The End of the World (2)

"Mother, father…what are you doing here?" Abby called out.

Jacob felt his heart drop to his stomach. Judging from the pale and dumbfounded look on Abby's face he suspected she felt the same.

"We just came to test things like usual." Her mother replied while glancing over at Jacob. "And who's your friend?"

"This is Jacob." Abby introduced awkwardly. Jacob immediately stood up and greeted them both politely.

"Well you two have fun. We'll continue our rounds as well."

"Alright, see you." Abby replied clumsily.

"It was nice meeting you." Jacob echoed.

Once her parents were out of sight Jacob collapsed onto the ground beside her.

"How could you not know your parents would be here?" He groaned.

"What happened to all your confidence from earlier? I thought it wouldn't be the end of the world. You probably jinxed us by bringing it up in the car in the first place."

After a moment of sullen silence both of them burst into laugher.

"How awkward!" Abby exclaimed.

"I'm scared to drop you off at home now." Jacob added with a chuckle. But he dropped her off all the same. Luckily, he got off the hook without running into her parents again.

~~

Meanwhile, late that afternoon Elle was also returning home to her condo when she came across a familiar scene.

She walked over to the seating area. "I hope you're not locked out again." She said as she stood over Christopher.

He gave her a sheepish grin in return. "No, not this time."

"Then? Waiting for someone?"

"No, I'm just lounging here. My house is too quiet, it was driving me mad. Down here there's the constant noise of the shuffle of people going in and out of the building to keep me from going crazy."

Elle's heart stung with pity. "I was going to go for tea, want to join me?" She asked.

"Weren't you just getting back home from being out?" He questioned.

"I was going to go by myself later," Elle said to quickly cover up her lie with another one, "but I figured you and I could also go together now. If you want to that is."

"Okay, sure." He agreed readily. So they walked a few blocks down the road to one of Elle's favourite tea shops.

"So what do you do?" Chris asked once they were sitting down with their orders.

"I work at a company called Tae."

"Do you really?" He asked with wonder.

"Do you know of it?"

"Of course I do. It's such a well known brand. What department do you work in?"

"I'm the marketing director there."

"At such a young age? That's amazing." Christopher complimented her.

Elle smiled. 'What a good kid.' She thought to herself.

After enjoying their time together, passing it with idle chit chat, they decided eventually to head back home. As they were walking back to the condo Adam happened to be stepping out of his car nearby. He had come to see Elle now that he was done with his work.

Elle happened to see Adam, and Adam saw them both, but Chris didn't notice at all.

"I have something to take care of, you should go up to your home first." Elle said as she and Adam locked eyes from a distance.

"Okay. Thanks for today, it was a lot of fun."

"No problem. I had fun too." Elle said as they parted. "Don't loiter in the lobby anymore either." She called after him.

"You came?" Elle asked as Adam came over to join her.

"All my remaining work can at least wait until tomorrow so I figured we could at least have dinner together tonight."

"Great!"

"You're just getting back?" Adam asked as they headed up to her home.

"No, I got back earlier and then went out again for tea." As they got in the elevator and headed upstairs Elle told him the story of how she had run into Christopher and how she had taken him out to tea.

"Wait a second," Adam said as they entered her apartment, "so the 'kid' you were referring to this whole time was him?" he asked with his voice laced with humour.

"Yea, why?"

"Hahaha" Adam began laughing. Not his usual amused chuckle but real laughter.

"What is it?" Elle asked, but Adam was laughing to hard to answer her. Elle watched in awe. She had never seen him laugh so much before.

"What? What's so funny?" She asked again.

"I know you're recluse but there should be a limit to how oblivious you should be when you're in a marketing department." He said between laughs. "Do you know who he is?"

"Christopher? No, who is he? Someone's son?"

"You really are bad at this. He's an actor. Maybe one of the most in demand actors at the moment and at best he's probably two years younger than you."

Elle's eyes widened as she realized what he was saying.

"I can't believe that all this time you've been treating one of the highest paid actors in the country like a child." Adam said before bursting into laughter again.

"Ahh!" Elle screamed before burying her face in her hands. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"I had no idea who you were talking about before."

"This is horrible. How humiliating." Elle cried out which only riled Adam up more.

"This isn't funny." Elle insisted.

"No, you're right. It's hilarious."

"This is the end of the world. How am I supposed to face him now?" She complained.

Adam watched as Elle sunk into the couch and buried her face into a cushion. The reality was there was one more secret Adam knew about Christopher but he wouldn't reveal it to her just yet. He imagined he would be able to illicit anther funny response from her if she found out later on. So he kept it to himself as he quietly comforted her.