A missed call

As they were standing by the door, their coats on, bags in hand, Noah and Laila gave Olivia a fake thanks for her 'hospitality' and waved goodbye as they walked out of the door. They didn't need to walk far as their chauffeur was waiting right behind the door. When he spotted Laila and Noah in the rear-view mirror, he quickly got out of the car and opened the door for both of them, before he went back inside and drove off. Though the distance between Olivia's house, or better said her parents' house, and their house was a walking distance, it was late and both of them were actually quite tired. So, even that seemed as too much for them at the moment, especially the more and more pregnant Laila.

As soon as they were behind closed doors, Noah grabbed his phone and called Steve but no matter how many times he let the phone ring, his call was not answered. He turned to Laila with an irritated face and said, "Can you call Maria for me. For some reason Steve is not answering his phone and I have a feeling that Maria has something to do with that."

As Noah was imagining all the ways he would be strangling Steve once they got back home, Laila tried to get a hold of Maria. But she too was not answering her phone. "She won't pick up either. I'm afraid we are going to have to wait until we get home to talk to Steve." The reason they were so desperately trying to get in touch with Steve was because they needed him to erase the footage of Laila using their device on Olivia's phone. Since they did not know if or when Olivia would watch the footage, they needed to have any suspicious recordings deleted before she had a chance to.

Having no success in reaching either of them by phone, they were left with the old fashion method of instructing him in person. Fortunately their ride wasn't long and they were expected to arrive in about two minutes. During that time Noah stared in the distance as his face looked grim and cold. His face was resting on his hand while his fingers covered his chin and most of his lips. In this pensive stance he finished what had remained of the car-ride. While Noah was busy with his own emotions, Laila was left to deal with her own. She too was far from unaffected by Steve and Maria being unreachable. Laila was visibly worried over what would happen if Olivia would see the security footage before Steve had a chance to erase the parts where she was busy with Olivia's phone and was fidgeting with her hands as her nerves got the best of her. It wasn't until they arrived at the mansion that Noah noticed the look of worry on Laila's face.

A single glance in Laila's direction Noah let out a deep breath of air before a soft smile appeared on his face. He grabbed Laila's hands and covered them with his own. When she looked up and saw his face, a hint of worry still seemed present but disappeared once she noticed his smile and the look in his eyes. It all seemed to say, "Don't worry. Everything will be alright". After he gave her hands a gentle squeeze he said the exact some words aloud before he said, "Let's go find that lovestruck fool."

Laila smiled back and nodded before she followed Noah into the house. As they called out their names and started looking for them room by room, their search didn't last very long as they ran into Steve and Maria as soon as they entered the dining room. The two of them were woken from their little day dream when they heard the loud closing of the front door followed by the faint sound of their names being called out.

In his hurry and out of his annoyance with Steve not picking up his phone on such a day as this, Noah had slammed the door with a lot more force than usual. This caused the sound to vibrate through the rooms via the walls and slide over the marble floors, reaching all the way to the back of the house. The sound caused Steve and Maria to look up and around them, before they glanced at their phones and saw that they each had a missed call. After looking at each other with wide eyes that seemed to scream, "Oh shit!" they quickly got up from their seats and made their way over to the front door, letting Noah and Laila's loud voices guide them to the right location.

Once they were face to face, Steve saw the menacing glare on Noah's face and knew he had messed up and deserved every bit of his anger. He had been so lost in his date with Maria that he had completely forgotten about the important task he had today. Regardless of all that he had managed to do before, right now he had let both Noah and Laila down. As he said, "I'm so sorry you guys.", Noah waved his words away and said, "We'll talk later. For now get behind your laptop before Olivia sees anything she isn't supposed to see".