Happened to be

The three men were completely shocked. Not even in their wildest dreams did they think that not only would they not get fired but that they would receive an apology as well. Not just from anyone but from none other than Mr. Stephens. After a brief moment of silence due to shock, all three of them answered with an exited "Yes of course." in choir. Before one of them took over the conversation to elaborate.

"You had every right to be angry with us sir. There is absolutely no need for you to apologize, though we are all very grateful that you did and that you decided to give us another chance. I feel we aren't worthy of another chance ,since we were already on our second chance when this happened. More so than that, we had just begun repaying you for that second chance, only to mess things up just a week later. But we all owe you and your kind wife a big debt of gratitude. A debt I for one can't ever hope to repay but I want to at least make sure that you won't ever regret giving me this chance as you might be regretting giving me that second. So, although I can't speak for the others, I at least promise to do everything in my power to show you that your efforts weren't wasted and that my loyalty will always lie with you."

Without letting a single second go by, the other two that were present for the call chimed in in turns to say, "He has spoken for me as well. You have my loyalty for life.", "You can count me in too sir. Whatever you need, whenever you need it, I am your guy."

After hearing what the guys had to say, Noah was pleasantly surprised. Though he couldn't be sure yet until their words had been put into action, it seemed that they had been worth giving another chance. In a tone that made it seem as if he wasn't affected by anything that had been said so far, Noah replied, "Very well. I guess we got that sorted then. I shall keep you posted once we figure out what to do." After that he hung up and returned to the living room where three pairs of curious eyes were looking at him.

But Noah didn't entertain them at all and simply replied to the stares with raised brows, a defensive stare and a "What?" before took a seat next to Laila. After he was sitting cozy next to his wife and had put his arm around her shoulder, he glanced over at Maria and said, "Isn't it about time that you took a seat elsewhere. I do believe I gave you enough time with her for one day, don't you agree?" Laila chuckled and hit Noah on his stomach with an open hand as she let out a, "Stop it.", which carried no threat at all. At the same time Maria rolled her eyes and got up from her seat to the corner of the couch. She picked the spot that was as far away from Noah and Laila as possible but also 'happened to be' the closest to Steve.

He in turn looked very pleased with this change of situation and thanked Noah in his mind as he gave him a subtle thumbs up. Little did he know that this wasn't so much of his friend's doing as it was coming from Maria's own volition as she had had a change of heart regarding his unexpected courtship. With that small change caused by Noah's jealousy or maybe his intention to want to help out his friends to find happiness like he had, Noah had caused smiles to appear on everyone's faces.

Once everyone was smiling and comfortable, Laila said, "Now that we have did a little seat change, should we take a look at the information the guys at your office sent you? And with 'we', I of course mean you and Steve as I don't know the first thing about computers and last I checked, neither did Maria." With a wink Laila added, "Though she has some good connections in the spying gadgets." To which everyone let out a small chuckle before Steve exclaimed, "The information. Right! For a second there I forgot about it."

Noah responded with a tone that dripped of sarcasm. Saying, "And that coming from the man who is supposed to fix this problem. How very comforting." Causing yet again for everyone in the room to chuckle, except for Steve himself who simply glared at Noah for a brief second and said, "That was highly unnecessary. So, instead of making snarky remarks, why don't you get me a laptop. Or did you expect me to fix everything on my phone?" Unfortunately for Steve, though he might be intimidating to others, he was no match for Noah. With a chilling glare he looked at Steve and said, "Excuse me?" Steve responded with a nervous laughter before he said, "I said, can I borrow your laptop please? I know you have yours here and as always I have left mine in the car. I want to get started to sorting this out for all of us as soon as possible."

Without breaking eye-contact with Steve, who was seeing if his words took, Noah slowly got up from his seat and headed to the intercom system by the door and pressed a button to call for someone to bring his laptop down from his home office. Though Steve had been right that he had taken his laptop home with him, he always handed his bag over to Garry as soon as he enters the house. So, while it was in the house, it was no longer anywhere near him. Luckily there were plenty of people working upstairs to get it for him.