Chapter 11

Six Months Later,

"Yes, I’ll be there, babes. How is my godchild?” I asked with a huge grin on my face as I was kept scrambling the eggs on the pan, balancing my phone between my ear and shoulder. Ashley was graduating tomorrow and she was about five weeks pregnant. I was over the moon when I found out about it and couldn’t be more happier for her. I guess the wedding will be after her pregnancy.

“The baby is fine, Em,” she exhaled loudly and I could notice the worry in her voice.

“Still on a rough patch with Jake huh?” I asked as I transferred the eggs to my plate. They have been facing some personal problems of their own and I just hoped they would get back together like before. They were miserable without each other and anyone with eyes could see it.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. I got to go now. Be there by 10 am or I'll kill you,” she said in a hurry and I could hear some disturbance on the other side of the phone.

“Love you too babes, take care.” I laughed, cutting the call and sat on the stool, eating my breakfast all alone with my thoughts. It has been six months since I started interning at Thompson and Knight and I was enjoying every second of it. It was like a much-needed distraction from everything that happened. I haven’t heard a single word from Austin in the past six months. I completely stopped going to the game nights. Ashley understood that something was going on between us and never forced me to come. Eventually, the game nights became rare as everyone was getting busy with their lives. When Ash and Jake were on a fight, I called Dan and told him to call Austin to ask if he knew anything about it. That was the last time I even uttered his name out loud. Even Liam had no idea about why we stopped seeing each other all of a sudden. I never told anyone about it and let it remain a secret.

I still missed him so much and hated myself for feeling that way. He had ruined me completely for good. I finished my eggs and threw my plate in the sink. After straightening out my pencil skirt, I grabbed my keys and headed out for work. I reached in about 15 minutes and looked up at the tall building which had nearly 50 floors. I let out a huge breath and rushed to the elevator in a hurry as I hated being late. I patiently waited for it to reach the 40th floor where my cubicle was allocated and leaned against the elevator wall, scrolling through my phone. I noticed someone enter the elevator on the 30th floor. It was Dylan and I gave him a small smile to be polite. He worked for the finance department and I tried my best to avoid this guy as he creeped the hell out of me. He always kept checking me out and made inappropriate comments at my body.

"Morning, Emma," he greeted as he trailed his eyes all over my body, making me feel uncomfortable in an instant. Here we go, again. He was a fairly attractive guy about 6ft tall with straight black hair that was pushed back, gray eyes, and a chiseled jaw.

"Morning, Dylan," I responded giving him a tight smile.

"You look sexy, today." He breathed out and the elevator stopped at my floor almost as if reading my mind, making me sigh in relief. I stepped out, not turning around and kept walking.

"See you around," he called out before the doors closed, making me shake my head in disgust. Asshole.

“Hey, Anna.” I chirped at the receptionist on my floor as I walked towards her desk. She was a nice young woman of my age with long brunette hair and brown eyes. She was almost my height with a perfect toned body and had a killer fashion sense. We got along so well and I often found Liam, flirting with her and she seemed to be totally smitten by him.

“Right on time, girl.” she grinned widely, handing me the coffee. We always had a habit of getting each other coffee, whoever arrived first.

“You are a lifesaver,” I took the coffee from her hand and went to my cubicle, throwing my bag and coat on the desk. The space allocated for the interns weren’t that fancy when compared to the office of other people but I was more than grateful to even be working here. My cubicle and Liam's cubicle were opposite to each other and he had a clear view of Anna desk from his place. I was rooting for him and that girl, Lucy but she quit within two weeks, not being able to handle the pressure of work. I walked back to her desk with my cup of coffee as the floor was pretty empty and people were just starting to come in.

“Where is Liam?” she asked, trying not to sound too eager as she kept adjusting her blouse.

“He should be here any minute now, keep it in your pants, woman.” I teased and noticed her face go red with embarrassment.

“I can’t believe you aren’t interested in him, he is sex on legs, Emma,” she whispered and sighed dreamily. I grimaced at her expression and wondered what she would say if she sees Austin.

There you go, thinking about him again.

I shook my head and tried to focus on our conversation. I noticed her eyes go wide and looked behind me to see Liam walking in with his sling bag thrown across his body and he was struggling to fix his tie.

"Hey ladies, mind giving me a hand," he winked at both of us. I showed him the finger while Anna blushed, handing him his coffee.

"Ah, just what I was looking for, Coffee from my favorite girl," he winked as he sipped on the coffee, his gaze fixed to hers while his tie still hung loosely around his neck and she seemed to be lost in him.

