I'm Your Sister, Brother Chow
Chapter 40: Homemade Macarons

"See you," Vivian said in a whisper, before handing the phone back to the receptionist. "Thank you. Can you please tell me where his office is?"

The receptionist came out from behind the counter and led Vivian to the lifts. "Take the lift to the 37th floor and then turn left. You'll see Assistant Ethan's office further down the hall," she said. "Make sure to be as quiet as possible. The chairman's office is connected to Assistant Ethan's and he doesn't like it when people are noisy."

"Their offices are connected to each other?" Vivian thought in a panic.

As soon as she heard what the receptionist said, Vivian found herself tensing up again.

With the receptionist's help, Vivian entered the lift and pressed the button for the 37th floor. Her heart wouldn't stop thumping loudly against her chest.

"It should be fine," Vivian thought, "Assistant Ethan said that Brother Chow wouldn't come out of his office. He wouldn't know if I kept my voice down."

As she stood outside Ethan's office, Vivian braced herself and knocked on the door, twice.

She heard Ethan's voice almost immediately. "Come in."

Vivian pushed open the door and was greeted by Ethan, who had just got up from his desk. "Hello, Miss Vivian, please make yourself at home."

Vivian gave him a tight smile and walked in quietly. The first thing she saw was another door right opposite Ethan's desk which had a name plate with 'Chow Howard' written on it.

Vivian felt even more nervous when she saw his name. She hurriedly handed the box to Ethan. "Please give this to Brother Chow for me," she said. "You can have some too. There's plenty inside."

Ethan saw her nervous look and decided to tease her a little. "Did you make these by yourself?" he asked. "I wouldn't dare to take any from him. You don't have to be so nervous, by the way. I've just sent in a stack of documents for him to sign. He won't be coming out anytime soon."

Just as Ethan said the last few words, the door to Chow's office suddenly opened with a soft creak.

Ethan and Vivian glanced over in deep shock.

Chow stood at the door with a document in his hands. He frowned when he saw the two of them together. "Vivian? What are you doing here?" he asked. "And why are you both standing so close to each other?"

Even Ethan could feel the chill down his spine when Chow looked at him with his cold eyes.

Ethan hurriedly took a big step backwards before walking over with the box of macarons. "Mr. President, here are some macarons that Miss Vivian personally made for you," he blabbered. "I was just about to send them into your office, but you came out right then. W-What a coincidence!" Ethan started laughing nervously.

Chow shot Ethan another look that made him shut up immediately.

Ethan scratched his nose awkwardly and suddenly thought of something. "Ah! There's something else I need to take care of right now. I have to leave immediately!" he said in a hurry. "Why don't the both of you have a nice little chat? It's teatime anyway and these macarons would make a great snack. Here, Mr. President!"

With that, Ethan quickly pushed the box of macarons into Chow's hands.

Chow's expression was still stoic and cold, but he took the box from Ethan nonetheless.

Ethan quietly breathed a sigh of relief. He then turned around and left the office in a hurry. All of a sudden, the office turned incredibly quiet. Only Chow and Vivian were left staring at each other in the silence. Chow's face was still showing a cold expression. It felt as if the temperature in the room had just dropped below zero.

Vivian felt uneasy as she waited for the other to say something. She fiddled with her fingers nervously.

Chow threw a sidelong glance at her before walking back into his office.

"Come in," he suddenly said, voice still icy as ever.

Vivian had intended to go home as soon as she'd delivered the macarons, but she dared not go against his orders now.

She followed Chow into his office with her head hung low, keeping a fair distance between him and herself.

Chow walked to his desk and turned to look at her. His face hardened when he saw her trembling at the door. "What are you doing, standing so far away from me?" he barked at her. "Come here!" Vivian immediately scooted over with a red face, still keeping her gaze lowered.

"Did you make these yourself?" Chow asked, looking at the box of macarons in his hand. He raised his eyebrow at her curiously.

Vivian nodded shyly. "I just learned from Aunt Blaine today," she answered in a low voice.

Hearing her words, Chow's face expression finally relaxed a little. He opened the box and was greeted with an array of colourful desserts.

Chow narrowed his eyes and looked at her with a hint of surprise. "You made these macarons? Are they even edible?"

Vivian didn't know how to answer him. She started stammering in reply. "I-It's my first time making them, I-I don't know—"

"So you mean that they must taste really bad?" Chow interrupted with a snicker.

Despite saying that, he still plucked a macaron from the box and lifted it to his mouth before taking a bite.

