"Derek, but what about my luggage and stuff?" Nova asked him when they both entered the penthouse.
"It will be here by tomorrow," he said and Nova could only stare at him.
How was this going to work? Nova couldn't help but wonder.
So, she stood there, waiting for some sort of command or something so that she would know what to do next, how to proceed on with this new living arrangement.
Nova knew that she had to tell her parents, and she had to tell them fast because if this was the speed Derek was going to keep this at, then she had to manage with it.
"Well, then, you can't be standing there for the rest of your life, now can you? " Nova looked up from her feet getting out of her thoughts, startled.
"I â What?"
"Come on in, your room is that way," he gestured taking off his coat which he'd looked rather good in tonight, she recalled.
"Yeah, right, I just, I'll be going in a minute," she said but still remained rooted to her spot for some reason.
But when Derek started undoing his tie and shook his neck while doing it, the scar came in direct light above his head. And Nova stood staring at it, admiring it, admiring him.
She dropped her bag almost unconsciously but stood there staring.
He noticed her of course, but Nova didn't back down this time, as if she was in some kind of trance.
And she knew she was in a trance when she advanced towards the male in front of her. As if she weren't in her own head and as if she'd changed bodies with someone who wasn't her. She kept on moving in his direction.
He tensed visibly, his jaws clenching slightly and brows furrowed and that guarded expression back at his face. But none of it was stopping Nova that day, she wanted some answers, answers about him, about her fiance.
She stopped right in front of him, her eyes dancing over every gorgeous feature of his, but never staying for long over his eyes. Those pools of blue were staring right at her too, and the intensity was something Nova could never force herself to bare.
Stopping at his scar again, she lifted her hand and almost immediately Derek's sharp intake of breath could be practically heard in the silent penthouse.
She stopped her hand midair for a few seconds but when Derek's eyes found hers after examining her hand for that while, she took another step closer. When their bodies were almost brushing each others, she journeyed her hand towards his cheek again and this time only stopped when it made contact with his skin.
His skin was warm against her rather cold hand, and he did not seem to like such invasion in his private space. But since Nova wasn't her in that moment, she didn't care. All she did was tilt her head and his head along with her hand and leaned in closer, to look at the scar from a closer distance.
Derek didn't like it, he didn't like it one bit and that was very evident with the way he forced his face back to facing her, taking her hand in his and dropping it at her side. His brows now we're even more knitted than before, jaw clenched tighter and before and it almost seemed like he couldn't breath and he couldn't get enough breath both at the same time.
"What," he let out breathily, closing his eyes then opening them again to continue, "do you think you're doing, Ms. Newton?" he asked, his eyes holding the same guarded glint.
"The scar," she said, only to have the male beside her turn into a statue.
"It's...Your face...You're â "
But Nova didn't get to complete her sentence for it was unclear what happened the exact next second.
One moment, Nova was being pushed, the second she was being pressed against a wall; the wall besides the door.
Eyes furrowed and hands trying to move, she figured out that she was in no state of getting away from him.
"Derek, wha â "
"Sh..." he stopped her, mid-sentence.
Now that Nova took notice of their close proximity, she was taken aback when she realised that Derek wasn't touching her. He was so close that he didn't have to touch her to make her feel his body.
Perhaps Nova should've listened to her intuition and her psychological calculations about him; Derek Adams wasn't a fan of people invading his personal space, or even touching him, without his consent. Besides, she still wasn't sure if she had been in her right mind while doing what she did.
"My love," Derek said then, eyes still locked to Nova's, his head bent low, lips almost touching her left ear, the right side of his face, the one with the scar that Nova found so appealing, almost brushing her left one. And since Derek wasn't a fan of touching, he didn't quite come close.
"It's time to get to bed, don't you think?" he asked in a whisper.
And just like that, she was brought back to reality. It was still beyond her as to why she wouldn't move away from him, though, when he hadn't even held her captive between the wall and himself. But when she registered his words, she pressed herself against the wall and away from him, from Derek.
"Where â ?" it looked like lately Nova was being answered even before she could complete her sentences because the next moment, Derek was away from her, her lungs suddenly functioning again. Derek, however, looked unfazed by whatever went down not mere minutes ago.