"Ew, get a room people," I muttered and made my way towards my cubicle, feeling pissed. I despised seeing people being all lovey-dovey these days. It annoyed me to the core and I knew I was being an ass but I just couldn't help it. I tried to concentrate on the paperwork in front of me. One thing I hated about being an intern was being piled up with paperwork. I wanted to do some actual work and this was getting way too boring. The rest of the day seemed to drag and I just wanted to go home and enjoy my weekend already.

“Lewis, Mr. Henderson wants to meet us. Come on,” Liam called out from his cubicle and I stood up with a groan. Mr.Henderson was one of the senior partners at the firm and we were currently working under him.

“What does he want now? I want to go home, dude.” I whined as I dragged my feet to his office.

“No idea but looks like it’s regarding some lawsuit against one of our clients,” he replied lazily, winking at Anna as we walked past her desk, making the poor girl sweat.

We were asked to sit in the conference room and I kept swirling in my chair, playing with the pen in my hand as Liam was busy, typing away on his phone.

“He is going to give us the same boring paperwork again,” I sighed loudly and stopped twirling when I heard the door open. We both stood up to see Mr.Henderson enter. He was a short guy with a potbelly and bald head. He had a neatly trimmed beard and removed his specs, wiping it with his tie as he walked across the room. He must be in his early 50′s and had a warm smile on his face as he sat down on the seat in front of us, placing some files on the table.

“Hey guys, sit down, how is it going?” he beamed excitedly. I was too tired to even give a fake smile. Kill me, already.

“Good, Mr.Henderson.” We both said in unison.

“It about to get even better. So, the reason I called you guys is to discuss about a lawsuit. One of our clients is facing a lawsuit for food poisoning at his hotel. It is a minor case and I want both of you to collect enough details from both the parties and come up with a solution to settle this for our client.” He explained and I starting listening intently since he was giving us some actual work for once. He gave us two files and asked us to go through it. I opened the file and closed it the second I saw the two words in bold font on the front page

‘Williams Enterprises’

Fuck. No fucking way. What kind of a sick joke was the universe playing?

“Is there a problem Ms. Lewis?” Mr.Hendersin asked politely and I gave a nervous laugh.

“Wh--Who is our client, Mr.Henderson?” I stuttered, hoping it was a different Williams Enterprise.

“Austin Williams, the CEO of Williams Enterprise.” he smiled and my face went pale. I suddenly remembered Austin saying something about Thompson and Knight, taking care of his legal matters. Dear lord, Fuck my already fucked up life,

“Uh-oh,” I heard Liam beside me and tried to calm myself. I took a deep breath and went through my file once again and saw no details about the person filing the lawsuit.

“Mr.Henderson, why are there no details about the person filing the lawsuit?”

“I have split the work, Liam will be working on that person while you will be getting the details from our client,” he stated casually and leaned back against his chair. I think I was going to pass out but I tried to remain professional and gave a small smile.

“Ummm....can we exchange the files? It’s just that I’m good with people and can get any kind of information from them,” I tried to convince him pathetically while he gave me a puzzled look.

“I’m sure you can manage, dear. I have given the work based on each of your capabilities. We need to make sure we get every single detail that helps us dismiss this lawsuit for our client. You may start working on it from Monday,” he stood up, giving us both a huge grin.

"Make me proud, kids." He patted Liam's shoulder and nodded at me as he walked out of the conference room while I groaned in frustration. I wanted to bang my head against something and heard Liam chuckle beside me.

“What?” I snapped at him and he held up his hands in defense.

“Dude, I have no idea what went down between you guys but from the way it looks, I think someone is gonna get laid by the end of this lawsuit,” he whistled and I started shooting daggers at him.

"Shut your ass, Liam." I hissed as I felt the anger course through my body.

“Jeez, you are scary, I’m out of here. I hope Anna didn’t leave for the day,” he stood up lazily and walked out. I picked the file and stormed out of the room, pissed at everyone and everything. I collected my things and left immediately, without saying goodbye to anyone.

On my way back home, I tried to come up with different excuses to avoid meeting him at any cost. But if I try to get out of this, Mr.Henderson will think I’m not capable of actual fieldwork and will make me do boring paperwork again. I needed this job and I couldn’t afford to risk my career because of a certain asshole. Damn you, Mr.Henderson. I shook my head and tried to brush it aside, deciding to worry about it on Monday.

I was not going to let Austin Willams ruin my weekend. Like he didn't ruin me enough.