This will be the first time he would enter her house, her personal space. He wanted to know more about her, so he looked around quickly before she came back. He tried to drink in every detail of her apartment.

All her walls had been painted white, she had paintings all around the apartment from famous painters that could only be seen in art exhibitions, which meant she had the means to buy all these expensive items. The furniture, accessories, and plants had given off a warm and cozy vibe. Each item complemented each other, which showed the careful consideration Sophia had applied in purchasing each piece.

He wanted to see what her bedroom would look like, but he knew it was not possible, with the time he had. The one thing he noticed was that there were no pictures of her family anywhere.

The whole house was very tidy, a laptop in the living room sat on top of a few files, something she must have been working on before he knocked.

Sophia came back right away, "Here take the lighter," she tried to dismiss him.

"Thank you, you're a lifesaver," he said but showed no signs of leaving. Sophia raised her eyebrows in question.

"Did you have dinner yet?" he asked, wanting to stay a little bit longer with her.

"I will as soon as you leave," she replied pointedly.

"Okay fine, I get the hint," he walked to the door, but then turned around again.

"Now what?" Sophia said, annoyed.

"I noticed the papers on X company. If you're stuck, I can help you with that," he volunteered.

"No thanks, I can manage," she replied immediately.

"Come on, it's my first day here, and I have nothing to do. I know about that company, I can save you a lot of time," he tried to convince her.

Sophia had been working on the said company for the past 3 hours, and she was nowhere near done, the meeting tomorrow would suffer if she comes unprepared. So she agreed reluctantly.

Aiden smirked as Sophia made space for him. She was very focused once she started working, noting down the points and fixing her mistakes. He, on the other hand, was focused solely on her, he would give inputs time and again just so she wouldn't think he was just there to stare at her.

He knew this was one of his brilliant plans, and it seems to be working. Aiden couldn't help but keep on smiling while he was with her. And because of their teamwork and Aiden's in-depth knowledge of company X, Sophia finished her report in an hour.

She was surprised that he genuinely helped her instead of pestering her with his personal questions like he did at the shareholder's meeting. "Thank you very much for your help, Mr. Cooper. I hope you will have a good night," she closed her laptop and tried to make him leave.

He knew when to walk away when it was necessary, this was a triumph for him, and if he pestered Sophia, it would set him back to being the bad guy. "Good night Sophia, sorry for interrupting your dinner," he nodded and walked out the door.

The huge smile that was plastered on his face said it all. One of these days, she would let him in, he would occupy her life so much that there would be no place for anyone else.

-=-

Things were getting hectic at Collins Beauty Company, it was less than a week before their international launch, and they needed to prepare everything so it could run perfectly.

"Ma'am, Mr. Sterling had been calling the past few hours. He's starting to complain that you aren't picking up his calls. He wants to come to visit, so when should I tell him to come?" her assistant asked.

"Never invite him to the office. And don't pick up any of his calls," Sophia said with an indifferent manner.

"But ma'am, he's your uncle…," her assistant trailed off when she saw Sophia's fierce glance.

"Just do as I say," Sophia ordered.

The assistant did not understand her boss, why doesn't she want to see her uncle? When her uncle was so sweet, she had seen Mr. Sterling and some of her relatives in the building several times, but Sophia never gave them the time of day.

In all her years with Sophia, she had never seen her interact with anyone. She always kept to herself, working 24/7, but when she achieved her goals and closed down million-dollar deals, she wouldn't even smile. Her assistant felt like she was a robot, void of emotions.

-=-

After a week of traveling overseas, launching their product overseas, Sophia was finally home. It had been a very tiring trip, each day filled with one meeting, interview, or appointment after another. So she opened her door ignoring all the flyers stuck on it, and took a warm relaxing bath.

"You're back," a male voice from behind her spoke. She was startled that she dropped the cup of tea she was holding. When she looked up Aiden was standing on his balcony.

Since their apartments were beside each other, their balconies were adjacent to each other as well, separated by a small gap to separate the units. From the moment she moved into her place, she's never seen her neighbors use their balcony, so she always felt like she had it to herself. Aiden standing on the other side had totally surprised her.

"What are you doing? Be careful where you step," Aiden warned as she almost stepped on the broken glass.

"Let me clean it up," she ran to get the dustpan.

"So, where have you been this past week?" Aiden asked after she cleaned up the mess.

"Yeah, I launched our product overseas and had several meetings everywhere," she replied.

"That's why you never answered any of my written messages. Remember that night we worked on company X, I wanted to ask how your presentation went," Aiden said.

"Written messages? Did you leave them in my mailbox?" she asked.

"Yes, I had a few of them stuck to your door, you didn't see them?" He was surprised. Any normal person would have noticed them.

Now she remembered there was paper stuck at her door, she thought they were just flyers or announcements about activities in the complex so she completely ignored them.

"I thought they were flyers," she admitted. "What are you doing out here anyway?"