no matter what decision your heart makes, I will be waiting for you...

Chapter 16

The car ride was quiet, neither tom nor I spoke a word, every now and then I looked over at him but his eyes were focused on the road. His gaze in turn looked as if he was still deep in thought, his jaw clenched and his mouth in a straight line. His eyebrows look furiously drawn together and his grip on the steering wheel is so tight that his knuckles are already turning white. Around the bends he races as fast as if the police were chasing us, whereas I am sure that they will also be chasing us in a moment.
When we arrive at the company, he parks in his parking space just for him and we both get out. By now I'm used to where I'm going and where I have to go, but Tom is faster than me so I can't help but follow him into the company. We make our way past the secretariat to the lift. I just manage to hop between the doors as tom is already pressing the button to our floor. I really wonder if I did something wrong or why he ignores me, doesn't talk to me anymore or anything else. In the lift, he turns to me, opens his mouth to say something, but then looks back down at the floor and turns back to the lift door.
The lift doors open, I step out and turn right to get to my office.
"Y/N hey wait" I hear harrison's voice from behind me, his footsteps approach and tom, just like me, turn around to face him.
" hey hazzi, how was it? " I look at him but his gaze moves from tom down to me as I am still a little shorter than tom. Harrison's eyebrows draw together in confusion and by the expression on his face I can tell he just wants to talk to me and tom should go to his office.
"Can we go to your office?" Harrison asks, looking only at me. Tom rolls his eyes, as if Harrison wants to tell a secret that his best friend can't know.
"of course" I turn to tom to ask if it's ok, because after all, he's still my boss who has to give me work.
"Is that okay?" I ask tom, he looks at me for a moment as if he has not understood the question, but then he shakes his head and answers.
"yes, no of course. Just come to my office afterwards " He smiles wryly at me, then turns to harrison to nod as a sign that he's leaving, and with that he's gone. I make my way to my office, Harrison follows close behind me before I unlock the door, revealing my office and sit down. Me in my chair behind the desk, Harrison in the big comfortable chair in front of it.
"So?" I start, interwine my hands together like a boss in my own little office which I admit I enjoy, even though I wanted to sleep some more this morning it's also fun to go to work, at least in my job.
"How was it with Tom? Did he annoy you again or treat you badly?" he finally asks.
I remember back to last night, which is the complete opposite of 'treating me badly'. A small smirk forms on my lips while I lose myself too much in my thoughts.
"Y/N ?!" Harrison wakes me up, I shake my head briefly to regain my composure, but then reply.
"No, don't worry. It was... well to be honest, it was quite okay" It was fantastic, no doubt about it. The taste of his lips... his tongue that danced with mine and his hand which gently caressed my cheek with his thumb. Just perfect. Still, I shouldn't tell haz that it was good, because he would surely only question more what we did. So I answered briefly that we have the topic quickly behind us.
"Okay, he just didn't answer the phone yesterday, I thought maybe you guys had a fight or something." I stifle the giggle that wants to come out of my mouth and instead just nod.
"Is that it? Is there anything else I can do for you?" I ask politely, not that I want to get rid of harrison but I need to get into tom's office and start to work.
"Yes, I have some papers that you need to sign and read over to make sure everything is correct, then you can give them to tom" he digs a few papers out of his work bag and holds them out to me, which I then accept and place to the right of my computer.
"All right, I'll let you work now, let me know if there are any problems." my brother says as he gets up and makes his way out the glass door, leaving my office.
"Thanks hazzie, bye" I call him by his nickname. He mumbles a 'bye' back at me, but then disappears into the lift on the way to his office. I read through the paperwork for the construction of our new golf course in san francisco, it's one of our biggest projects yet and we want everything to be perfect. We also have to make sure that everything is perfect since the golf course is going to be very expensive because it's in the middle of san francisco. I sign where I have to and then get up to make my way to Tom's office. I walk down the aisle as my footsteps fill the silence of the hallway. I check again that I have signed everywhere, but I see that I have forgotten once. Since I'm already standing in front of tom's office door, I just decide to ask him for a pen so I don't have to walk back now. 'knock' 'knock' I knock twice so as not to disturb him, of course. Not a second later the door opens, as if he was waiting for me to knock, but when the door opens I only see his back going back to his desk. I step in and close the door behind me, noticing the whisky table to the left of the door. Until now it has always been just a small cupboard that goes up to about my navel and the doors have also been closed until now, but now they are open, presenting all the opened bottles of wine to whisky and scotch. On top of the small cupboard is an open whisky bottle with which tom has just poured himself a glass.
