Married with the Broken Hearted CEO novel Chapter 77

The reason why Chadwick and Geoffrey wanted Adira to choose who cooked the best, is it because of their pride? Their urge to win against each other? 
Declining to give them satisfaction, Adira purposely did not give her answer. Thus, she transferred all responsibility to the employees who came to the cottage. 
“Come here, guys. I have something for you~” 
The employees looked at each other. They all know about what happened last night; when Adira drowned, and Chadwick failed to save her. Surely, it must be difficult to get along with the couple, however, they doubted if they were right. Looking at the smiling Adira and her husband who’s wearing an apron, they thought that maybe, it is finally safe to approach the two. 
They wore awkward smiles as they walked near the three. Then, Adira began to introduce the dishes. 
“Here, we have two candidates,” Adira said, placing two plates on the other table. “Eggs Benedict and Burrito. Have a taste and decide which one is better.” 
The five employees looked at each other. Three of them are workers of Wine&Vibe, while the two are from Crimson Meadow. They don’t know why they need to have a sudden food tasting, nor choose which one is tastier. Yet can they decline the boss? Surely not.
And so, the five employees pick up their cutlery and have a taste of each of the dish. After they had done tasting, Adira began to interview the five judges. 
“How is it? Delicious, right?” she asked. 
“Woah! These are good!” one gasped. 
“Right. They are delicious, ma’am.” 
“Glad to hear,” Adira said. “So, which one will you pick?”
“For me, I will choose the Burrito.” 
Geoffrey secretly punched the air when his dish was picked. Chadwick glared at him, then rolled his eyes. He doesn’t lose hope. Chadwick still believes that he will win.
‘That’s alright. It’s only one point,’ Chadwick reassured himself. 
“Ahmmm, it’s hard to choose but, I will go with the Egg Benedict,” the employee from Crimson Meadow said. 
Chadwick could not hide the smile on his lips as the name of his dish called. He arrogantly stared at Geoffrey and gave him that look, a teasing gaze. 
“Me too. I wanted Egg benedict more,” another employee from the Crimson Meadow commented. 
Adira’s husband is feeling happy, as if he’s flying in the clouds. He’ sure that Geoffrey has no chance of winning, giving that two already gave their votes to the Egg Benedict. However…
“I wanted the Burrito. It’s tastier.” 
“Yes. Me too. I think for breakfast, I would like to have Burrito.” 
The other two who gave their votes to Burrito are employees from Wine&Vibe. Suddenly, the space turned cold, even if the sun is already up in the sky. They searched where the coldness came from then soon found Chadwick shooting piercing glare to the two employees who voted for Geoffrey. 
The two employees knew right then that they made a mistake. 
Gulp. 
Their faces turned pale in front of their CEO. 
What made Chadwick so mad other than losing against Geoffrey, is that the men who betrayed him is from his own company! 
He definitely won’t forget their names and faces for the rest of his life. 
“Then, Mr. Geoffrey won!” Adira announced the result of the contest, that wasn’t originally a contest. 
Geoffrey felt so happy about winning against Chadwick. He looked at his opponent and saw Chadwick pouting his lips while avoiding his gaze.
‘He must be so embarrassed that he can’t even look at me now,’ Geoffrey laughed internally. 
“Since the Burrito won, then Mr. Geoffrey will cook breakfast for all of the employees today. Let’s clap our hands!” Adira added then clapped her hands. 
Like Hyenas, Geoffrey and Chadwick looked at Adira in shock. Meanwhile, the employees were forced to clap along with Adira and cheered a low tone, “Yey~” 
Chadwick covered his mouth. He turned around from everyone and laughed without sounds. He is so happy that he did not win. 
“W-Wait,” Geoffrey called Adira. “You mean, I will cook for all of the employees?” he asked, pointing at himself while Chadwick is laughing so hard from the side. 
“Of course,” Adira answered. “You won the competition, right?” 
