Clara's Office (1)

Jeremy texts Max that Sebastian is in the building. ‘Give me 15 minutes before you come to my office. And don’t forget to pay up.’

Sebastian Colfer is in their office, and Max knows he came to see Clara and nothing else. The brothers had been betting on the two CEOs ever since the Installation three weeks ago. Max guessed he would be there after the one-month mark. Believing Sebastian would hold out and pretend he was not that interested in his sister. Jeremy said it would be less, claiming the CEO wanted to hurry things along.

His sister and Sebastian have been butting heads the whole time, but he could see that the attraction was not one-sided. Clara felt something, otherwise, she wouldn’t have risen to his bait. Typically, she would just walk out and give him the bird*, but she stayed the whole time. And the way Sebastian was propositioning his sister was blatantly admitting he was smitten.

Jeremy texted him he was giving Sebastian the lecture, and he turned on the cameras so he could listen in.

‘We love Clara to death. She is our whole world, and we will do everything possible to protect her.’

‘She is not one of your business ventures. Don’t look at her like she’s one of your new shipping lines or any unchartered territories you came to conquer.’

‘Nor is she one of your conquests. She will not be your flavor of the month.’

‘Damn, my brother means business, and I think I am shaking in my boots right now. Wouldn’t want to cross this guy. Geez, don’t make him cry, Jere.’ He wanted to make a joke, lighten up the mood, no need to insult Sebastian when he is still their client. But it was time for him to be serious, so just listened in.

‘It’s…,’ Sebastian tried to interrupt, but Jeremy was not finished with his tirade, ‘Shh.. let me finish.

‘If you’re here because you want to get in her pants, please leave. There is too much going on in her life already. She doesn’t need another heartache.’

‘If you are here to be her friend. Pretending to be there for her, so she could eventually fall in love with you. I would say no to that as well.’

‘We’ve already seen what happened to her relationships. In a couple of weeks or months, you’re going to break up with her because you’ll hate that we come first in her life. You’re going to be just like everybody else, finding issues about us spending so much time together,’ Jeremy warned.

‘Damn! My brother is on a roll. If I were Sebastian, I’d get offended. He’s letting a 25-year-old lecture him.‘

‘I’m not here to break her heart. Whatever relationship we have is between us, and thank you for the concern, but who do you think you are for you to judge me. You don’t know me.’

‘I’m not here to get into her pants. Yes, she intrigues me. Even lit a fire inside of me I once thought was dead. I want nothing more than to win her friendship and to challenge her to open her heart to me.’

‘I hope that she’d find it in her heart to trust me and allow me to show her how much I feel for her. This will be my cross to bear, so please let me do it. I can’t say I didn’t try.’

‘As for you and Max, I am not intimidated or insecure about your relationship with her. You guys are just protective, of course, you’re her brothers.’ he saw Jeremy’s eyebrow raised defensively. Even Sebastian surprised himself. He was able to say all that out loud.

‘That was just impressive.’ Max thinks as he walks to Jeremy’s office. ‘I think Sebastian might really be in love. How does one feel that way, anyway? Would I ever feel as strongly about somebody as he does with my sister? Would it even be worth it? What if she just leaves me behind, like my parents?’

Max comes by with a huge grin on his face. After watching their exchange, he sits down on the other chair in front of Jeremy and turns to Sebastian, ‘I know you had the talk already, and let me add this. We will make you suffer if you hurt her. You cause her to shed even one tear, and we will end everything for you,’ he winks.

‘Yes, that was a threat. Always remember that we are the eyes and ears of Navio. You invited us in, and you can never cast us out. I hope you’re scared.’

‘We’re still okay if you don’t sign the project, but remember, Clara is our life. She comes first.’

-=-

Max and Jeremy escort Sebastian to see Clara. They barged into her office, knowing that she was probably either doing paperwork or research. They checked her schedule to make sure they wouldn’t be interrupting anything important and saw that there was nothing until after lunch. She had blocked her cameras, and they couldn’t see what she was doing in her office. So they had no choice.

Max saunters in first. ‘Hey sis, how’s it going? Are you busy? You’re not, right?’ She ignored both of them. When they needed something from her, they just walked into her office like it was their own, never telling her they were coming.

It made him smile to see that she was sitting at her desk as she would at home, with one knee propped up and one cross-legged on her chair. At least her legs remain covered today. She had no regard for where she was most of the time. Taking whatever comfortable position she could, and did not care if her clothes were askew or if she was flashing people. They were used to it. This was the main reason she wanted people to announce themselves before they entered her office. So she could fix her appearance and look formal when accepting visitors.

‘Clara, I think you’d want to fix up yourself, coz, Tada! Look who the cat dragged in?’ Max said as he made the magician’s hand gesture to acknowledge Sebastian as he walked behind him, hidden from her view.

Clara set her feet on the floor and struggled to find her shoes. She forgot she set them aside by her trash can, but when she noticed Sebastian chuckling at her, she glared at him and folded her feet under her chair, away from his view.

'Uh oh, don’t get her mad,' Max thought.

‘Why are you here? Is there a problem with the system?’ She looked at him suspiciously. Probably wondering if he broke something intentionally so he could come to see her.

*Giving the bird means to make an offensive gesture at someone by pointing the middle finger upward while keeping the other fingers folded down.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/give%20%28someone%29%20the%20bird