Eight Cakes and Two Eulogies

Chapter 7

Usually, whenever Perrie went on holiday Louis asked one of the techs to fill in for her. He got on great with all of his team and they always seemed eager for the chance to work with him. In fact, sometimes there was a bit of a clamour to be chosen, which was a nice little ego boost. However, unfortunately this time the team had so much work on that he couldn't justify taking anyone away from their position. Therefore, he had to knuckle-down and cope by himself for two weeks. It was no mean task either. By Wednesday he was regretting his decision immensely, toying with the idea of actually putting an ad out and really appreciating just how skilled Perrie was at her job. To say he was rusty with the computer commands needed to run diagnostics would be an understatement. He took at least twice, if not three times, as long to complete each task compared to Perrie and, to make it worse, he found it mind-numbingly boring.

Die, die, die, he swore furiously to himself, repeatedly hitting the delete key as the software deemed his actions as an 'invalid command' yet again.

"Keep frowning like that and in ten years you'll look like a scrotum."

Barking out an reflexive laugh, Louis blindly waved a hand for his Grandfather to come in. It wasn't often the man traipsed down here, usually Louis went to him, so this was a nice surprise. After hitting delete one more time, Louis swivelled around in the chair like a bond villain to greet his guest with a grin. "Ah, Mr Austin, lowering yourself to enter the labourers' den in person. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Robert raised an eyebrow, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips, "Lunch, my lad?"

Louis glanced at the clock, it was 12.03. Lunch time, indeed. He accepted the invitation with a sharp nod - like hell he would turn down a free meal even if the likelihood of a hidden agenda was so high it was pointless to have hope.

Much to his delight, lunch turned out to be a visit to The Delaunay in Covent Garden and Louis found himself caring even less about whatever agenda might be behind this impromptu get-together. When presented with such wholesome food he could forgive almost anything - even a request for a DPD with Nick Grimshaw (which was actually quite a terrifying thought and maybe not something he should spin out into the ethos... just in case). They ordered and continued their idle chit-chat about Britain potentially leaving the EU and what it might mean for businesses as a whole. All in all, it took a while for his Grandfather to get around to the agenda but, as it turned out, it was all good and nothing for Louis to worry about anyway. 

As they tucked hungrily into large bowls of chicken salad and cauliflower cheese, Robert apologised for not having spent as much time with Louis as he should have done. "It's been such a busy year so far," he sighed, tearing open his roll, "and I feel like I've been out of the country more than I've been in it."

"S' my fault as well," Louis shrugged, reaching over to pat his Grandfather's hand soothingly, "I've maybe been a bit too ambitious with how many projects I've taken on this year. I've barely had time to breathe let alone have a personal life."

His grandfather studied him for a long moment, his eyes sharp and shrewd, but then his expression softened, "So I've seen. You've taken on even more work than last year and that was a lot."

"Yeah," Louis chuckled, "I don't know how it happened. I swore I would be a lot stricter this year but... hey ho. Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment?"

"Or maybe you're subconsciously worried about my looming retirement?"

Louis felt his food stick in his throat and he quickly took a sip of water to wash it down. "How do you mean?" He suddenly couldn't quite meet his grandfather's eyes - knowing his expression would give too much away. He had never told anyone but he was not exactly jumping for joy at the idea of losing his place in the lab when, eventually, he took over the company.