It was close to seven in the late evening when Grace stepped out of the boutique and climbed into her car. It took her a while to cook up reasons to explain to her designer why she was suddenly asking for such unexpected clothes, but eventually, she succeeded.
Considering the fact that she would be leaving the city in next two days and there was still a lot of supplies that she needed to buy, she decided to not return to her condo yet and headed to a factory making bedding essentials.
She ordered thermal sleeping bags, thermal blankets, fleece blankets, inflatable sleeping pad, air mattress, foam sleeping pad, foldable or rollable camping mattress, compact travel pillow, inflatable pillow, stuff sack pillow, flat cotton sheets, waterproof mattress cover, extra pillowcases, mosquito net, ground tarp, waterproof groundsheet, sleeping bag liner.
She also bought some miscellaneous supplies, such as - hand warmers, camping cot, foldable bed, hammock, bivy sack, and such.
Once she was done placing the order, she made the downpayment and left the factory. She then headed to several supermarkets to directly buy as many snacks, drinks, and instant food as possible.
She ended up spending more than three hours visiting six different supermarkets and buying around 50 pieces of each item from all these six places. Though it was nothing compared to the bulk supplies she had been hoarding, she was satisfied as she has already bought a small bulk of them previously.
By the time she finished, it was already nearing eleven and she was feeling extremely tired. She stopped by a restaurant on her way to the condo and ate her dinner there.
Half an hour later, she was stepping out of the restaurant. She then made her way to her condo. Once she was inside the house, she headed straight to shower. She ended up spending more than half an hour before she was dressed in a nightgown and had finished her hair, body, and face care routine.
Craving something sweet, she grabbed a tub of ice-cream from the fridge and settled down in the living room with her laptop, tablet, and phone to do a little bit more work before finally going to sleep.
She first opened the laptop and set it for downloading several playlists of her selected songs. Then she spent some time in replying to all the messages she had received from her team members. In the meantime, she enjoyed the ice-cream as well.
Once she was done replying, she picked up the tablet and started the real work. She first went to the website of one of her favorite winery and placed bulk order for all types of wines. She did the same for alcohol right after she was done ordering wine.
After placing the orders, she spent some time searching several things up to find perfect places from where she could buy some of the important supplies.
It was during that search when she ended up finding out that Parker Corporation was one of those places from where she could but medicines in bulk. All that she needed to do was to find a way to convince Mr. Parker to help her without asking many questions. But it was easier said than done.
She then set the tablet to download some books while she finished the ice-cream. It was past midnight when she closed both the laptop and the tablet and decided to head to bed.
She barely made it into the bedroom when she heard the doorbell breaking the silence inside her house. She was surprised as she wasn’t expecting any visitor or delivery at this hour of the night.
When the bell rang again merely ten seconds later, she finally found herself moving. She headed to the door and tried to look at the person outside through the door camera, but she saw nothing as if something... or someone... was blocking the lens.
Her survival mode kicked in immediately and her body became ready to attack if needed as she reached out to unlock the door. She pulled the door open, ready to attack or defend in case something went wrong, but she was left completely stunned when her gaze landed on the very familiar face of the man standing in front of her.
Her body froze for a moment and so did her brain as she stared at him. However, it didn’t take too long before she returned to her senses and quickly pulled the door to close it. She would have almost succeeded if not for the hand that reached out and stuck itself between her door and the frame to stop her from closing the door.
She watched as he pulled the door open with a strong force before stepping inside the house and closing the door behind him. She even registered the clicking sound of the door locking.
Everything happened so suddenly that she barely got enough time to process things, let alone react. But as if this wasn’t enough already, she watched his hands reaching out for her. The next moment, she found her body moving and then her back hit the hard frame of the door as he pushed her against it.
To make sure that she couldn’t walk away, he blocked her way with his own body as he came to stand way too close to her, towering over her as he looked down at her with those deep green eyes of his. He was standing so close, but wasn’t touching her at all. And yet, she felt him.
She should have shoved him away, walked away from there, and should have put some much-needed space between them, but she was completely frozen in place to even think about moving. All she did was stare at him and notice just how unhappy he appeared.
And she was the one who made him this unhappy - she knew it very well. She knew exactly what she was doing when she did it. What she didn’t expect was for him to fly all the way to her from a country hundreds of miles away.
"Mrs. Grace Parker, you have some explaining to do."