Chapter 18 - Is cardiac arrest common?

POV: Nerovsky

It's gettin' hot in here, so take off all your clothes. I am, gettin' so hot, I wanna take my cloth- WAIT NO STOP OH MY GOD STOP. Ok breathe and GET YOURSELF UNDER CONTROL. Leonardo knows that you're clearly checking him out and in fact is playing with you. He is TESTING you and PURPOSEFULLY being seductive AND IT SHOULD ILLEGAL but the world is unfair like that. The tension in the room was at an all-time high with both of us having stared at each other with attraction dancing on our faces (maybe I'm just being hopeful. He probably stares at everyone who creeps him out with that look. Not a resting bitch face. A resting sexy face) and I was embarrassed out of my mind for getting caught like this... again. But I manned up, collected my dignity and got rid of any desire for this man in my mind. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and looked at him with as much professionality as possible... which was a lot less than usual. Come on. There is a literal sex god in front of me. You can't blame me here. This ultimately broke the weird hypnotic state we were in and I used this as the first person to begin the interaction.

"Good evening sir. I'm here for our appointment?" That's right bitch. I got out of it first and got the first word in. I am still better than you.

Leonardo blinked twice before he gave me a business smile (I like his genuine frowns better than this fake bullshit) and sat down on the chair which rested by the glass. He rolled it over to the desk and leant back like it's a couch in his living room. Glad you're comfortable.

"Mr. Poston. Welcome. Have a sit. We have a lot to talk about after all."

An involuntary sigh came out and took him up on his offer with the leather chairs on the opposite side of him. "That we do unfortunately. Before we begin though, how formal is this meeting?"

Leonardo gave a small chuckle. "Considering how you're wearing a worn out hoodie and a pair of trousers, I think you answered your own question."

"Ok but like you gave no dress code so am I really at fault?" I just realised but for some reason, I get really comfortable talking to this man. I haven't stuttered once since meeting and I feel myself being myself with him. That kind of scares me.

"Yeah fair enough. I'll give you that. To answer your question however, this is a very informal meeting and you do not need to worry about keeping all that professional with me."

"Ok but like give me boundaries here. Because as you could see from yesterday, I am very different when I'm at work than out of it. Wait actually you haven't seen it. Yesterday you saw outside Nero, not professional Nero. That's mainly got to do with the shitty day I had and my tolerance being at an all time low. I'm not usually like that. Speaking of which, can I swear? Do I call you sir? Boss sir?"

Leo stayed silent for 5 seconds and gazed at me with a fascinated smirk. "You're rambling."

I flushed the tinniest bit of red and grumbled. "Shut up and answer the question."

The assholey smirk widened. "There is no boundaries. Consider this as a meet up with a friend. You may talk with your outside persona. Swearing is allowed. Never call me boss sir. Seriously what the hell is that? You can call me Leo. In doing so, it makes it easier to explain everything without additional thinking on how to say it."

Friends are we? I feel like that's something be honoured about. I leant back and slightly slid down the leather chair. "Oh thank fuck. Even doing that is draining."

The smug smirk was back on Leo's face. Uh oh. "Plus... I don't think someone bluntly checks out their boss in a formal context."

I sputtered indignant and embarrassed noises and then rolled my eyes to create an outward appearance of your-words-mean-jack-to-me. "Yeah well you know you're hot and I can bet my ass that you get a lot more worse looks in a formal context. Also you totally goaded me to continue longer."

As a response, Leo gave a sultry smile and said completely unexpected. "I haven't the slightest idea on what you are on about. Regardless though, I wouldn't mind taking you up on that bet of yours..."

Holy mother of Jesus. Is he FLIRTING with me? ME? Isn't he straight? This is too much for me. I'm going to die from cardiac arrest confirmed. Clearly, it was too much for me because my entire face was as red as a tomato and I went back to sputtering like a speed boat. "An-Anyway let's get down to business. The sooner we start, the sooner I'm out." Quite literally.

