10. A Big Slap

Anastasia gasped and closed her eyes briefly. She had never been so relieved in her entire life.

"Gosh. The feeling of being debt free can never be this sweeter." She gushed.

"Ma'am?" A calm voice called her out and when she turned, the mall attendant covered her mouth in shock.

"Y… y… you are Mr. Mateo's girlfriend?" The mall attendant questioned rhetorically and she nodded, trying to be careful and wondered how she was recognized even with the face mask on.

"Please, can I have a picture with you?" The mall attendant asked politely.

Picture of her? Who cared about her in the past? No, rather, who knew she ever existed before she met Mateo who brought her to the limelight?

Wow, such was life.

"I will…" As she removed her nose mask, she trailed off at the sight of Rose.

Rose was about to take the tissue from the up rack when she noticed the commotion and turned, to her surprise, she saw her friend.

"Ro… rose?" She stuttered in astonishment as Rose approached her.

"Wow. Good to see you, Mrs. Mateo." Rose's voice was filled with mockery and annoyance.

"Babe, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for keeping this whole thing a secret from you." She explained rashly.

"Oh? Yet you didn't call to explain yourself or say something?" Rose raised dissatisfied brows.

"I had my reasons." The mall attendant left when she noticed her conversation with Rose. Her eyes rolled around the corners.

"Can we talk?" She requested calmly.

"Talk? I'm sorry but I no longer have such time to waste with a wicked friend who doesn't trust me." Rose rambled with words in anger.

"I just apologized. At least, give me a chance to redeem myself." She cried out sadly.

"Fine!" Rose rolled her eyes sarcastically.

She was also anxious to know what was going on in her best friend's life.

"I know a cafe downtown that is less populated, maybe we could stay there?" Rose suggested cryptically.

"Sure. I'm cool with that." She nodded.

She paid for the few things she got with Mateo's debit card and also paid for Rose's items as they strolled out of the mall.

The bells around the door made jingle sounds as they stepped in.

Just as Rose had said, they had fewer customers which made Anastasia comfortable to take off her mask.

They made their way to an empty table after placing orders of coffee.

"Cold Americano."

"Warm Latte."

"So. I'm all ears." Rose didn't give her a breather.

"Okay, actually I met Mateo by chance and I told you that." She began. Rose listened and all she did was nod her head when necessary.

"After saving my life, I found out that he was Noah's boss." She informed her.

"Mateo's boss? Not that Lady, Eve?" Rose also looked surprised, just as Anastasia was when she didn't know.

"No, she's not the CEO of that company. It's owned by Mateo." She said.

"So, in order to get back at Noah, I went into contract with Mateo." She spilled bluntly and Rose almost sprouted the coffee.

"What?" Rose gasped in shock.

"You of all people? How were you able to strike a deal with Mr. Mateo?" Rose asked, utterly in disbelief.

"I… I just got lucky, who knows." She chuckled.

"That's why I couldn't tell you because it's a contract, I'm not allowed to let it out as the public think we are truly dating." She explained to her.

"Is that why that stray dog came to disturb my sleep? I honestly thought you intentionally did it. I mean, we are best friends and meant not to keep secrets between ourselves." Rose said.

"I'm sorry." She pleaded.

"Yeah, it's understandable. It's a contract thing and I know how scared you were not to let it out." Rose smirked and they nodded.

"So, does this mean we are cool now?" She raised an anxious brow.

"I wasn't mad at you. I only missed you." Rose paused.

"Especially when you promised to send me your address yet I didn't see anything." She fumbled, feigning annoyance.

"I'm sorry babe. You would be shocked if I had sent Mateo's house address to you." She laughed out loud.

"Tell me, how is Mateo treating you?" Rose asked, staring at her anxiously.

In YC cooperation, the staff seemed to be seriously working and walking about with documents.

Mateo angrily slapped a file on his desk as he stood up.

"What nonsense is this?" He screamed at Eve's face in anger and she shivered.

"I… I'm sorry, sir." She stammered.

"Sorry? What can fucking sorry do for me, Eve? We just lost three clients and almost half a billion!" He yelled at her.

"Please forgive me boss and give me a second chance." She begged, lowering her head.

"I gave you almost four chances now, Eve. This project took more than a week yet you still failed. Are you even capable for this job?" Aside from his loss, the fact that she also cheated with Anastasia's boyfriend to hurt her made his anger increase rapidly.

"No sir. I'm capable, sir." She shook her head.

"Then what? I pay you more than half of the staff in this company. All you do is party and have fun without caring for the company's failure or success. This is absurd." He faced her with his back, seriously disappointed.

"I'm so so sorry for failing you over and over again, sir." She began.

"I didn't know our loss would be this huge I…" Instead of apologizing and taking the blame, she was trying to make it sound as though the fault was from somewhere which annoyed Mateo.

"Interesting." He smirked and approached her.

"I think I'm done with you and your lies and your flaws which you're unwilling to change." He said seriously.

There was a knock on his door which he ignored. Unknown to him, the staff had already stepped in.

"Sir…" Eve's lips trembled.

"You are fired. Get yourself and your things out of my company." He said coldly, giving her a dirty look.

"Sir…" it was as though her entire life had crashed, she fell on her knees.

"WHAT?!" Papers fell on the ground and when they turned, it was Noah, staring at Eve in disbelief.

Wasn't she the CEO of the company?