I was surprised to find that Keziah was on time and ready two days in a row. Promptly at 7:30 am. We were both at the gate waiting for our rides to the offices.

"I'm surprised at your punctuality, Miss Mills. Keep it up."

"You make it sound as though it's a miracle."

"Well, with this amount of consecutiveness, I have to say if it isn't a miracle, it is certainly shy of one." It must have been something I said, but for the rest of the day, she pointedly ignored me.

She showed just how fluent and well educated she was in the Korean culture. The Public Relations Officer and Community Council were all gathered in the room listening to her speak about the plans for their community event. She had her shirt folded up to her elbows and her hair held away from her face with a large clip. Smitten by her, they eagerly listened and several of the men leaned forward. Their thoughts were so blatantly written on their faces, it would have pleased me to wipe them off.

"Any additions or suggestions?"

She didn't look at me, but I knew the question was mainly for me.

"This is still a work in progress, so it isn't a perfect plan."

"It's good you mentioned that."

I gloss down my notes and find the statement I jotted down during her casual presentation.

"We are trying to make the company as friendly as possible, to win the hearts of the community and win their loyalty."

I shook my head, tapping my notebook.

"Although the company can afford it, we cannot do too much to appear strong or pretentious."

"And so what would you suggest?"

"I suggest we go back to the drawing board and mull over it some more. But until then everyone's roles and responsibilities haven't changed."

Later that night at the dinner table, we sat in silence.

"Can you please pass the fish?"

I politely asked.

I frowned down at the bowl of pickled radish she slid towards me as she moved the plate of fish farther away instead. The entire time we had been eating, it was in a questionable silence punctuated by her chopsticks stabbing into the rice on more than one occasion.

"Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing." she muttered.

Well, nothing sounded an awful lot like something, but I wisely let it sit.

"Then can you pass the fish? I did not ask for radish."

"I'm sure you can get to it."

"It would be against proper etiquette to stretch across the table."

I gathered my reply wasn't well accepted from the scowl she threw at me. It took a few seconds before she finally passed the fish as she muttered under her breath.

"Thank you," I said.

"Before we retire for the night, I think it is best that we go over the plans one more time."

"Yes, sir." She replied.

"You can call me David since we are coequals now."

"That would mean you can call me Keziah, but I don't want you to get too friendly with me."

I had to admit, her clipped answer took me aback. Nothing in her demeanor the past few days had shown that I was still on probation or on the watch list.

"I understand." I cautiously stated. "You wish to maintain the professionalism between the two of us and that is perfectly fine."

I was a little disappointed because she did not even want to regard me informally.

"Thank you for understanding."

"I don't see the need for the formality when you have already blurred the lines."

It was her turn to be surprised.

"When did I blur the lines?"

Had she forgotten already? Keziah was unbelievable.

"Here, smell my breath? At the airport?"

She looked thoroughly appalled, and it was about time.

"You don't ask just coworkers to do that." I stopped her from speaking by going on.

"And you can't argue that it was anything but unprofessional."

I stood up from the table.

"When you are quite satisfied, you can join me in the office with your drafts, Miss Mills."

I showed her.

I entered the study from my room and quietly closed the door, reflecting on my reaction downstairs. I closed my eyes and groaned. I did not have to point that episode out. There had been no need. All I should have said was: "Fine, we will remain informal." But no, I had to act like a jerk with a bruised ego.

Gosh, did she notice how out of character I was?

The beeping sound of Keziah's code being put in spurred me into my seat. I whipped out the papers and powered up the tablet.

The door eased open, and I kept my eyes down on the screen. From my peripheral vision, I caught her lingering by the door, hesitant to join me. Her sigh was loud as she took the seat at the desk on the other side of the room.

"Before we start, I want to apologize to you for my behavior at the airport. I was nervous and tired, that was not a rational move on my part."

She didn't need to apologize. That was what I believed, yet what I said was,

"Apology accepted Miss Mills. Now, let us just forget about it and revise the plan."

"You plainly stated that you did not like my ideas."

