The Meeting

Sophia rushed towards us and Caleb stood up to greet her. All the while I was looking at them in confusion.

Do they know each other?

Sophia reached our table and hugged the living daylight out of Caleb.

"How have you been?", Sophia gushed, "Amber told me you're back and it didn't occur to you to come and meet me", She complained.

Caleb laughed and said "I just arrived last week and mom told me you have a baby", he pinched Noah's cheek.

Probably noticing the confusion on my face Sophia cleared, " Caleb is my distant cousin and Amber is his mother"

Then she formally greeted Mr. Eaton.

" You know, I thought he was Liana's baby" Caleb said while flicking Noah's nose and the baby tried to bat his hand away.

Sophia snorted and I glared at her. "Yeah, as if she's having a baby anytime soon" I casted a murderous glare towards her, and bugged my eyes to tell her not to spill my relationship status infront of these strangers. She seemed to get my cue.

Both boys were now looking at me. Mr.Eaton, who was busy on his phone doing God knows what a while ago, was now interested in this conversation too.

Great,

Fucking great.

"Ummm...Sophia, Steve was calling and asking when will we be back? He said dinner is ready.He's waiting" I said with a fake smile to divert them from the topic.

"My goodness" Sophia exclaimed when she checked her wrist watch.

"We are really late. We should get going and Caleb, you're joining us for dinner this friday. No excuses''. She said with finality and signaled me to come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was friday and we were driving towards Eaton Enterprises. I was sitting in the back with Mark,my colleague. He was the head of the finance department, and he was also a good friend of mine. He would sometimes come to my office during lunch and we'd talk about random stuff.

Once there, we entered the office. A pretty brunette who was probably the receptionist was waiting for us and together we walked towards the elevators. The interior of the office was exquisite and the building had at least 70 floors. The exterior was made entirely of black glass while the interior was in grays and whites.

We were directed towards the board room where the meeting was held. The room was a beauty with it's black wood furniture and glass wall.

Soon, Mr.Eaton joined us and the meeting prevailed. Caleb was here too

And he smiled and waved at me. I smiled back. He was an easy going guy.

During the meeting, I catched Mr.Eaton staring at me but it is possible he was looking at the glass wall which was behind me.

Like,come on. Why would he stare at my boring self?

I was wearing a mauve silk button up and with gray slacks and gray ankle boots. My hair was in a french braid and I had my reading glasses on.

See, boring.

The meeting was paused for lunch. It was takeaway from an Italian restaurant. Pizza and lasagna. I chose pizza. Caleb came to sit beside me, "Why yes, Liana, you look more beautiful everytime I see you", he grinned at me and wiggled his eyebrows while I grinned back.

" Ar...Are you flirting?" I whispered in a faux meek voice. His laughter bellowed in the silent room and the staff member looked at us curiously.

"You're so cute", he pinched my cheeks and I slapped his hand away.

Feeling someone's eyes on me I looked up to find Mr. Eaton silently observing us. He didn't avert his eyes even after our eyes met. His gray-blue eyes were so deep and hypnotising, like I can look at them whole day and disentangle the secrets held within.

Okay,snap out of it, Lia!

The meeting resumed afterward.

We exited the office after Steve reminded Caleb of the dinner held at their house.

We drove back to our office and Steve allowed me to go early as it was the weekend and my work for today was done so I took my car and drove to my apartment.

After dinner, I decided to draw so I took out my supplies and sat down on my big swinging chair on the balcony.

I started drawing and let my mind take hold.

After some time,I realized I was drawing a shadow of my eyes and not just any eyes. Hypnotic gray-blue eyes.

Ugggghh.

I tore the sheet out of the sketchbook and crippled the paper in my fist.

Never trust these rich men. They are deadly. Their hearts are colder than ice.

Mom used to say.

And I believed her but like all fingers are not the same, this theory can't be applied to all. There are always exceptions. There was Steve, he was a rich man but still simple and sweet. Always ready to help. If it wasn't for him, I would still be a scared little girl. I shuddered when memories started surfacing.

Life has never been easy for me and now that I'm finally fine and stable and not unhappy anymore, I didn't want another tornado to hit me and snatch my life from my hands again.