Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 131: Renovation

Chapter 131: Renovation

LARA

It was the little things.

She’s been working at SCC for some time now, and most employees were creatures of habit. By a particular hour, certain employees would be doing almost the same thing daily.

Janet would normally be preparing her coffee in the break room, while Julia should come in very soon bearing the latest news.

One such news was the renovation of the top-floor break room.

Lara’s eyebrow shot up as she eavesdropped to Julia’s excited chatter like a cat burglar.

"Did you hear? That unused top-floor breakroom was suddenly renovated yesterday!"

"As in the executive’s floor?"

"Yes! That!" Julia said, pointing with her finger to confirm.

"Honestly, I didn’t think much of it until earlier. Loads of snacks were being hauled up to the top floor, and they did about four rounds or elevator rides just to get it all up there!"

"Snacks???"

Julia nodded earnestly and then, in a lowered voice, added, "It’s for his wife."

"Who doesn’t know that the people from there barely even take breaks, much less eat snacks?"

Lara concentrated even more on hearing talks about someone’s wife.

Seriously?

Did that boulder eat something bad? Why would he suddenly do something so uncharacteristic?

Lara was confident in her idol’s charms. It was just that she was even more confident of that doofus’ weirdness.

As someone who had watched over Lucian intently before—firmly emphasizing ’before,’ as it was now part of her dark history—Lara knew how uncaring he was. So, she was sure something was up again.

Was it because of the convenience store incident? Was that guy trying to lock my idol into that tiny ass floor?

Tsk.

Annoying.

She squinted dramatically toward the ceiling as if she could see through the floors. "A snack room? That’s it? He thinks a few snacks are enough for someone like her?" she muttered under her breath, crossing her arms against her chest.

"I could’ve done better with my eyes closed and a hand tied behind my back." Lara considered digging her heel into the carpet, but she thought Eliana wouldn’t like that.

Julia glanced over, with a hearing fit for her status as SCC’s reporter. "Did you say something?"

"No, no! I was just wondering what I could snack on today!" she chirped, suddenly smiling despite her earlier scowling expression.

Later that day, when the top-floor provisions were confirmed to include several fancy items and all the snacks Eliana normally liked, Lara grew increasingly indignant.

She sat at her desk, doodling elaborate snack room designs on her notebook. There would be plush bean bags in soothing pastel tones as well as a chocolate fountain and a rotating selection of baked goods. She’d fly them over if necessary, of course.

Then she had a corner marked "Compliments Station," where Eliana could collect uplifting notes written by her adoring fans (mostly her) so that she could have something to read while snacking.

"Honestly, you should probably add more of those gasoline station snacks. The boss likes those best." Alyssa, her current partner-in-crime, was taking a peek at her notebook from behind her back.

Lara felt like rushing to hide her notebook until she realized it was Alyssa, so it was fine.

This girl already knew about her fangirling and was very chill about it.

So, she liked that about Alyssa.

"Hey, I asked the boss if you could come with us to check the progress on the project once there’s something substantial to see."

"What? You did?!" Lara’s ears perked up so high they looked ready to fly.

"What did they say?" Her heart thumped wildly as her anxiousness soared higher with each second.

"Seems like you could come with us. I mean, I wouldn’t really tell you if I got a negative response. Haha!" Alyssa chuckled, and Lara realized she was right.

She didn’t even think about asking for something like that.

Even as the days passed and she was more worried about what would happen in the future, Lara did not take it upon herself to push herself into Eliana’s circle.

That was even true when Alexa stopped showing up for work.

At first, it was one missed day; then, eventually, it turned into a week.

Both Lara and Alyssa thought that it would piss off the BCI employees, but for some reason, they looked much better and much happier once Alexa stopped going to ’work.’

Maybe the others felt better about her prolonged absence precisely because the girl did not work.

"Are we going to be pulled away soon?"

"Probably. It seems like something else is happening."

True enough.

Because in the coming days, news about the Thornhills kept on coming up.

Technically, this sounded like good news. It wasn’t every day that companies bailed out their subsidiaries like that. Even more surprising was that venture capitalists were willing to lend them funds for it.

But Lara knew better. As someone whose hands were heavily involved in the elite’s business, she could see the clouds brewing for a certain ’heiress.’

Good luck, little shit.

__

It was close to departure, and as she was about to clock out, she spotted a shining beacon coming out of the elevator.

As usual, she looked divine. And her smiling face glowed next to the darkness beside her.

It was a stark contrast to Lara’s personal opinion.

Ehem.

But then she saw the probable reason for her idol’s happiness. She was carrying a handful of snacks as they went out.

Why doesn’t he even offer her a hand? Can’t he see she’s struggling to even scan her ID?

Then Lucian actually tried helping grab a few of the snacks that looked in close danger of falling, but Eliana moved faster, as if afraid that her snacks would be stolen in the process.

"..."

Of course, safety first. That guy’s hands were just as untrustworthy as his face.

Her idol was right in picking her priorities.

Lara could only look from her spot as she watched two people trying to battle it out with the ID scanner.

They didn’t care about the people watching and were just duking it out right there.

"..."

Even the other people watching had indescribable expressions. After all, they had never witnessed the glacier acting like that.

She would’ve interfered, but Eliana’s smile was blinding.

She seemed happy.

Or at least she looked happy.

"Fine," she admitted to herself.

"Maybe he’s not completely hopeless. But I still think that there’s room for improvement in that snack room..." Lara smirked, remembering how she was prepared to give out pointers.

Who would’ve known that one day she’d be able to realize her drawn out plans?