Offer To The CEO

Friday, continued …

As he exited Anna was waiting in the foyer. "Yi what time do you call this? You told me that you would be home at 4pm. It is almost five."

The angry undercurrent in her tone made Hou Yi realised that Anna was not totally happy "Anna, I was trying to ensure that I should not have a disturbed weekend like last weekend."

"So, you know not being able to work every day is driving me crazy and …"

"You need me home. Calm down, you know I am CEO of a large multinational company, not everything goes to plan, and if I am wanting to take paternity leave closer to you giving birth, then I need to do what I have to now." Hou Yi turned to Anna with a pleading look in his eyes, which immediately caused Anna to laugh.

As he started to move closer to Anna, Hou Yi responded, "I am glad I can make you laugh." And then leant in for a kiss. As he pulled back, he continued "I told James and Alecia we would call them when we were ready and head out for the dinner together."

"You know I pity James; I do not know who is going to be the worst tonight, Tan or the others. At least they all like me, you on the other hand …" with that Anna giggle further as she stepped away. "Now hurry up and get ready, so we can head down to wait for Alecia and James." With that Anna put her hand out and signalled to Hou Yi to hand over his briefcase. Taking the hint Hou Yi headed up to their suite to get ready with Anna following him to finish getting ready.

Meanwhile, as they entered their apartment, Alecia turned to James and gave him a passionate kiss. While she missed helping keep on top of the housework that she had to learn in Australia, having Uncle Yi's staff come in and tidy up the apartment each day did make life a little easy, and would be better once she started University and James was settled into whatever job he decided he wanted to do.

As she followed James to their room, Alecia spoke "James, Dad was saying he knows a couple of people at some of the hospitals in town and a private medical clinic. He has said if you want, he can pass on your details to them about a nursing position. You know the last thing I want is for you to regret coming back here."

James stopped, and turned around "Alecia, we have had this discussion, I will never regret marrying you. Whatever happens in the future happens, but we know we love each other and that is all I need. Yes, we are luckier than most young couples, we have a home given to us as a gift, you are a savvy investor and you have the money your grandparents have set aside for you. The home is important, and the rest does not matter, but it would be the same wherever we are. I will take your father up on his offer. Yi has offered to help me with a hospital and as Hou Enterprises apparently are opening an on-site medical facility for staff so there is a possibility there as well. You know I will find something; it just has to be the right something."

Alecia reached up and placed her hand on his cheek. "James, I just worry as I am the one forcing you to uproot your whole life."

James turned his head, and kissed Alecia's palm "Alecia, I asked you to change your life for me to finish my study. We have simply come back for you to go to university. From there we can make our decisions. It is our life and it will be what we make it. And let us be realistic, given everything my mother put you through, and we both know we have not told Anna or anyone else of even half of it, the last thing we want is being anywhere that she can easily get to us. She refuses to get on a plane, so the only way she can get here is a long ship journey, which she will never do. Hopefully after a few years she clams down enough that Australia becomes an option for us. But we both know that we can fly there for visits, and some will come here to see Anna and us, so I am not cut off from them."

James paused for a couple of seconds, and contend "Now come on, we need to get ready for this dinner. Just something Yi said concerns me …"