Did I say that?

"I do not recall saying such a thing?"

"At the HR conference room, in front of everyone, you openly criticized my plans for the outreach project."

"No. What I said was that we needed to refresh it and adapt it to suit our target market. I did not say I did not like it. And that wasn't criticism."

"Well, it sounded like it."

I sat back in my chair, studying Keziah and finally understanding her mood all day.

"Keziah, is that why you have been staring daggers at me all day and why you passed me the radish instead of the fish?"

I observed her features as she tried to deny it all.

"I was not staring daggers at you and I really misheard you at the table."

I nodded, but I still didn't believe her.

"But if I were staring daggers at you, which I wasn't, could you blame me? You keep acting like you are the boss. You don't act like I am your partner."

"That's not true."

She folded her arms,

"A partner would have asked." She spoke in a cold, professional manner. "Miss Mills, would you want to meet at the study and work on the plans?" She shook her head. "But you said, 'Come to the study when you are finished eating.'"

'"Those weren't my words exactly." I said in my defense.

"It might as well be with the tone and manner you carry. I understand that you are used to being the boss and that it would take some time to adjust. However, at least act like you are trying."

So that was how she felt.

We glared at each other over the small space between us. I suppressed my smile at just what I had been missing out on where it concerned Keziah. She had a temper probably reserved for only me, and this was her opportunity to speak her truth, which I didn't entirely appreciate.

Thinking on the matter objectively, Keziah looked hot whenever she got mad. I internally sighed. If I believed myself to be a man with a conscience, I should try to reevaluate my actions from her viewpoint. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she could be right. Maybe.

All I had to do to make this right was apologize to her. The idea was unappealing to me.

"I did not mean to come off that way. I promise to make a conscious effort from now on."

"Thank you."

The anger faded from her voice and features.

"Miss Mills."

I focused on properly tailoring my next words. "Could you please send your drafts, if that wouldn't be too much of a bother?"

"Not at all, Mr. Welsh, I would be happy to send them to you."

And that was how we spoke to each other the entire time we worked. With an unhealthy dose of politeness. It was pretentious and entertaining.

I mentally shook my head for even thinking like that.

"Say, Mr. Welsh, your idea is not too different from mine." She scrolled through her screen.

"That is because we think alike. You know what they say about great minds."

"Well, this great mind believes that we should wrap this up in the next ten minutes."

I raised my brow in her direction. Fortunately, she was busy typing away.

"Do you have other pressing plans to attend?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Is that okay with you?"

That was a trap.

She was baiting me. I could see it in her eyes and in the slight sarcastic twitch of her lip.

"If that is what you would like, we can wrap this up in five minutes."

We had till the end of the week to present the plans to the board of Lee Chul and as of tonight, we had made significant headway.

As we packed our things aside, I couldn't help myself but ask.

"What are you going to be doing?" Then I quickly supplied. "I am simply asking as a curious--"

Friend? Acquaintance? I wasn't even sure where I stood with her.

It was painfully obvious that we weren't anything close to friends. Just before this trip, she had classified me as enemy number one.

Claire and I probably were tied for that spot.

"A curious what?"

"A curious colleague."

"Well, from what I understand, colleagues need not know about other colleague's personal lives."

I clenched my jaws. That was the extent of my reactions to her flippant statement, and I avoided looking at her altogether.

"You never know when they might want to stab you in the back or lock you in a cold meat locker."

"You make colleagues sound more like enemies."

"Some of them have proven to be just that."

I only looked in her direction when I heard the door close behind her. Fine, if that was how she wanted it to be between us then that was fine by me. But I would take the high road, I would still be civil to a fault until she changed her mind about me, or not. I needed her help to make this partnership with Lee Chul work. We didn't need to be friends to make that happen. Eventually, she would see that I was never the bad person here. It was irrational that she still blamed me for Claire. I still reflected inwardly over the incident. Emphasis on the word "reflected" because fuming wasn't something I did.

"Hey, baby..." Her ringing laughter followed me into my room and I thought to myself, What the hell was so funny?