Louis's POV
The jacket came off first before I rolled up my sleeves without thinking about it, and when I looked up, Ethel was staring.
Not like in a bad way but you know the way you look at someone who was drop dead gorgeous. Yeah, that look.
Specifically at my arms. At the ink covering them from wrist to elbow and disappearing under the rolled sleeves.
"What?" I arched a brow. " Is there something on me?"
"Nothing." She tore her eyes away, focusing very intently on the pot of water she was setting on the stove. "I just... I didn't know you had tattoos."
"Yeah. Full sleeves." I glanced down at them. "Got most of them in college and it drove my father insane, which was half the point." The good old days. Now even tho I was almost fifty, my aging father still smacked me in the head sometimes cause of the ink.
"They're..." She trailed off, and when she looked at me again, there was color on her cheeks. "They're really nice, makes you look more handsome."
Nice. The way she's looking at them suggests she thinks they're more than nice or perhaps more than handsome.
"Let me help," I said, moving into the kitchen before I did something stupid like point that out.
"You don't have to—" She tried to stop me but I had already take it from her.
"I want to." I insisted. "sometimes, doing something aside going through files really helps."
She looked uncomfortable, chewing on her bottom lip in a way that's distracting. "It's weird."
"What is?" I wiped my face with the back of my palm as I positioned the cabbage on the chopping board.
"You being in my kitchen." She replied. "My boss in my kitchen, chopping cabbage, it's very absurd if you ask me."
"I'm not your boss right now." I pointed out, making sure not to chop my fingers off. "I'm just Louis who has decided to help Ethel out."
"That's not how employment works, Louis."
Hearing her say my name does something to me. I'd long to hear her say it since that first night at the bar. "Fair enough. But I'm still helping. What else do you need?"
She hesitated, then points to the cabinet above the stove. "Can you grab the pasta? It's on the top shelf."
I reached up, and I'm very aware of how close I have to get to her. She stepped aside quickly, but not before I catch the slight hitch in her breath.
"You're better at this than I expected," she admitted as she drained the water out of the vegetables while I fried the sausages.
"I live alone. It's either learn to cook or survive on takeout." I replied. "Plus my mum wanted all her sons to be good cooks cause she didn't want our wives to suffer."
"I pictured you having a private chef or something." She replied. "A multi billionaire in his kitchen with an apron wrapped around him sounds funny to me."
"Too pretentious, even for me." I laughed. "Like the popular saying goes, having problem is what made the entire clan of crayfish's lose their posture. "
She laughed, and the sound fills her small kitchen. Low-key I want to hear it every day.
Minutes later, we sat at the dining table, knees almost touching in the cramped space. The pasta's good. Better than good or maybe everything just tastes better because I'm not eating alone for once.
"So," she saif after a while, twirling pasta on her fork. "Are we going to talk about it?"
"The bar?" I asked. "Or what happened after the bar."
"Yeah."
I set down my fork. "What do you want to know?"
"I don't know. I guess..." She paused, and there's definitely color in her cheeks now. "I never expected you to be my boss. When I walked into that office and saw you sitting there, I wanted to die."
"Trust me, the feeling was mutual." I replied. "I had to look at you again to be sure I wasn't dreaming or maybe hallucinating."
"Really? Because you looked pretty composed to me."
"I'm good at pretending." I leaned back in my chair. "Inside, I was losing my shit."
Ethel laughed." Really? Cause I thought I was the only one dying of embarrassment." We decided that it was best to continue eating and let the discussion die.
We finished eating, and I helped her clean up because the alternative was leaving, and I was not ready to do that yet. She washed the dishes while I dried it while stopping at intervals to take a good look at her.
If only Vanessa brought so many happiness to me the way Ethel did right now, we'd still be together.
Once we were done, I grabbed my jacket from where I left it on her couch.
"I should go now." I glanced at my wristwatch. It was five minutes past ten and I had to sleep early in order to get up early.
She nodded. "Yeah. Driving late at night isn't advisable."
"Ethel—"
"Louis—"
"You first," I said but she refused until I insisted.
"I was just going to say... thank you. For tonight. For making this less weird than it could've been."
"Anytime." I smiled. "I should get going now."
"Louis?"
"Yeah?" I turned to face her, my hand still on the door. "What was that?"
"We're okay, right? At work, I mean. We can... we can do this?"
I look at her—standing in her tiny apartment in her sleep shorts and oversized shirt, looking nervous and hopeful and absolutely beautiful.
"Yeah," I say. "We're okay." And I meant it.
The next morning...
I arrived at the office only to meet chaos.
Patricia was waiting by my office door, tablet in hand, expression grim. She's been my assistant for years, and I've never seen her look this rattled.
"We have a problem sir." She Informed me.
"Good morning to you too, Pat." I walked into the office and took a sit.
"Louis, I'm serious." She followed me into my office, closing the door behind her. "Someone leaked the Meridian acquisition details."
That stopped me cold. "What did you just say?"
"It's all over the financial sites. Someone from inside the company leaked confidential information about the acquisition—projections, timeline, everything. Meridian's threatening to pull out."
My blood ran cold, and the air conditioned office felt hog. That acquisition was worth forty million. If it fell through because of a leak...
"Who?" My voice was deadly quiet. "Who could have done something like that?"
"We don't know yet. IT's trying to trace the breach, but—"
"Find them." I dropped my jacket on the chair, already moving to my computer. "I don't care what it takes, Patricia. Find whoever did this."
"I'm already on it. But Louis..." She hesitated. "This wasn't an accident. Someone deliberately leaked this information. Someone who had access to the confidential files."