Chapter 20 Do You Love Me? #2
Inside the glass-walled conference room, a presentation moved steadily across the large screen.
Senior executives sat in disciplined rows around the long table, their attention fixed forward, their expressions carefully neutral.
Every movement was restrained. Even the faint sound of a page turning or a pen shifting felt too loud in the stillness.
At the head of the table, Cassian sat perfectly composed.
One hand rested near the documents in front of him, posture straight, expression unreadable as his eyes followed the presentation without giving anything away. He looked in control—completely detached from anything that might disrupt him.
Until his phone rang with a specific ringtone.
His gaze shifted instantly.
Juliet.
Without hesitation, Cassian picked up the phone and answered, bringing it to his ear as the room subtly shifted—executives pretending not to notice, though every one of them had. No one dared react openly.
“Hello,” he said.
On the other end, Juliet’s voice came through bright and soft, carrying a warmth that felt completely separate from the rigid atmosphere around him.
“When are you coming home?”
Something in Cassian’s expression eased before he could stop it. The tension in his shoulders loosened by a fraction, so subtle it would have gone unnoticed by anyone who didn’t know him well. His grip on the phone softened as well.
“Three hours later,” he replied quietly.
A small pause followed.
Then Juliet spoke again, her tone lighter now.
“Alright then… I’ll wait for you. Come home early. I really miss you.”
His gaze lowered slightly, and his fingers tightened faintly around the phone before he forced himself to relax again.
When he finally spoke, his voice had dropped a shade lower. “Did something happen? Do you need anything?”
There was a brief silence on the line.
Then Juliet’s tone shifted—still soft, but now edged with irritation.
“What kind of question is that? I can’t just miss you without something happening?”
Cassian’s eyes flicked down to the table, then briefly across the room.
Only then did he fully register it.
Every executive was watching him.
The realization was immediate—and so was the reaction. Heads turned away at once. Papers were adjusted unnecessarily. Screens suddenly became fascinating. Anything to pretend they hadn’t been listening.
Cassian’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
“That’s not what I meant,” he said more carefully, leaning back slightly in his chair as he turned his body just enough away from the table. His voice dropped lower, controlled again, but less sharp than before.
Juliet didn’t let the moment pass.
“I’m your girlfriend,” she said, softer now, but stubborn. “Of course I miss you when you’re not here. Don’t you miss me too?”
Cassian didn’t answer immediately.
Then he exhaled slowly, eyes still averted. “I can’t talk right now. We’ll talk when I get home.”
“No. Say it. Say that you miss me.”
The reply came instantly.
Cassian’s fingers tightened around the phone again.
Juliet’s voice didn’t rise, but it sharpened. “I’m just asking you for one thing, and you’re already trying to end the call. Why are you ignoring my question?”
Cassian’s fingers tightened slightly around the phone, knuckles pressing faintly as though he was holding onto control rather than just the device. For a brief moment, his gaze drifted back toward the meeting room almost on instinct.
Everyone was watching him.
Executives who had been sitting with disciplined composure only minutes ago now carried a subtle restlessness in their posture.
Some leaned forward too slightly, some sat too still, all of them pretending not to notice while doing nothing else but noticing.
Their attention no longer fully belonged to the presentation.
It kept slipping—inevitably—back to the man at the head of the table.
Whispers had already started, passing between colleagues without lips moving too much, without anything that could be traced back to them. Curiosity sharpened every glance. Everyone was circling the same unanswered question—who on the other end of that call could make Cassian Han nervous like this?
When Cassian lifted his eyes again, the entire room reacted as one.
Heads lowered instantly. Papers were adjusted with unnecessary precision. A pen was picked up, set down, picked up again. Screens suddenly became the most interesting thing in the world. Even the presenter near the screen had gone completely silent, frozen mid-transition.
But the silence didn’t help.
If anything, it made everything more obvious.
Because Juliet’s voice still carried faintly through the phone, threading into the room like something too intimate to belong there.
“No, I don’t think you miss me,” she said, her tone lightly accusing, but softened by something almost playful underneath it. “Look at you. You can’t even say something so simple. Don’t you like me? You’re my boyfriend, Cassian. You should be able to say it.”
Cassian’s jaw tightened.
Just slightly.
Almost invisible.
There was tension in his shoulders, restrained and contained, yet beneath it something quieter lingered—an unwilling softness he refused to acknowledge openly.
Juliet didn’t give him space to recover.
“I like hearing it from you,” she insisted, her voice growing more persistent, like she was closing in on something she absolutely intended to get. “Just say it.”
Cassian exhaled through his nose, slow and measured, tilting his head slightly away from the table as though that small shift could separate him from the dozens of eyes he could feel without looking. His voice dropped lower when he finally spoke, controlled and private.
“Juliet, I’ll say it when I come home.”
“No.”
The single word cut through instantly.
A few executives shifted in their seats at the firmness of her tone, subtle movements that betrayed attention they were trying to suppress. Cassian noticed it anyway.
His expression tightened.
The faint restraint in his face hardened, and for a moment his patience—something rarely seen faltering in him—thinned enough to be felt. He straightened slightly, shoulders pulling back with controlled precision.
But Juliet still wasn’t done.
"If you won't say it, I'll ask Vincent."
Juliet's expression remained firm, clearly refusing to back down.
"I'll call him right now and make him say it instead. Then you can't blame me for going to another man when I want to hear something nice."
The reaction was instant.
Cassian’s expression darkened.
“What the hell did you just say?” His voice was loud and sharp, slicing through the silence.
A few executives actually flinched, shoulders tightening as their attention snapped fully back to him. Even the air seemed to stiffen, the kind of silence that pressed down rather than spread out.
Cassian pushed back slightly from the table, not standing, but shifting enough that the authority in his posture sharpened. His gaze flicked briefly across the room before he deliberately looked away again.
On the call, Juliet remained completely unmoved.
"I'm serious," she said stubbornly. "If you don't want me to do that, then just say you miss me. It's not that hard."
There wasn't the slightest hint of embarrassment in her voice. If anything, she sounded more determined with every word.
"We're dating, Cassian. This shouldn't be difficult."
Before Cassian could respond, she continued relentlessly.
"How am I supposed to know you miss me if you never say it? Am I supposed to read your mind?"
Cassian's voice dropped slightly, the deep timbre turning softer and warmer than usual. Something shifted in his expression as well, the cold restraint that normally surrounded him easing just enough for a rare tenderness to appear in his eyes.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low and affectionate, rough around the edges yet impossibly gentle, carrying through the phone so clearly that Juliet could almost feel it brushing against her ear.
"I miss you, Juliet."
The words had barely left his mouth when a loud squeal burst from the other end of the line.
"Oh my God! Your voice is so sexy I could die!"
Juliet's delighted cry echoed through the phone, and for a moment Cassian simply sat there, stunned by her reaction.
Then a helpless smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
His heartbeat suddenly felt much louder than it should have, thudding steadily against his chest as warmth spread through him.
Hearing her sound so excited over something as simple as a few words made it impossible for him to hide his amusement.
Shaking his head, he leaned back in his chair and dragged a hand down his face, trying to compose himself.
"Alright," he said, his voice carrying the faintest hint of laughter. "I'm going to hang up now."
"No."
Cassian paused, one eyebrow lifting as he adjusted the phone against his ear.
"Say that you love me first."
His hand stopped moving.
For a second, he thought he had heard her wrong.
"What?"
"Tell me that you love me."
Juliet repeated it without the slightest hesitation, her tone casual and matter-of-fact, as though she were asking him to bring home groceries on the way back.