Liam woke up to the shrieking sounds of an alarm clock and had no idea how it got there, let alone set. He opened his eyes with difficulty and squinted as the brightness of the day hit him. His head ached terribly and now he understood why they called it a hangover. The alarm started again, its noise so intensified it almost split his brain into two. He groaned and reached out blindly for the alarm. His hand touched his slim IPhone and he brought it close to his face. First, he reduced the brightness and then switched it off but not before he noticed that he was late.

He thought of two things, first to call in sick, but then that it was too late, he had to be at work. Slowly and reluctantly, he pushed himself from the bed and dragged himself with all his power to the bathroom.

The cold water hit his head so quickly, lessening the ache, for which he was grateful. Whatever happened last night must have been really terrible, he thought and that was when he remembered Charlotte.

Had he taken Charlotte home last night and if he was dead drunk, how had he gotten home in one piece?

Quickly, he finished his shower and went to the first aid box in the room to get a jar of aspirin, he swallowed two and then began to dress for work. While he did this, he was pressing his phone at the same time.

He was calling Charlotte, who didn’t pick. Then he began to worry. He couldn’t remember if she had gotten home safely last night. In fact, he couldn’t remember anything that happened the previous night. He did his last buttoning, grabbed his briefcase and rushed out of the room.

The general meeting had started and Emily still hadn’t seen Liam. It was unlike him to be absent during an important meeting. She was angry at herself for being worried, he was no longer her responsibility so there was no reason for her to be worried.

While Joe spoke, she paid no attention, she kept wondering if Joe had known about the little stunt Tom had thrown the previous night. She was sure that he must have known about it since he had been the one pushing them together all this while.

Now she was quite angry with Joe, too. It could mean that he had been using her all this while so that Tom could have a chance to sleep with her. He had kept on degrading Liam, telling her how jealous and envious he was because of her career, but in all truth, he and Tom were the evil ones.

How had she been she so stupid and so reckless? Why hadn’t she paid attention to Liam all this while… now and that she genuinely wanted him to come back to her, he was with someone else. Fuck it! it just wasn’t fair!

All of a sudden, she realized that everyone was looking at her, that was when she realized that she must have cursed out loud and worse, she’d done it while Joe was still talking. She flushed with embarrassment.

“Is there something you are not comfortable with, Emily?” Joe asked, eyebrows furrowed in a frown.

“I am so sorry, please carry on.” She said weakly and everyone focused their attention back on Joe, but she caught Kate’s curious gaze. She kept gawking at her so that Emily had to look away. Suddenly, the door opened and everyone focused on the late entrant.

Emily’s heart did a double flip as she saw Liam rushing in, wearing big dark glasses. Joe stopped talking as he found his way to an empty seat and then sat down, without removing his glasses.

“You are welcome, Liam. We are glad to know that you are finally able to join us but please, what the hell are those things on your face?”

Everyone chuckled silently.

“Sorry boss,” He apologized silently before removing the glasses and putting it on the table. Joe returned to what he had been saying earlier.

For a while, Emily didn’t know why she kept looking at the man she had loved so much and still did, but whom she probably had lost forever. Even though he looked unkempt, it gave him a reckless and a dashing appearance and she couldn’t stop asking herself why she had let him go in the first place. She’d had such a wonderful man and yet had taken him for granted, just like that. It was really careless of her and she couldn’t stop being angry at herself. Now that he was in the room with them, she felt more at ease. He was bringing some documents out from his briefcase and for some reason, he looked up directly, meeting her gaze. For that minute, her heart almost ceased beating. While they kept staring at each other, every other person in the room seemed to be floating away except the two of them until he blinked and looked away. Crap! She should be the one to have done that and now she had lost him again!

Liam couldn’t believe they had just stared at each other for what seemed the longest time in weeks.

She had been fidgeting with her pen and that had gotten his attention. She would always fidget when she was nervous, uncomfortable or when she needed someone to talk to. That minute, he had no idea that she was looking at him until he had to look at her. Now, he couldn’t understand anything. She was having fun the other night with her new boyfriend, why couldn’t she just go and meet him and talk to him?

Now he wasn’t even listening to what Joe was saying, all he could think of was whatever that was probably wrong with her. He needed to stop that, he wasn’t responsible for her happiness anymore.