15 Operation Corey (2)

Noelle stared at the wall clock hanging on the farthest wall, keenly observing the seconds' hand ticking by. She was herself seconds away from bursting with anxiety. She was worried that she might have pushed her luck a little too much, and that it might have overwhelmed Corey.

Whilst her eyes jumped back and forth between the clock and the exit where Corey had disappeared earlier, she was trying her best not to let her hopes down already.

'I shouldn't have come off too strongly before him.' Noelle thought to herself as she picked on the side of her dress with her nails. It was the first time in her life that she was actively making an effort when it came to a man. The man had a certain kind of pull within him that had Noelle fly closer to him like Icarus to the sun. She knew that there would be consequences to face for sure if she were to get involved with him, but she was willing to risk it. Moreover, there was no harm in getting to know the man.

Noelle didn't realize when she got so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear him coming back. It wasn't until she heard him clear his throat that she came back to the present.

Corey could only apologize to her after catching her off guard. "Apologies…"

"It's alright." Noelle shook her head. "I-I… I just had my mind elsewhere."

Corey took it as her hesitance to go ahead with their plan, and didn't waste another second in speaking his mind out. If there was a way for him to skip on their mini tour plans.Though he knew better than to be brazzen about it. As the saying went: once bitten, twice shy. He chose his words rather carefully.

"We can always reschedule if you are feeling under the weather." He kept his tone as low as he could while making sure that the words came out comprehensible enough for her.

"W-what?" It took Noelle a second to register the obvious meaning behind his words. She shook the hesitation off of her shoulders. Throwing caution to the wind, she spoke firmly. "No way am I letting you get out of this." She gave her head a firm shake, staring Corey right in the eyes. "Not unless you have something else you need to take care of." It would leave her devastated if the latter was the case since Noelle was looking forward to it all.

Seeing the look on her face, Corey immediately shrugged off the idea. The last thing he wanted was to cross the youngest Sundseth. Especially given the circumstances. Noelle was the only one he was in good graces with.

"I don't see the need to cancel our plan. I have already changed." Corey smiled at her nervously. "I hope the manager didn't give you a hard time in giving me an off. He seemed quite upset the last time I asked him for a day off."

"Oh no, he wouldn't want his arse to get fired." Noelle gave him a reassuring smile. "Now… lead the way." She added, stepping to the side.

Drawing in a deep breath, Corey began to head to the exit, keeping in mind not to rush with her steps. As much as he might dislike where things were heading, he was raised better than to disrespect a lady.

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A couple of minutes later, Noelle found herself sitting in her car with Corey in the driving seat. It was her idea to take hers for the short trip when he mentioned that they might need to drive to the spot.

What was going to be a short, twenty minute drive turned out to be twenty minutes worth of deafening silence. Noelle had tried to kill the eeriness a couple of times with some easy questions but she gave up after seeing how Corey kept his answers precise. They were too short for her to keep the conversation going. Heck! The man didn't even ask her anything in return and it was turning rather awkward.

Twenty five minutes later, Corey pulled the car into an underground parking lot.

"We have to walk from here, and there's practically no parking available where we are going. Will that be okay with you?" He turned to face her after killing the engine. "Or we can go elsewhere if you don't feel like walking around and taking in the city."

"It's cool with me." Noelle waved her hand in the air. "You think too much." With these words, she stepped out of the car, not forgetting to to tease the man a little. She popped her head inside, "are you going to come or you just gonna sit here in the parking lot?" Her face was supporting the brightest smile Corey had seen since the day started. As if Noelle was finally letting herself be free and letting go of all the worries she had otherwise weighing her down.

Corey was too awestruck by the sudden change in her demeanor to come up with a reply, but nonetheless he bobbed his head up and down in response. It would reflect badly on him to leave her hanging.

"Come on, then." Noelle beamed up.

Corey watched her shut the door before he stepped out to join her. With a deep breath in, he mustered up the courage to walk around the car.

"Shall we?" He began to lead the way out of the parking lot with Noelle falling in step with him.

"Are you always this quiet? Or do you have something against me?" Noelle began.

"It's not you in particular?" He shook his head.

"Then?" Noelle pushed further. She was not going to let it go until she had an absolute answer from the man. "Do you have something against rich people? Because I saw you conversing with your colleague just fine earlier." She was talking about the time they were leaving the hotel and a valet offered to drive the car up the front for Corey. Even when the latter kept on insisting that he was more than capable of doing it himself.

"Not necessarily…," he dragged. "I mean, I can not tell for sure who is good and who is not, but I tend to be wary of the rich." He waved his hands around in the air as he kept on talking animatedly. "But that's not the real reason."

"Then do tell me, please. What's the real reason?" Noelle looked over her shoulder, realizing how he had slowed down considerably.

"It's… umm…" He hesitated.

"It is what, Corey?" She was starting to get anxious.

"It's your gen… gender." The last word came out somewhat muffled; hence, he explained himself seeing the confusion in her eyes. "I am just not comfortable around women."

It took Noelle to register what he was hinting at, but the words flew out of her mouth before she could process them.

"Please, don't tell me that you are gay…"