The CEO gave off a hot chortle and asked another unexpected question. "Before we get there, want some Scotch? To relax a bit and commemorate the informality?" He didn't even wait for my response before he reached for the bottle along with two glasses from under the table.

I threw a wide grin his way and singsonged an answer anyway. "Now you're speaking my language. Also, should I be concerned that you have alcohol right under the table, within reach?"

"Oi, you can't blame me here. I have long nights regularly and have to deal with shitty people almost on a daily basis." Leo poured the drinks for the both of us and smoothly slid my glass right in front of me.

I took a sip and quietly moaned of appreciation. "Thank you. And what type of long nights are we talking about here? Surely the good kind." (a smirk was accompanied with the last question)

Leo's alluring smile was back and simply replied, "Wouldn't you want to know..." and then proceeds to take a sip of the scotch... all while keeping deep eye contact with me.

I should've seen that coming. I felt the redness returned again and before it went full blast, I fake cleared my throat and diverted the conversation elsewhere. "So Leo... what do you want to know and where do I begin?"

He gave a contemplative hum before having asked in a matter-of-fact way, "why don't you tell me everything from yesterday? Starting from the moment you woke up?"

♤♧♡♢

Once I was done retelling everything, excluding the stuff I couldn't actually tell, we fell silent (after Leo only said blimey as a closing statement). It wasn't awkward or anything, rather was was quite comfortable. The silence was mainly due to Leo processing and thinking how to respond. My silence was due to the fact that my mouth was salivating from talking so much. I'm thirsty. I can't believe I finished two glasses whilst retelling all that shit. I felt a pleasant buzz from the alcohol and felt very warmed up. It warmed me up so much that I had to take off my hoodie halfway through the recall and I was definitely sure Leo was looking very intently during the entire process. It kind of fed my ego. I was currently looking out of the windows behind boss sir and observed the clouds passing by the night sky as a method to kill time. Now I want to fly through the clouds. I have been having random impulses to do shit these days... am I finally at an age where I can be called old? Well then again, Leo is like 4 years older than me and he is still called the youngest, richest, hottest bachelor of the century so maybe it won't be fair on him. God what I would do to taste some of the clou-

"Well thank you Nero. For telling me everything you went through yesterday." I blinked out of my daze and focused back on the man in front of me. He was a laid back posture but was rocking a serious look. He had both his elbows on the desk in front of him and was leaning his chin on the back of his clasp hands in front of him. He added on with his honey dripping voice (I will never be tired of it) "I can truly empathise as I myself have experienced a horrendous day like that... multiple times." I saw him visibly shudder just from the thought of it which brought a semi-fond, semi-humoured smile to my face.

"Yeah well I'd like to apologise for what happened anyway. It still is partially my fault after all." My smile turns a bit regretful and I looked down at my whiskey glass. I traced the rim with my right index finger slowly, when I got lost in my words.

"It's alright. Sure it caused some additional... issues but if I was in your position, I'd probably reacted a lot worse. You did initially handle professionally, even if you uh had some hidden jabs with your words. I'm happy you didn't lash out immediately."

This brought a hesitant smile to my profile and the hesitancy transferred over to my following words as well. "I'd... also like to thank you... for hearing me out today. Most people don't do that these days. I really do appreciate it."

Leo returned a kind-hearted smile my way (as a form of acknowledgment) and I swear my heart stops for a second. God I'd be a jester any day to see that smile as much as I can... Nero stop simping. You have issues. I continued to add on afterwards.

"If you don't mind me asking... wh-what happened afterwards? With Rameno and Bitchri- I mean Ms. Chase. Is... is everything alright after all that? Y-You don't have to tell if you can't... or don't w-want to"

The smile was gone (dammit. Nero just shut the fuck up sometimes) and was replaced by an exhausted sigh. He began off his reply quite throatily which shouldn't sound good but for some reason, Leo fucking pulled it off. My mind hasn't changed when I said he should be illegal. "Well... it was kind of a rollercoaster of just clusterfucks. (I need to hear him swear more. It is my new drug) in my honest opinion."

I sheepishly smiled at him. "I guess it's story time from your end? Start from after I made my exit."

