Loving My Best Friend

Ch 15 - Leaving

Oliver sat with his father in his office at Gem Inc. He had visited his father’s and Rickard’s office plenty of times, but never had he thought that he would have his own office here. This company had several subsidiaries and Rickard was handling most of them. But now seeing that Rickard wanted to spend some time with his family, Bernard was dividing some responsibilities between both brothers. And Oliver was glad to be one of them.

“So when should I tell Emily?” Oliver asked his father and saw Bernard wince at the question.

At his father’s expression, he immediately knew that something was wrong. Was he not going to transfer Oliver to his own company?

“What is it?” Oliver asked. “Don’t tell me that I have to continue to work with Emily.”

Bernard shook his head, raising his hand. “No, no. You’re going to be working here from next month…” He sighed dejectedly. “But Emily knows and she was upset about it.”

Oliver’s eyes widened and he blinked. “Who told her? I told you I was going to tell her myself.” He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at his sides. No wonder she was upset, she must have thought that he wanted to get away from her. It was true but he didn’t want to hurt her. His reasons for wanting to be away from her were entirely different than what a normal person would perceive them to be.

“Eleanor broke the news to her. She thought Emily knew. But you should talk to Emily,” Bernard said.

Nodding, Oliver looked away. “It’s fine, I will talk to her… I need to go to the office, just send me those papers to sign.”

“I will,” Bernard said, eying Oliver getting up to leave.

“See you later, bye,” Oliver said and left.

~~~~~~~~

Emily was working on her laptop, at least she was trying to work when her mind was in turmoil. She couldn’t concentrate on her work and desperately wanted to get away for sometime, but she knew that work awaited her. If she wasn’t going to take care of it, who would? Oliver was leaving as well. That, too, without any prior notice. Was he going to surprise her by saying that he was leaving? He should know that it wasn’t a pleasant surprise.

On the other hand, her father had left no stone unturned in making her life hell. First he wasn’t only cheating, now he was shameless of his mistakes. Emily sighed, realizing she should have told her mother sooner. It would have been a less blow to her in the start. But now, if she knew that he had been cheating on her for the last several years, what would she do? Emily’s mother was a kind hearted woman and even imagining her getting hurt was agonizing for Emily.

A knock on the door sounded and Emily looked up in exasperation.

What now… She thought to herself.

“Ma’am, I have the private investigator on call, if you would like to schedule a meeting?” Erwin, Emily’s secretary, said and she nodded.

“Is it possible that you schedule the meeting? I am in between something at the moment,” Emily asked her secretary and he nodded in understanding.

“Sure, I can.” He said and left.

Emily sighed and wondered what good would involving a private investigator bring. But she could be aware of her father’s actual activities instead of finding out accidentally. She could keep a record of his illicit relations.

Another knock on her door and Emily looked up tiredly. Her eyes widened seeing Oliver standing with a serious face. Seeing his face, Emily knew that he was aware of the blunder he had made in not telling Emily about him leaving the company.

Narrowing her eyes, she flipped him her finger.

Instead of being offended, he opened the door wider and strode in. “Emily, you need to listen to me first,” Oliver tried to explain, but she looked away, ignoring him.

“Oliver, I am busy,” Emily said, getting back to her laptop, and Oliver stood in front of her table, demanding her attention.

“No, you need to listen to me first,” he said.

“We can talk after work. Right now I have work to do, and unlike you I don’t have the liberty to leave,” Emily said and looked up glaring at him.

Oliver sighed and leaned on her table. “You knew I was going to leave someday.”

“After work, Oliver. If you have waited this long to tell me, then surely you could wait to explain,” Emily said, and Oliver pressed his lips in a thin line, expressing his irritation.

Emily shook her head, seeing him irritated. He had the audacity to be irritated when he was the one lying to her. She shot him an irritated glare which Oliver just watched in silence.

“After work, then,” Oliver said, and left for his office without another word to her.

Later that evening…

Emily had deliberately kept herself drowned in work all day so she wouldn’t have to see Oliver soon. She saw him waiting outside her door for her to be free of work, but she kept working. Even if something was finished, she searched for another contract, or legal documents to work on.

After work hours were finished, Oliver got his coffee and waited for a while, then strode inside her office without waiting for her permission. He went around to glance at her laptop screen.

“Are you really working on that right now?”

“What does it look like?” Emily asked, typing rapidly on her laptop.

“I need to talk to you, Emily. You can’t avoid me like this,” Oliver argued, and sat in front of her table.

“I am not avoiding you. But you’re the one lying to me,” Emily said, while turning to face him with an accusatory stare.

“I didn’t lie to you, I was just waiting for the right moment to tell you,” Oliver said, and saw her narrowing her eyes at him.

“Really? So when would you tell me, when you resign or after joining your new office?” Emily retorted. She couldn’t believe, even after this much time, he was waiting for the right moment to tell her. What was he afraid of? She would have been happy for him if he had told her himself about his new role at his father’s company.

“No. I would have told you in a day or two,” Oliver said and sighed. “I know I did wrong by keeping you in the dark but I thought you would be upset because of me leaving.”

“Of course, I will be. But I will be happy for you as well. This is progress for you and I am happy to see you succeeding and moving forward. Do I appear so selfish to you that I will stop you from leaving?” Emily said, standing up from her seat and walking towards the window that looked over the city.

Oliver stood up and came to stand behind her. He saw her tensed shoulders and put his hands over them, kneading them. Under his touch, he felt her shoulders relax and then she sagged against him and sighed.

“Emily, I am sorry. I know I have upset you, but I had no intention of keeping you in the dark. I don’t know what I was thinking,” Oliver said, and placed his chin on top of her head.

She turned around in his arms and looked up into his eyes. “Do you know how bad I felt when Eleanor told me that you were leaving? I am your best friend and yet I am the last one to know. The whole world knows before me.”

Oliver nodded, closing his eyes. “I am sorry, what can I do to make it up to you?”

He looked into her green eyes and gently one of his hands brushed a rogue strand of hair away from her face. She was going to reply to him but the slightest feeling of his hand made her forget everything.

Emily gulped, feeling his hand on her face. It was an intimate touch and she felt herself shivering at his touch. After all this time, she couldn’t deny that his touch affected her. It still made her body lit up in agonizing desire. Her heart started to thud loudly against her chest and she looked away, knowing it wouldn’t be longer before he knew the effect he was having on her.

Emily pressed her lips together and frowned. She pushed his hands away from her shoulders and stepped back to create some distance. After moving back and inhaling the air, she felt like she could breathe again. His presence was intensifying and made her forget to even breathe when he was a mere inches apart from her.

Her gaze lifted up to meet his searching gaze and saw him staring at her.

“I know it’s difficult,” Oliver said with a knowing glint in his eyes, and Emily’s frown deepened in confusion.

He moved forward and Emily had to step back again. “What?”

“You know what I am talking about,” Oliver said, and his gaze moved from her eyes to her lips, and Emily let out a small gasp.

“Oliver…” Emily said, a slight warning in her tone. She shook her head in denial.

With one hand she pushed him away and walked back towards her desk.

“Perhaps it’s better that you’re leaving… The sooner the better,” Emily said and Oliver clenched his fist in anger and frustration.

“If that’s what you want, then fine,” Oliver said, looking down, and then he lifted his gaze to stare at her. She looked wary of him but just stared at him..

“I am leaving tomorrow,” Oliver said, and Emily’s eyes widened. “You said the sooner the better.”

Emily closed her eyes on hearing her words and began to shake her head. But Oliver had enough, he left her alone without another word.