“B-But that is…” 
Geoffrey wanted to say that it isn’t a competition to begin with. However, deep inside, he knew that he did that to impress Adira and win against Chadwick. In short, he admitted in the end that it was a competition. 
Sighing, Geoffrey looked at Chadwick’s back. 
Chadwick’s shoulders are moving up and down. Geoffrey knows that Chadwick is laughing at him, however, the employees of Wine&Vibe think different. They thought that their boss was so mad and they had to somewhat condemn their mistakes. 
“B-But,” one of the Wine&Vibe employees said, “Actually, the Egg Benedict is good too. R-Right?” He even asked others who voted for Burrito. 
The laugh disappeared from Chadwick’s lips as he turned around and looked at the employees who didn’t vote for him, but suddenly, they are changing their minds. 
‘No. Don’t vote for me. Don’t!’ Chadwick shouted inwardly. 
“Y-You are right. I can’t really decide before because they are both delicious.” 
‘No!’ Chadwick screamed internally. 
“If that so,” Adira responded. She looked at Chadwick’s perturbed expression and said, “My husband will also cook for everyone. Let’s clap our hands!” 
“Pfft…” Geoffrey also laughed at the side. 
So damn annoyed, Chadwick glared at Geoffrey and at his employees whom he’d curse today. 
When the employees received their boss’ gaze, they knew that they had to bury their own grave starting from now on. 
With that, it was decided that these two handsome men will cook for everyone’s dinner. 
If they regret one thing, that is trying to show off in front of Adira. 
“W-Wait a minute, if we will cook, then how about you?” Chadwick asked her wife. 
“Me?” Adira murmured, pointing at herself. 
“Yes, what is your role?” Chadwick inquired. 
Adira flipped her red hair first before she answered, “My role is being pretty.” 
For a moment, Geoffrey and Chadwick felt dumbfounded at her words, even though it was true. 
The silly wife laughed at their reactions and added, “That’s a joke. I will volunteer to wash the dishes soon. So goodluck at your cooking, chefs. You can do it.” 
After Adira cheered the two, she left them with a satisfied grin on her lips. 
Chadwick and Geoffrey sighed at the same time. ‘They shouldn’t mess with her,’ is what they thought together. 
************* ************* *****************
One by one, the employees of the two companies woke and welcomed the second day of their vacation. The first thing that hit them were the sounds; the sound of the bird, the sea crawling onto the sand and the breeze. They walked towards the cottage with millions of grains of sand underneath their feet. But the most amazing thing of all is waking up with good breakfast and handsome men in the kitchen. 
From the tables, female employees looked at the two men who are cooking the breakfast.  Staring at them while relaxing on the beach, they are amazed by how easily fantasy and reality intertwined at that moment. 
They heard that the guy with blonde hair is the son of the owner of his beach resort. Not only does he have a promising background, but he has face that can make girls say that he is slamming heart. His grayish eyes are sensuous, radiant like pure diamond which captures every nerve in spectators’ minds. His body firmly built like a knight waiting to rescue his princess in his strong arms. With his beautiful face, he is undeniably a true gentleman with a pleasant and respectable aura. 
On the other side, there comes the CEO of Wine&Vibe. Everyone knows that Chadwick is a married man but still, he has a kind of face that can stop every woman’s track. He has whisked brown hair that dances in the wind. His face is beautiful, manly, and irresistible from his clean chin to his blueish eyes. 
He made women feel jealous for his wife, who probably see his face all day; how he looks sexy even when his brown hair is messy. 
The sky has mixture of yellow and orange on the horizon beneath a dark neon blue ocean as the sun continuously rose and all the purple and deep blue faded away. Sitting inside the cottage while watching the two men, the girls thought they are in real paradise. 
Certainly, it is probably giving them the feeling of being in heaven just by staring at the two. Chadwick and Geoffrey look quite gentle from afar, indeed. But little did they know, the paradise and serenity they are feeling is far from reality.
The kitchen became a hell for the two men were forced to make breakfast for everyone. 
“Ahhh,” Chadwick winced when Geoffrey bumped into him while getting the pan. 
