Liz had been numb the entire time since she had called Luke. Since childhood, whenever things became too hard to handle, this was usually her defense mechanism: to distance herself from everything that was happening so that she would have time to recuperate and heal enough to fight back.
The only thing that had affected her in that state was the sight of Luke who had looked like a savior come straight from heaven.
It was only in the diner after they had sat down in the seats that they always used to eat in when they were kids had Liz finally let herself cry it out.
It was as if a torrent had been unleashed, causing her to sob continuously for over 20 minutes without saying anything.
As she did so, Luke just patted her on the back and waited for her to get better.
This was the unspoken understanding they had between them; after all, because of growing together, both of them knew each other more than anyone else in the world.
Although Liz had been through a lot in her life, the expression of the CEO's when he had seen her in those clothes had been too much. She hadn't even said or done anything untoward, yet the CEO had reacted in that way for some reason. Because she had no idea about what that reason was, hate began to form inside Liz where there had once been that something which always affected her in the presence of that man.
Finally, after she extracted herself from Luke's wet shoulder, she felt her face burning and her eyes so swollen that she couldn't even open them properly.
Getting up, she went to the washroom before looking at herself in the mirror.
"You let this happen to you. Learn your lesson at least now. The stories about him were true. Just be as professional as possible, take the money, and fulfill your goals. Never again should you be in this position again, and if you are, you should feel nothing but disgust for yourself. Get a hold of yourself, Liz!"
As she told herself this in her head and slapped her cheeks hard once, Liz looked at herself in the mirror and imprinted this image into her memory.
There was no way that she would let herself be affected like this ever again, and no matter what, she would make sure of that.
More than anything, Liz felt that the reason she felt so hurt was that she couldn't understand what she had done wrong.
This wasn't even the first time that this was the case, and it might not even be the last if she gave that icy man more chances.
Splashing her face with cold water, Liz finally managed to calm down and lock away her emotions in a cage inside her heart.
Walking out with an expression of determination on her face, Liz reached the table where Luke was waiting for her and grabbed the pizza that had already gone cold.
She, of course, hadn't eaten anything for hours, and her stomach started to grumble as she realized this fact.
Finishing the 8-inch pizza in less than 10 minutes, Liz narrowed her eyes at Luke and said "More!" as if demanding instead of asking the guy who had pulled her out of this mess in the first place.
Chuckling, Luke knew that this was a sign that his friend was getting back to normal.
Of course, the negative impression he had gotten of Liz's boss had already been fixed deeply in his mind. He also resolved to himself that he wouldn't let that guy go so easily in case he had the chance.
Smiling wide for now, Luke walked to the kitchen and started to prepare another pizza but paused as he felt a sweet fragrance beside him.
Looking to the side, he saw that Liz had actually come to the kitchen to help.
Indeed, cooking with Luke was something that Liz volunteered to do even if she was usually very lazy in other things. This was because she loved the way he handled the ingredients and it was a great way to make herself become completely normal.
Taking the dough, she began to knead it but she suddenly coughed because Luke, whom she had just been about to thank for his timely help, had thrown a fistful of flour in her face.
"You look better now.", he said, before going back to cutting the meat that they would put on the pizza as if nothing was wrong.
With slight indignation on her face, Liz almost punched Luke in the shoulder hard before controlling herself and using very little force.
"Thank you.", she whispered, before smiling slightly for the first time since that horrid incident had occurred.
"You're welcome. And I'll be very angry if you let whoever was responsible for the entire thing go scot-free", said Luke, knowing that Liz wasn't some sort of damsel in distress who needed his help to fight her battles.
As anger appeared on her face, Liz only nodded, indicating that she definitely wouldn't let that happen.