Chapter 7

Chapter 7 — Ethics And Manners

"You did what?!" Kaitlyn shrieks from the other side, and Liam has to pull his phone away from his ear, wincing.

"Maybe mixed a little bit of laxative into his drink?" he grimaces, and then quickly adds, "It's nothing harmful — my dad takes it often,"

"Yes, because it's prescribed to him! Oh my god, Liam," she sighs as if in disapproval but starts laughing soon after.

Liam puts his phone in speaker, and places it beside him, shuffling to his right into a more comfortable sleeping position. He was planning to sleep, that is until his best friend and demanded to fill her in regarding what's going on in his life.

And that is how he started ranting about his dickface boss and how he infuriated him so much that he was pushed to lacing his drink. It was satisfactory seeing his boss suffer for a moment there, but right then Liam actually feels bad for him.

"As long as you don't end up killing him, it's fine. He is my biggest client,"

Liam lets out a humourless scoff, rolling his eyes, "Maybe I should just confess to him, and apologise — it was an impulsive thing, I didn't actually mean to do that, you know,"

"Yeah, do that, and get fired. Or worse, let him sue you,"

"He won't do that," Liam frowns, and then doubtfully adds, "Will he?"

"I don't know, Liam. Best course of action: just pretend you don't know anything at all. You don't want to end up with another restraining order, do you?"

"Ouch, that's still a fresh wound. Fuck you,"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she quickly apologises, "That was uncalled for,"

Liam shakes his head — if it were anyone else, he will have their head by now, but it's Kaitlyn, and he knows she never really thinks before speaking, so he lets it slide.

His phone buzzes right then, and Liam lifts his head to see who it is, "Oh,"

"Oh, what?" Kaitlyn asks from the other end.

"Jason just texted me,"

"Who?"

"Jason — this guy I met in the office,"

"Oh," she drawls out in a very much insinuating manner.

Liam lets out a soft chuckle, "Shut up,"

"What — I didn't say anything,"

"And you don't have to,"

"Rude," a small pause, and Liam knows for certain what is coming next, "So, who is this Jason?"

"He is an accountant, works at my office. Met him this morning,"

"And? C'mon, you can't lie to me, I know you're not telling me something,"

Liam doesn't know why he even tries. He sighs before admitting, "Okay maybe we had lunch together too. But only for like ten minutes because you know my asshole of a boss–,"

"Not again," Kaitlyn cuts him off before he can launch yet into another rant about his boss.

"He just is that irritating, okay,"

"Mhmm, sure," she dismisses him altogether, "I want to know more about this Jason guy,"

"I mean I only met him this morning, so I don't really know much about him. He is cute, and um, maybe I invited him to have lunch with me again?" Liam grimaces, rubbing his eyes, "I totally didn't plan that though, it just slipped out of my mouth,"

But Kaitlyn wasn't listening to him anymore, she is shrieking once again, "This is what you should have told me first!"

He agrees with her silently and he would have told her this, if only he hadn't forgotten about it altogether. Him pranking his boss sort of occupied his mind completely.

"What's the plan then?"

Liam shakes his head although he knows she can't see him, "There's no plan or anything, and this means nothing. He is just a nice guy and we're only going to have lunch together in a very friendly manner and nothing more,"

He can feel his friend's disappointment emanating through the speakers before she even says anything.

"Oh, Lee. It's been months–,"

"I'm not thinking about that jerk anymore," he interrupts her before she can continue. "I'm really not. I'm over him,"

"If you say so,"

"I do say so,"

"Okay. Then, what's wrong with Jason?"

"Nothing," he lets out a low breath, "I'm just not planning anything," before Kaitlyn can comment on that, he resumes, feigning a yawn, "And I'm tired, K. Call you tomorrow?"

"Fake bitch," she counters, catching on to his bluff, but doesn't force him to talk anymore, "Fine, talk to you tomorrow. Night,"

"Goodnight," and he ends the call.