"Drinking during working hours? since when is that mr.Holland?" This time I call him by his last name, but not because I have to, but because I want to annoy him a little, hoping he might laugh a little, but he just sits down at his desk behind his computer so I can't see his head, or anything of him except for a piece of his shoulder.
"ever since that asshole 'michael mc cross' ripped us off " he says through clenched teeth, his voice deep as if he is ill or has been smoking, he sounds a little desperate but aggressive at the same time. I grab the papers in my hand with my two hands, have a firm grip as I walk towards his desk.
"who is this michael ?" I have never heard about this Michael so I have every right to ask who he is. Plus, it's not like I need to know him. Tom nor Harrison has ever talked about him.
"A bastard you will never meet."
"language mr.Holland" I giggle but don't want to ask any more questions about this michael guy because I don't want to make tom even angrier.
"I'm sorry, what's up?" He apologises, finally looks up from his computer into my face. His eyes look directly into mine, leaving me speechless for a moment, but then I start talking. "You only have to sign the papers here" I put my index finger on the spot where he has to sign, which he then does. "aaannndd here" I say as I turn another page and point again to the place where he has to sign. There were 3 more papers for him to sign, but then I put the papers together again, forgetting that one of my signatures is still missing. "Thanks Y/N, can you take the papers to markus?" Even though he doesn't really have to ask, because I work for him and have to do what he says, he still asks me lovingly, which he never does at work. Today, on the other hand, it's different. He talks to me as if I were a friend, not his girlfriend but still like a friend. I nod yes and make my way to his office door, but before I turn the handle I remember the signature I forgot. So I turn around, walk over to him and without asking I lean over his desk to take the pen that is in the breast pocket of his shirt out. Tom looks at me in confusion, I can't see him because I keep my gaze fixed on the paper, but I can feel his eyes on me. A smirk grows on my lips at the thought that tom just has a perfect view into the neckline of my t-shirt.
"Thank you !!!!" I put the pen back in his breast pocket as soon as I had signed it, look into his eyes and wink at him one last time before I make my way out of his office. The corridor is empty and dark at the same time because there are doors leading to offices, toilets or storerooms on both the right and left. Every 5 metres there are plants that reach up to the chest on the right and left side of the corridor. I press the white button for the lift, 3 seconds later the doors open. I don't really know where Markus' office is, but last week he jumped between the lift doors when I was inside and then pressed one floor below me, so I guess he has his office one floor below ours. I don't really know if the floor number means anything, no one has ever really explained it to me before. I also haven't met the biggest boss who owns all these companies. I only know that he is a bit older, but as he travels around all the time, he is hardly ever in the company. The lift doors open again, now on the floor where markus' office should be. Everything looks the same, but the floor is grey instead of black, making it look a little more boring. I think black, on the other hand, looks very chic and has style. I walk along the doors, look next to which one is Markus' name and find his name at the sixth door.
"Markus Cortain" I whisper his name tag again to make sure I'm at the right door, then knock 3 times. "Come in" I open the door, his grey eyes are already staring at me. A smirk forms on his thin huge mouth at the sight of a woman. Inside I am disgusted, but smile at him anyway, not wanting to make enemies. I'll just drop the papers off real quick without talking much, then nothing can go wrong.
"What can I do for you, mrs.Osterfield?" It sends shivers down my spine. I like my last name, I can't say anything against it, but it disgusts me to hear it come out of his mouth, everything that comes out of his mouth disgusts me.
"I am supposed to give you these papers from mr.Holland" I say without emotion in my voice as I put the papers on his desk. I stand still for a moment, trying not to look at his face and wait for him to say something so I can finally leave. He stares at the papers for what feels like 10 seconds, trying to get an overview of what the papers are about. But I think I've done everything that needs to be done, so I turn around and walk out again.
"Oh mrs.Osterfield, before you go-" He starts again, so that I stop but don't turn around to face him. "Would you like to... go out for dinner with me?" I scoff, as if this creep had a chance with me. I thought I made it obvious enough from the beginning that I didn't want anything from him, but it seems my acting skills have done a good job after all.
"No thanks !" I politely decline, at least as politely as I can before leaving him speechless alone in his office and making my way to my office like a bad bitch. I chuckle a little to myself as I sit in my comfortable office chair, waiting for calls while replaying the scenario that just happened between Markus and me in my head. Over the next few hours I received a number of calls, most of which I were able to resolve but some of which I had to pass to tom. At half past twelve my office door opens, I look up and see Tom's head peeking through my door.
"Hey" He says shyly, closing the door behind him as he takes a step into my office.
"Hey, what is it?" He takes a few steps closer but stops again in front of my desk.
