Liam was headed to Charlotte's office to submit the latest rectification of the craft which he held tightly in his hand.
The moment he got to the door, he stopped right at the entrance, inhaled deeply, and then slowly let it out, remembering the insults he'd been gifted the previous day. He slipped the file where the papers were within under this armpit and used his right hand to adjust his tie even though it wasn't crooked. He needed to be perfect for her.
After spending a dozen seconds, attempting to look as perfect as possible, he hacked his throat and knocked on the door before walking inside.
"Good morning, ma. Here's the modified draft as you instructed." Liam said, with his two hands placed on the file which he had in front of him as he walked slowly towards Charlotte's table.
"Let me see it." Charlotte uttered in a psychopathic accent with no traces of emotional inclinations.
"oookkayy." Liam said as he sighed lowly unintentionally with his hands fidgeting as he handed it over to her.
Charlotte's multi- thousand dollar cosmetic nails were synonymous to claws of some well-tailored beast and though it was a beautiful thing to behold, Liam could not shake off the feeling that it was a weapon and nothing more.
Charlotte opened the pages one after the other and without paying much attention to it given how fast she was turning them over, looked at Liam whose gaze was shuffling between the foot of her table and her nails.
"It's good. Email it to the secretary to notify the board about it." Charlotte said, without any semblance of satisfactory joy evident on her face as she stretched her left hand towards him with the file in it.
"I'll do that. Thank you." Liam said with an average smile at the left side of his face. He was finally getting around her style of perfection and had managed to get through this encounter without any insults or bad comments.
While Liam turned his back to leave, Charlotte used her nails to scratch the marble coated top of her table and this caused an unpleasant screeching sound that made Liam turn his back towards her again.
"What could she be up to this time?" Liam thought to himself as the corporate smile on his face fled in worry.
"Ma. You didn't add that. Let that not happen again." Charlotte said with a straight face that could win a witch an audition while she used her finger nails to scroll from the left to the right of the table.
"Yes, ma. My apologies,... ma." Liam said, with a distraught countenance as he bowed his head slowly to show his remorse and respect before he headed out of her office.
After shutting the door behind him, he stood right by the door and let out a deep sigh at the way the encounter with Charlotte had ended.
"Was she that irritated by his presence that she couldn't even let that little mistake slide, and what was with the nails?" Liam thought to himself with a shadow of anger covering his feelings.
Liam, after taking a moment to shake off the negativity and shiver around his feelings, walked back to his department and like the previous day, they were all standing, waiting patiently for him to let them know their fates.
"It's good. That was what she said. We did it, guys." Liam said with cheer on his face that gave all of their tense muscles and worried faces a smile and radiant energy as they yelled chants of celebration in silence while they nodded their heads at each other.
"Okay, guys. This was no common feat, and for that reason, tonight we celebrate. Drinks and Grills at Alfred's tonight, and biills on me." Jerry, the head of the department said with more euphoria that blurred his decision making process at the time as he took his hands off Liam's shoulder which he'd patted.
"Yeah, guys.. that's a win for us. I'm in." Ava said with all confidence as she nodded her head rhythmically as if she was dancing to some cool rock song.
"You bet. Count me in, bitch!" Cillian said with his left hand on his waist and his fingers having more movement than his mouth.
"And you, Liam?" Ava asked with a tone of affection as she looked at him in the eyes.
"Uhhmm.. no, guys. I'm sorry. I can't." Liam, hardly able to maintain this eye contact with Ava, replied.
"I'm in." Elon, who had not said a word or burst into outrageous cheer said slowly and in an almost indiscernible baby pitch as he looked at their faces mildly, and in return, they all looked at him with shock and delight.
"Liam, you gonna have to change your mind." Jerry said assertively.
"Uhhmmm.. you know what? Okay. I'm in." Liam said with his shoulders dropping as he spoke.
"Yes!" Ava shouted with excitement and looked around the room at their faces given her weird outburst.
"That was a lot more quiet in my head." Ava said to herself as she chuckled. This was her chance to spend time with Liam outside of the work hours, and she was ecstatic about it.