Almost instantly, the sweet aroma of the macaron filled Chow's entire mouth. He was pleasantly surprised that a first-timer could make such a perfect, crunchy, chewy macaron.

Vivian had initially been keeping her head down, but she still lifted her eyes to observe Chow when he bit into the cookie. She wanted to know what he felt about her macarons.

Chow quickly recomposed his expression when he saw her hopeful look and shot her a cold glance. "Just as I thought. It doesn't taste as good as Aunt Blaine's macarons. Tastes just like it was made by an amateur."

Vivian blushed in embarrassment when she heard him criticising her baking like that. She immediately reached for the box. "If it tastes terrible, I'll just bring them back home."

Chow's expression darkened at once. He held the box away from Vivian's reach and gave her a fierce look. "It's fine, I'm hungry anyway. They don't taste the best but it's better than nothing," he said. Vivian withdrew her hand and hung her head in shame. "I see... T-Then I'll let Aunt Blaine make the rest of the macarons next time," she said softly. "Her macarons are better than mine anyway." She missed Chow's suddenly scrunched up eyebrows.

He looked at the rest of the colourful macarons in the box and reached out to lift Vivian's chin. "Since you're bad at this, you're going to need a lot more practice. Make these for me every week. I'll personally check on your progress each time."

Vivian was ecstatic to hear that Chow still wanted to taste her macarons. "Really? Do you still want me to make them for you?"

Watching Vivian's undisguised excitement finally made Chow's furrowed brows relax. The coldness in his eyes also disappeared.

He let go of her chin, scoffed, and took another bite of the macarons.

The office was deadly quiet, save for the light crunching sounds of the macarons. They barely said anything to each other, but this was the closest they'd been in a few days.

Vivian had been longing to feel his warmth by her side for a long time.

However, when she thought of the fact that there were only the both of them in the office right now, she still couldn't help feeling nervous.

She exhaled deeply and finally spoke up. "Um, I still have some homework to do, so I'll be going home first," she said.

Without waiting for a response, Vivian turned on her heels and headed for the exit.

Chow's face fell as soon as he heard what Vivian had said. He quickly reached out to grab her wrist and tugged her into his arms. Vivian fell into his embrace with a low grunt.

As soon as she realised what had happened, Vivian struggled to break free. Just as she lifted her head to look at Chow, she noticed that Chow was looking deeply at her.

They fell into some sort of a trance as they continued staring into each other's eyes.

Chow swallowed the last of the macaron in his mouth. He had still been angry when he pulled her back, but now that he was looking into her nervous and frightened eyes, he suddenly felt the anger dissipate. Instead, he felt a warm, rippling effect coming from the bottom of his heart.

They looked at each other for a long time. Vivian suddenly thought that their positions were a little ambiguous and started flushing a deep red.

She kept blinking as she tried to free herself from Chow's arms again.

Chow felt flustered when he sensed that she was trying to flee. He suddenly pulled Vivian closer to him and dipped his head to place a firm kiss on her lips.

His lips still tasted sweet from the macarons earlier. It made their long-awaited kiss feel even sweeter than before.

Vivian stiffened in his arms. She let him pry open her lips with his tongue, shivering softly as the tingly feeling spread from her tongue to the rest of her body. They hadn't touched each other since that night.

It wasn't until they finally kissed that they realised how much their bodies really missed each other after being apart for days.

Chow held onto Vivian's cheeks and deepened the kiss even more. Vivian was literally melting into the kiss. They seemed to have forgotten that they were both still in an office in the middle of a work day.

A sudden knock at the door jolted them both back to reality. They were so immersed with each other that they'd both lost track of time.

Vivian shivered all over and looked towards the door.

When she realised that the door was slightly ajar instead of tightly shut, her face turned as white as a sheet.

This was Chow's office, not their private room at home. Anyone could come in and see them like this.

If others saw Chow hugging and kissing her like that, she didn't know how she could explain herself.

"Brother Chow..." Vivian said, tugging on Chow's sleeve in fear.

Chow didn't seem to be bothered even when he saw her frightened expression. On the contrary, he looked rather unhappy at being interrupted. "Who's there? Is that you, Assistant Ethan?" There was no response from the other side of the door.

Chow frowned and released Vivian from his arms. He walked up to the door and yanked it open, but his assistant's room was completely empty. There wasn't a trace of anybody else in the room. He walked back into his office with a thoughtful expression. "There's no one outside. Maybe the door just wasn't shut properly."