Chapter 54

Chapter 54

"Lauren," his voice sounds like velvet as his forehead touched mine.

My throat bobbed up and down, "Yeah?"

"You are it. You... you draw me in every time."

"What?"

"You," he backed away by an inch and stared into my eyes, and tucked in loose strands of hair by my ear. "You drive me crazy. I am –" his eyes were moving wildly as if he can't believe I'm real.

"You're what?" I dared.

"I am inexplicably, hopelessly, madly, crazy in love with you."

My breath caught at his confession. "Oh, Axel, I love you too."

His eyes lighted up with glee and his lips came crashing into mine.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I sat awake.

What the?

I glanced at the alarm clock on my nightstand blinking 6:30 then pressed it off.  My hand made its way to my forehead as I catch my breath.

That was a weird dream – a very weird, disturbing, and disgusting dream.

My hand made its way to my lips. But it also felt exceptionally real.

I shook my head, dragging my hand away from my lips. What has gotten into me?

My phone beeped.

"Good morning, babe." My eyes widened at the Instagram message from Axel. I threw my phone on the bed like it has cooties and rushed to the bathroom.

* * *

"Hey, how was your weekend?" Cassandra asked as I placed my bag on my desk.

Then the crazy events from the last two days flashed before my eyes. "Oh," I draped my coat on the chair. "It's fine." I sat on my chair next to hers. "How about yours?"

"Same old, same old. I just took my dog to the groomers."

"I didn't know you have a dog."

"Oh, her dog's big," Dave said on my right.

"When did you come in?" I asked.

"When you said you didn't know Cassandra has a dog."

"Cassandra has a dog?" Dominic asked.

"Alright, everyone, I have a dog," Cassandra announced.

"I didn't know you have a dog," Kendra commented. Cassandra gave her a tired glare; Kendra went back to look at her screen.

"So, what's your dog like?" May enquired while she was busy going through folders.

"He's sweet. Though he snores and drools and poops everywhere."

"Ah, so just like Dominic," Dave chuckled.

"Hey, I don't snore!"

Kendra gave him a side-eye, "That's the least of your problems if you're like Cassandra's dog."

"Okay, enough you guys, what does he look like?" May asked.

"Oh, I don't have my phone with me now, but you can look up American cocker spaniel."

"I'll do it," I volunteered and they gathered around me.

"Oh, it's the one with the long ears!" Dominic said.

"Yeah, like that one dog from The Lady and The Tramp." Dave pointed.

May raised her brows at him.

"What? I have a kid who watches cartoons non-stop."

"Lauren?" Harper called from her office.

Everyone dispersed and I stood from my seat, "Yes, Harper?"

"Come in my office please."

"Okay," I nodded and made a beeline to her office, giving clueless expressions to my colleagues as they looked at me apologetically.

"Good morning," I said as I entered her office.

"Please sit."

She removed her glasses and put them down on the table as I sat. "Have you seen this?" she angled her laptop to let me see the screen.

INSTAGRAM OFFICIAL? Axel James and rumored girlfriend Lauren Grant followed each other on Instagram.

"Yeah, well, that happened over the weekend, yes."

"Do you know what this means?"

I looked at her like I had no idea.

"This buys us time, Lauren! Look at the article below it."

KATIE SWANSON: on Axel and Lauren

"Wait, I haven't seen that."

"This was released early this morning. She gave a statement about you and Axel."

"What did she say?"

She turned her laptop towards her, put her glasses on, and read, "Katie Swanson released a statement that she was happy for the couple and wishes them luck. She quote-and-quote said, 'I'm happy for Axel, really. It's been a long time since we were together, I don't even know why you still want my opinion. But I think they make a cute couple. I wish them luck.'."

"Can I see?"

"Here," she turned the laptop to me. There was a picture of Katie walking out the door, wearing sunglasses and a beige turtle neck under a leather jacket with several microphones in front of her.

"How is this possible?" I asked. "I didn't think it was a big deal. Paparazzi has never followed me since that crazy week. And I guess I could say the same for Axel, so, whatever this is, I think Katie was the one who organized it."

Harper nodded, "That's what I think so too. Now I'm beginning to think that the way she's suing us has something to do with your and Axel's relationship."

