Some things change. | l.s.

28

Louis saw Laura for the first time the next day at the breakfast table as he sat down next to her and nudged her.

"Good morning." He smiled.

"Hey! Good morning." Laura's eyes lit up, but Louis could still see some caution in them as if she contemplated if he actually meant everything he said yesterday.

"Did you sleep well?" Louis wondered and she nodded. "Are you sure?" He checked.

"Yes." She giggled. "Thank you again. I don't know how I can ever repay you."

"Don't." Louis said softly. "Just let me do this, yeah?"

"Okay." Laura smiled.

After breakfast the first exercise of the day took place and as yesterday already Louis watched from the side making himself comfortable on a chair and watched his employees amused how they were trying to solve a parcour in teamwork. His mind wandered back to work when he didn't allow himself to think about his talk with Harry in the morning, let alone what happened last night and a few questions popped up in his head he needed to start solving soon.

He got ripped out of his thoughts when they took a break and Sheila approached him with a wide smile.

"Hi!" She greeted happily and Louis shot her a small smile. "Isn't it boring just looking and not joining us?" She wondered.

"I have to think of some work related things, so not really." Louis said.

"Speaking of work..." Sheila said slowly, fiddling with her fingers in front of her. "...I already did a few trainings, right? Do you happen to know when the next one is, or how we will proceed from there?"

Louis got distracted when he took sight of Harry who was standing a few feet behind Sheila with Zayn, looking everything but happy when he watched them, but as soon as he noticed Louis' gaze he acted as if he remembered something and grabbed Zayn's shoulder, seemingly telling him something in excitement. Louis couldn't prevent the small smile growing on his face and he lowered his head so no one could see.

"Louis?" Sheila brought him back to the here and now and he quickly hummed.

"Oh, yeah. Uh..." He cleared his throat and sat up straight. "...I'm not sure right now. I have to take a look at the plans when I'm back at the office, but I'll let you know as soon as I know the further steps."

"Okay, great!" Sheila grinned widely. "Thank you for doing this for me, Louis. That sounds so strange, I have to get used to it."

"Oh you don't have to. This only counts for one more day." Louis smirked that grew even wider when she realised and a frown made its way to her face. What was she thinking? That everyone got to call him by his first name from now on? "And you're very welcome. I always try to push my employees to be the best they can be and take chances if they want to improve." He added with a tight lipped smile.

Sheila agreed with a shy smile and retreated, Laura taking her place as she sat down next to Louis.

"Do you think she got it?" She asked amused.

"I don't know what you mean." Louis said innocently.

"I mean that she thanked you for doing this for her specifically and you shut her down by generalising it so casually, it almost hurt to listen to it." Laura laughed.

"I really hope she got the hint. I need to subtly put her back in place." Louis frowned.

"Why? I mean, you don't see her much anyway, why don't you just ignore it or give her a piece of your mind?" Laura wondered.

"Unfortunately that's where you're probably wrong." Louis muttered. He sighed deeply when Laura looked at him confused and turned to her properly, checking if anyone was in hearing range. "Look, at some point you won't be able to work anymore-"