He regards the unread message from Jason for a moment, but shakes his head to himself. Nope, he can deal with it tomorrow. He is going to sleep now.

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Liam will admit; he can be a tad bit impulsive and do things without thinking them through. It's the one thing about himself that he hates and still can't change. The first thought that went through his mind that morning when he woke up is 'Shit, what if I get fired?'

He cannot be jobless again — his savings are very close to running dry, and he has to start looking for a new place for himself soon. He cannot be living under his sister's roof forever, no matter how convenient it is.

There's no way his boss would have found that he's the reason for his 'toilet escapade' the previous day, is there?

And so, Liam is wracked with nerves by the time he enters the office and he tries his best to not look at his superior but his eyes betray him anyways and flick over to that man. Aaron is already watching him closely and immediately Liam's brain starts to go into overdrive:

Does he know? He cannot know. But what if he does — I'm so screwed. Nope, no. He cannot know.

And that smile Aaron gives him, there's no evil gleam behind it, is there? Liam is only being paranoid. There's no way his boss can know and he's only smiling at him in greeting. That's it.

Liam goes to sit in his cabin and turns on his computer. However, the second it loads up, the normally quiet office fills up with sounds of moaning and grunting. Wide-eyed, Liam grabs his mouse and starts to click at the X button but the moment he does, only more tabs open up all filled up with different porn videos.

"What the–,"

"Watching porn at work? How professional of you,"

It's his boss. Liam tries to bring down the volume but it only does the opposite and now he's sure the whole building can hear various renditions of: 'Oh yeah! Fuck! I love that. Harder!'

Embarrassed, he tries to cover the screen with his hands, and then stands up and turns around, his back covering the screen. It's of no use though since they can still hear all the cursing and moaning in the background. Liam crosses his arms over his chest and clears his throat.

"I have no connection to this or whatsoever," he says, very much flustered.

Aaron is leaning against his doorframe, his head cocked to the side, as he regards his new temp, "Yeah, sure,"

Fortunately, Chloe comes in right then, "What the hell is going on here?" She takes a look at where the sound is coming from and turns to Liam, her eyebrows raised — so maybe not that fortunate for Liam.

"I have no idea how that happened, I swear," he quickly clarifies, "I just came in, and I turned on the computer, and those just popped up,"

"It appeared out of nowhere, huh?"

Liam knows by his tone that he's only teasing him and does not believe him, but it did appear out of nowhere, and so he nods. It doesn't matter if dickface believed him or not, he needs Chloe to believe him — at least one person should be on his side.

"It's fine, it's fine," she stifles a chuckle, taking out her phone, tapping on her screen a few times, before bringing it to her ear, "I'm calling Lim in tech support — she can help take care of this... situation,"

Dickface lets out a snort at that but Liam can't bring himself to care. He is too mortified; he wishes the ground will just swallow him whole.

A small crowd has formed not far away from his table, mostly to figure out where all the wildly-inappropriate-for-a-workplace noise is coming from. And the worst part is that Jason is one of the people in the crowd. Liam can't even look at him, and he doesn't how he can face the guy again.

"Hey, Lim," she says into her phone, "How are you doing?... Good, good. Anyways, can you come to Aaron's PA's table? He seems to have been watching porn–,"

"I was not watching porn," Liam interrupts her, insisting, and repeats himself, "It was already on when I got here,"

Chloe only nods, giving him a barely convincing smile, and then asks him, "Have you tried closing it?"

Liam scoffs, and then in a very showcasing manner, clicks the X button, and just as before more windows open up in return — the latest one showing a naked woman with quite big breasts on her knees, and– Erhmm, he's going to completely ignore the next part. He turns to Chloe with raised eyebrows, mentally saying see-it's-not-my-fault.

She replies back into her phone, "Yeah, he's tried clicking everything, but it's not closing down,"

Liam, of course, can't hear what Lim is saying on the other side, but Chloe laughs out loud and then says, "Okay, see you soon," before ending the call.