"Oh, I..."

Her lips curled up to a smile, "No need to explain your affairs, Lauren. I know what you have with Axel is complicated, but that's how everything starts. But don't let this woman ruin it. We've got your back, okay? We're a team here."

Yeah, we're a team here and yet I can't sacrifice leaving just so Katie would leave the company alone.

I forced a smile, "Thanks, Harper."

"Anytime."

As soon as I got out of Harper's office, I texted Axel using the burner phone he gave me (which only has a single number in the contact list with the name Babe).

Have you seen Katie's statement? Harper showed me an article.

No reply.

I went back to my desk and did some work; glad that my colleagues were graceful enough to not smother me with questions.

I decided to take on more analytical work and reconcile book to system balances just to distract myself from all the drama this day took on.

"Axel?"

My head turned at the sound of Harper's surprised voice. Axel entered the room with a big smile.

For some reason, my brain decided to short circuit to my dream last night.

I shook the ridiculous thought away.

Axel hugged Harper, "Hey, Harper, how you doin'?"

"Never better." Lie. "How about you? What brings you here? Lauren?" she asked jokingly and they glanced my way. I almost choked. My head moved around and that's when I realized that all eyes were on me.

He smiled looking at me, "As a matter of fact, I am. I came to whisk away Lauren for a nice short lunch."

Dave hollered. All eyes averted to him. He cleared his throat and went back to work.

"Anyway," Axel continued. "Is it lunchtime yet or am I too late?"

"Oh," Harper glanced at her watch. "two minutes before break. You're just in time."

I stood and walked over to them. "Hey?"

He smiled at me mischievously.

"Alright, you lovebirds, I'll leave you to your lunch."

"Thanks, Harper." Axel waved as Harper made her way back to her office.

I was about to ask him why he was here but I sensed my colleagues were staring at us. I looked at them and they all scattered away.

"Can we talk outside?" I asked in a low voice.

He gave a small nod and we walked next to each other as we exited the office.

Eyes were following us as we made our way down the corridor.

I continued to walk until we reached the elevator.

"What are you doing here?" I asked when the elevator door closed. "You didn't text me back and you just randomly show up at work to - how did you put it? Oh, I don't know – whisk me away for lunch. What the hell, man?"

"I'm sorry. I just thought it'd be cool."

"To scare me?"

"To surprise you! Wait, did I really scare you?"

"No," my arms cross to my chest. "You know I don't like it when people come unannounced."

"Alright, I'm sorry. Look, I have a plan."

"I'm listening."

"I read the article you were talking about. She clearly did it by herself which means that's just a step to a much bigger plan. We need to step up."

"Uh-huh, and how do we do that by having lunch?"

"We press on. We irritate her more. I've had someone tip the paparazzi we're going to lunch."

My breath hitched.

"I know you aren't comfortable with them, neither do I," he grabbed my hands and rubbed soothing circles with his thumb. "But we need to show her that we aren't affected by her. We wouldn't give her want she wants."

I brought my hand down, "But how? We don't exactly have a great master plan and I hate walking on eggshells, Axel. I don't know what we're doing anymore, it feels like we're just floating around, waiting for the bomb to explode and I hate not having control, not having oversight of a situation."

"Hey, it's alright."

"Don't tell me it's alright when I know that it isn't."

"Look, I've hired some guy to look into Katie's website. We need proof that she's the one who copied MGC, not the other way around. I have to admit that Clark's good at hiding his tracks; my guy's been working on it for a few days now and he still can't find anything."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't want you to worry, but clearly that's impossible now – given what Katie did. All we have to do is buy some more time – distract her before she brings the lawsuit public."

"Wouldn't we just infuriate her and spring her on to publicize faster?"

"No, she'll let it brew until it becomes a giant mess. But that wouldn't happen. I won't let it." The elevator reached the ground floor.

We got out of the car immediately as people were waiting for the elevator.

"It's still your call. We can go to a different restaurant if you don't like the paparazzi."

"I never liked them. They stress me out."

He exhaled loudly, "You're right. And I don't think we'll have a proper lunch when they're so aggressive."

"Yeah, and I still have to go back to work."

