Chapter 471 Secretive Destination

“How’s work?” he asked the moment that I got in his car.

“Busy. Super busy but I guess that just means that the business is doing well,” I replied.

“Guess Elizabeth is doing a good job. It’s high season now for our industry so the tough part will come around in three or four months from now. We’ll really see how she does then,” Ace replied with a chuckle before he started driving.

“How was your trip?” I asked brightly.

“It was alright..” he replied without providing any details.

“What did you do with your friends?” I asked curiously.

“This and that..” Ace replied vaguely. historical

“You’re really not going to tell me anything?” I asked while trying to keep my tone teasing and light.

By that time, I thought that I had been patient enough in waiting for his answers. I gave him the time away that he seemed to need without asking any questions because I didn’t want to nag him.

“Where should we go for dinner?” he asked casually to steer our conversation away from what I really wanted to talk about.

“No idea. I’ll leave it up to you,” I replied.

“I think I know a good place but it’s a quite far from here. Are you hungry?” he asked with a slightly worried look on his face.

“Let’s go there. I’m not hungry yet anyways,” I answered him truthfully.

At that time, I was too curious about what kind of trip Ace went on with his friends and why he was so secretive about it. My body did not long for food at all and my mind was busy thinking about what I could do to make Ace answer my questions about this trip. I knew pretty well by that time that asking him the same questions again wasn’t going to get me any closer to my answer.

..

Ace was right about the restaurant where he wanted to take me being far from the office. After quite a drive, we somehow ended up in the neighborhood where I grew up. I never knew that there were any famous restaurants in the area but that might be because of the fact that we almost never ate out at all because it was too expensive for us to afford. Eating my mother’s cooking and ordering some basic food was much cheaper than dining out at fancy restaurants.

“This is quite close to my mother’s place..” I murmured as I looked out of the car’s window.

“Should we invite her out to dinner with us?” Ace suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea but I’m sure that she’d already eaten by this time,” I replied regretfully.

My mother would have been very surprised to see us suddenly drop by. That made me feel slightly guilty for not returning back home to see her more often. The merger only made everyone busier at work and travelling back home felt like something that was always in the back of my mind that I never got around to doing.

“Maybe we can drop by to say hi to her after we’re done with dinner. It’s been a since you last saw her, right?” Ace guessed quite correctly.

“That sounds good,” I replied with a smile.

“We’re almost there,” he announced as he took a turn.

“I honestly never knew that there were any noteworthy restaurants around here. I mean, you did drive all the way here, so this place has got to be something, right?” I asked in wonder.

“I’m not so sure about that but I guess you will see for yourself soon enough,” he replied while not sounding so confident.

I grinned at him when I thought that he might have driven us both all the way out here just to enjoy some bad food. Regardless, I did enjoy spending time together during the drive and Ace’s company during dinner would be more important to me than the taste of the food served anyways.

“Is this the place?” I asked curiously as I looked out the window when the car came to a stop.

I didn’t think that there was a luxurious or super flashy restaurant in the neighborhood that I grew up in, but the building that stood in front of me didn’t even look like a restaurant at all. On top of that, the way the entrance seemed to be sealed off told me that the place was still under construction.

“Yup, this is the place,” Ace announced before getting out of the car.

I got out of the car while feeling even more confused than before. The building wasn’t large, but it was big enough to be called a building. It was clearly newly constructed and didn’t look fully completed yet. Although some parts of the exterior were still covered up, there was something about the building that made it look kind of familiar to me. It felt like I had seen a building like this somewhere before, but I couldn’t quite figure out where.

“Did we come for the pre-opening party or something like that?” I asked.

“Something like that. Follow me,” Ace replied casually before taking my hand into his.

I let him lead the way into the building without asking any further questions. Everything looked sparkling new and the building smelled so new inside. To my surprise, there was no one else there except for us but it didn’t surprise me that the building itself was empty inside as well.

“Are you sure that we’re at the right place? It doesn’t look like there’s a restaurant here..” I murmured as I looked around.

The interior of the building hadn’t even been decorated and there was actually no furniture inside as far as my eyes could see. I wondered where we were and why Ace had bothered to take me there.

“Let me take you on a little tour before dinner,” Ace said before he smiled at me.

“A tour? What is this place exactly?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

“Come along and I’ll show you,” he replied before flashing me a charming smile.

--To be continued..