Mr billionaire's regret chasing his irresistible wife by Gabby Emmanuel

When business gets personal

(ARIELLE'S POV.)

The air around grew awkwardly thin and very silent.

Neither of us knew how best to react to the situation. I looked around the parking lot for no reason in particular, marking the time until it was okay for me to leave without looking any silly than I felt for walking up to their car to begin with. Tiana looked even more flustered

than I imagined I'd appeared before them. Jared's lips were drawn in a stiff line.

"Arielle.. we umm.. I.. Good morning," he managed to find his voice with a terrible stutter.

"I guess we'll just continue this conversation when you return," Tiana shrugged with a placating smile.

Jared ignored her comment and climbed down from the car. He had a stern face when he spoke up again. "I've just ordered you a ride, Tiana. Go back home."

I took the hint and excused myself from the side of the car. Jared fell into stride beside me as we walked across the parking lot to the entrance of my restaurant.

"...Hi," Jared tried to start a conversation. But I grunted an inaudible reply as I doubled my pace.

"Woah. Slow down," he said with a cheesy smile.

I only slowed down at the entrance to the restaurant and he caught up with me.

"What's up with you though? You're acting funny," he tried teasing.

I couldn't help myself. "I don't know... Am I in some sort of trouble now that your fiancée knows where you've been for the last couple of days?" I shot back, layering as much sarcasm into my words as I could manage.

I didn't need to look at him to know I'd hit a sore spot. His frown was practically visible without me turning around. But did I care? Not at this moment.

"I was gonna explain things

to their greetings and ignored Jared completely, as I made small talk with one of them even though I barely knew the

in hearing it, Jared. Let's keep our conversations strictly related to our

flash of hurt on his face as I turned around to let myself

were already seated in the room. They both sprang up from their seats the moment I walked in with Jared and echoed

on from the awkward start to the morning and had my head wrapped up in the course content. I took out

usual authoritative tone filling the room. "Alright, morning, class. We'll keep today's session brief. Yes, my time costs money, and I don't like to waste it." He gave me a quick, pointed glance, then turned to the others. "Anyone care to share

through his notes before answering. "Sure. Since we started, we've covered two main topics: financial health and strategy, and marketing

his expression remained serious. "And

making projections using financial metrics," he began. "And branding... well, it's about building a consistent image and identity for a business, especially through marketing

head. "Not bad. But you were clearly reading off your notes," he teased. "Try not to rely on them so

smoothly, "In more detail, we've been focusing on understanding profit margins, analyzing cash flow, and making projections based on financial metrics,

time is valuable, so why don't we just get to it?" I replied, keeping my tone

leaned back, crossing his arms. "I'd

singling out one person when

exchanged a glance, and the room fell into an uncomfortable silence. It

know, Arielle... I think you've been running your business a bit inefficiently lately," he said, his tone sharp but not unkind. I raised an eyebrow. "You're offering to help with that, remember? Where are

said. "What have you

sure whatever he was doing from this point was out of pure malice,

are in the last

I smiled gratefully

look of triumph. I scrolled through my tablet

the balance sheet

but I wasn't about to let Jared get away with pointing out flaws the sake of it.

report.

the

what have we here? Just one look at this and I could tell where you spend a little too