The Struggle •Unedited•

Chapter 36

•Elisabeth•

We've reached the end of another work week and Liam and I were sitting in his office, wasting the few last remaining hours of our day.

"Hey," I spoke up, continuing to scroll through my phone and he through his, "Have you eaten lunch?"

"Yeah. Me and Renae went two hours ago. We went to that pasta place you don't like."

"Boo," I say flatly, "I'm starving. Haven't had anything all day besides my regular coffee in the morning."

"Have something delivered. I know you're too lazy to actually go and pick something up."

I drop my phone on my lap and look at him with a sassy blank stare. He feels my eyes on his and he removes his eyes from his celluar device, connecting our gazes.

"What?" He sasses, "You know it's true."

Sighing, I pick my phone back up and resume scrolling through it, "Yeahh. I ain't gonna argue with you."

Just as a laugh leaves his mouth, his office phone buzzes with a page.

"Liam?" Renae's voice speaks through the speaker, "Is Elisabeth with you? I've tried paging her office but I don't get a response."

He places a finger on a button and responds, "Yeah. She's here. You got her attention."

"Awesome. Elisabeth, you have a visitor. Should I send them up?"

My forehead crease. Visitor? Who the hell would visit me here?

"Uh, no." I command nicely, "I'll be out in a minute. Thanks!"

"No problem. I'll let 'em know." And the page ends.

I look at my best friend and he looks just as confused.

"Who could that be?" he asks.

Shrugging, I stand up, "I don't know. Come with me."

He gets up and follows right behind me. Exiting his office, we enter the slight bustling hallway and begin to make our way to the lobby on our floor.

"I bet you anything it's that Luke guy."

Realization dawning upon me, I release a frustrated sigh, "Fuck. You're probably right."

A minute later, we enter the lobby and just as Liam predicted, we spot Luke Hemmings standing a few feet from Renae's secretary desk. It seems to me that he is getting quite friendly with some intern and quickly this annoys me. He's bugging Niall for another chance at a date, yet he's so fucking girl crazy that he obviously isn't aware that flirting or being with multiple women can make a bad impression on that one person who's attention you're trying to grab.

In seconds, we're a mere 3 feet away from him, but he's way to into the blonde to even notice our presence.

"Ehem," I clear my throat and both pairs of colored eyes turn to face us, but mine remain on the asshole of a business man.

He straightens his posture and tries to brush of what I had just seen, but my face tells him that he knows damn well that I'm not letting it go. Turning to the naive girl, I send her a slight smirk, my eyes remaining stern.

"You should get back to work before the editor in charge of you chews your ass," I spit, "Shoo."

Quickly nodding her head, she scampers away into the busy hallways of the floor. Hemmings stays focused on me and returns those sharp features back to stone.

Turning to Liam, I smile at his awkward stance, "Uh, Liam. I'm pretty sure you remember Luke Hemmings from Niall's last week," Liam nods, and I turn back to the CEO, "Hemmings, this is my best friend," I emphasize, "Liam."