"Shall we have lunch together?" i'm confused, what does he mean? does he mean with harrison? or just the two of us? is this a date? is he asking me out on a date? apparently tom sees that i'm a bit confused, and I have a lot of questions in my head so he adds quickly "if you want, of course, I just thought-" but I quickly interrupt him, don't want him to embarrass himself by not getting any words out of his mouth.
"yes, no, of course I want. But I still have to work for half an hour" I frown and drop my pen in the process, I look at the pen for a moment but then up into Tom's face.
"We don't have much to do today anyway, so we can take a longer break." he suggests. I notice him playing around with his sweaty fingers, not knowing what to do with his hands.
"Okay, just let me get my jacket" I am about to get up but not even a millisecond later he replies...
"NO!" I look at him, now standing. My eyebrows draw together in confusion.
"It's supposed to get warm, better leave your jacket here" I look out my panoramic window only to see a grey sky that looks like it will start raining at any moment. Tom also looks out of the window, a drop of sweat forming on his forehead as he tries to think of something to say.
"it's still supposed to get warm later I heard. You know the weather and its mood swings" I don't quite understand his opinion but I don't want to discuss it, if he doesn't want me to take a jacket with me, I don't question it. Instead, I nod at him with a smile that means 'ok'. I take my papers and put them away in my cupboard, not noticing tom approaching me from behind. When I turn around again, he is suddenly standing behind me. My chest almost touching his, I look up at him, our noses almost touch, even though I'm a little shorter, so close we stand to eachother.
"Hey" He whispers with a sweet smile that follows, his cheeks turning a little pink as his ears rise into the air. I don't answer, not because I don't want to or don't think it's cute how a blush sneaks onto his cheeks, but because I can't get words out of my mouth. He's so close to me that I can feel his breath on my lips and want nothing more than for him to just kiss me. I smile, can't tell if it's so wide it looks creepy or so small it looks innocent. I concentrate so much on his eyes and lips that I don't notice how his hand slowly approaches my face until at some point his fingers gently touch my jaw, his thumb on my cheek, stroking a little over it. The butterflies in my stomach are raging like mad, just begging for his lips to touch. His eyes flicker one last time to my lips, back into my eyes, then he closes them and leans in until our lips finally touch, but neither he nor I kiss. He stays in the same position, his breathing gets heavier as if he is not sure whether to kiss me or not. But just his presence, his closeness, his body heat and his touch makes my melting heart race. But if I'm honest, every time we're this close to each other I think of his girlfriend, I want to talk to him about it, I HAVE to talk to him about it, there's no way around it, but so far the right time hasn't come and I don't know when it will be. I don't want to be just a substitute while she is away, just the thought of it hurts, but at the same time I want to continue to feel the warmth he gives me just with his presence.
All my thoughts get blown away as my office door opens revealing Harrison. Tom and I immediately jump away from each other, both looking at Harrison with bright red cheeks, who is still looking at his papers in confusion.
"Hey Y/N, I think there is a mistake here, it says-" He falls into his word as he looks up and sees Tom next to me, for a moment I am scared as Harrsison looks at Tom with his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.
"Oh hey mate, what are you doing here?" He asks with a smile, completely forgetting what he wanted to tell me.
"Oh I had to discuss something with Y/N, but I'm leaving now for lunch. If you're looking for me Haz, I'm downstairs by my car." Harrison looks at him questioningly as to why Tom has given him this information, I on the other hand chuckle a little, knowing that he has only said it so that I know where to come when I am done with Harrison. Tom winks at me again before walking out of my office door, closing it quietly behind him. After that, I only see his shadow slowly descending into the lift until he's completely gone. My gaze turns back to Harrison and his papers.
"Anyway, I think there's a mistake here Y/N, the contract with michael mc cross is no longer...?" The way Harrison says it, I don't know if he means it as a question or as a statement. But I suppose the question is whether it is true and if so, why?
"Oh yes, that's right. He seems to have ripped us off. I don't know exactly what happened, Tom just told me in passing" I say. He ponders a bit and looks at the papers again more closely.
"Mhmmm.... okay, I don't think we can do anything about that for the now. I'll come back later if that's okay, do you want to have lunch with me and some workmates or do you have other plans?" he asks
"It's okay, I'm already having lunch with someone..." I say in the hope that he won't question anything. He just smiles at me and says 'okay', then leaves my office. I sigh in relief as he is finally out of my office, a heavy breath leaving my mouth that I didn't even realise I was holding inside me. Well, my time has come to go down and have probably the most unpleasant lunch I've ever had.... but well who knows what is going to happen....

~What a long part, I just wanted to tell you that I got banned on tik tok until 26 instead of 25, because a tik tok was taken down again and despite it being restored I am still banned until 26. Oh and I apologise if there are any spelling mistakes in this part~