The Friend I Needed

Thirteen.

Thirteen.

The next morning Oddie felt the dim light of day hit her right on the face, opening her eyes at the sound of the soft paddling of raindrops hit against her bedroom window. Taking a deep breath after a long yawn, she tried to sit up but an incredibly heavy arm across her stomach prevented her from any movement.

Looking to her left she found a sleeping firefighter, snoring not too loud neither too low, quite like an actual bear. Hiding a soft giggle behind her hand, she caressed his face gently before sighing and getting up careful not to wake him.

After everything that had happened the day before he deserved a good sleep. Walking towards the window she frowned a little at the sight, what she thought was a little bit of rain turned out to be a heavier rainy day. At least there wasn’t any loud thunder to shake the place.

Heading to the bathroom for her daily routine, Oddie showered with warm water feeling her muscles relax with the steam bringing peace to her mind. Getting out she walked into her walk-in closet, fully ignoring the snoring man still cuddled into her pillows, to find a good outfit for the unexpected rainy day.

When done, she walked back to Nathan kissing his forehead before walking out of the room, she passed Gabriel’s door stopping for a moment. She had to wake up earlier every day for work and poor boy did the same even though school started later in the morning.

But having Tommy staying the night, he agreed on taking Gabriel to school later so he could sleep a little more. She walked into the room with careful steps, her high heels on her hand to make as little sound as possible, she smiled at the sight.

Tommy occupied most of the twin sized bed and Gabriel cuddled on top of him both snoring lowly under the blankets, many pillows around their heads. Walking more into the room she opened the curtains a little lighting the place a bit more before getting closer to them and kissing both their cheeks.

“Have a good day today, boys.” She whispered covering them better.

Walking down the stairs she was greeted by Luca’s happy face, bending down a little she petted his head opening the back door so he could go do his business while she prepared his plate of breakfast.

Luca came back to let her know he was done and she closed the door. Washing her hands on the sink she ate her breakfast dinking a cup of warm delicious coffee staring at the window with some early morning tv news to know how the weather would be the rest of the day.

Apparently the rain wouldn’t stop for the next three days, she only hoped that it was better on Halloween night. Getting ready to leave, she wrote a note for the guys sleeping upstairs and let it on the kitchen island.

“I’ll be going now, Luca.” He whined giving her his lovely puppy eye stare, any other day she would’ve fallen for it, but not this time. “I’m sorry, big boy. I have an early meeting that starts pretty much in half an hour.”

Petting his head one last time she walked out the door looking it behind her; rushing to her car she turned it one as fast as she could, dropping her umbrella and bags on the back seat. She didn’t really want to go to work today, the weather was perfect to be lazy in cozy pajamas and just stay in doing nothing productive at all.

The moment she arrived at the company and parked, she once again rushed to the entrance holding her umbrella tightly in her hand. The guards opened the doors for her with bright smiles.

“Good morning, Miss Beaulieu.” The short chubby one spoke first, earning a smile back.

“Good morning, guys.” They took a hold of her umbrella and coat to put away, they were always so sweet to her and Maya.

“Hope your drive wasn’t a bad one, this weather is not helping a lot.” The taller guard said this time, frowning at the sight behind the glass doors of the building.

“Oh, don’t worry that much. It wasn’t that bad, it’s not as if I drive that fast either way.”

“You’re quite early this morning, did the young boy had a free day?”

“Not at all, a friend of mine is dropping him off today, so I took the chance to get here earlier and have everything ready for the meeting.” She sighed and walked to the receptionist desk only to find it empty, with a curious expression she turned around to find both guards chuckling. “Where’s Maya?”

“Goodness, Miss Beaulieu. You’re definitely something else.” Tilting her head to the side, she lifted an eyebrow completely oblivious. “Have you checked the time?”

“Time?” She mumbled looking down at her wrist watch to see the hour, a bright deep blush covered her cheeks in an instant making the guards laugh louder than before. “Oh my, how embarrassing.”

