Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 161: Bad Timing

Chapter 161: Bad Timing

Apart from the two of them being desperate enough to try, and sleep with one another to see if that would allow them to get some rest. There were many other factors that they had to consider, and those factors were the things that would be instrumental in making sure that their plan was successful.

And one of those important things was normalcy.

In order to do what they had to do and keep getting away with it, they had to continue acting as though everything was normal, that nothing had changed. And so Derek, when he got home, did not immediately throw himself onto the couch and stare at the door waiting for Emily to ring the doorbell.

No, instead he had to force himself to act as though nothing was amiss, as though it was just a regular Thursday like any other Thursday. After arriving home, instead of doing what he wanted to do, Derek did what would have been expected of him in such a situation. One thing for sure, he knew that there was a person who was waiting to hear from him. With a sigh, he threw himself onto the couch, shoes and all, and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

It took his mother three rings to pick up.

"Good evening mother, I trust that I have not caught you at a bad time," He said, already imagining her, hastily wiping sweat from her brow, while checking her reflection in the nearest shiny surface. She had that habit, even if it was just a voice call and no one could see her. His mother did not like it, when she looked anything other than stellar, when answering calls.

She laughed in reply, "Oh Derek, what a pleasant surprise it is to hear from you, and to think I’m almost at your door right now?"

What?!

Derek instantly sat up. What was she on about? She had literally just visited him a short while ago. Why was she back so soon?!

Quickly getting to his feet, Derek headed to the door. He considered just pulling it open and looking outside, but he decided against it. He pressed his ear against the door, hoping to hear something. With the call to his mother still connected, Derek tapped at his phone, accessing the CCTV footage and trying to see if he could track where his mother currently was in the building.

This was bad. This was so bad. Of all the nights for her to just show up, it just had to be that one. Derek was already drafting an apology text that he was going to have to send to Emily when his mother’s laughter pulled him out of his panic.

"What?" He asked, genuinely not understanding why she sounded so mirthful.

"Oh Derek, would you relax? You would swear by the silence coming from your end that you were just about to have a heart attack. Can’t an old lady play a practical joke on her son? Is my presence in your life really so horrifying? She asked.

Oh, a joke.

She had been kidding. She was not really there. She was still back at the manor. Overcome by a wave of relief, Derek found himself sinking to the floor.

His mother’s idea of a practical joke was not funny in the least, but Derek found himself laughing, not because he found any joy in it, but because he was so very relieved that she had only been kidding. If he’d had to miss out on getting to see Emily, he was pretty sure that he would have just given up and drowned himself in his rooftop pool. Kicking off his shoes, Derek went back to sit on the couch. His phone once again pressed to his ear. "I take it you saw the press conference on the news today?" He asked.

His mother made a humming sound in reply. "That uncle of yours is really a piece of work, Derek. You would swear he thinks that the whole world revolves around him," She said and Derek could hear the barely restrained rage in her voice.

"It’s alright mother, in the end we managed to settle it,"

"That is exactly what makes me so angry Derek. He goes out there without a care in the world, makes the biggest mess that he can manage and then he just stands back and other people step in to solve it for him," If he could see her, Derek was certain that his mother’s eyes would be narrowed in anger.

"I did not like it when it was your father who was constantly putting out fires that your uncle started and I especially detest it, when it is you who has to clean up after him," She cut off with a little growl.

A clear sign that she was very mad. Derek could just imagine her. Her teeth gritted as she glared at the nearest thing that her eyes landed on. His uncle tended to incite such a reaction in a lot of people. So he did not blame her.

"It is alright mother, there is no need for you to get your blood pressure up over it. We all know that wherever he is right now, uncle has already forgotten about this whole thing. We should not let ourselves suffer over something that he is not even thinking about," He told her.

There was silence for a bit and Derek could hear her taking some deep breaths on the other end. Good, at least she was actively trying to calm herself down. His uncle stressed him out enough. He would not have his mom harming her health, worrying about that man.

During moments like this when Derek realized just how much, his uncle stressed out his mother. He wanted to build the man an office somewhere remote and then send him there.

Maybe he would use the place as some form of purgatory, every single employee that did something horrible being sent there to languish in the pits of despair, with only Sebastian for company. But every time Derek had to remind himself that it was better to keep his uncle close.

It made it easier to keep an eye on the man. Sure, he was still a headache, but he was a headache that Derek could somewhat control. There was no telling the amount of damage that he would do if he ever had free reign without Derek there to make sure that he stayed within a certain range.

"Mother, forget about uncle for now. Did you not tell me last time we talked over the phone that you wanted to start doing hot yoga? How is it going for you?" And that was all it took to get his mom to focus on something else. She launched into a tale about how the hot yoga was going for her, complaining about how everything ached the longer she was forced to hold the position ,while at the same time gushing about how much more toned she had gotten in a short space of time.

Derek let her words wash over him, her gentle tone calming him. It had been a long day and since he was going to have to wait for Emily, it was longer still. But he was glad to have his mother distracting him. By the time that the two of them bid each other farewell and he hung up, a significant portion of time had already gone by. He still had to wait a bit more, but now it was better.