"Your room is right across to mine, so you don't have to worry about your personal space. It is, at the end of the day, just an act. And we don't have to act in our own house when there's no one, now do we?" he asks, his hand going over to the tie again.
He asked her that, in a way that made it sound like it was a warning and a reminder, both at once. Like he was cautioning her to be in control the next time so that she doesn't slip up.
She only nodded and before she could ask about her stuff he answered her.
"Oh, and by the way, some of your cloths are already in the closet, and most of the stuff will be here till tomorrow, so you don't have to worry about any of that."
"Goodnight, Derek," saying that Nova made her way to her directed room. But he didn't wish her back, just like he never did any of the previous times. Still, Nova smiled, but she was confused and curious, too.
What was this guy? Who was this guy?
Everyone had history, and Derek Adams sure had a pretty interesting one. But Nova wouldn't pry, because she never did. She would respect him; as her boss, as her fake fiance and as a person, a human being.
With that in mind, Nova went to bed after changing and taking a bath.
*
Since she wasn't sure of how things would proceed off, Nova decided to make breakfast when she woke up in the morning. She decided to make pancakes because pancakes were the perfect breakfast and because Alesso didn't make them enough. Glancing over at the hallway to see if there were any signs of Derek waking up or even being there, she looked down again in disappointment when she found none.
The last pancake was almost done when the door to Derek's room opened. Out he came, dressed in black pants and blue shirt. Even while being home and chilling, he dressed formal but not really as formal as he usually was.
Looking at him, it was plausible that he had been awake for quite a while now. Perhaps even before Nova woke up and she woke up at five thirty only to go to sleep again for the first time in so long. Then she woke up again at six and couldn't sleep again because she thought it wasn't good taking advantage of the free time she had. She was supposed to be knowing and making the story believable enough for people and there she was, sleeping late.
So when she saw Derek walk out with papers in hand, she just felt she did the right decision by waking up when she had time. Because if she had still been sleeping and he would have wondered where she was only to get into her room and find her sleeping while he still does all the work, it would not have been good for a image as a worker.
"Good Morning, Derek," she wished only to get a nod from him. It also didn't bother her anymore, it wasn't the first time he hadn't wished her back and it certainly wouldn't be the last.
"Breakfast?" she asked, placing the pancakes on the dining table.
That had his attention as he looked up from the papers and over at the pancakes she made. Then his gaze swept on her and she smiled at his slightly confused face.
"I made it since you weren't there and I didn't really have anything else to do," she told him placing the plates on the table and then pausing.
"It is completely fine if you've had breakfast, though. I don't mind eating alone," she told him, thinking of it as a possibility. It wasn't as if she hadn't been eating alone all this time when she lived alone in her house.
Derek still didn't reply, which was completely normal. It was as if he was in a silent mode this morning, though, because usually he would at least give her some kind of reaction. She should probably get used to it and maybe she was starting to. He was even more quiet than usual, and surprisingly, it didn't really bother Nova â she was just curious.
He sat down then, keeping the papers beside the plate she served him pancake on.
They began waiting in silence and it wasn't uncomfortable. When they were done eating and as Nova went to take his plate with hers, he stopped her hand and stood up taking both of theirs to the sink.
Before he could start rinsing them, Nova came beside him and stopped him.
"I can do it myself, you brought them to the sink, I wash them off. It's like a deal," she said to him then and he nodded, stepping away.
It was as if Derek wasn't behaving as her boss now, but as someone who was stuck with her, but she didn't pay her thoughts enough attention.
When she was done washing and began wiping her hands was the time Derek decided to speak up.
"These are the papers with our background story, read it and then we have to go to the company to get to know people and to see how things work," he said to her sliding the papers on her side of the table as she stood beside the table, across from where he'd been standing.
"I thought we weren't supposed to do that until a week or so," she thought out loud but was met with silence so she just took the papers and began reading.
It was their background story, the whole ruse planned out in those papers. All she had to do was read it, memorise it, take it in and act.
