The Day I Kissed An Older Man

Aaron nodded. He raised his hand to pat Annie’s shoulder and comfort her. After all, the past few days have been nerve-
wracking for her. “Don’t worry, Annie.”
Marcus, Annie’s boyfriend, felt uncomfortable when he saw his immediate boss acting inappropriately toward his girlfriend. Even
so, it was difficult for him to express his dissatisfaction directly to his boss.
He approached them and comforted Annie too. “That’s good to know, Annie. It’s great that your uncle and aunt. You have
nothing to worry about now.”
Annie looked at Marcus and snapped back to reality. She realized she had been too close to Aaron, so she took a step back and
kept her distance from him.
Aaron immediately understood what she was thinking and pursed his lips to smile at her.
Marcus raised his hand and hugged Annie’s shoulders. “Mister Aaron is right. You shouldn’t go in right now, so how about we
wait outside? I saw a shop not far from here. Let’s go get something to drink while we wait.”
Annie was not in the mood to drink anything. She shook her head and said, “No thanks. I don’t feel like drinking anything right
now.”
Marcus nodded helplessly. “Then I’ll wait here with you.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes slightly. He glared sullenly at Marcus’s hand on Annie’s shoulder and asked softly, “Have you prepared
the slides for tomorrow’s morning meeting?”
Marcus was stunned. “Uh... I’ll spend the entire night working on it when I get home.”
Aaron asked seriously, “You’re planning on staying up late, then? Can you guarantee you won’t make any mistakes? Are you
sure you’ll be able to explain everything clearly to the higher-ups in the meeting tomorrow? I don’t think you need me to explain
how important tomorrow’s meeting is. I think it’s best for you to put your work ahead of everything else.”
Marcus felt a little awkward. “Umm...”
Annie realized that Marcus still had important work to complete, so she said considerately, “You should head home if you have
work to do. You don’t have to wait here with me! I don’t want you neglecting your responsibilities.”
Marcus was still somewhat worried. “But...”

Annie said firmly, “Don’t worry about me. I’ve made sure that my uncle is fine. He’ll send me home once he’s out.”
Marcus looked at Annie and was still unwilling to leave.
Aaron then said slyly, “Annie understands that you have work responsibilities. I’ll take care of her here, so you can go ahead and
head home.”
Marcus felt an inexplicable chill down his spine when he looked at Aaron. Though Aaron was smiling at him, he felt threatened all
the same.
Annie might not choose to be with him anymore if he left!
Marcus then decided to take a gamble on his job. “I appreciate your kindness, but I also have a responsibility to my girlfriend. As
for the slides for the meeting, I give you my word that it will be done before the meeting starts tomorrow morning. If anything
goes wrong because of me, I will bear all the consequences. You can fire me if it comes to that.”
Aaron was a little surprised by that response. He smiled and said, “What I’m trying to say is, the situation here has nothing to do
with you. You’re an outsider, and it would be inappropriate for you to be around here.”
Marcus felt a little awkward when he had been labeled as an ‘outsider’. Aaron was right, though—he ought not to get himself
involved in the situation, and he had no right to do so either.
Annie also felt that it was a little rude for Aaron to say that to Marcus, but she was not in the mood to argue with Aaron.
She said regretfully to Marcus, “Listen to me, Marcus. You should head back and focus on your work! I don’t know how long I will
have to wait for my uncle and aunt, and it’ll affect your work if there’s any delay here. I don’t want you to stay up late and get
exhausted!”