Rule No. 1: No Romance (GirlxGirl WlW)

Chapter 23

Louise's POV

Esther has been on vacation for the last couple of days, and while I'm more than happy she's finally resting, I feel a bit lonely. She's taking the opportunity to visit her family and will be back in a few days to enjoy it as far away from them as well — her words. And I can't help but hope she'll let me in on her resting schedule. I'm fine with sitting around while she reads or napping with her all day.

I hum in my chair, not able to focus on the work in front of me, especially when the guy in front of me is constantly taking extremely loud sips from his cup every 30 seconds or so — I've been counting.

Plus, things aren't the same without her. Her presence, even though most times she's not even in the same room as us — she has a way of keeping everyone on track. Right now everything is a mess, even with the very detailed list of tasks she has left with every single one of us. It's difficult to keep up with everything without her around.

"Are you done with your task?" the guy in front of me asks. Aside from being extremely irritating with his drink, he has also decided to be extremely irritating by playing pretend boss.

"Are you?"

"I'm not the one not doing anything," he points out.

"What are you going to do about it?" I arch my eyebrows. The worst thing he can do is email Esther about it, which I know he has been doing, and knowing her I'm sure she's rolling her eyes at this type of nagging attitude. Does he really think he'll get on her good side by constantly emailing her about work shenanigans while she's on vacation?

"Ms. Agassi won't be happy to know we have slackers, you do know she's very apprehensive."

"Yeah, so you shouldn't be slacking either, go on, do your work," I point to his computer. "You've been so worried about being such a little bitch, I'm sure you're behind everybody else."

He looks at me with killer eyes before returning his attention to the screen in front of him. Yeah, that's right, if someone is going to scold me, that someone has to be Esther herself.

I think about calling her during my lunch break but chicken out of it at the last minute, I'm sure she's with her family, and I can call her later at night when I'm sure she's in bed. We've been texting ever since she left but it doesn't feel the same, I know this may sound so cliché but I've been missing her voice. I've been missing her in general but I'm sure she'd cringe if I ever tell her this.

I was so deep in thought that I barely felt the hand that rested on my shoulder as I walked back to the common working area.

"Hey there, Louise, right?" Caleb asks as I look back, his hand still on my shoulder.

"Yeah?" I raise my eyebrows, not expecting him to acknowledge me, let alone talk to me so out of the blue.

"I'm Caleb, as you might already know," he smiles cockily at me. Oh, I really do hate this guy. "I know we're basically rivals when it comes to Esther but I thought I would just let you know—"

"Aren't you gay or something?" I ask, cutting him off. "I don't think we're rivals."

His eyes nearly jump out of his face proceeding to quickly scan our surroundings for anybody that might have heard it. "I'm sorry?" he says, regaining his composure upon seeing the coast was clear. "That's highly inappropriate, and no, I'm not that."

"I see," I say simply, not buying into it but honestly, whatever.

"As I was saying, and I'm only telling you this because I care deeply about Esther, and I don't want her to get caught in this terrible nest you've created," he clears his throat, continuing in a lower tone. "It has come into Mr. Arquette's ears that you've been getting involved with a woman in your department — now, he doesn't know who that woman is but it won't take long to find out once he starts looking deeper. It might not matter to you, but who knows what might happen to Esther."