"What's got my cousin all red and giggly this afternoon?"
Layla had been standing by the door of Cassie's office for a short while now.
Cassie didn't even notice one bit as she was engrossed in the back and forth text with Dane.
Of course, she would be deep in it.
She already liked the guy and Dane seemed to have something in mind with his last message.
Cassie believed there would be a rewarding outcome by the end of it, something she would be very happy about.
"...Tell me, who's the guy, Cass?!" Layla excitedly exclaimed close to Cassie, causing the latter to jump out of her chair in shock.
Cassie managed to keep her phone from shattering on the group and also hold her chest as her heart almost burst out of her chest, thanks to her cousin, Layla.
Before Cassie could get her act together, Layla swiped the phone from her grasp to read the message.
"Stop, Layla!" Cassie pleaded with her as she hurriedly pursued Layla to keep her off her private messages.
"Give me back my phone! Come on!"
Layla giggled mischievously as she stormed out of the office, hoping to outpace Cassie enough to calm down and get a sneak peek into the DMs that had Cassie blushing.
As she glanced at the phone, her eyes grew extra wide as she saw the name of the person she was talking with.
Before she could read any further, Layla bumped into one of the escorts whom she was familiar with.
Running into the big guy caused her to fall backwards and in the bid to recover her stamina, Cassie got up and used the opportunity to take her phone back.
The big guy was shocked for a moment before instinctively hurrying to Layla's side to help her up.
He crouched to help her up.
"Sorry, miss—"
Slap~
Before the escort could finish his apology, a hot slap from Layla sounded off his cheek.
Even Cassie felt shivers travelled through her entire body as she covered her mouth in shock.
Layla felt no remorse considering that she was the one who ran into him.
If she had focused on where she was headed for a second, the little accident wouldn't have happened.
"Layla...!" Cassie called out her on her actions.
"I'm sorry, Miss Layla," the escort apologised a second time, extending a hand to her as she looked at him.
"It wasn't his fault you know."
Layla shushed Cassie with a raise of her hand.
As the silence lingered for a bit, another person entered the scene, breaking the awkward silence.
"What is going on here?" he inquired.
The escort turned and bowed in respect to the status of this person.
Luckily, it was just the three of them before this figure joined within this area of the company and so the situation did not escalate.
"Sir," the big guy greeted.
"Nothing, Dad," Layla uttered without any remorse as she returned to Cassie's office.
Cassie felt bad and couldn't help but pity the poor escort who had been on the receiving end of Layla's anger.
Leon Grey was lost.
He had only just met them but he could smell that something was wrong.
However, none of them were telling him anything worthwhile.
He looked at Cassie and then at the escort, giving the both of them a thorough stare, but they didn't budge.
"Uncle..." Cassie called him softly with her sweet voice.
"Welcome, Uncle Leon."
Leon moved a few steps forward and soon afterwards, more escorts revealed themselves.
He placed his hand on Cassie's shoulder and smiled at her before looking in the direction Layla walked.
"What's wrong with your cousin?" he asked.
Cassie shrugged and looked along with him.
"Maybe she's having a bad day."
Leon chuckled and sucked his teeth. "Typical Layla. She will get over whatever it is that's bothering her."
He tapped Cassie lightly and then walked away.
"I just have a few things to check out and I'm off again."
Cassie smiled and bowed, watching his uncle and his escorts walk away as well.
After they had gone far, she heaved a deep sigh of relief and opened her phone.
She was glad that her uncle did not inquire deeply into the root cause of the scene which Layla created here.
She opened her chat with Dane, and a smile creased her face as she read through his last text.
Cassie loved the feeling she got from this and how thoughtful Dane was.
She had made an offer first and now Dane has turned it around.
[...]
[Cassie: That's fine by me. How does 3pm sound?]
Cassie locked her phone after seeing her message tick.
She returned to her office to continue her work but then her cousin was nowhere to be found.
She had assumed that Layla had come back to her office just to avoid a scene with her father, but she wasn't there.
Cassie looked around but she saw no one other than a few staff walking about.
'Where could she have gone?' Cassie wondered even though she didn't think so much of it.
She went back to her desk and opened her laptop to continue typing away at her work.
Some minutes into her work, her phone chimed.
A reply from Dane had just come in and a smile followed on her face.
She stared at the response a bit too long.
[Dane: 3pm is fine. See u then]
Cassie clicked on it to reply but on second thought, her mind was blank.
She didn't know what to type afterwards.
———
Meanwhile, Layla had darted to the bathroom closest to Cassie's office.
She was initially on her way to Cassie's office but on second thought, Layla decided to change her mind.
She knew that if she stayed in that office, either Cassie or the CEO would want to approach her and she was not in the mood to talk to anybody now.
Layla was not happy at all.
She had managed to get a glance at the person whom Cassie was chatting with and giggling through the contact name.
Layla sat on top of the toilet, gritting her teeth as envy simmered inside of her.
'He asked Cassie out...?'
Layla hissed and shook her head.
'You are my puppet, Dane and nobody can have you except me.'