Hit the road

Today was the day of the trip. The packing had been done, the last minute cancellation had been sent and Noah and Laila were ready to hit the road. The weather was wonderful and Laila had chosen an outfit that matched the weather perfectly and the details of her dress managed to hide her small belly. The beautiful light blue dress that she was wearing had a pattern of yellow flowers, criss-cross layers and a V-neck. The bright warm yellow mixed well with the cold blue. As if she herself was both the warm rays of the sun as well as the gentle breeze that gave the necessary cooling. The light fabric and sleeveless design allowed Laila to show off the warm tones in her skin, while creating a delicate and elegant look that was very comfortable considering both the weather as well as her condition.

Noah was leaning against the car, wearing a matching light blue shirt, when Laila walked out of the house, ready to start their trip. When Noah saw her, he could barely take his eyes off of her and stared at her image from the moment she stepped outside until she was standing before him. "You look stunning. There is more that I would like to say but you will call me cheesy so I will keep those words to myself." Laila chuckled and said, "Thank you. For both the compliment and your consideration." With a loving voice he asked her, "Are you ready to get going miss princess? We have a lot of catching up to do." Laila nodded and Noah opened the door for Laila to get in the car before he went to the driver's side to get in himself. As soon as the doors were closed, the engine revved and they went on their way.

Though they had drivers, boats and could travel by plane, Noah and Laila had decided to take this trip with only the two of them and wanted even the travel-time to be spent on them talking and catching up without any worries about what might be heard by others or any possible interruption. But just two minutes into their drive Laila's phone started ringing and when she glanced at the screen she saw Olivia's name pop up.

"Who is it?" Noah asked.

"It's Olivia."

"Aren't you going to pick up?"

"I will, I just have to figure out what I am going to say. I can't very well tell her the truth, that we ran away to get some peace and quiet from her. I need to find the right words that will ease her anger while allowing for no room to persuade."

Noah chuckled. "I didn't think you would come up with all of this without expecting Olivia to call you for a proper explanation. If you hadn't agreed to meet up in the first place, you wouldn't be in this mess right now."

"Yeah, yeah, captain hindsight. I know. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she would call to chew me out for cancelling but I didn't expect her to call so soon." After letting out a deep sigh Laila said, "Well let's get this over with" and picked up the call.

"Hey Olivia."

"Don't you 'Hey Olivia' me. How could you cancel on me on the day of us meeting up?!"

"I'm so sorry. You know that I didn't want to cancel. I was so looking forward to us hanging out but what could I do? Noah had planned this surprise trip and he only informed me about it today. He had felt bad for being so busy at work and wouldn't take no for an answer. The cabin was booked, tickets were bought, there was no way for him to cancel. So, I was left with no other option than to ask for your understanding since you are a good friend to both of us and I know you root for us more than anyone."

Laila had phrased all her words so tactically that there was no way for Olivia to disagree. Disagreeing on any front would mean her disagreeing to being a good friend and that was her entire front. So, reluctantly Olivia bit her tongue and said that she understood and would forgive her this one time for Noah's sake.

Laila smirked at Noah and thanked her for being such a good friend before hanging up. Now that this final hurdle was out of the way, she could finally focus all her energy on enjoying their much needed trip.

While Noah and Laila were going away to have some fun, Noah asked Steve and his assistant to look into who Olivia's backer might be. That way they would be able to take action the moment they would return. Once Noah and Laila would return from their week alone, Maria would come to visit in order to help decide what to do with any gathered information regarding Olivia and her backer.

Laila had called her after she and Noah had made up. That is also when Laila informed Maria about what had happened between the two of them and with Olivia. Of course Maria got mad at Laila for not telling her about it sooner as she could have helped but after Laila apologized it didn't take long for her to be forgiven. Once these matters were out of the way, they discussed the best course of action regarding Olivia along with both Steve and Noah. They decided that gathering intel was the smartest move for now. The more they knew, the better they could prepare a counter strike. Olivia wasn't aware that they knew what was going on nor that Laila was back in contact with Noah. Until she would find out about that, they were most likely still safe.

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At the same time in another town, Jake was drinking away his troubles. He had resigned from his father's company just like he had agreed and he was feeling lost ever since. He didn't know what to do with his life. What had been close to perfect a short week ago, had been turned to flames in just a few days. He couldn't believe that Laila would do something like that. Even more so he couldn't believe that Noah, weak little Noah, had been able to outsmart him like that. How could he have reduced him to such a state? He had been backed into a corner with no way to escape. But you know what they say, a drowning man will clutch at a straw. It is that unpredictability that makes them so dangerous.