Good night! :) The Sunday update is here, folks! I know this one is short, but I barely had time for more and I needed to update because I didn't upload a new chapter last week. I told you I was out of town and I didn't have time during the week because of work, so I felt like I had the obligation of updating today. :D No reviews this time, I'm sorry about that. I need to sleep so I don't look like a zombie tomorrow at my workplace. xD I hope you enjoy this one and have a nice week you all! ;)
PD: I stopped proofreading 'cause I don't have time for that, so you'll have to get used to my mistakes. ;)
Enjoy the chapter, guys!
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE
: Chapter 26 – Too Much Pressure :
When the door of the elevator opens, I see Paige standing on the hall of the hotel. She has a huge smile on her face. Today McCullers are acting a little bit weird. Her dad was smiling to me and saying weird things just a few seconds ago, and now her daughter is smiling like it was the best day on her life. Her smile grows bigger when she sees me. I approach her and unexpectedly plants a kiss on me while she firmly holds my face with her soft hands. When she pulls away after leaving me breathless and in shock, she still has that joy written on her face.
"What the hell was that? I require an explanation." She bursts into laughter.
"Didn't you like it? That was me saying good morning." She grins and gives me a chaste kiss, making me want more.
"Of course I liked it, but… I mean…"
"I kissed you because Pam is right across the hall and I want to make it clear she has no choice." She laughs. I turn around and I confirm that she's staring at us and is almost as surprised as I am.
"But your dad could have seen us, Paige. We need to be careful."
She raises her shoulders and smiles at me. "I don't care anymore. I don't want to hide my beautiful girlfriend, I want everyone to know you're mine." I frown at her.
"Have you been drinking?" She bursts into laughter.
"My dad knows, Em. That's not a problem."
"What?!" I can't help but raise my voice. My heart starts pounding really fast. "I just saw him and he didn't…"
"He didn't say anything?" She nods at me. "That's so my dad." She smiles once again, and I'm clueless. I mean, when did this happen?
"I didn't know you were planning on telling him," I admit.
"Me neither," she answers, grinning at me.
"I only have forty minutes to have breakfast, we have a really important meeting. But we need to talk about this." She nods at me.
"I can go with you, even if I had breakfast, I'd love to drink another coffee. Is that okay?"
"Yeah, sure," I reply. I'm still in shock, I wasn't expecting this.
We leave the hotel and we decide to get inside the nearest café. I'm lucky the bartender takes our order really fast, and only ten minutes later we're already enjoying the food and drinks.
"It happened right here," Paige says.
"What are you talking about?" I stop eating the scrambled eggs to look at her.
"I told my dad exactly at this place. Half an hour ago."
"You must be kidding." She laughs at my reaction.
"I'm not. I just felt it was the right moment to be honest to him. I mean, I didn't plan on doing it today, but I think it's better like that. If I had waited and spend weeks planning the right moment to come out, it'd be a torture. So I had the guts to do it and it feels great."
"How did he react? I mean, he's my boss," I specify. She doesn't seem to realize that's a huge problem.
"He loves you, Em."
"He likes me as her employee. Being her daughter's girlfriend is a totally different thing, Paige." Her face expression changes.
"Are you not happy I did it?"
"No, I am. It's just… it happened really fast and I didn't have the time to make myself to the idea that…" I sigh and then stare at her. I can see she didn't like that.
"You wanted me to come out and now that I did, you're behaving like this. I don't get it."
"Of course I wanted to be open about our relationship. But you need to understand I work for you dad, this is really awkward. How about that policy of not dating other workmates?"
"It's fine. You don't need to worry about it." I shake my head, this is unbelievable.
"You had to break up with Jason and now you're telling me I can date you and your dad won't disagree with it. I don't get it. I really don't, Paige." I'm a little bit hurt she just did what she wanted and didn't say anything to me.
"Will you please stop being an asshole for a minute, please?"
I close my eyes and I count to ten because I don't want to make a scene. I look at my watch and I realize I only have ten minutes before the meeting. I don't want to be late, because that would give a bad impression.
"We need to leave. I have to go to my room and wash my teeth before the meeting." I stand up and leave the money on the table.
"You're unbelievable," Paige adds, following me as she mumbles. We walk one behind the other, and we don't say a word. I walk towards the elevator and get inside. I turn around before pushing the floor button, but she's not coming. I see she heads to the meeting room.
Three minutes later, I enter the room, five minutes ahead of time. I choose to sit next to Jason, it's the furthest chair from the McCullers. Both look at me, but the looks are quite different. Paige has a face of contempt, Nick however smiles at me.
"Morning," I add. Everyone say good morning and I see that Pam and the accountant from the English Company are the ones that didn't get yet. One minute later, they make an entrance and Pam decides to take the seat right next to me. I see Paige turns her head to look at us, but I ignore her. I didn't make the decision and I don't have the intention of speaking with her. I pass.
"Good morning," the accountant says, standing in front of the circled table. "I guess you all want to know what we have decided. So I won't make this longer than necessary." A smile escapes from his lips. "After having a meeting yesterday, we decided your proposal is the one that fulfills all our wishes. Congratulations." For a few seconds I forget about our fight and can't help but smile. This is great news. It feels good something that you helped to create is going to be a reality, even more after all the hard work involved in this project. It'd had been a big waste of money and time if they decided to reject us. I see that Paige and her dad are hugging. I suddenly feel Jason embracing me. I hug him back.
"We kicked ass, Em!" He's euphoric.
"Congratulations. You deserved it. I guess we will be seeing more when the project is formalized." Pam smiles at me. I thank her, but I don't say anything else. She doesn't give up even if she knows I'm dating Emily.
"I know you're really tired after these two days of hard work, so we just want to propose a few changes on the original design and some other details and then you can have a free afternoon to enjoy the city this last day. If that's okay for you," he jokes.
"I think that's a great idea," Nick replies, smiling at him. "Jason and I can have a chat with your team to set the financial terms. The girls will answer all your technical proposals. Am I right, girls?" Nick stares at both of us and I can't help but get really nervous. I just nod at him, giving him a fake smile because of the nervousness.
Paige is really sweet to them as they explain us if the changes they are considering are even possible. She's nice to me too although she's still upset because of my reaction before. However, she's always known to give preference to business when it's necessary, and she's making a great job. She's stunning. I know I was a little bit rude before, but I have to reason to be. When I see her explaining to Pam and the other ginger man that choosing the right material on the façade is the key to the correct functioning of the building, I realize how lucky I am to have her. I should not waste time fighting with her.
"Don't you think so, Emily?" she asks. I was staring at her and I didn't realize she was talking to me.
"I'm sorry?"
"I was just saying that…" I interrupt her.
"I completely agree with you. She's always right about everything," I add. The ginger man laughs, but Paige looks at me with those sad puppy eyes and I shyly smile at her. I hope she understood this was me being sorry for behaving like an asshole.
When the meeting ends and they leave the room, I approach her and hold her hand.
"I'm really sorry. It came as a surprise and I just…"
She places her finger on my lips and I stop speaking. "I am sorry too. I should have…"
I place my finger on her lips and she bursts into laughing. "Is this a competition or something like that?"
I grin at her. "Do you want to spend the afternoon with me?"
"I want to spend my life with you, Em." She blushes, looking as adorable as ever.
"Are you talking about marrying me? Slow down, girl!" I tease her.
She punches on my shoulder. "I wasn't talking about that." She grins at me.
"I'm not that easy. You'll have to work on that, McCullers."
To be continued…
Stay tuned! ;)