“You’re the first one to arrive, miss.”

“I… noticed.” She barely whispered trying to hide her mortification with a small awkward grin. “Well, I’ll be in my office. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Shall we send some coffee to you, miss?”

“That’d be lovely! Can you get me a caramel one, please? I’ll pay you back.”

“No problem! We’ll send it as soon as Mrs. Ross arrives.”

“Thank you!”

They watched as she disappeared behind the elevator doors before smiling knowingly at each other chuckling even more.

“Is it just me or she looks a lot brighter today?” The short man asked the taller, who sighed in content.

“She must have had a good night rest, not even the heavy rain and the cloudy sky could dull the little sunshine she’s carrying on her smile.” He looked back outside and frowned, wondering how he could get her coffee.

…

Sitting in her black chair, Oddie turned on her computer and took out the binders with information about the meeting, only to realize that her agenda had more than one meeting for the day.

Sighing at the thought of hours of hearing man complain and explain why their ideas were better than the others was something she wasn’t really looking up to. It didn’t really bother her to have meetings, she was more than glad to attend and hear the ideas of her team to increase their designing quality.

But the fact that she had to stay and hear annoying business men talking and talking nonstop about how incredible their teams and designing chiefs were or the typical my-company-is-bigger-than-yours thing.

They usually forgot the propose of the meetings and ended up in deliberations of completely different matters. Not her ideal work day, especially when she had four of those in the same day and one right after the other.

“Today’s gonna be a long day.” She took in a deep breath before sighing, her thoughts drifting back to last night and her special moment with Nathan.

Blushing she touched her lips with her fingertips, smiling at the memory of his soft yet passionate kisses, how his hands gently but skillfully touched her, it felt like a dream and if it was one, then she didn’t want to wake up.

“I was gonna say, what a shitty morning, but it appears it’s not that shitty for you.”

Jack’s voice caught her attention, blushing hard not finding her own voice. He laughed out loud at her flushed expression holding his stomach, Oddie’s pout wasn’t helping him at all, making him laugh harder.

“Ugh, are you done?” She frowned crossing her arms under her chest watching her friend struggle to catch his breath again.

“Sorry, sorry. I couldn’t help it.” He said cleaning away one tear from his eye, closing the door behind him he walked closer to her desk handing her a cold coffee to her. The frown on her face turning into a bright happy appearance.

“Yay, salted caramel iced coffee never fails to cheer my day.” Immediately she took a sip moaning in delight as she closed her eyes, her chair twirling around.

“You know? Not everyone would say that in the middle of autumn and with a cold rain shower right out the window.” Jack frowned, he never could fully understand this girl and he was sure as hell not trying right now. “You look happier than usual, something happened?”

“We could say that.” The face her friend made was so funny, it was now her turn to laugh at him.

“Does it involve a hot firefighter?”

“Maybe.” She winked standing up, gathering her stuff to walk out her office, Jack following close behind with a wide eyed expression.

“Oh come on! You need to tell me what happened!”

“What are you? A girl to gossip with?” She mocked, scoffing at his gasp.

“That hit straight home. I’m good to gossip with even though I have no boobs nor a big ass! I hear you out every time and give damn good advice, have some respect for me!”

Obviously he hadn’t realized he just shouted out in front of the whole floor that he didn’t have a woman’s body, Oddie almost choked with her drink struggling between laughing and almost dying. His flushed and panicked face was too much, his short friend was legit going to die.

“Ugh, you know what I mean, dammit.” He gave her an intense glare trying to prove was insulted, but she merely shrugged her shoulders still sipping on her iced coffee.

“Sure, sure, I know.” Both entered the meeting room stopping dead in their tracks, her lips frozen on the straw of her drink and Jack’s hands dropping the binders and notebooks on his hands.

Totally not expecting the situation at hand they slowly backed away after Jack picked up his stuff, they headed out and closed the door. Speechless, they still stared at the door wide eyed not really knowing what to say.