He tapped his foot, "Now where can we go have lunch?"

"Oh my gosh,"

"What?"

"A simple solution."

"What is it?"

"Let's go to Josh."

"Care to elaborate?"

"He's a chef at a restaurant. We could eat there and we could ask him to be our paparazzi. That way we can still eat in peace and create content to distract Katie. Two birds in one stone."

He smiled, "I knew you were smart."

When we got to the restaurant, Josh was a little apprehensive but we managed to convince him to act the paparazzi. Of course, it wasn't easy but we managed to pull it off. Axel and I even got to choose the photos Josh will send the gossip site using a fake email. It was actually kind of fun because I had to keep on fighting the urge to make silly poses whenever Josh takes a picture.

I'd say it all went by smoothly.

"Hey," I glanced at my watch. "My hour is almost up. I need to get back to work."

He nodded as he wiped the side of his mouth and placed the napkin on the table. "Alright, let me just go the bathroom real quick."

"Okay, I'll wait here."

I checked on my emails to see if any tasks need prioritizing when I get back. Not much. Good.

I went over to the bar and asked the waiter for the bill.

"For table seven?"

"Yes."

"Oh, it was already taken care of."

"What? By whom?"

"Mr. James gave me his card a little while ago."

"Hey," Axel walked out of the hallway from the bathroom.

"Sir, your card," the waiter handed him the card.

"Thanks," he replied then turned to me. "Let's go?"

"Yeah," we started to walk with him next to me. "You know I could've paid for lunch, right?"

"Non-sense. I was the one who asked you to have lunch with me. I'm taking up your time."

"Still."

"Hey," he stopped and smoothed his thumb on the lines that formed between my brows. "Don't worry. Just buy me a bagel next time and we're even."

I can't help but smile, "Okay."

"That's more like it. Now, come on, we don't want you to be late."

We were just about to step out of the restaurant when Hailey opened the door.

"Laure?" her voice was giddy. "And Axel," her intonation fell.

"Hailey!" I gave her a quick hug. "We're just about to go. Are you here to see Josh?"

"Yeah, he told me to come."

"Did he now?" I glanced at Axel.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"Oh, we just grabbed some lunch."

"Yeah," Axel wrapped an arm on my shoulder and squeezed. "Just can't get enough of this one," he kissed the top of my right. "Right, babe?"

"Haha, yeaahhh. Oh!" I glanced at my wristwatch. "Look at the time, I'm gonna be late for work. We gotta jet, Hales. Talk to you soon?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Nice bumping into you, Hailey," Axel nodded then his arm dropped from my shoulders to my waist as we get out of the restaurant.

When the door closed, I freed myself from Axel's hold and burst out a laugh.

"Seems like Josh really took the paparazzi role seriously," Axel smiled.

"He's getting a bang for his buck with your invite."

"That he does."

I saw Hailey from my peripheral view. "Oh."

"What?"

"She's looking at us from the window."

"What?" he was about to turn but I grabbed his arm.

"Don't look!"

He stiffened and his mouth formed a thin line.

I can't help but laugh at his comical face.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. Let's just go, okay? I really am going to be late for work."

* * *

"So how was your little date?" Cass asked teasingly.

"It was just lunch and it was fine."

She frowned playfully, "If you say so."

"It is!" I laughed.

"Hey, someone dropped this off for you while you were away." she handed me a white letter envelope.

"Who's it from?"

"I don't know I didn't see who but Sharon said it's from some guy."

I turned the envelope and saw 'PIXEL' typewritten.

"Lauren, are you okay? You dropped the letter."

I blinked back to reality. "Huh?"

"Are you alright? You dropped the letter. What is it?" Cassandra looked at me with worry.

"Oh, um, yeah," I picked the letter from the ground and placed it on my desk. "It's, uh, nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, it's nothing."

"That didn't look and sound like it's nothing."

"No, really, it's okay, Cass. I'm fine. Thanks for giving it to me."

She nodded but was still skeptical, "Anytime," she said then went back to her desk.

I stared at the envelope on my desk.

How dare he call me that again?

I shoved the letter inside my bag and drowned myself with work as I tried my best to get Clark out of my mind.