Chapter 9
Ethan came to the department dinner.
Everyone treated it like the sun had descended to eat hot pot with us.
Tyler was there too, which meant the atmosphere was one bad idea away from disaster.
After a few drinks, our team lead suggested truth or dare.
Tyler picked dare.
Naturally, half the table started chanting that he should do a cross-armed drink with me.
Ethan’s face darkened instantly.
Then he rose from his seat and looked at me.
“Claire. Come here. A client issue. We need to compare design details.”
The room shut up immediately.
Apparently nobody was brave enough to tell the CEO he couldn’t discuss work at dinner.
There was a small side alcove near the restaurant partitioned off with a red curtain. The second I stepped inside, Ethan followed and pulled the curtain shut behind us.
Then he wrapped his arms around me from behind.
His breath hit the side of my neck, hot enough to make me shiver.
“Let’s go public,” he said.
I let my head tip back against his shoulder. “Not yet.”
“Claire.”
“I mean it.” I turned in his arms and looked up at him. “I’ve worked too hard for my career. I have a promotion coming if I finish this project well. If people find out I’m sleeping with the CEO before that happens, nobody will ever believe I earned it.”
His gaze softened.
“My mom did not spend years dragging herself through illness so I could become someone’s ornamental girlfriend.”
“You’re not ornamental.”
“I know. Which is why we wait.”
He exhaled slowly.
Then, like he needed somewhere to put all the frustration, he kissed the side of my throat and nipped lightly at my ear until I nearly lost the ability to think.
There was a mirror in the alcove. He tipped my chin toward it.
“Why are you hiding?” he murmured. “Look.”
I looked.
My lips were flushed. My eyes looked dazed.
Outside the curtain, the party noise kept going.
Then Tyler’s voice got closer.
“Why aren’t they back yet? I’m checking.”
The curtain moved.
I jerked away from Ethan and immediately grabbed the laptop on the small side table, pretending to examine it.
When Tyler pushed inside, Ethan was leaning casually against the cabinet with one hand in his pocket like absolutely nothing had happened.
“The food’s getting cold,” Tyler said.
“Then eat,” Ethan replied.
Tyler frowned but left.
At the end of the night, he offered to drive me home.
I said no.
For the third time, clearly and directly, I told him there was no future between us.
And this time I added one more thing.
“I have a boyfriend.”
Tyler froze.
The alcohol left his face all at once.
“Who?”
“Not your business.”
“What kind of man?”
“That’s still not your business.”
“Can I meet him?”
“No.”
A few days later, I was at the hospital taking care of my mom when I ran into Ethan in the hallway.
He looked surprised to see me there.
“I came to visit a former employee,” he said. “Why are you here?”
“My mom’s been admitted.”
His expression changed immediately.
Before I could say more, one of the older women sharing my mother’s room spoke up with the enthusiasm only hospital grandmothers possess.
“That girl is a good daughter,” she told Ethan. “She’s been taking care of her mother for years.”
Another woman joined in.
“She worked through college to save for surgery. Hired a caregiver too. Doesn’t eat enough herself. Look how thin she is.”
“And the company gives them lunch now,” the first woman added. “She packs the good dishes to bring back for her mother and barely eats any herself.”
I wanted the floor to open and swallow me.
Instead, I turned and saw Ethan looking at me like the world had just rearranged itself.
After my mother fell asleep, we stood by her bed in silence.
A long silence.
Then he asked quietly, “This is why you needed money?”
“Yes.”
“Where is your father?”
“There isn’t one.”
I kept my voice even. “It’s always just been my mom and me.”
His face tightened in a way I had never seen before.
“And lunch,” he said after a moment. “You only ate the rice because you wanted to bring the rest back to her.”
I gave a small smile.
“It was a very nice lunch.”
Something in him seemed to break.
“I should have realized sooner,” he said.
I looked at him. “The hardest part is over.”
He didn’t answer.
But later, when we went downstairs to walk, I saw him make several phone calls with a grim expression I had learned to take seriously.
By the time he put his phone away, he said, “Your mother should be transferred to a better hospital in the city. She’ll receive more effective treatment there.”
“I know.”
“I’ll pay.”
I hesitated.
It was too much.
Maybe I could take money from Tyler because I understood that arrangement. He used me. I used him back. Transaction complete.
With Ethan, nothing felt that clean.
He saw that hesitation instantly.
Then he stopped walking, turned to me, and said something so sudden I genuinely thought I had misheard him.
“Marry me.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
His expression stayed steady.
“Marry me.”