Chapter 15

Chapter 15 — Higher Power

Devilishly handsome has definitely taken on a new meaning here. Liam forgets for a moment that he is supposed to be pissed at his boss when he sees him standing in his doorway, smirking, so, so irritatingly that it only makes him all the more attractive. Aaron has exchanged the usual formalwear he wears in the office for a simple V-neck mustard coloured t-shirt and a pair of faded grey jeans. And even though his attire is very much simple, it still highlights his features and he just stands out.

Isn't he supposed to be still recovering? There is not a single trace evident in his face or in his posture of his previous day's misfortune. He stands tall, looking fresh and almost perfect, like he's not a real person at all.

He only breaks his stare when Katie nudges his side, "You're gaping," she whispers to him.

"No, I'm not. Shut up," he hisses at her at the same time the caterer guy calls him out.

"Mr Spencer, you have a couple of guests here asking for you,"

Only then, he notices the two other men flanking the dickface — Rufus and his other boss he only met the day before and is planning to make a good impression on, Mr Daniel Patterson. Liam narrows his eyes at the culprit in the middle but he seems to be not looking at him, but around the house.

Taking in a deep breath, he approaches the door, plastering on a fake smile. He has half a mind to close the door on his face, but Rufus and Daniel haven't done anything to him to get such harsh treatment from him.

He crosses his arm, and tries to shield the view of his house and its occupants from the dickface, standing right before him and blocking the way, also preventing him from entering any further into his house. He momentarily regards his two friends, greeting them in what he hoped to be a friendly manner.

"Hey, Rufus. Mr Patterson," and then turning back to the handsome devil, "What do you want?"

"Is that how you treat your guests, Mr Spencer?" Aaron mocks Liam, crossing his arms as well, and cocking his head to the side, the smirk never leaving his side, "I thought you lived for manners and niceties,"

"It has its limits,"

Before Aaron can reply to that however, Anne steps in, pushing Liam aside a little (for which she had to use some force since he wouldn't voluntarily budge).

"Oh, hello," she smiles at all of them, and much to Liam's disdain, particularly at Aaron, "I'm Anne, Liam's mom,"

"Mrs Spencer," Aaron grabs her hand and places a small kiss on top of it, "What a pleasure it is to meet you,"

"Aren't you a fine gentleman?" Anne comments, and turns to Liam, "Why don't you invite your friends inside?"

"They're not my friends," Liam says at the same time Aaron immediately agrees with a very much eager nod.

"Sure," and then as clarification, he adds, "We work together. But I like to think we're good friends too, aren't we, Liam?"

"Oh, they're like two peas in a pod. We can confirm," Rufus who has stayed silent all along decides right then is a good time to say something, and to Liam's surprise, Daniel nods along as well, showing his agreement.

Liam knows it's no use keeping quiet and so he decides to speak up for himself, "Mom, they're not my friends. I work for them, at least two of them," he says, pointing between Aaron and Daniel, "Rufus is their friend,"

"Oh, how nice it is of your bosses to come today," she clasped her hands together in delight, completely missing the point that Liam is desperately trying to get rid of them.

And what is she thinking really? Even if Liam were friends with them, would she really invite them in, considering the state of the current decorations of the house? She can't have forgotten about it already; or maybe she has and Liam has to remind her.

"Mom, it's a small gathering remember?" Liam's gestures with his eyes inside the house, but she ignores him completely, pushing him further to the side, and opening the door wider, "Ah, a few more people won't come in. You all come in, dearies,"

"Seriously?" he says more to himself than anyone, but of course, Aaron catches him and his smirk only widens.

"Ohh, now this is a party," Rufus hoots upon stepping in, and it's all Liam can do to not cover his face in embarrassment.

He won't give the dickface the satisfaction.

"Chloe would have loved this," Daniel comments as well, and brings out his phone and starts recording everything.

Great, immortalise this absolute disaster, why don't you, Liam thinks to himself but doesn't say anything out loud and forces him to keep smiling. He will smile through this day and then later tonight he will bury himself alive. That should compensate his embarrassment.

He can feel Aaron's eyes on him throughout but he doesn't turn to him. He's planning to ignore him and so when he catches him stepping closer to him from the corner of his eyes, he quickly takes his leave. He rushes towards the bathroom but just as he thought he had gotten away, Aaron is right there, wedging his foot between the door before Liam can close it.

Liam doesn't care if it'll hurt him and pushes harder but clearly, he has underestimated his boss' strength. He pushes back easily, the door complying to him, giving way and he steps in, closing the behind him. Liam moves away from his as far as he can which is not much till his back hits the sink behind him. He never realised how small the bathroom was before today. Aaron crosses his arm, leaning against the door, staring Liam down. The latter doesn't back down either, lifting his chin defiantly.

Both of them refusing to speak first, slowly they settle into a staring competition. Liam doesn't know if it's just him or if it's real, but it feels like it is getting awkward really fast and so he gives in and speaks first.

He says the first thing he can think of really, which is not much, "Fuck you,"

It is very slight, but Aaron jerks back as if he didn't even realise they were in the bathroom and blinks, confused. He quickly recovers however, letting out a small scoff, "Fuck me?"

"Yes, fuck you,"

He opens his mouth but closes it abruptly, shakes his head a little before opening his mouth again, "What did I do now?"

"You know what you did,"

"Do I?" and the stupid smirk is back, an eyebrow quirked.

"This," Liam gestures his hand towards the door, "Out there. You're the one who called them and asked them to be here today, aren't you? Do not even try to deny it,"

"And why would I do it?"

