Bound by Tension
19

~ IMOGEN ~

"Miss Mark, please get me coffee." Hames ordered, tracing the head of his pen around the printed words on the file in his hands. "Okay, sir." I nodded, turning around with a yawn and to the kitchen to make him coffee.

I was having a very terrible headache. I knew I had gotten so drunk last night but I couldn't clearly remember all that had happened.

Nevertheless, 'she's my girlfriend' kept ringing in my head, increasing the terrible headache I was having.

I was also damn hungry. I also remembered puking my guts out, my throat was still hurt from the pressure of vomiting. I must've been too tough to handle for Hames.

I glanced down and my clothes and my eyes widened. It only hit my brain that I was in a baggy gown that had this hotel's logo on it when I woke up this morning. I didn't remember changing my clothes last night.

Hames had definitely brought me here. He couldn't have changed my clothes, could he? No no no. Holy cows, there was no way he could've done that.

I quickly poured the coffee into a mug, served it on a tray and began scuttling out of the kitchen.

I strode to him, placing the tray on the table in front of him. "Your coffee." I said.

He raised his head from his file, glanced at the coffee then dropped the files on the table before picking the mug of coffee and took a sip of it, ignoring its hotness.

"There's a lot to do. Don't just stand there doing nothing." He jerked his thumb in the direction of a pile of papers on the chair beside his. "You should first sort those out, arrange them in the right order then you know what to do next." "I'll do that but I have a question, Mr. Hendrix." There was no point in calling his name but I still did that.

"A question?" He quirked an eyebrow, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, go on," he took another sip.

"I know I got drunk last night and I genuinely apologize." I started.

"It was very stupid of you." He commented. Ouch, that was rude.

"I know. Firstly, I woke you this morning. I had a really terrible headache and I guess it affected my proper thinking but I only realized that I was not in the clothes I had worn last night." I drew my lower lip between my teeth. "Could you have perhaps... uh... did you call for someone to change my clothes?"

He sat up straight, taking another sip of his coffee. "You threw up in my car, you owe me for that. Your dress was ruined so I changed it for you."

My eyes bugged out of their sockets and my mouth went agape. I wanted to say something but nothing came out till I forced myself to scream, "what?!"

"Yes. I did, and you should be grateful I didn't leave you to sleep smelling like garbage."

"Hames, how could you?" I gushed, ignoring how rude I was being to my boss. I clenched my fists, wishing I could hit him with them multiple times.

He cast a glance at me, letting out a chortle. "I didn't, silly. A few women helped you out with a bath and new clothes. You're welcome." He took another sip of his coffee.

Relief flooded me like water from the beach filling an empty bucket. Was that simile sensible enough?

"Gosh," I placed my hands on my chest with a sigh of relief. "I was going to die of shock."

"Enough of joking and start working." His boss-tone was back again.

"Oh, sir. Secondly, the word 'she's my girlfriend' keeps ringing in my head." I said.

He glanced at me, "you must've heard it from someone passing by. Enough of talking, get back to work."

I turned around the table to the couch, beginning to arrange the files.

A phone suddenly started ringing. Judging from that ringtone, I could tell it was my phone. I turned around, glancing in the direction of the phone's ringing and spotted my phone on the stand beside Hames' chair. I had absolutely no idea how it got there.

"Your stupid phone won't stop ringing." He groaned. "Turn it off or I'll throw it out the window."

I imagined him throwing it out the window and that wasn't something I would like to happen.

I rushed to the phone, picking it up.

"Don't answer it." He ordered.

"But-"

"Do not answer the phone. We have a lot of work to do and I won't permit you to waste any time by having a phone conversation that's not important at all. You can save the chit-chat for later." His authoritative tone was damn annoying. I glanced at the phone's screen. It was Tyler calling. It was going to be very rude to ignore his call. "What if it's a very important, business-related call?"

"Then I'll permit you to answer it but I'm certain it's not, so switch off your phone." He ordered.

"See? It's Mr Tyler Jones calling. He's business-related." I turned my phone's screen to him.

He glanced at it and wore a frown. "You don't have wool blocking your ears, right? I said hang up and switch the damn phone off." He spat. "You don't have anything to do with Tyler. I'm sorting things out with the CEO of 'Friz and co.' Tyler was only a representative for that day and we have no business with him."

Not arguing any further, I hung up on poor Tyler and switched my phone off. Stupid Hames.

I dropped the phone on the table, at the same time Hames dropped the empty mug on the tray.

"Return the tray." He said in a gentle tone.

I picked the tray up, returned to the kitchen and dropped it, replaceing my way back to the living room to Hames.

I resumed arranging the files.

"Miss Mark," he called, gaining my attention. "In my room, in a briefcase, there are more files you'll have to add to this. Hurry."

A groan escaped me before I could control it, earning a glare from him.

"You're complaining?" He gruffed.

"No, I didn't, I'm not. How can I?" I forced a smile, turned around to leave for his room.

I opened the door to his room, flicked the switch on and scanned the room, searching for the briefcase with my eyes.

It was the first thing I spotted on a black wooden table in the room. Glad I didn't have to spend forever looking for it, I walked up to it, opened it to confirm if it was the correct one and yes it was.

I grabbed the briefcase, leaving the room immediately and returned to him. I sat on the couch, opened the briefcase to get the files out of it.

"We'll go for a meeting with Mr. Carter, as well as Kade and Jovi. We'll have to work so hard to get done with these paperwork because after the meeting, the work would be even more. We won't want things to be more bulky than they already

are.

Once again, a groan escaped me before I could control it. He frowned, opened his mouth to talk again. "I'm so sorry." I immediately apologized before he could hurl angry words at me.

He closed his mouth, picking an already arranged file then chuckled. Wait, he just chuckled. "You're so funny." He chuckled again. What was happening? Another chuckle? How was I so funny enough to make this grumpy devil in human body laugh?

He chuckled again, raising his head from the file to glance at me, letting another chuckle escape him. Soon enough, the chuckle turned into laughter. He laughed uncontrollably.

His laughter was starting to scare me because it absolutely didn't match his personality. I stared at him in wonder and it seemed to make him laugh even more.

As much as his laughter scared me, I had to admit that it made him look more handsome, hotter, and way more lively than the grumpy boss who looked like he was offended by sixty million people every minute.

He didn't seem like he was going to stop anytime soon and I could really do with watching an happy expression from him for the next few minutes or more.