“Ohh, sorry,” Geoffrey apologized. 
“You did that on purpose, did you?” 
“I did not. You are blocking my way, that’s why.” 
“Tsss.” Chadwick clicked his tongue. He walked towards the sink to put out the dirty bowls and as he passed by, he bumped into Geoffrey’s shoulder. 
Geoffrey placed the knife down and looked back at Chadwick. He licked the corner of his lips and said, “Now that is on purpose.” 
“You are blocking my way, that’s why,” Chadwick made an excuse. 
“What a childish person.” 
“Coming from you? This won’t happen if you didn’t try to look cool at the beginning.” 
Geoffrey let out a sarcastic laugh and rebuked, “If you did not try to compete with me, then we won’t be in this situation.” 
“Whatever. Just go and cook your dish. Mr. Burrito.” 
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mr. Eggs.” 
Geoffrey turned around and continued cutting the vegetables. Holding eggs, Chadwick stared at him with a frown. 
“Wait a minute. Calling me Mr. Eggs sound so offensive.” 
“If you don’t want to be an egg then let me crack you turn you into a chick. Mr. Yellow chick.” 
The egg on Chadwick’s hand almost cracked. He approached Geoffrey and responded, “Who are you calling chick? Your hair is blonde. You look more like a chick to me.” 
“Huh,” Geoffrey snorted. With teasing eyes, he said, “How funny it is to hear you call me a chick when I am much taller than you.” 
Chadwick glanced at Geoffrey’s long legs. He is indeed shorter than Geoffrey but it’s only a few inches! 
“That’s right. Then you are not a chick but a baby duck,” Chadwick said with chuckles. 
Geoffrey put his knife down and about to refute, but both of them stopped quarreling when they saw a handsome, yet familiar man pulled out the chair beside Adira and perched down there. 
The man’s face, devilishly handsome as it can be, made Chadwick and Geoffrey crumpled their brows. There is no way they’ll forget that bastard face who was trying to flirt with Adira during the launching party. 
“Oh?” they uttered at the same time and frowned in unison. 
“That man,” Geoffrey said, picking up his knife again. 
“That b*stard,” Chadwick murmured and the egg on his hand cracked. A clean freak like him did not bother cleaning his dirtied hand and focused his hot eyes in that certain direction. 
Their eyes shot daggers towards Nocturne who is too daring to approach Adira in front of everybody. 
“That man came here?” Geoffrey uttered. 
Without looking back at Geoffrey, Chadwick asked, “You know him.” 
Nodding his head, Geoffrey responded, “I saw that man in the launching party. He tried to steal your wife from you, sir.” 
“Ah sh*t,” Chadwick cursed. “I really wanted to beat th…” Chadwick stopped then tilted his head to Geoffrey. “Coming from you?” 
“What?” 
“Talking about stealing, I am surprised to hear that from you.” 
“Pardon? I believe I haven’t stolen anything from you… YET.” 
When Geoffrey said ‘Yet’, that means he probably will do it in the future. 
Suddenly, Chadwick recalled what Adira told him and Isa last night. 
[“But that someone rejected him. My husband told me this story before. That he likes a woman, but that woman likes someone else. But the other guy likes another woman too. Then, my husband met me and we got married.”] 
He was so sure that the other man Adira was talking about is Geoffrey, which means…
‘Geoffrey confessed to her,’ Chadwick told himself. 
Just the thought that his old friend’ confessed to his wife made him sickening angry. Chadwick wanted to know when, where, and how did it happen. But still, he’s holding onto that tiniest chance that he’s wrong. Maybe he heard it wrong. Maybe it is just a misunderstanding. 
“Hey Geoffrey.” 
“...” 
“I will ask this to you once.” 
Chadwick stared directly at his old’s friend grayish eyes before he opened his lips again. 
“Do you have feelings for my wife?” 
He held onto that hope that Geoffrey would decline the accusation. However, Geoffrey did not answer and instead, he just avoided Chadwick’s gaze, like a thief who was caught in act.