"Yeah sure except I'm just going to summarise everything because I just cannot be bloody bothered."

"Fair enough. Can't argue with you there."

"Well after you left – which was absolutely insane by the way. Were you out of your mind? I was going to call the police to find your body if you didn't show up today (I snickered at his very-welcomed concern) – we ended up calling the ambulance anyway, just to make sure you didn't actually kill her. Luckily, she was perfectly fine"

"Hey! I said I didn't kill her. And I know she would be fine. I'm great at control thank you very much."

"With your dodgy conversation with your friend, – which I'm going to assume is the same one from the bar that one time – my concern for kind of rose. You sounded as if you both were part of some mafia gang."

I crossed my arms and quietly grumbled (just enough volume for him to hear), "talk about lack of faith."

Leo felt humoured and chuckled before advancing with his story. "Anyway. By the time we get to the hospital, we get a call from an angry father. You can already guess who it is. The videos from the ground floor had spread like wildfire (I groan in despair) so obviously he had seen it by then. We can already establish he was NOT happy and was ready to tear me apart. I plainly told him to come down to the hospital, ensure his daughter's safety and to discuss everything the next day."

"Well aren't you just sweet? This is probably why the poor girl fell for you and became delusional."

Cue Leo's devious smirk and my left eyebrow raised in mild surprise. "Yeah well I'm not actually all that nice. There was hidden intent behind those words. I only said those words so he could actually cool down before coming to me. Mr. Chase is a very logical man when his head is straight and I knew he'd understand the situation first. As for her falling for me... that was beyond my intention. It's not my fault she couldn't see through my dubious intent behind my sweet words. I was being nice because it just makes the interactions easier. Plus, she's not my type. Basically, that harsh reality check you gave her wasn't completely off the mark."

I barked out a loud laugh. "Are you sure you should be telling me all this? I could always use it against you know... blackmail material is always useful after all."

Leo scoffed as retaliation. "As if your words hold value against me."

"Ouch Leo. That cut deep." I placed my hands over my heart and clutched my shirt to signify hurt but I said it in a joking tone to assure him that it didn't actually offend me.

"Just the reality of things, love (dfkfnskfjk I am screaming. Inside. Quite loudly. Wait I think I'm actually going into cardiac arrest...). Anyway, today rolls up and I prioritise his meeting first, which was conveniently in the morning. Long story short, after a lot of discussion and apologies from both parties, we decided nothing was to be changed between us. Mr. Chase realised that it was ultimately his daughter's fault for this entire incident and you responded the way any humans would. He said he is going to severely punish here, which is probably just cut down her allowance by like 10%. Still, it doesn't change the fact that he probably wants you ditched by a river but hey, the contract is still safe."

My eyes lit up and felt an open mouth grin being formed. I enthusiastically replied back, "I think I can live with that (kind of used to it in fact). I'm just glad I didn't negatively affect the company in any major way. I could probably never live with myself if that was the case."

Leo chugged the last of his third cup of scotch and calmly told Nero, "yeah you got lucky this time. Most CEOs aren't this understanding and would be ready to destroy everything associated with you."

"Yeah... I know."

We once again fell into a quietness however this time, it was a bit awkward. It seemed both of us don't know what to say or what to do, now that we had said everything that needed to be said for this meeting. Wait no. Not everything has been addressed. Suddenly, I looked at him with expectant eyes and pressed lips. Let us prepare ourselves for the answer... by pursing my lips apparently.

"I- well- I have one more question... well two actually."

Curiosity crossed Leo's face. "Do go on..."

"Well firstly... you never answered whether I'm fired or not."

Aaannndddd the hot smirk is back. "What do you think?"

I looked at him in complete exasperation. "Fuck if I know. I was completely prepared to be ditched tonight but now I'm just plain confused. You're not acting like I'm fired."

"What do you want?"

I pouted slightly at that. "What I want doesn't account for what I deserve. I deserve to be fired but I obviously don't want to lose the job."

"Okay."