“Did that… just happened?” Jack was the first to break the silence pointing his finger at the meeting room.

“I’m not sure if I want to answer that. Actually, I want to go home right now and cuddle with my boys.” She, once more, froze at what she had said, but Jack didn’t seem to notice the little slip.

“Yeah, nothing better than cuddling a big dog and a sweet boy on a rainy day.” She sighed at his answer, he didn’t need to know that by my boys she meant not only those two lovely creatures but also the huge man sleeping on her bed.

“What are you two doing out here? Is the door closed?” A deep silky voice sent shivers run wild through both their bodies, turning around slowly to find their boss giving them a weirded glance.

“Good morning, Mr. Grenier.” They said at the same time bringing a smile to the young man’s face.

“Good morning, Miss Beaulieu. Mr. Gagnon.” He took a breath walking in front of them taking a hold of the handle. “Shall we go inside? The rest of the designing teams and business men are coming soon, so we need to have everything settled.”

“Ah, wait…”

“Don’t go in…”

They both tried to warn him but it was too late, the door had been opened and there was no turning back. Sebastian froze at the sight, feeling a twitch take over his right eye and his hands folding into tight fists, the veins on his neck and forehead giving him an incredibly evil aura.

“Ah, damn… we told you to wait, sir.” Jack spoke from his left side with his eyes closed not wanting to see the same thing twice.

“Are they done?”

Oddie tried to sneak a peek carefully, she didn’t want to see the same thing again. But Sebastian was quick to cover her eyes pushing her towards his back, keeping her away from the scene, even though the sounds were loud and clear.

Sebastian cleared his throat finally getting the attention of the two culprits in the room, who finally noticed they had an audience. As fast as they could, they separated from each other and dressed, the woman was fixing her outfit as the man tried to knot his tie in place again while letting his finger through his messy hair.

“G-good morning, Mr. Grenier. I wasn’t expecting anyone this early, or is it late already?” The chubby old man tried to make a friendly conversation but the glare of the young and handsome ceo proved to be anything but friendly.

“It was a good morning indeed, right before you traumatized two of my best workers. You may open your eyes now, Miss Beaulieu.” He briefly turned to said woman who still sipped on her almost non-existent drink, before turning back at the couple. “May I know what in the hell were you thinking, Mr. Carlisle?”

“Ah, well you see…”

“And you, Miss Robinson? Aren’t you supposed to be working at the Greekreen project with Mr. Gagnon’s team?” He frowned at the redheaded intern who apparently, forgot how to speak. “Well, what are you waiting for? Move along before I change my mind and kick you out of my company right this instant.”

Neither Oddie nor Jack had ever seen that woman move so fast to work, she was always on her phone or on social media in her computer, never really caring about the world around her.

“Mr. Carlisle, not only are you disrespecting the company but my authority as well, daring to do such a thing in my meeting room and not even caring that my two subordinates saw you. Do you think A&D is some sort of hotel?”

“I apologize, sir. I didn’t mean to insult you nor the company’s name.” He tried to explain further but his attention was immediately taken away by the breathtaking woman standing behind the boss. “Oh my, how couldn’t I notice such a pretty lady was here? My apologies, I haven’t introduced myself properly.”

He tried to take a hold of Oddie’s hand who frowned at him in disgust, but thankfully she wasn’t alone to deal with him. Standing back she let her friend and boss stand before her with angry glares directed to the older man.

“Do not dare talk to my designer, you know what? I don’t even think you’ll needed in our meeting, maybe not even in the upcoming ones.”

“Wait what?” The man panicked trying to explain himself but Sebastian cut him off.

“Don’t need to speak more, you can leave. You’re not needed, so take the day off.” He watched as the old man walked out the door grumbling annoyed and angry at his boss. “Oh, and please let Miss Robinson know that she’s fired. I’ll deal with your current position by the end of the day.”

“But… you just sent her back to work, sir.”

“Well, I changed my mind.” Sebastian’s wicked smirk sent shivers to the man’s body, lowering his head he agreed and walked out with no more words.

