"And finally, this is the fitting room." The shorter girl exclaimed, her overzealousness irritating Bethany.
On her arrival, she had noticed the curiousness in their stares, the excitement, questions, admiration, jealousy and even envy in their whispers but she ignored them. Afterall, there was nothing new.
'It's the Bethany White effect.' She told herself.
"If you need anything, just ask me, I'll help you out." Elena continued, unable to contain her happiness. She was so happy to see the Bethany White, the brain behind the 2018 rave skirt and to think then she was just an inexperienced girl, what then now?
Bethany eyed her before she stiffly replied.
"That's so kind, Thank you."
"Oh, it's nothing. You are way better than the other annoying arrogant bitch starting today though I heard She's also good but I am sure she is no competition for you." She blabbered on.
Now this had Bethany's attention, of course she knew she wasn't the only one to be hired but the fact that there's also somebody on her level of popularity, somebody people have obviously began to compare to her wasn't something she had expected.
"Pardon?" She asked hoping she didn't sound disturbed at all. She wouldn't want to give the gossip monger a juicy topic.
"Ohh, Caroline Pierre, the daughter of Antoine Pierre, the french bitch, I heard she left a golden ticket to train under her father to come here because of her massive crush on the Boss." Elena whispered moving closer to Bethany.
Bethany swallowed hard.
Caroline Pierre.
She managed to fake a smile at the shorter girl, the look in Elena's eyes were exactly that of a detective waiting for the criminal to make a move.
'I will not become a laughing stock barely an hour into the job.'
"Oh, I don't think so. You see Caroline is a lovely person, I bet she just didn't want a special treatment that's why she chose to work under a stranger." Bethany replied her voice sickly sweet.
Oh! She knew Caroline was nothing close to a lovely person, Caroline was exactly what the gossip had said but what better way to look good than to praise an enemy, as it is it's 1-0 already.
Elena just shook her head pitying the naive woman, the Caroline she saw had nothing lovely except her features, arrogant, snobbish, sarcastic, just name it, deciding not to run her mouth in case they turned out to be family friends, she pretended to be enlightened and one can say even sorry.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have been mistaken then, you know rumours.." She laughed nervously brushing off the topic and leading her back to her cabin.
'Oh you weren't.' Bethany thought.
"Alice, I have edited the final draft, check it for any adjustments, I don't want there to be any mistakes when we present it to the Boss later, you know how cranky he can get." Valdez instructed laughing to himself.
"Oh ,I know." She replied simultaneously.
They all Burst out laughing.
'Even the rookie knows'
Alice blushed hard, she didn't mean to say it out loud but she did, she was so focused on selecting the right fabric that she had unconsciously responded.
" The boss is the most transparent person I've ever seen, he like it, he approves, he doesn't, he disapproves, nothing complicated and it might not seem like it now but with time you'll realize, his worth his moments of outbursts." Valdez explained, his admiration for Adam coating his words in a beautiful manner and she found herself smiling at that, she had not been biased when she thought he was more than he let on.
"Ok sir." She timidly replied.
'And we are back to the yes sir, ok sir" lycan teased which earned him a smack from Victoria.
"Quit teasing her, if I remember clearly, you were worse." She retorted.
"I think you memory is altered but I have always been the mover and shaker of our team" he manage to proclaim before hanging a pin in his mouth.
Victoria laughed so hard that eve Valdez found it hard to stiffle his own laughter.
"You were and still is the most awkward rookie I have ever encountered, Alice is cute, but you were an absolute distaster."
"That, I agree, she's the kind of cute you just want to gulp in one bite." Charles chiped in from the entrance.
He and Adam had just arrived and Charles being Charles had placed his thought in the tray.
Adam couldn't resist shaking his head, the guy should atleast wait till he meets her outside the office if he really wanted to flirt with her, now she is all red and shy. Choosing to ignore them he proceeded to Valdez.
"We are supposed to be ready in a week." He said.
"Sir, we won't fail you, we'll submit the final draft of the design for your approval immediately you are back from lunch." He replied respectfully.
Adam looked at Charles, begging him to abandon his mission to take him out for lunch but Charles blatantly ignored him. Whenever Charles had time, he made sure he come to pick Adam for lunch, like he always replies when asked why he doesn't go to Bruce's.
"Bruce knows fully well how to take care of himself but Adam has a talent in forgetting himself."
"So Miss, you abandoned me the other day." He complained, making it a point to pout.
Alice just shook her head in a negative fashion. Adam's presence was muting all of them for if he wasn't there, it would have been an ultimate chaos. Charles is a familiar face to a lot of them, he sometimes even took them all out to lunch so they were all comfortable with him. Victoria moved closer to him whispering something in his ear which made him laugh spiking their curiosity. Seeing how he caught everyone's attention, he said.
"Adam you are a spoilsport, we can't even have a conversation because you are here."
" Flirting isn't for office grounds." He replied. A satisfactory smirk on his face. There was pin drop silence before Charles began to drag Adam out trying to hold his laughter.
"I swear you make it hard for me not to laugh. You sound like an old dictator."
" Flirting isn't for office grounds." He mimicked, making it really tough for them to wait till they were out of hearing range before they have their own fill of laughter.
Unlike every other person laughing at Charles' antics Adam's redundant social skills, Alice just watched him walk away with Charles right behind him. A slight smile and a tinge of red on his cheeks.
Because of how aloof he looks, people think he just bares with Charles but for her who has had an insight in his life, she knew how he had fallen apart when he had lost Charles, how he never went for lunch again, how that smile that was only available when Charles was around was never to be seen again.
The hurt that buried him alive, that lead to his downfall all stemmed from losing the only person that he could loosen up around, the only person that wasn't his family but was closest to his heart. Saving Charles wasn't just saving Charles, it meant Saving Adam and saving the trio's friendship for Charles' death had been Bruce's fault.