I blanked out and my mouth opened because I'm flabbergasted. I stuttered out, "O-O-Okay?"

"mmmhmmm" This fucking loser looked so damn entertained right now. I don't know if I want to punch or kiss that look off his face.

"So I'm not fired?"

"Nope."

I blinked rapidly before I practically yelled, "WHAT?! WHY?"

Leo winced a bit and I was immediately apologetic but before I could apologise, he said with like humour in his tone, "Because I like you as a person and an employee."

Ok now I just looked like Magikarp with my mouth opening and closing from utter confusion and flusterment. I thought my brain was shutting down from the lack of blood. All the blood had travelled to my face and ears. I could blend in with a red balloon at this point. Boss sir once again relieved me from replying as he continued to add on to his comment. Although this time, the enjoyment and satisfaction was seeping out. Fuck him. Fuck him. Fuck him. Literally. No stop Nero.

"I also didn't lose anything from the brawl and as mentioned before, you didn't deal with the situation in the worst way possible, like most people would. Instinctively or not. Actually, I did lose something... I lost Beatrice's leeching and having to deal with her at all. So yeah thanks for that."

My jaw began hurting from being dropped down for that long so I closed it up and closed my eyes in order to get control of myself. What the fuck just happened? That entire conversation basically sapped most of my mental energy so I just gave up giving a shit about his little comments and tiredly asked, "Well... I'm not going to refute your decision. I'll take what I can get. Seems like I once again mentally prepared my life for a jobless life for nothing... anyway, on to the second question. It's more of a confirmation more than anything but... no one from the Oddity department of the government came to talk to me today. Does that mean I can take it as you listening to my request from yesterday?"

Serious mode Leo was back and I had to say... it was still as attractive as all the other versions of Leo. Well except for the fake ones. And scary ones. "Ah yes that. I did listen to your request and did not report the usage of your ability against her. Why I did that? Beats me honestly. I reported her usage but not yours. I guess I'm curious as to why you didn't want me to go them."

I began fidgeting my fingers together and my left leg began bouncing up and down. I looked out away from Leo and toward the grey clouds resting in the black blanket. I solemnly but hesitantly asked, "Would it be too much if I said that I can't tell you? I know you have every right to know b-but I just..." I broke off. I should've never brought this up. He probably wasn't even gonna bring it up or maybe he forgot. Now I feel bad for hiding my Oddity in front of him and the government. Why is it he makes me feel guilty with these kinds of things and no one else. Well except for Aiden. I usually give no shit about the government. I still don't but now I feel bad for hiding it from them and I hate that.

When I met Leo's eyes again, he was looking at me with critical eyes and pursed lips. It's as if he wanted to refuse my request and know anyway but held himself back. Why are you holding back? Now I'm confusion. Instead, he tonelessly asked,

"Is the reason you're hiding it from them illegal, dodgy and going to get you/anyone around you in trouble?"

I shook my head, hard in disagreement. Well it's not the trouble you're thinking of most likely. Only me and Aiden would probably be screwed over but we already knew this.

The CEO stared at me longer with judgement before he released a sigh of resignation and said, "I'll trust you then. If what you're saying is true, you don't have to tell me why you're hiding it and I won't notify them of your Oddity usage. I made up a valid excuse anyway."

Wait seriously? I looked at him in absolute astonishment and I beamed my biggest grin of gratitude. He has no idea how much trouble he saved me... and he said he trusted me... Just the thought of knowing that he had some faith in me warmed me up to the core and I found myself looking at him with fondness and appreciation. Great not only does he have to be drop dead gorgeous, he is also considerate. Not to mention funny and hot. As well as totally my type. This guy is definitely trouble.

"Thank you Leo." Is what I say with the same fondness and softness.

His eyes widened a bit and I saw the tips of his ears became red. Weird... Instead of giving me any sort of verbal response, he just returned a smile of his own with his eyes doused in warmth. Yep, I'm definitely fucked.

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Note:

- Wow these two chapters were fucking long... that wasn't meant to happen but hey enjoy it anyway. it's a bit slow but necessary for relationship development