"Because I–," fortunately Liam catches himself before he can say something that will be self-incriminating; there is a good reason that Aaron knew that it was him who caused him such 'discomfort' and this is his revenge.

But there is also still a possibility that Aaron doesn't know and is just playing a prank on him. Till Aaron himself confirms that he knows, Liam won't be saying anything. He has never admitted a single thing he did before, he's not going to start doing so now.

"Because you?"

"Because you... are a dickface," Liam exclaims instead.

"I am a dickface?" Aaron pushes away from the door and takes a step towards him.

As much as Liam wants to stand his ground, he finds himself pulling back. He can't go anywhere though, stuck at the end of the bathroom. He can only push himself further against the sink, feeling his heart thud hard against his chest.

Two more steps and Aaron is only a hair breadth's away from Liam, staring down at him. Intent on being defiant, Liam looks up. Wrong move. They are too close for comfort, but Liam can't move away. There is no space for him to actually put any distance between them. He hates it but Aaron is the one with greater control of their situation here.

"Admit it," he says, his voice so low, and laden with some kind of heavy emotion — what Liam cannot be entirely sure; maybe it's anger.

"Admit what?"

"You're the one who did... something to my clothes yesterday, weren't you? What did you even do?"

Ah, so he knew; or at least he has his suspicions which are not really wrong. But that doesn't mean Liam is just going to readily spill all the truths that instant itself.

"Yeah," Liam crosses his arms, and since there is not much space between them, his arms brush against Aaron's chest — their height difference is giving Liam a major disadvantage here — he has to crane his neck up to be able to challenge his gaze, "What proof do you have to claim your accusation?"

"I don't have any. But I don't need any either, do I? You're being defensive for no reason at all. And I know you, this definitely has your handcraft,"

"I'm being defensive for no reason?" Liam repeats after him, letting out a derisive scoff, "I'm being defensive because you're accusing me. And you know me? Really? What do you know about me?" he challenges him, and if only there were more space between them, Liam would have taken a step forward, further bolding his statement.

It looks like Aaron is thinking about his reply, filtering out whatever he has to say. Liam narrows his eyes a little, wondering what it is that Aaron could have to tell him that is so bad that he has to think twice about it.

He finally settles on, "You have no reason at all to be defensive if you did nothing, do you?"

"But still, you're accusing me!"

"And why does that bother you so much?"

"Because–" he lets out a sharp breath, muttering something unintelligible under his breath before looking up at Aaron, "Okay, won't it bother you when someone accused you of something you didn't do?"

"Not this much," Aaron shrugs easily, "I probably won't even care,"

"Bullshit,"

And very abruptly, something shifts in his face and he raises his hand and Liam doesn't mean but he flinches away. Seeing that Aaron quickly steps back, disbelief filtering in for a moment before he quickly masks it with indifference. But Liam saw it, it was unmistakable and he feels bad. He really didn't mean to flinch; it was more of a reflex.

"Did you really think I was going to hit you?"

"No–" Liam starts but Aaron isn't listening.

"Maybe you're the one who doesn't know me,"

"I never claimed to know you,"

And there it is again, the disbelief, and mixed with... is that hurt? But just as it appears, it disappears again. He lets out a sharp breath and extends a hand out and says the last thing Liam would have expected of him:

"Truce,"

"Truce?"

"Yes, I'm trying to be the bigger person here, and call truce,"

Liam scoffs, shaking his head, "Okay, so that's what you call being the bigger person,"

He takes in a deep breath and exhales slowly, closing his eyes for a moment. And when he opens it again, Liam feels as if the breath has been knocked out of him — his eyes, they look so intense and full of.... something that Liam wants to look away but at the same time he can't because he's transfixed.

Aaron regains the small step he took back and moves closer to Liam once again, saying in a very low but still commanding tone, "I can't keep doing this with you. It's... irritating the fuck out of me. You are irritating the fuck out of me. So, let's just stop and call truce. Now,"

Liam doesn't think he can talk, standing so close to him once again, all his senses overpowered by him, but somehow, he does, stubbornly keeping his eyes up, still continuing to challenging even though he's treading on very much dangerous water here. It's scary yet at the same time strangely exhilarating that Liam wants to keep pushing the boundaries just to see how far he can go.

He doesn't realise he's close to the edge.

"What if I say no,"

It is so abrupt his reaction that Liam doesn't even have time to process what has happened before he feels his back pressing against the sink and his boss erasing whatever little space that they did have in between them. Their fronts are pressed together now and Liam takes in a big gulp. No, he's not going to describe the situation he is in any further than that.

He thinks it'll be a wonder if he can string more than two words together in a comprehensible manner in this instant.

"I dare you to say that again," Liam can barely hear him say that over the deafening sound of his own heartbeats.

He doesn't feel very defiant anymore and he doubts if he'll still be on his feet if not for Aaron literally up against him. He's not even looking at him anymore, but at his chest which is his line of sight and only focusing on the mere mechanics of breathing which should come naturally to him but only now it feels like a very much complicated task on its own.

And thank God or whatever higher power that decided to take pity on him, because right then, someone knocks on the door and Aaron immediately steps back. Liam sags, holding himself up only by holding onto the sink, and finally is able to regain to his ability his breathe as usual. But still weirdly, Liam can feel this small part of him that instantly misses the closeness and warmth and– No, and just as thought pops out, Liam squashes it.

"Um, Liam?" it's Katie, "Not to disturb you guys, but I think you should come out. Benjamin's here,"

Can this day possibly get any better?

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