Were anyone to ask, Ariel would have loved to tell them that she had slept like a rock. That she had counted sheep all the way into dreamland the previous night. But that would have been a lie. She had tossed and turned until finally passing out at some point after midnight.
But even as she stood in her tiny kitchen that morning. She knew that whatever little sleep she had managed to get had not been restful in the least. Her entire body ached, a clear testament that she had been restless in her sleep as well. Which was to be expected. Not only had she spent weeks worrying about her brother and being harassed by a persistent loan shark.
Now she had spent the night worrying about the answer that she would give Tristan Asher. Unlike most people who in such a situation would have been worried about whether or not to say yes or no, Ariel had been worried about something completely different. Even as she had asked Tristan for a bit more time, she had known that she was going to say yes. What had kept her up at night was thinking about what that yes would entail. She would literally be tying herself to a man for the rest of her life.
Not just any man, but a rich and powerful man. The kind whose bad side you never ever wanted to be on. When she had come in the previous night, Ariel had been too wired to trust herself around the kitchen. Especially after taking care of her brother. So she had not touched anything. But that morning, she felt calm enough to work with food.
It helped that when she had knocked on her brother's door to check on him, she had gotten an actual reply instead of the silence of the past few weeks. As her mind mulled over what it would mean to be Mrs Tristan Asher, Ariel was not sitting still. Instead, she was moving around the kitchen collecting ingredients, flour, butter, sugar, vanilla...
Given what she was about to face. Ariel had decided not to open the food truck that day, but she was still making something. Easy shortbread cookies. She got the butter nice and fluffy and then she added in the flour bit by bit. Working the dough until it was just right.
Then while it rested in the fridge, she cleaned up after herself, removing the mess of white powder that the flour had left behind. By the time she was done making the kitchen presentable again. The dough was ready and she took out her heart-shaped cookie cutters and got to work. A few minutes later, she was crouched in front of her oven, watching.
When the cookies were ready, she did not need the timer going off to tell her. She was still glued to the spot watching so she simply took them out. While waiting for the results of her hard work to cool down, Ariel went to have a shower. And by the time she stepped back into the kitchen, this time in jeans and a simple shirt, her hair loose around her shoulders. The cookies were done.
She put some of them on a plate and set it aside for Peter. Milk and cookies might not have really help when it came to healing, but they were comforting. And the two of them could use a bit of comfort at that moment.
The rest of the cookies normally would have been eaten over several days. But instead of letting that be their fate. Ariel took out a yellow lunch box that had a little panda face drawn on the side of it.
Being very careful, she picked up the cookies, careful not to crumble them, and placed them inside. Then she gently slipped the lid shut. No doubt Tristan was used to eating desserts that were decorated with gold leaf just for fun. But for Ariel, food was a way in which she showed love, gratitude, sincerity, as well as all manner of other emotions. She hoped that the cookies she brought him would be enough for him to realize that in accepting his proposal.
She would honor it to the best of her abilities. Food ready, Ariel picked up the lunch box, placed it in her bag and made to head out the door. She hesitated briefly, looking over at her brother's still shut bedroom door. Part of her wanted to go in and check if he was alright again. To actually see him this time. But the sight of his bruised face was not something that she could handle so early in the morning. It would be too painful to see. She knew for a fact that he was alright because, even after his brief greeting through the door.
She'd heard him moving around while she had been baking. She got the feeling that just as she was avoiding him, he too was avoiding her. Throwing one last sad look at her brother's room, Ariel left the apartment. If what they had going on was something normal, Ariel would have expected Tristan to reach out to her to find out what she had decided. But not only did they not have each other's numbers.
Their situation was also abnormal. So in this case, Ariel was taking it upon herself to be the one to approach Tristan. Just as she had done the last time, she snuck into the Asher building without being caught. This time she simply followed behind an intern.
But halfway to his office, Ariel got a very uncharacteristic case of nerves. All of a sudden, she wanted to turn back. But then she remembered just how much trouble she was in, and she forced herself to keep going. Just like the last time, Ariel made it all the way to the top floor without being recognized. But it seemed that getting away with it the first time had made her let her guard down.
Just as she was about to enter Tristan's office, there was a hand around her upper arm and somebody yanked her back roughly, dragging her away from her destination.
"And just who are you to be entering the CEO's office without permission?" The voice alone made Ariel freeze up. And when she turned to see who it was who had grabbed her, she also felt goosebumps break over her flesh. A man with cold blue eyes stared down at her, and Ariel fought the edge to tremble. She did not scare easily. The fact that this man, without her even knowing who he was, got such a reaction from her made her very, very uncomfortable....and alarmed. The last person to scare her like that was madam Mo. So whoever this person was, they were very dangerous.
"I work here," Ariel said before she realized her mistake. She was in jeans and a shirt and was also wearing pumps in a building where stilettos were the order of the day. His lips pulled into what might have been a smile, but it showed too many teeth. The man looked her up and down slowly. Then when his eyes settled on her face, he smirked at her.
"Nice try, darling. But I know you do not work here. So I'll say it again. Who are you?"
"None of your business," Ariel replied, and she tried to pull her hand back, but he gripped her tighter. No doubt he was leaving bruises. Reaching for the hand that had her arm, Ariel clawed at him. But rather than letting go in pain, the man smirked even more.
"You have fight in you. I like that in my prey,"
Did he just call her prey?! Realizing that the man thought so little of her, that he was referring to her as though she were some part of the food chain to him. Ariel struggled in earnest as he began to drag her further away. 'No, no, no,' she kept saying to herself internally.
"Let me go, or I'll scream," She told him, glad her voice was calm, none of her internal panic showing. He threw her a look.
"Go ahead, you'll find very few people willing to help you here," He said it with such a self assured tone that it made Ariel pause. Was he being honest? She'd heard of such things happening, but surely that could not be true. Before she could work herself up into a panic, there was a crisp command from behind them.
"Let her go," Never in her life had Ariel thought that she would be so happy to hear Tristan Asher's voice.