The Possessive Gentleman

”Before facing your enemy, you must first face yourself.”

-Tite Kubo-

Clara had been sitting in her desk for hours typing in a proposal for the company’s next project. It was a completely different experience compared to what she was used to. Before she would spend hours painting with her right brain in maximum usage, but this time she allowed her left brain to play around a bit.

She had been working with Corentin for a whole month and so far she had been enjoying herself, the only thing that felt strange to her was mostly sitting in front of a computer roughly eight hours a day, for some people it might not be that big of a deal but even before when she was still dealing with her family’s business, she often incorporated manual methods which she had to admit, was far less effective than using a computer.

Besides that though, everyone around her had treated her well, she had no idea if it was because she was a close acquaintance to Corentin or if they were actually nice. Considering how Corentin had always treated her, it would come to no surprise if he had previously told them to behave well around her. Ah, the office life, you just never know who’s genuine and who’s not. At the beginning she had a rather low expectation, she always had a negative stereotype about the average 9-5 life, yet overtime she had gotten herself used to it. Was it the most liberating thing in the world? No, it was not but it paid the bills.

As if she had any to begin with. On the bright side. Corentin had been treating her especially well. He would often get her coffee or check out on her work, telling her that if she needed anything she could just ask the other employees to help out, which of course was not received very well by the others, but it was none of her business.

It was just sometimes he’s a bit too nice to her. It frightened her a bit. At this point she still had no idea regarding his true feelings for her. Why would a man treat her the way he did if he had no ulterior motives? Still she chose the way she responded to it and took everything merely as his virtuous gestures. Since her first day of work they had been having lunch together for the most part, except for when he had to have business lunch outside the office. Yes, the other employees also noticed it and some rumors had been spread but it was nothing major.

On the other side of the story, Corentin had discovered for the past month that Clara was indeed a hard working woman. Her level of intelligence had well surpassed his expectations. Her best quality was her punctual self, she always arrived earlier than everyone else so she could get a step ahead for the day. Other than that she had been getting along with most of her co-workers.

Of course, beforehand he had taken precautions by asking the employees to treat her kindly, which was not exactly the best political career move. After all there was some personal emotions involved. They say one should never mix personal life with business, but that is never the truth, is it? No matter how objective someone is, on some occasions, subjective attitudes do occur in business.

As promised he had put her on a completely different division from Giselle, she had been working more closely with him. That way he can prevent any unwanted outbreak happening while having Clara near him at the same time, for him, it was a win win. Of course he would not let her know he had silently stolen glances at her every now and then, followed by a stupid grin and a bite of the tip of his index finger, a habit he did whenever he was feeling flirty or amused. She was unbothered for when he did it, she would probably be busy doing something on the computer. His secretary had also approved her and she was not ashamed to admit it to him. That was when he knew she was the real deal.

”She is one of the hardest working woman I have ever seen during my time here, and we have at least over fifty female employees in the building alone.”

At the same time Corentin had to guard his heart tightly, since he was scared of falling deeper for her, he respected their friendship and he made sure he did not turn into a fool who would ruin it, having Clara near him and watching over her was more than enough for Corentin, he loved throwing a few cheesy, flirty jokes here and there at her Clara did not seem to mind. She found them rather funny. Perhaps it was her who was oblivious to his feelings, but it was fine, as long as they could remain as friends, it was enough for him.