Lake let her come to her own conclusions about why he might need to cover up his mating mark, providing no further details.
"Silk hair ties might be an unconventional choice but it covers up more than a choker and can be a classy accessory." She recited.
Lake could completely see what she meant and he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought about it earlier, or even a choker.
"I’ll take two packs of them in all black," He immediately said, unfazed by the slightly inflated price.
Master Davian’s money was going to be paying for this so he could get to be generous with it.
"Would you like to try one on first?" The employee kindly suggested.
And Lake gratefully took her advice because that was what he should have done first thing.
He took the strip of black silk she gave to him, staring at her blankly for a few minutes.
"Don’t I get a dressing room?" He cocked a brow.
The employee nearly jumped in surprise. "Right, right. I apologize." She mumbled, her head bowed as she took him to a dressing stall.
She had been so focused on seeing the mating mark he wanted to hide so much that she had forgotten herself.
And the reddening of her face showed that she was at least a bit embarrassed by that.
There were mirrors on the walls of the store so he could get great angles of whatever he was trying on.
Lake took the scarf off, constantly keeping his fresh mating mark covered wasn’t fun.
It meant that fabric kept scraping across the tender skin, leaving it a soft and slowing down the healing time.
But beggars couldn’t be choosers so he would have to endure it - at least he didn’t have to keep it covered in the safety of his apartment.
Lake tied the silk hair tie around his neck, the smooth fabric cool against his skin.
Because it was closely pressed to his skin, there was a lot less friction than when he covered up with scarves.
He tied the knot on the other side of his neck and it looked very inconspicuous.
A little preppy but it didn’t stand out as much as the scarf did and that was all he needed.
Lake threw on the scarf for good measure, the silk tie protecting his mark from the fabric.
"It works. Thanks." He said to the employee who he went to find after stepping out of the dressing stall.
Lake took his new purchase and walked right back to his apartment, intending to spend the rest of the day sleeping some more.
He might even splurge - with Master Davian’s money - and get himself takeout.
Davian had no reason to spend the day at the mansion, but he did anyway and now he was brooding in his study.
He had a business trip to go on the next day - and against his rationality - he considered taking Lake along.
Now, there were several things wrong with that; the very first one being that, taking a maid on a trip was ridiculous.
Being alone with Lake in a confined space was also terrible decision-making on his part, and that was what would happen on the trip.
The Omega would basically be no more useful than luggage because he would have absolutely no duties.
Davian just wanted his company and so he was thinking of ways to achieve that.
But that couldn’t even happen because Lake hadn’t even come in to work that day.
At first, he had panicked, convinced that the Omega had run off again and he would never see him after their dinner last night.
But Arthur had grudgingly told him that Lake had sent an email taking the day off.
He could tell the butler disagreed with how he had handled Lake’s punishment.
But if he gave a damn about what Arthur thought, then he wouldn’t be the butler.
Clearly, all he felt towards Lake was guilt, and a need to remedy his wrong.
So he wouldn’t question why that somehow translated to wanting to take Lake on his business trip with him.
When he had remedied his slight against the Omega, he would know, because his sudden interest in him was sure to fade.
Besides, his life was monotonous and boring, so it was a pleasant change to do something different every now and then.
Davian worked on autopilot for the rest of the afternoon; dealing with files and crunching numbers was the easy part.
It was also a good deal of what he had to do daily, so it was monotonous and numbing but he didn’t mind it.
He preferred to be in complete control of the books, he didn’t keep a personal accountant for that very reason.
Everyone reported directly to him, and that meant that his schedule was constantly full.
But Davian wanted it that way, he preferred it that way because it kept him too occupied to focus on anything else.
It was why Lake was such an oddity, because even through his constant brain fog and keeping himself busy, thoughts of the Omega still persisted.
He still didn’t have his complete memories of the night his rut had gone haywire and that bothered him.
Because he felt like there was something very important that he wasn’t remembering.
It felt like something very important was missing, and that was part of why he felt drawn to Lake.
He would never ask the Omega to retell what he had gone through, but he hoped that if he remained in close proximity, it would trigger the rest of his memories.
Davian’s trip was only a few days long, he had never not gone on a business trip before but for the first time, he really wanted to cancel or postpone it.
He didn’t though; and when he came back his first course of action would be to pay a visit to his doctor.
Maybe right after making absolute sure that Lake had returned to work at the mansion like he agreed to.