A Graduation Gift

Not a single word came out from Cassandra's lips. This caused an unbearable silence to fill the air in the room. The smile Rufus
had been wearing, got swept away from his face when he looked at Cassandra. But she just kept quiet, appearing to be so
dejected.
"Is there something bothering you, Cassandra?"
Rufus asked, thinking that there must be a reason why she seemed to have been laden with anxiety in front of him.
"Rufus, what is your excuse for keeping things from me? Haven't we already made a deal to always be honest with each other?"
Those words Cassandra laid out were much like a frozen sword, driven straight into Rufus's chest, piercing right through his
heart.
"What do you mean by that, Cassandra? What are you implying?"
Rufus seemed quite puzzled, as he was under the assumption that he had actually told Cassandra everything already. So, why
would she even say that? Surely, there must've been some kind of misunderstanding.
Cassandra's lips twitched a bit, and she let out a faint smile upon hearing this.
She had gone this far already, so for that reason, Rufus should have come clean and straightened things out.
"The qualifications written under your resume weren't real, and you didn't really have any experience working as a senior
executive of an overseas company. As it turns out, you're actually the founder of the TY Group, and yet, not once did you ever
mention anything about that to me."
It took the best of her to keep herself calm, to keep her voice down, and to keep it from breaking. But no matter how hard she
tried, she just couldn't hold it in, her voice was suddenly shaking.
She clenched her fists so tight that her nails were beginning to dig right onto the palms of her hands, to such an extent that they
could actually pierce through if she didn't stop. The pain that it caused her, however, was nothing in contrast with how much she
had been hurting deep inside, which was eating away at her, so much so that she was getting out of breath.
Upon hearing her saying that, Rufus furrowed his eyebrows intensely.
"Who told you that? And did he ask you for anything?"

He had been keeping a low profile in order to mask his real identity. For that reason, he declined the offer to be the
spokesperson of G City decisively. The deeper in the shadow he was, the safer he would be. But right there and then, someone
purposefully revealed his secret to Cassandra, making things much more intricate.
His actual reason for coming to this city was to avenge his mother. Cassandra was never really involved in his plan, and her
entering his life was something he never anticipated. He fell in love with her and didn't want her to get caught up in his mess. It
was dangerous and he could never risk letting her get hurt.
That being said, now that she was privy to his best kept secret, it was clear as day that she didn't simply find out about it by pure
coincidence.
"Why should it matter who told me? They didn't bother trying to hide it from me and just said it straight to my face. Could it be
that your intention for hiding that information from me was because you detest the idea that it would make me hang onto you like
a sloth? Or maybe you got scared that I might cling tightly onto your leg and never let go."
The tone of her voice was starting to get much colder, because Rufus refused to give her a direct answer. A guilty conscience
needs no accuser.
"Yes, I'm admit that I was afraid. I was so afraid that you would be so reluctant to keep holding on to me."
Rufus abruptly burst into laughter. But instead of his laughter dying down, it just kept on getting louder and louder. It lasted so
long that it almost seemed as though there would be no end to it.
Without a doubt, Cassandra had been letting her imagination run wild. Such an innocent woman she was! She was getting upset
over nothing, because there was no way in hell he would ever want to break her heart.
Walking over to where she was, Rufus stretched out his arms to grab Cassandra. But before he got any closer to her, she
immediately shot up and took a step back, steering clear of any form of physical contact between them.
With her gaze fixated on the person smiling at her, from what she could remember, looking back, he was able to resolve most of
their arguments in the past through 'physical contact.' But this time around, she wanted to keep her eyes peeled, staying within a
safe distance between the two of them until he gave in and presented her a proper explanation.
"Are you being serious? You're scared of me? Come on, I won't swallow you whole! I don't bite!" Rufus teased after seeing her
reaction.

The way Cassandra reacted caused his heart to start racing. It had been so long time since the last time he was able to wrap his
arms around her. Sadly, even though she was close enough for him to touch, he still wasn't able to satiate his thirst for her.
Taking one big gulp, Rufus reflected on the thought of not letting her get away from his clutch any longer.
This prompted Rufus to take another step forward and move toward her, with Cassandra walking away from him instantly. They
could've kept going on like that if it weren't for the bookshelves right behind her. With her back against the shelves, she peered
straight into his eyes.
"Rufus, I hope you're not forgetting that we're inside my office right now!"
Every fiber of Cassandra's being was shivering, and her voice was shaking akin to leaves rustling in the wind.
On the other hand, Rufus couldn't avoid being taken aback at the sight of such a helpless expression embedded onto her face.
"I'm aware of that, but I don't really think anyone would be coming back at this hour!"
Rufus was inching closer and closer that Cassandra could already feel his warm breath brushing against her cheek, making her
feel as if she was a turtle in a jar.
Rufus leaned in a little and rested his forehead on hers. It seemed that seeing the look she had on her face was more than
enough for him.
He knew her quite well. There was no way she would ever admit defeat unless he displayed his masculinity.
"I hope you can believe me when I say that I never really had the intention to keep anything from you. The reason why I haven't
told you anything about it before was because I honestly thought it had nothing to do with the two of us and our relationship."
Instead of teasing her still, Rufus began to explain his side of the story, and as for Cassandra, she just remained frozen in place.
Truth be told, she was actually expecting him to simply brush it off or change the subject in some way only to never talk about it
again. That being the case, she had already resigned herself to give up on the idea of pressuring him to spill the beans. So, she
was left utterly dumbfounded when he brought it back up himself.
"But then, is there even anything that concerns the two of us?"
Cassandra murmured under her breath, and bowed her head to avoid looking him in the eyes.

She tried to see things the way Rufus did. To him, everything that had been happening was just the flow of nature, and that was
about it, nothing more, nothing less. He just tended to brush it off so easily whenever there was something that was bothering
him.