“That was clearly disturbing.” Jack commented shaking his head. “We’ll need to sanitize the place before we dare use it.”

“That’s for sure, can you call security so they can bring the janitor?” Sebastian rested his hands on his hips frowning in disgust at the misused table.

“Of course, sir.” Jack made the call straightaway when Oddie’s yelp made them flinch, they turned to look at her confused and worried thinking she hurt herself or something. “Are you alright?”

“Of course I’m not, something terrible just happened.” She pouted looking down. Both men shared a look understanding that the sight of an old man having s*x with a young intern early in the morning was not a pleasant sight to see.

“Don’t worry, the place will be cleaned and they both will be fired by the end of the day.” The young boss reassured her but she kept the frown on her face, worrying him a little more.

“That’s not the only problem here though.” They raised their eyebrows at her waiting to hear her concerns when she lifted the now empty cup of coffee so they could see. “My salted caramel coffee is gone.”

For a few second the three stared at each other before they broke in laughter, Jack was used to her odd self but Sebastian wasn’t so he couldn’t help but laugh louder, surprising his employees.

She laughed even more when she saw the tears coming out of her boss’s eyes and how her dear friend held onto his tummy trying to keep the air inside his lungs, of course they both were failing to control themselves.

At least, she managed to keep a light mood around her smiling happily at them both. She had woken up so happy this morning she didn’t want anything ruining her mood; if the heavy rain outside wasn’t able to, she was sure as hell an affair between of her colleagues in the meeting room couldn’t bring her down.

…

“So…” Henry looked at three boys in front of him with a raised eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why exactly are the three of you here, this early in the morning?”

“I didn’t hear the alarm clock so I woke up way too late for school…” Gabriel gave the General a small smile trying not to get yelled at. Henry gave him a look before turning to Tommy who scratched the back of his neck avoiding his glare.

“And you?”

“Ah, well…” Tommy flinched still holding the little boy’s hand. “I didn’t hear the alarm either, and when we missed the bus.”

“Mmm…” To say that Henry was mad, was an understatement. He was pissed. He turned to look at the taller man, who shamelessly rested his hands inside the warm pockets of his hoodie, looking at the pictured Henry had around his room. “What about you?”

“Uh? What about me?” He looked at the younger ones’ guilty faces then at Henry’s annoyed one, lifting an eyebrow himself. “I wake up just fine, thanks for asking. I even had a pretty decent breakfast.”

“Nathan.”

“Ah, come on, Henry.” He sighed pointing with his thumb towards Tommy and Gabriel. “It’s not my fault they fell asleep; I didn’t even know that he was in charge of dropping Gabe to school today. If Oddie had told me to do it, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Well, at least not the three of us.” Tommy tried to joke and laugh a little but Nathan’s and Henry’s glares shut him up.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty much angry right now.” The heterochromatic young man looked down holding Gabriel close to him, trying to avoid Nathan’s wrath. “I’m not happy that you both slept in. If it was a Friday I wouldn’t care that much, if on Saturday or Sunday, well, really who cares? But in the middle of the week?”

“Oddie’s gonna be so mad at this.” Henry agreed, finding the reaction of the boys amusing.

“Please, don’t tell Oddie. She’ll kill me, or worse! Make me run 10 laps around her house and that’s a lot!” Tommy panicked with Gabriel agreeing to his hysteria, Nathan gave them a weirded look.

“You know Gabe’s teacher is Oddie’s best friend, right? Either way, she’s gonna find out.” Nathan shrugged sitting himself beside Henry. “Friends or not, Sally has to let Oddie know that her child wasn’t in school today.”

“Oh, no…” both young ones shared a scared look and yelled in fear. “She’s gonna murder us!”

“Yup, you guys are doomed.”

“Nathan!”

“Bear man!”

Henry couldn’t help but laugh at their expressions, he was looking forward to see her unleash her wrath at them and he was sure as hell going to enjoy it.