Bedmates Soulmates
CHAPTER 243

What was he doing here?

She looked up furtively, hoping to see Austyn leave, but her eyes met with his.

She immediately looked down, almost burying her face in the tray.

'Please don't let him see me. Please don't let him see me...' She muttered.

'May I join you?' A low, deep voice sounded next to her table.

The speaker was being polite, but Kira knew his sentence was more of a command than a

request.

Kira gnashed her teeth.

'He's doing this deliberately!' she thought.

She turned down Kai's request to go up to the 48th floor.

Five minutes later, Austyn showed up at the cafeteria.

It was hard not to take this as an act of retaliation, and a childish one at that...

What on earth was he thinking?

There were four people at the table-Kira, Lexi, Vanessa and Dan.

Kira was staring at her linguine with bacon.

Vanessa was blushing furiously.

Dan was tongue-tied.

Why The Long Face

Only Lexi retained enough of her composure to say, 'Yes, of course. Please join us!'

She sprang to her feet and pulled out a chair for the president.

Austyn sat down across from Kira.

Employees at the other tables nearby stomped their feet, disappointed.

'I hear there are some complaints about the cafe on the twelfth floor,' Austyn said by way of explanation.

His voice rang out clearly.

'So I decided to come down and take a look for myself."

He pointed to his assistant. 'Kai here will be going from table to table, collecting feedback about the café, if any. Please feel free to share your views.

Kai held back a sigh and whipped out his tablet.

He had not known about this task, but a smart assistant knew when not to ask questions.

Austyn swept his eyes over the crowd hanging on to his every word. 'Please, as you were."

The employees retracted their gazes reluctantly and returned to their lunch.

Kira's head snapped up when she saw a sudden flash.

Austyn scowled.

Lexi glared at her colleague. 'Vanessa!"

'Sorry, sorry.' Vanessa blushed.

She was holding up her phone.

In her excitement, she'd forgotten to turn the camera flash off.

'Delete the photo!' Lexi said through gritted teeth.

It was a stupid thing to do, taking photos of the president secretly.

Even stupider to get caught in the act.

Lexi was anxious.

What if the president was offended?

'I'll delete them right now,' Vanessa said sheepishly.

She just wanted a memento of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

She was sitting at the same table as the president, the man of her dreams!

"It's fine,' Austyn said, 'as long as you don't circulate them publicly.

Kira hid an eye roll..

T

The man was such a good actor.

She knew how much he loathed having his pictures taken in public, but he put on a convincing act in front of his employees.

'Oh, okay!' Vanessa held her phone to her chest. I understand. I won't leak the photos to the press, I promise! I'll put them in a special album, password-protected. Thank you so much, Mr McCarthy!' Her colleagues gawked at Vanessa, who was gushing like a fangirl.

Austyn smiled politely before turning his attention to Kira. 'You've hardly touched your lunch. Is the food not satisfactory to you?'

He donned a serious look. 'Would you care to offer some feedback?"

Everyone else at the table looked at Kira.

She raised her head and plastered on a smile. 'Uh, no, Mr President. The food's fine. Everything's fine. I have no complaints. "Then why the long face?"

'I'm....I'm just nervous to meet you. I'm a little overwhelmed. That's all.'

Austyn's eyes twinkled with amusement.

'It seems that I should come down to the staff café more often. I don't want my employees to be scared of me."