Not as Lucky

The workday had passed and with Olivia no longer on his tail for the day, Noah returned home earlier than expected. Though he knew that he would have to work some more after dinner as he would be missing multiple hours of his workday tomorrow, he was happy that he at least found the time to share a meal with his wife.

When he walked in, Laila was surprised to see him home so early but happy nonetheless. She skipped in his direction and swung her arms around his neck and lifted her feet in the air as she placed a kiss on his lips. As she was dangling from his neck she said with a warm, happy look on her face, "I didn't expect to see you for at least another hour but you are just in time. Maria and I were about to start eating dinner. I'll ask the kitchen to send out another plate."

Just as Noah was about to respond to Laila, Maria walked down the stairs and saw the two of them in this kind of embrace. This caused her to roll her eyes and let out an "Ugh" before saying, "Do you two really need to be stuck to each other like that from the moment you find yourselves in the same room?" Laila chuckled at this remark whereas Noah said, "Don't get jealous. Green is not a good colour on you. You won't be a lonely spinster for much longer. Steve is working hard to save you from that fate, so no need to keep spitting that venom when you see other happy couples behaving like a couple in their own homes. Plus, I hope you will remember those words once you and Steve get together because I will be damned if I don't remind you of them when that time comes."

Noah's words had been harsh and direct but this was how the relationship between him and Maria was. Both of them knew how to roll with the punches and they knew that with each new back and forth, there was a chance of them ending up the losing party. This time that party was Maria. Her relationship status with Steve was in quite a delicate phase and any comment on that made her unable to defend herself. The only thing she managed to come up with was, "Ché, I am way too young to be considered a spinsters." As she said these words with crossed arms, she glanced at Noah from over her shoulder as to hide her embarrassment.

All the while Laila remained silent and only let out a chuckle of amusement from this conversation. She made it a point not to get between them and their odd friendship. If it worked for them, it worked, period. She saw no reason to meddle in the way they interacted and had told each of them that she wouldn't. As long as no one got hurt by it, she would leave them to fight this eternal battle between themselves. Lucky for her, despite the lack of casualties, the battle was ended prematurely by one of the staff opening the door to announce that dinner was being served.

Again Laila showed her cheerfulness by making a little hop and clasping her hands together as she said, "That is wonderful! Could you please bring out an extra plate and set of tableware for Mr. Stephens?" The uniformed staff member gave a little nod and said, "Of course miss Laila.", before he turned around and headed back through the door, into the dining room. As they were heading into the dining room as well, Maria asked in a cool voice, as if she was just inquiring about this matter in passing, "Where did you leave that friend of yours? Doesn't he have to eat?"

Noah tried to hide his soft chuckle behind his closed fist and cleared his throat before replying, "Oh you mean Steve. He will be eating at the office. He has far too much work to do. I do too but luckily I can do my work at my office here. He won't be able to finish everything if he returns to the mansion for a cheery dinner. But he will try to return here for bed. So, who knows. We might see him before we go to sleep."

With a worried look in her eyes Maria followed Laila and Noah to the table and took her seat. When her worried look drew Laila's attention, causing her to have a look of concern herself, Maria quickly put on a smile and shook her head to let her know that nothing was wrong. Though Laila wasn't very convinced, she let the matter go after Noah gave her arm a squeeze to tell her the same, for her to not worry about it. While the three of them started their eating their dinner, Steve was still waiting for his to arrive.

Contrary to Noah, Steve wasn't as lucky to be able to have dinner at the mansion with the other three. This was because he would be taking most of tomorrow off from work and those were hours he needed to finish the work for the week. So, decided to stay a bit longer with the hope that he would get to see Maria before he went to bed tonight. Though deep down, in a way, if only by looking at the pile of paperwork on his desk, he knew that this was unlikely. As his eyes drifted to the work floor, he only saw a mostly darkened office. With most of the people having left for home, only one or two diehards were still working, burning the midnight oil like him. Since looking away did not cheer him up in the least, he let out a deep sigh before returning his focus to his work. Giving himself the pep-talk he needed, since there wasn't really anyone there that could do it for him. "Come on Steve. Complaining about it won't make the work get done faster. Just focus, one page at a time."

After those words he grabbed another stack from the large pile in front of him and started typing again.