"Ingrid Howard, she is the Executive Vice President here, right?" Paul responded. Clifford's instinct says that Ingrid and this man have some connection in the past and he must know what it is as soon as possible.

"Oh, Ingrid, yeah... she is the EVP and the, my, uhm..." Clifford paused and realized that he was driven by some strange emotion that he could not stop bubbling over something which could somehow ruin his developing relations.h.i.+p with Ingrid.

'woahh.. hold it, man! He may be just an acquaintance.' He consoled himself.

"She's what, Cliff?" Vanessa's tone sounds like a jealous woman as if Clifford needs some explanations to do. Vanessa feels that there's something going on between Ingrid and him.

"Uh, nothing..." Clifford ignored the woman's query and redirected it back to business. "Is there anything you want that I could a.s.sist you of?"

"I think there's none for now..." Vanessa looks at her watch and acted shock by covering her mouth and said, "....oh, but look! It's almost lunch time. Let's have some lunch, Cliff?" Vanessa's stared at the man viscously but then Clifford just evaded her luscious acts.

"Sorry, but I already had a lunch date appointment, Miss Riley." He politely declined and his tone becomes stiff and reserved.

"Is that so? Pity..." Vanessa acts as if hurt of his refusal, and then she reached out Clifford's left hand that is on his lap, "... please do call me Vanessa, Cliff." But Paul interrupted Vanessa's advances

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Briggs. I am hoping for more meetings and please do send my regards to Ingrid, and please do tell her if hope we could have some time to hang out just like we did before." The man smiled confidently.

Vanessa started to get annoyed with Paul, 'why does he keep on talking about that woman!' her thoughts were screaming and wanted to scratch Paul's face.

Clifford slightly narrowed his eyes and is really tempted to ask the man's relations.h.i.+p with Ingri but he prevented himself.

"Oh, yeah, I'll tell it to her in person. Will that be all?"

Vanessa felt dejected when she sensed that Clifford wanted them to leave already. Her plan to get Clifford's attention failed, again.

"I guess, that will be all, for now... Hope to see you again, Cliff and by that time, I hope we could have more time to talk, perhaps?" the woman smiled seductively.

Clifford did not say anything but just stood up and gentleman that he is, he ushered the visitors outside his office and he instructed Gary to escort them to their car and bid farewell.

Vanessa wanted to say something or kiss him on his cheeks again but he left right away and went to another direction.

"Where is he heading?" she mumbled, which Gary overheard.

"Do you mean the CEO, Miss Riley?" the woman nodded.

"To the EVP's office, I believe."

Gary's eyes s.h.i.+ne unsteadily as he thought of the changes and progress his young master is showing, but he also did not fail to notice the clenching of the woman's hands and the narrowing of his eyes when she heard his answer.

"Oh, that means that he will already send my regards to Ingrid? That's fast. I like it!" The man smiled maliciously.

Gary did not know what to say anymore, so he just kept quiet and observed the two of them.

.....

Instead of going back to his office, Clifford goes directly to Ingrid and invites her for lunch. He lied earlier to his visitors of having a lunch appointment because he wanted to spend his lunch time with Ingrid. He also felt uneasy earlier with Vanessa and most especially with Paul Keller.

When he reached Ingrid's office, her secretary is not around so he knocked on the door and then automatically entered the office. He saw that Ingrid was so engrossed with her work. He looked around and his eyes caught a bouquet of flowers carefully placed at the center table.

"Ingrid, who gave you this?" Ingrid jumped on her feet when she heard Clifford's voice.

"Geez, don't you know how to knock? You are giving me a heart attack!"

"I did knock, your secretary isn't around, so I went inside. Who gave you this?" he asks again and pointed out the flowers. This time his voice seems irritated and upset.