CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"I'm completely in love with him"
"Oh, that's a strong word"
"It describes exactly how I feel about him"
Ellie's smile suddenly dropped.
" What's wrong?"
"I heard that he is gay though "
" Hmm?"
" Everyone says that my king and Mr. King are a couple and both of them are inseparable"
Lia choked on her saliva.
" What?"
" Mr. King and Mr. Black are a couple" Ellie repeated.
"I'm pretty sure those are just rumors" Lia laughed it off.
" Even if they aren't I would love to let him know that I fully support him, even if it hurts," Ellie said while wiping off a teardrop that escaped her eye.
" But you know something?" Ellie looked at Lia with hope.
" What?"
" Ever since I was aware of your existence, and also because you are a woman. I've had hope of getting together with Mr. Black"
" You think Mr. Black isn't gay because he likes me?"
" What? Of course not, if I thought that, I would definitely be giving you the cold shoulders"
"ok"
" I believe Mr. King likes you"
" Why do you believe that?" Lia said with a nervous chuckle.
" Besides you and Mr. Black, no one and I mean absolutely no one, has ever stepped foot on Mr. King's floor. Plus I saw when Mr. Black escorted you to Mr. King's personal elevator the other day"
" It was private?"
***Sigh***
" I guess even you don't know the place you hold in his heart"
" Wait, but that doesn't justify anything though, what if I am his sister or his cousin?"
" Hmm, well if that were to be true I must say beauty doesn't rub off on everyone in a family"
" Excuse me?"
" Don't take it the wrong way, you are beautiful, You really are, but compared to Mr. King, not so much"
" Gee, thanks"
" And also, everyone knows that Mr. King has no family, well except his mother. But no one knows anything about her"
" Oh" Lia instantly felt bad, she knew nothing about Leo and she didn't try to know.
" But anyways enough of him, he isn't the missing piece of my heart" Ellie said reffering to Mr. King.
" Have you ever seen Mr. Black shirtless before, Oh my God. So you see I stalk Mr. Black, like a lot and I spilled coffee on his shirt, purposely if I may add. Don't worry it wasn't too hot. So I followed him into the men's changing room and of course he didn't know I was there, and then he took off his shirt and ....."
Ellie went on and on about Mr. Black and how awesome he was, while Lia kept thinking of how sad and lonely Leo must have felt during these past years.
Ellie introduced Lia to everyone in the department. To Lia's surprise, they were all kind and friendly, but the department's head, gave her a scare.
Lia didn't want to make the same mistake she had made in her former place of work. She made sure to make small talk with everyone.
This time she didn't want to be the black sheep amongst her co-workers.
Time flew by quickly. Lia was praised by one of them because of how fast she was able to learn.
And now it was time for everyone to go out on a lunch break. Lia was invited to join them but she declined.
She wanted to have her lunch with Leo, she was going to return his card and give him the gift she bought him. She also planned to make small talk with him to try to get to know him better.
***At Mr. King's office***
Leo was busy signing papers when he heard his phone ring. Not liking the distraction, he decided to be a lot more rude than he usually is.
"Speak"
"That's no way to say hello to your brother" The person whined.
"If there is nothing, then hang up"
"He has woken up"
"When?"
"This morning"
"I'm on my way"
"Is sister-in-law coming too"
"No".
Leo hung up the phone and right on cue, Lia walked in, not before knocking of course.
"Are you going somewhere?" She asked.
"I am, is something wrong?" Leo asked worriedly.
"Not really, I was just wondering if you would like to join me for lunch?"
"You are asking me to go on a date with you?"
Lia didn't think of it that way. Hearing him say those words, she felt heat spread around her chicks.
" Can't I ask my husband out?"
Now it was Leo's turn to blush.
He cleared his throat.
" As much as I would love to accompany my wife to lunch, I have somewhere else to be"
" Well, would you like for me to grab you something to eat?"
" No need"
" Ok then, I will leave first"
Lia was sad that she got turned down and she was also sad that she was going to have to eat lunch alone.
Her phone beeped. It was a message from Mary. It turned out that Mary and Chris wanted to meet up with her.
Luckily she had a long break and the place for the meet-up up wasn't so far away from the company.
Lia excitedly made her journey to the little cafe where Mary and Chris were already seated and waiting for her arrival.
"Mary, Chris" Lia called out from a distance. Both of them stood up and gave Lia a bone-crushing hug.
"You already look so stunning, and it hasn't even been up to a week, since I last saw you"
" I got a new job"
" Really?, I'm so happy for you"
" Yeah, where do you work?"
" You won't believe me if I told you"
" Tell me"
"King's corp"
Mary and Chris burst into a fit of laughter.
" So, where do you work?"
" I'm not kidding, I would show you my ID card, but it is not ready yet"
" Are you for real? that's the top. You have officially made it in life"
" No, if I can keep my job then, I'm on the right path. Speaking of which you guys aren't supposed to be on break right now, or are you guys skipping work?"
"Actually, we both lost our jobs" Chris confessed.
" What happened?"
" Well you see, ever since you left, little Karen has been getting on my nerves, so we got into a fight, no biggie. Oh and I beat the shit out of her"
" Yeah, you should have seen her bruised face it was hilarious" Chris laughed.
"The boss has been around lately, so he handled our case and of course, since Karen is the snakes minion she was obviously favored"
"How did you lose your job, Chris?"
" Well, I couldn't stand there and let my pumpkin be bullied, so I punched the old man in the face"
" Pumpkin? that sounds gross" Mabel said.
" You guys couldn't endure for a few days"
" It's ok, we can always find a new job"
" But, I kind of feel bad. You guys lost your jobs because of me"
" Enough, I'm hungry" Mary said.
" Me too"
***At the hospital.***
" You have finally arrived"
" Where is he?"
" He is in that room over there"
"I'm going in"
"Before you leave please inform me" Josiah said.
Leo opened the door slowly, Mr. Anderson was already sitting upright and staring right at him.
" You have some guts showing up in front of me. kid"
Leo ignored what he said and took a seat in the corner of the room.
"I'm not one of them"
" I've never seen a person rebuke his own family with such a straight face"
" They aren't my family. I've already destroyed them years back"
" If I'm not mistaken Cynthia is still alive"
" I can end her if that's what you truly want"
"There will be no need for that, Now speak what business do you have with me?"