Love’n’Lust

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Ben just dropped her off. The elevator door was about to close after she got in when Nathan hurried to her. She sighed, wishing the door hadn’t been closing slowly.

“Are you okay?” He asked her while they went up in the elevator together. Belle thought he was asking the obvious because she knew she didn’t look like she was in trouble.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

She just nodded. Nathan wondered quietly, if she didn’t remember they were supposed to go to a coffee place yesterday, he didn’t want to remind her, for fear that he might sound stupid so he just sighed inwardly.

“Mrs. Johnson was worried yesterday when you didn’t return.” He thought he should tell her.

“I’ll explain to her when I get to the office.” She smiled.

“She isn’t there…”

“Oh, she might come later today then.” Belle cut him short, trying to not have a conversation with him.

“No, she won’t. She gave birth early this morning, went into labour yesterday.” Nathan informed her.

“O my gosh, really?” She smiled happily.

“Yeah, a beautiful baby girl.”

“Oh wow.”

“She won’t be active here at the office for the next 3-4 months, the company would grant her maternity leave.”

“Oh.” Belle didn’t think of that.

“She would be working from home when she can.”

“…” Belle went speechless. She wanted to ask if she still had to come to the office now that Mrs Johnson wouldn’t be around but Nathan answered before she could ask.

“The chief editor would ask for you when he gets information that you’re now here, he would talk with you.”

“Oh okay.” It went quiet between them again. The elevator door opened and Belle was ready to leave but he stopped her.

“Uhm, we couldn’t go for coffee yesterday, what about today?” He couldn’t help himself. He now didn’t mind if he sounded stupid or desperate because he was desperate for her attention.

“…” Belle wasn’t fast enough in bringing up an excuse, she was just remembering that she agreed to go talk with him yesterday.

“We could visit Laura and her baby at the hospital together, then we could talk after that, what do you say?”

“Okay,” Belle nodded with a faint smile, she agreed just because she felt guilty for forgetting about him yesterday.

She got to Mrs. Johnson’s office and opened the door. Her purse was still where she left it. She took out her phone and when she unlocked it, she saw her boss’s missed call.

She didn’t need to be told that what she did yesterday was very unethical. She would be surprised if Mrs. Johnson wasn’t mad at her. She was still thinking about yesterday when she heard a knock.

Assuming that it was just Nathan, she ignored the knock but it came again, the person was persistent.

Belle went to the door and when she opened it, she saw her cousin sister standing there with Cherry behind her.

“Brie?” Belle was wondering what she was doing there.

“Look, she is here and isn’t missing. What did I tell you yesterday? Now, you can see for yourself that she isn’t missing.” Belle heard Cherry tell Brie.

“What happened yesterday? You had your boss worried and me also, I was so scared when I got a call from her and heard that you hadn’t returned to this place since noon yesterday.” Brie decided to ask her sister, ignoring all that Cherry just said.

“She called you?” Belle didn’t know Mrs. Johnson was that worried. She felt bad for keeping her worried as much as to call Brie.

“Yeah, she did. She was really scared of you. Where did you go anyways? She said you left your phone and purse here, where did you go?”

“Uhm…” Belle licked her lips, thinking of what to say. She didn’t want to tell them that she left them all worried because she went to have a good time with Ben.

“Isn’t it obvious? She probably got tired of going on errands here and decided to take a longer break.” They both heard Cherry.”If it were me having something with Ben Larkson, I wouldn’t bother working at all, I mean…”

“Cherry!” Belle had to stop her when she mentioned Ben’s name.

“What?” Cherry wanted to know what she said wrong.

“O my god, can you try not saying his name when we are here?”Belle begged her.

“Oh.” Cherry pursed her lips.”Sorry.”

“Hold on a minute,” Brie just remembered something Cherry said yesterday.”Belle, where were you with him yesterday?”

“Come inside,” Belle opened the door to Mrs. Johnson’s office wider to let them in. She locked the door after.

“This whole time you had your boss worried, this whole time you had me worried, where are you with him?”

“It was important.” Belle shrugged.

“I was right!” Cherry announced.

“Not now, Cherry.” Brie turned to her, a little angry.”Do you realize that Mrs. Johnson had to go to the hospital yesterday just because of you?” She asked Belle.

“What?” Belle didn’t know.”I was just informed of her delivery…”

“Do you know what caused her to go into labor? You.” Brie told her and she swallowed.

“I… I didn’t mean to…” Belle’s mouth suddenly felt heavy to speak.

“Come on, Brie, don’t make her feel so guilty. Her boss is safe now, isn’t she?” Cherry spoke.

“I have to let her know, she has to feel guilty because whenever this man’s involved, she just seems to lose her senses,” Brie admitted.

Belle went quiet.

“I already told you to end this… whatever it is, you have with Mr. Larkson, you wouldn’t listen. At this point, I’m not even sure I would care if anything ever happened to you anymore because somehow, he is gonna be involved. It’s like he is the only one you care about lately, no one else, and nothing else matters to you, just him.” Brie told her angrily, and then she opened the locked door and left.

“Brie!” Cherry tried to stop her but was fruitless in that effort.”Don’t mind all she just said, she’s just angry and didn’t have enough sleep last night, okay?” Cherry told Belle before going after her friend.