Chapter 189
The more she thought about it, the more her heartbeat and breathing became erratic. She didn't know how much time had passed while she was lost in this frenzied state until her phone, clasped tightly in her hand, buzzed to life.
Jolted back to reality, Diana saw it was Teresa calling.
She had almost forgotten that Teresa was waiting for her at the restaurant.
Quickly, Diana answered the call, speaking before Teresa could even greet her, "Teresa, I'm so sorry, but something came up and I need to head back to the office. I can't make it for dinner tonight. Can I take you out another day to make it up to you?"
Teresa on the other end didn't mind, but sensing something was off, she asked with concern, "Diana, is everything alright? If there’s something troubling you that you can't handle, just tell me. Maybe I can help."
"There's nothing wrong. Just swamped with work, that's all. I’m sorry I've been neglecting you guys," Diana quickly replied with a laugh, her heart brimming with joy at the thought of soon seeing Liam at his place.
Liam had returned to his role at Evans Group, which made him busier, and consequently, he was seldom at Prime Investment. This meant her chances of seeing him grew scarcer by the day.
"Alright then, don't work too late. We'll catch up another time."
"Okay!" Diana nodded, adding apologetically, "I really am sorry, Teresa. I feel bad for making you wait for nothing."
Teresa chuckled, "So formal with me now? Maybe I won't bother next time."
"Don't say that!"
"Just kidding. You get to what you need to; let's hang up now."
"Okay."
After ending the call, Teresa paused thoughtfully before dialing Gabriel's number.
On the other end of the phone, Gabriel was in the middle of an important meeting with a group of executives at Capital Construction. As his phone screen lit up with a call from Teresa, he raised his hand to signal a pause in the meeting and then, walking over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, he picked up the phone.
"Honey."
"Hey, where are you? Are you busy?"
Hearing her gentle voice, a smile curled on Gabriel's lips, and his mood instantly brightened, "Weren't you meeting up with Diana? Miss me?"
"Diana had to bail on me."
"Then, where are you at the moment? Send me your location, and I'll be right there," Gabriel said.
"Are you done with work?" Teresa inquired.
"Yeah, all finished," Gabriel replied without a trace of hesitation.
"Okay, I'll wait for you," Excitedly ending the call, Teresa immediately sent her location to Gabriel.
After receiving her location and taking a brief glance, Gabriel strode back to the head of the conference table and addressed everyone, "Let's take a five-minute break. After that, I'll join you via video call to continue the meeting."
Due to rush hour, it would take Gabriel about 40 minutes to get to the restaurant where Teresa was waiting. The 40-minute drive gave him enough time to wrap up the meeting over a video call from his car.
Having given his instructions, he turned on his heel and left quickly.
"Understood."
.......
Rushing back to her office, Diana grabbed the documents Liam had mentioned, then dashed downstairs and jumped into the waiting cab to head straight to Liam's apartment.
The drive to Liam's place wasn't far, roughly a twenty-minute journey.
However, for Diana, those minutes seemed like seconds at that very moment; the cab was already arriving at Liam's apartment building before she had even thought of what to say to him when she got there..
Snapped back to reality, she hurriedly paid the fare, grabbed her stuff, and got out.
After she stepped into the elevator, watching the numbers climb on the display, her heart raced faster with each floor ascending.
As the elevator dinged softly upon reaching the top floor, her heart felt like it might burst out of her chest.
Taking a deep breath, Diana forced herself to calm down. Then, with her heels clicking at every step, she exited the elevator and walked towards Liam's apartment.
The entire top floor of the building was occupied by just one apartment, Liam's. Stepping out of the elevator, she was already at the front door of his.
She forced herself to calm down, but when she got to the apartment door, she noticed that it was slightly ajar rather than locked, which made her heart race even faster.
Taking a deep breath to quell her nerves, Diana lightly knocked on the door.
"Please come in!" came Liam's immediate response.
Her breathing hitched, and she slowly pushed the door open.
Standing in the foyer, Diana slipped off her high heels and tiptoed barefoot into the spacious living room, but Liam was nowhere to be seen.
Then suddenly, the sound of running water came from the kitchen. Holding her breath, she timidly approached and found Liam there, looking like he was preparing dinner.
"Liam, I've brought the documents you asked for," Though she had thought of a lot of ways to begin her conversation with him, when she finally spoke, the words that came out were the typical, anticipated ones.
"Uh-huh, just leave them on the table in the living room. I'll take a look at them later," Liam instructed without turning, focused on washing the vegetables.
"Okay." Diana felt a flicker of disappointment when Liam didn't even glance her way. After agreeing, she turned and walked towards the living room.
"Oh, have you had dinner yet?" His voice reached her just as she was turning around.
Had dinner yet?
An unexpected thrill swept through Diana, but she managed to keep it under control, turning back to face Liam. As their eyes met, her breath caught again, her heart skipped a beat, yet she summoned a slight smile and said, "No, I was going to eat after delivering these to you."
"If you don't mind, you can stay and join me," Liam said with a smile, then turned back to resume rinsing the greens.
Stay and join me.
