Veto

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"And then what happened?" Louis asks me for the fifth time. He's been grilling me for an entire play by play of what went down in the meeting. Especially when Hobs returned to the thirtieth floor just as disgruntled as when he left. He'd apparently come back to yell a little more in Mr. Tuner's office before departing to head home or wherever.

When I had returned to my floor, everyone's eyes were on me. I was heading back to go to my cubicle to check the email from Mr. Barlowe had sent me before Louis intercepted me and dragged me to lunch. As soon as we were in the elevators his questions began. And they've continued right the way through lunch.

"And then Mr, Barlowe stopped me in the corridor and said he was looking forward to what I do at the next meeting." I take a mouthful of avocado as Louis goes ecstatically ballistic at the news. I purposely left out my awkward run in with Harry. That's too much to explain but also not really worth talking about anyway.

"Was Hobs pissed? I bet he was. Turner probably knows how pissed he is. Everyone is going to be talking about this for weeks." Louis finds it all amusing but I really hope I'm not the subject of office gossip for the next few weeks. I suppose, having the biggest office gossip at my side has its advantages on getting the right gossip out there.

"So tell me about you're husband. What does he do?" I distract Louis from my interesting day with the simple question. Which he complies. I'm taken on a ride through basically their entire relationship from the day they met at a uni hall to the day they got married, to the day they welcomed their adopted child into their home. He's partway through telling me about their renovation plans when my phone begins to vibrate on the table next to my wrist.

I almost cringe at the name and familiar number flashing across the screen. Usually I'd hit ignore and hope he just gives up or leaves a message to fill up my voicemail. But something has me excusing myself from the small lunch table I share with Louis to answer the call.

"Hey." The air outside is a lot colder than in the cafe.

"Hi, how're you?" Liam's voice is warm through the phone as I dig in my jacket pocket for my pack of L&B gold. The lighter kisses the end of the cigarette and the ease my body feels from the first inhale is almost overwhelming.

"Good. You?" I don't really care to know, I'd much rather he just tell me why he's calling me.

"I'm... well I'm okay." He insists and I roll my eyes at the wounded dog tone he has going on. The sooner he moves on from me the better it'll be for the both of us.

"I was actually ringing because I went by your place this morning." He admits and the hand holding my cigarette freezes.

"What?" How does he know where I live now?

"Yeah, I just wanted to drop something off. An apology for how I acted the other night at the bar. I shouldn't of-"

"You don't need to apologise." I'd much rather forget the whole night. Including the events that followed while I was alone in my own bed.

"Anyway I stopped by but it's... Well your place is gone now. They're starting a new build." Liam informs me.

"Yeah, I know. I moved." I take a drag on my cigarette.

"Saw the billboard from Styles development on the front section. Is that why you went to see Brooklyn?" He asks and even though it's none of his business I confirm with a hum.

"Why didn't you come to me about it? I could've helped you, you know I would." Liam sighs.

"Brooklyn told me it was pointless to fight it anyway." Now I know why, Harry has a huge amount of financial support to bury anyone trying to go against him. Brooklyn was right, I would've never stood a chance. And ultimately moving out of the flat kicked off a chain reaction in my life. One I'm actually liking.