"She says she'll be right over," Chloe informs them, "But for now, she says to not click on anything else,"

"I didn't click on anything to begin with," Liam throws his arms in the air, partly flustered and partly frustrated.

"Well, this is awkward–," dickface inputs unnecessarily, "–knowing what your assistant's sexual proclivities are. You really shouldn't be watching this kind of things during work hours — I mean I figured you would know all this, since you're all about manners and ethics," he grimaces and then shrugs lightly.

Liam scoffs, shaking his head — he can't believe this dickface is actually using this extremely humiliating situation to his benefit.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I can let this kind of exhibition go. You leave me no choice but to fire you,"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Chloe starts before Liam can even open his mouth, "You can't fire him for that — it's basically discrimination! You cannot tell him what he can or cannot do in his own time,"

Yes, thank you Chloe, Liam thinks to himself, although this is not something he did but something that happened to him.

"I absolutely don't give a fuck about what he does on his own time," Aaron shoots back without missing a beat, "But he is on the clock, and I'm paying him to be here, which does not include watching porn,"

"Can you even prove that I watched porn during work hours?" Liam asks challengingly — a poor challenge he realises a little too late.

Aaron calmly gestures at the desktop behind him that just won't quit displaying all the wildly atrocious acts.

Liam shakes his head, "That does not prove anything,"

"Oh really?"

Once again, Chloe stands up for Liam, "Aaron, check the time — it's not even nine yet. Technically, you're not paying him yet,"

She is right — there is still a few minutes left till it's eight. Liam lets out a small sigh in relief.

"Oh, come on. He doesn't even want to be here," Aaron tries.

"Says who?" Liam asks, and only then he notices something else as well, "Where the hell are all my Post-It notes?"

"What Post-It notes?" Chloe asks, confused.

"My sticky notes — I stuck them along my cabin wall with little reminders on them. They're gone,"

"Maybe the cleaning staff threw them out," Aaron sticks his hands in his pocket, shoulders raised.

"What are you saying? You know the cleaning staff only comes in on the weekend, Aaron," Chloe turns to the taller man, "They only empty the cans on other days, and do the full cleaning on the weekend,"

"Really?" Liam chips in, rubbing his chin with a hand, "Curious, since someone touched my desk not two days ago," he fixes his eyes on his boss — he knows that Aaron was the one who messed with his sticky notes the other day, but still it felt more gratifying now that he had more proof.

"Oh, and there's Lim," Aaron says, looking strangely relieved for someone who supposedly had nothing to do with his assistant's pocket notes.

"Okay, your saviour's here," Lim announces her presence, "Can I know where the porn monster is located?"

Liam, ducking his head a little, steps away from his desktop and lets the expert do her work. It only takes her a few minutes to get everything cleared up.

"Ta-da. Done," she steps back, chuckling, "It really wasn't that bad. I have seen worse," she chuckles and looks pointedly at Aaron, who has started to take a step back but is caught anyways, "Remember last year when I had to totally reformat your hard drive because this same thing happened to you?"

"Haha, yeah," Aaron forces out an awkward laugh, and clasps his hands together, "Right, we're done here, aren't we? Get to work everyone,"

Lim and Chloe leave at that, bidding their goodbyes, and the small crowd that had formed disperses as well.

"You," Aaron stops Liam, "I'm willing to give you another chance for now," he says.

Liam wonders what his boss actually thinks of him — he is not stupid. He can put two and two together. Obviously, his boss has found that he's drugged his drink and this was his payback.

"You can start your day now," he enters his office, leaving Liam practically fuming.

Anyone else probably will have let it go. Tic for tac. Liam put a laxative in his drink, and his boss put a virus in his desktop.

But there's still a massive difference though. Liam did not humiliate him in front of everyone and then even tried to fire him. That is not a fair play.

And Liam is not someone who easily lets things go.

He finds his boss looking at him through his window, and he plasters a smile on his face — dickface definitely doesn't know what he has just started here.

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