Page 54 of Love Not Qualified

“Coming right up.” He turned around and got to work, while I continued my path to Sebastian.

As soon as I reached his door, I knocked, and when his voice reached my ears to let me know I could enter, I didn’t hesitate to press down the doorknob and face my old friend.

“Tristan,” he said, surprised. Sebastian stood up from his chair, then rounded his desk and stopped in front of me. “How’ve you been? We didn’t have time to catch up after my honeymoon.”

My insides twisted with guilt. His wedding was three months after my father died and even if I cared about Sebastian, not coming was most likely an insult, and I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate anything. So instead of showing up, I sent him two new cars and a note with “Congratulations!”

Him and his wife, Nadia, have been together since high school, but they didn’t get married until this year.

They were great people and yet I still pushed them away.

“I’ve been busy,” I half lied.

“You’re always busy, yet that didn’t stop you before from responding to my calls.” His brow lifted, the tone of his voice bitter.

“Seb.” I threw him a look. “I’ve been through a hard time. We’ll catch up soon. I stopped to ask for a favor before leaving.”

His arms crossed over his chest. “Shoot.”

“Who’s that girl at the entrance? Dark hair. Short.” I estimated her height with my hand and recognition flashed on Sebastian’s face.

“Aleena, why?” His eyes squinted as his legs crossed over each other.

“Fire her.”

“What?” From the comfortable position, he switched to his arms next to his body, a deep frown on his forehead. “Why the fuck would I do that?”

“She’s judgemental and ruined my business meeting. As I said, I’m asking for a favor and that means I owe you,” I said, knowing I had no time for argument or to explain what truly happened.

Sebastian laughed, threading a hand through his short blond hair. “You owe me a lot, Tristan, and I never asked for anything back.But”—he accentuated the word—“I’ll fire her, no question asked if we do something this weekend.”

“Done,” is all I said before I turned around to walk out.

“You better answer your calls this time!” he shouted after me, and I shook my head with a smile.

I missed the douche. With him it was easy, it was his wife who wouldn't take me back or was going to make me work my ass for it. The three of us had been a great trio for the past few years, we used to do everything together and she made it very clear that once someone walked out of her life, there was no way she’d let them come back.

A weekend spent together sounded a bit terrible, to say the least.

Once I got the food from Paulo, I followed to the exit, hearing the nameAleenabeing called. A pleased smirk stretched on my lips and it didn’t disappear until I got inside my car which was a lot fucking colder than it was outside.

I looked at Haelyn. “Why didn’t you start the car?” I asked, placing her food on her legs. My fingers skimmed the slightest bit on the material of her leggings and I pictured it as being her soft skin.

Her fingers touched one of her curls as she avoided my eyes. “I wasn’t cold.”

“You’re shaking and you’re telling me you weren’t cold?”

She groaned, throwing her head back. “I didn’t know how to start the stupid car and I’m not nosy enough to search through it all to find a goddamn button.”

Without taking my eyes off her I pointed at the button in front of the console.

Haelyn huffed. “Whatever.”

I started the heat and unpacked my food while Haelyn sat still next to me. “So, what’s your idea?”

“It’s nothing well-rounded yet, but I don’t think you should bring profit charts to the meeting. If you do, leave them forthe end to show that’s not what matters most to you.”

The knife I was holding sliced through the pork and I took a bite, still chewing when I asked her with a tilt of my head. “Isn’t profit the most important thing for all companies?”

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