always know who's a runaway when I see one." He says putting down his pen on the table.

What? He knows?

"Uhm..yeah that's kinda true but.." I sigh. "Yes, I ran away from home." I admit.

"You don't need to be embarrassed Miss Grayson. Its normal to want to start your own life but all I need to know is why?" He questions.

I really don't feel like sharing my personal life with him. I bite my lower lip as I think of an excuse.

"My parents got divorced." I lie.

"Oh." He sounds remorseful. "Sorry to hear that. Just making sure you're not some most wanted criminal." He jokes. I can see he's trying to lighten the mood.

A smile leave my lips. "No, I assure you I'm nothing sort of a criminal. Just a small town girl."

He looks at me, his eyes lingering on mine for a tense moment, then he turns away.

"Come on, I'll drop you off." He says as he stands up from the chair.

"There's no need. I can take a cab Mr Anderson." I follow him outside.

"I thought you were trying to save money." He says turning his head halfway to look at me.

"Fine. If you insist." I say slightly running to meet his long strides.

He leads me to the car, the driver opens the door for me on the backseat. Lucas joins me shortly after. He's sitting rather closely to me than I expected. I can feel his body heat radiating off of him.

"How's my mother doing? Was she better?" He asks me turning to look at me.

"Yes, she seems to be okay. The doctor said they might discharge her tonight." I look at him but look straight ahead right away. Being cramped in a confined space with him is making me feel all jittery.

"Again, I'm really sorry Mr. Anderson." I apologize.

"I think you've apologized enough already. My mother is really tough, I doubt you'd be able to kill her with just a pan." He chuckles lightly. He seems to adore his mother.

My mom always used to tell me  that a person who treats their mother with respect is a real man. And that I should be with that kind of man because he would always treat me with respect.

The thought of my mom makes me smile.

"You're beautiful when you smile." He says.

"What?" I look at him with my mouth open. My face feels hot, I think I'm blushing.

He just looks at me, staring intensely into my eyes.

There's this foreign feeling inside of me, that makes my whole body tingle.

I look away before I make a mistake. "So you live with your mother?" I change the subject.

He looks surprised by my random question but he answers me anyway.

"No, she lives with my sister. She's just visiting, she was trying to cook breakfast for me. She says I'm too busy that I miss breakfast all the time so, she cooks for me whenever she can."

"She sounds sweet." I say as I think about Mrs Anderson and her cool personality.

"Yeah, she's awesome. She makes the best cheesecakes. You should try it sometime." He says.

I try not to dwell on the fact that he just invited me to meet his mother even though I already met her, just not officially.

"Uh okay sure I love cheesecakes." I try to sound unfazed.

Talking about food makes me feel hungry. I just realized that I haven't eaten anything since the incident at Lucas's apartment. My stomach makes an unforgiving sound indicating my hunger.

Lucas notices it and looks at me with raised brows. My stomach growls yet again despite my attempt of hiding it. A light laugh leaves his mouth as he shakes his head.

"Come on, let's get you something to eat." He instructs the driver to make a stop at a restaurant.

"No, Mr Anderson I'm fine, really. I'll just get a pizza on the way home." I put my hands up to deny him.

"You never just say yes, do you?" He sighs. "I'm trying to be a gentlemen here, meet me halfway at least." He pleads looking at me and then steps out of the car. He opens the door and waits for me to step outside.

He's being awfully nice tonight. I really can't catch up with his emotions.

I'm hungry anyway so a dinner's not gonna hurt. I step out the car and follow him inside the restaurant.

The manager seems to recognize him as he immediately ushers us to a table. The restaurant looks absolutely beautiful with simple wooden furniture, copper light shades on the table makes it glow with sophistication. The marble tiled floor beneath me gives the restaurant a clean yet warm appearance.

"We'll both have the special, please." He informs the waitress. The waitress leaves with a notepad on her hand as she jots down our order.

"So tell me something about you." Lucas puts his hands together and looks at me.

I don't know why but whenever he looks at me in my eyes, I feel a weird sensation in my body. It makes it hard for me to think straight.

"I'm not sure where to begin exactly." I tell him.

"Okay, how about what you like?" He waits for my answer.

He makes this feel like a date, but I know this is remotely related to anything sort of a date.

"I like amusement parks. I always visit them on my birthdays. I love the roller coaster, I love the thrill that surges through my body whenever I ride it."

"I've never been on a roller coaster." Lucas say looking slightly embarrassed by the fact. "I've always wanted to try it but never had the time."

"What? That's absurd. Everyone's been on a roller coaster at least once, even if they cry the whole time." I laugh reminiscing back to the time when Matty rode it with me. He's so scared of heights that he cried the whole time.

"You know what? Let's go there for our first date." Lucas says with a smile on his lips.

Did he just ask me out?

"Huh?" I can't manage to form a complete sentence. Is he really asking me out? The day I hit his mother with a frying pan?

He smiles at my shocked expression.

"Will you go out with me, Amelia?" He puts his hands on mine.

                        ***