You Know Each Other?

8. You Know Each Other?

"So the CEO likes someone..." Lara mumbled. Her gaze far away.

Stefani chuckled.

"Yes." answered she, a mischievous smirk on her face.

She secretly glanced left and right before continuing.

"He's currently taking his time wooing the mysterious girl. She doesn't even know anything yet. She isn't even aware that Noah is actually interested in her-" Before Stefani could add more to her words, the doors to the elevator opened and a poker faced Noah got out of it, his strides confident and rushed as he passed them by without giving them a glance.

"Good afternoon, sir." Lara greeted him while Stefani just stared at their brooding boss.

"... It's too early for you to start brooding, you know."

The only response she got from Noah was a "Hmm," before he locked himself inside his office with a click.

Lara look at Stefani and Stefani looked at her.

"Don't look at me." Stefani said with a shrug. "I actually don't know what happened to him." But you're the perfect secretary! Lara protested inside her mind but didn't say it.

"... Should we let him be or should we…"

Stefani looked at the CEO's office door.

"Nah, let him brood for a while." She dismissively said. "He'll call us when he needs us."

"... Okay."

"Let's continue with our work so when he asks for them we won't show up empty handed."

Lara nodded. Stefani was right. Noah will call for them when he needs them. She should not worry about him too much. She also haven't finished encoding the important documents so she had to finish it today or else Noah might get angry. And she didn't want that to happen.

Minutes later...

The elevator opened and a smiling man walked out from there. He looked familiar to Lara.

Wait, a second. It was the head of the design department, Michael Larson. The man who was the reason why she met the CEO on her first day at work.

Stefani stood up and greeted him, "Hey, what are you doing here?"

Michael cheerfully smiled back, "Noah called for me so I came up to give him this…" he said, presenting the folder in his hand then noticed Lara's presence beside her, "Oh, you're here as well. What was your name again? Lana... Leira... Lara... Yes, Lara. Lara, am I right?"

"Yes, my name is Lara. Lara Louis."

He smiled.

"It's good to see you again, Sir Michael."

"Just Michael, really. Sir makes me feel old. Thank you for accepting my request yesterday, by the way. I'm grateful..."

"It was nothing, sir. We're just employees doing our job."

"I agree. By the way, what are you doing here?"

Stefani inserted herself into the conversation answering Michael's question in Lara's place.

"I'm training Lara here as my new replacement."

Michael looked surprised. He glanced at the two beauties in front of him, one was a sharp beauty which was obviously Stefani, while the other has a delicate yet elegant charm to her, which was Lara.

"So, you're really going to retire, huh." He asked, "For real?"

Stefani grinned, not sad about her leaving the Smith Industries at all. "Yep! I'm leaving for real." she replied.

Michael was clearly happy for her, but he was also disappointment at the same time.

"We will miss you, you know?"

"Oh, I know." Stefani knowingly smiled, "You'll have Lara here in my stead so you'll be fine. She'll surpass me in no time..."

Michael turned towards Lara and then smiled warmly at her. "Congratulations for getting the job. I'm looking forward to working with you in the future."

He offering his hand to her in a professional handshake and Lara accepted it happily.

"Me too. It's a great honor to work with the genius designer of SI."

Michael made a boyish chuckle was charming and light, "You flatter me. Oh, by the way. I almost forgot. Didn't I promise to make it up to you after you help me yesterday?"

"Ah, yes." She remembered his words before he left her in the mini-kitchen yesterday and he did promise to repay her for the favour. "...it's okay, Sir. It's no big deal, really. You don't have to-"

"It's Michael, Lara." he corrected her with an easy smile, "Also, let me pay back the favor so please, don't reject me."

Listening to their conversation, Stefani grinned and stepped back. She was starting to enjoy herself while making her presence smaller, watching the two people exchange with an interested smirk on her face. What would Noah do if he see these two together.

She grinned at the thought. Interesting...

"Okay, Michael…" Lara blushed slightly, not noticing Stefani watching them silently. She felt uncomfortable with the whole first name basis, but since the head of the design department gave her his permission, she thinks it'll be rude not to comply.

Seriously though, is it really okay for her to call her superior like this?

"Good! So what time are you going out?" He asked.

"...I have dinner plans with my friends later so I can't tonight."

"I see. How about tomorrow?"

"What about tomorrow?"

Before Michael could continue, Noah's voice suddenly came out from beside Lara making her flinch when she discovered that he was already standing closely to her side with a dark expression on his face.

Stefani on the other hand, who was forgotten on the sidelines was jumping up and down in excitement while watching the show. The male lead has arrived! She wish she had a large popcorn on hand, right now though...

"Sir Noah..." Lara blinked, still initially shock at her boss' sudden appearance.

"Noah, hey, I was about to see you just now." Michael smiled but Noah just narrowed his eyes on him.

"You know each other?" Noah asked, ignoring Michael and asked Lara instead but Michael was the one who answered.

"Oh, yeah, we meet yesterday. I told her to bring the file to you yesterday since I had to go home ASAP... It was my nephew's birthday and I completely forgot about it so I had to buy him a last minute gift." he explained.

"Thanks to Lara here, I was saved though. She's an angel." He added, wrapping his arms around her shoulder.

Noah's expression turned rigid seeing Michael's arm coiled around her shoulder.

"I see..."

"I wasn't expecting her to be the one to replace, Stefani though." Michael said and Noah's expression turned worse than before.

"My decisions are none your business, Mike."

"Oh..." Feeling the awkwardness all of a sudden, Michael suddenly remembered his reason for seeing him, "By the way, I have the thing you asked for."

The thing? Lara blinked.

"Let's talk in my office..." Noah said and Michael felt relieved that his mood became a little bit lighter.

"Sure!" He saluted before glancing at Lara. "Let's talk later..." He whispered, thinking no one heard him but Stefani and Noah heard him clearly.

Stefani had a wide playful grin on her face while Noah's expression turned darker instead.

Oops...

"Okay." Lara agreed.

Michael entered the office and Noah stopped by the door, looking at Lara.

"Miss Louis."

Lara flinched when he called for her.

"Y-yes, sir!"

"I want you to fetch a series of files from the HR Department..."

She blinked, what does he need those files for? "What kind of file, sir?"

"A list of all the employees including their basic information."

"Okay, sir."

After that he finally turned around and went inside his office, leaving her and Stefani whose shoulders were shaking from laughter.

"He- He's really…" She wheezed. "Oh my God! You guys are so much fun to watch!" she said, laughing so hard she almost rolled all over the floor while Lara just blinked, not getting what she was laughing about.

***

Lara was dead tired when she reached her apartment. She was drained so she let herself melt on the sofa before closing her eyes, thinking about what happened to her today.

When Noah ordered her to get the list of employees, she was forced to climb up and down from the HR office up to the CEOs office because the records were a lot and they were super-duper thick.

Thanks to her unusual stamina and strength that was above any other human, she did them effortlessly.

When she was done, Michael already left Noah's office and they were not able to talk again as promised.

Anyway, after Lara brought the files to her working desk, Noah came out and told her to go over all of them and compile a list of all the employees who had birthdays at the month of October, November, and December.