Derek was Mr. Watson's â Officer Penton's â son and due to age of retirement coming close, Adam â that is Officer Derek Adams â were going to be the next CEO in line. There were many ways this could blow off right on the first day, Nova doubted but she decided to read on. Questions can wait, they can be answered later in a bunch.
She read further ahead: Officer Mathur; Nova's fake father, were a very good friend of Mr. Watson's and they did business together as well. Because both the Misters were friends since a long time, Adam and Nova knew each other since childhood and so became best friends to lovers.
Nova was interning in Watson & Co., and Derek was getting a hold of things before all the burden gets transferred to him â this was what they were supposed to tell everybody.
The rest was the details and nature of their relationship, their lives and their background which was all fake but there were still a lot of things she needed answers to. So she decided to ask when she was done flipping through all the papers.
"I have read them," she says placing the papers back on the table and taking a seat herself. Derek looked at her like he was expecting her to continue and so she did.
"But I have a few doubts."
"That is what I am here for, Ms. Newton," came his reply.
Taking a breath in, she voiced them out.
"This says you are Officer Penton's â Mr. Watson's son and that you're going to take over the business but who's to say the workers will buy that. Won't they wonder who the new guy is? Claiming to be their boss and introducing his son to be the next in line? I mean, surely Officer Penton could not be there as Mr. Watson all this time so how are we â "
" â Pardon me for interrupting, Ms. Newton" he cuts her off, apologising. "But I feel like I ought to because that is exactly what has happened," he says now taking a seat himself in front of her.
"Officer Penton has been Mr. Watson for a while now, years to be specific. And I have been his son for as long. There was a case, for which he had to build up an empire and so Watson & Co. took birth and I had to meet him sometimes when he wasn't available so I went in his building and everybody was told that I was his son so that is all cleared out. You can carry on now, Ms. Newton"
Nova thought it through and it did make sense, so she began to voice out another query of hers.
"My father, as you know, is Victor Newton and I presume he is well known and maybe, so am I. What if someone knows we're lying even if I don't change my name because they know who I am and that Officer Mathur is not actually my father?"
"About that," says Officer Adams, "you were never Officer Mathur's daughter to begin with, Ms. Newton. You see, this was all a test up until now," he tells her and hearing that, Nova feels a kind of feeling that she's the most unfamiliar with: anger.
It isn't dominating, but its still there, and she doesn't want it to be overruling her judgement so she speaks what she should and not what she wants.
"So, I presume, I passed this one as well?" her tone is uncharacteristically chilly, but not too clear and if Derek notices it, he doesn't let it show.
"Yes, Ms. Newton, you have," he lets her know, nonchalantly. She has a feeling that he knows how she feels about the latest news that's been dumped on her and appreciates that he doesn't comment on it. Because she's not sure if he did what she'd do or say.
Next she asks him what about that whole story that's written on the paper about them being childhood friends and thus falling in love and he tells her that it's been taken care of. Apparantly, Nova and Derek had been childhood friends because Nova's father, the real one, knew Derek's father, the fake one, since way before. Derek said that they had confirmed the thing and that Officer Penton actually did know her father and her father knew him â albeit as Mr. Watson. He told her that he also knew that Mr. Watson had a son named Adam but he hadn't seen him which could be done since Nova was going to tell the truth to them and that could then easily be taken care of. Of course that also meant the identity reveal of Officer Penton but he'd said he was actually in favour of risking it.
All that about Officer Penton willing to risk it was well and good, but then it was Nova who had to take all the weight of breaking the news to her father and letting him know that he had to join in on this too. She knew it won't go well, her gut told her very clearly that it won't but Nova didn't tell Derek that. She just pursed her lips and looked ahead of where he stood.
"I think you should talk to your parents," his voice said then, taking her back to the penthouse and away from her parents' home where she'd been imagining herself dropping the bomb to them in their living room. "About this whole process, I mean. Because if they don't know and you come on the news with me, engaged, I don't really feel that the scene will be good," he says only making Nova angrier. She knew of course and she'd said that she would, didn't she? There was no need to keep reminding her of that. But Nova couldn't be angry, she had to keep her cool.
"I will."
And with that she was done for the day and in her room dialling her father's number to tell him to meet her.