Protective

Anthony's announcement was met by a moment of shock and silence as they were taking the news in, before Steve raised his fist in the air and said, "Anthony my guy! I knew you could do it!" Laila was equally excited or so it seemed.

Despite not knowing the both of them really well, she had seen them enough to know what type of people they are, and she was simply happy to know that two good people had found each other. With a big squeal and while hugging Noah instinctively, she said, "This is such good news! I am so happy for you two. Why would you be nervous to tell Noah and Steve this? If anything, I expect that they feel honoured to be so high in your list of people to tell."

The only person who had remained quiet in this moment was Noah. He seemed to be in a state of disbelief. His face was expressionless and neither Anthony nor Rebecca could tell if he would approve of their relationship or not as it was hard to tell what he was thinking in that moment. Fortunately for them Laila too noticed his silence and look around to see why he wasn't saying anything. So, she asked him directly, "Don't you agree honey?"

Noah was pulled out of his daze, and he mumbled a "Yeah" and said, "I guess I wasn't expecting this. Having you two want to talk to me outside of work and calling me suddenly like this, I did think it had something to do with Anthony finally expressing the feelings that were so obvious for everyone else except Rebecca, but I didn't think it would lead into an engagement so suddenly. He then turned his attention to Rebecca as he asked, "Did you think this through? Are you sure you want to do this? As you might have realized over the years, I have always taken you under my wing and treated you more like a sister than an employee, which has made me more protective than a normal employer should be. So, please bear with me for a minute as I act on that role that I have assigned myself. I am willing to overlook the no-dating rule for you two, Steve has long before today been pushing me to prepare for you two getting together and accepting when the time comes, but I want to make sure this wasn't a spur in the moment thing. There is a world of a difference between dating and getting married, but I also know that when you know, you know. So, tell me, do you know?"

Noah's showing of concern over Rebecca caused not only her to feel touched and be happy to know that she hadn't been the only one regarding their relationship as more than just employer and employee, but also made Steve and Laila smile in silence as they saw a side of Noah, they didn't get to see that often. Anthony seemed a bit surprised at first, but quickly adjusted when he saw the direction his questioning was going. After Noah had said what he said, Laila placed a kiss on his cheek before leaning even closer against him, while Steve responded in a joking manner like he always did, saying, "Taw, you big softie. I knew you wouldn't object, even with all your grumbling replies whenever I brought it up."

Noah paid no mind to Steve and kept his eyes on Rebecca, waiting for her to answer. When Rebecca nodded to let Noah know she was sure of her decision, he turned to Anthony, who now braced himself for a 'big brother' talk. Although Laila wanted to say something, to prevent Noah from putting a damper on their joyous evening. She knew that this was important to him and there was no use trying to stop him when he was this serious and determined about a matter. Steve made an attempt by saying, "Oh come on Noah. Don't be this way. I told you that even if they were to break up, that friendly giant would never do anything to cause Rebecca pain or treat her badly at work for any reason."

But Noah didn't respond to his words and ignored them. Because of Steve's words he did notice the looks on the faces of the other people present for the call and clenched his jaw for a minute before he said, "Why don't you and I talk privately for a minute". Anthony too responded with a nod before swallowing loudly, which was all the consent Noah needed to kick the others off the call and stepping outside of the room to say his piece without any interruptions.

As he was walking towards the door, Laila called out "Don't be too harsh on him. He seems like a sweet kid", as she looked at his back with a look of worry on her face. Noah didn't say much, but just replied with a "Don't worry", before closing the door behind him. Noah's words quite frankly had the opposite effect on Laila as the tone he had said it in, gave her every reason to worry for what Anthony was in for.