It had been a week now since my little outburst with Adrian and I'd been going out of my way to avoid any encounter with him. It hadn't been really difficult so far since he'd only been in Eva's three times since then.

He did try to talk to me a couple of times but coincidentally I was quite busy on all of the occasions and hence had to cut the meeting short. But other than that, he hadn't made any comment about my behaviour if he'd noticed anything although I'd caught him staring at me with a weird look on his face. It was as if he knew me more than he let on, which was quite unnerving at times.

To be honest, I was quite ashamed of my outburst. I don't know what had come over me that evening but once I heard him call me by the name which was only reserved for one specific person in my life, it was like coming out from a long duration amnesia. Memories I'd suppressed for so long came back and hit me with fresh waves of grief and sorrow and I'd lashed out on the one person who hadn't deserved it at all.

I knew I should at least apologise to him but I couldn't find the courage to face him. My guilt had increased even more when I saw my car parked in the parking lot of my apartment in the next morning. Which was the reason for my extremely  busy schedule.

But I couldn't avoid him forever. And fate made me realise it by scheduling the shareholders meeting at Adrian's office today. So I was currently on my way to The Stones Inc. with Leah and John from the marketing department. I climbed out of my car and not a second later, Leah and John arrived in John's car.

Adrian's office was every bit of what you'd expect one of the world's topmost company office to be like. This was the headquarter of his company and it radiated power and dominance over the business world. It's exterior as well as interior was like the CEO himself; sophisticated.

This was my first time being here in his office and I suddenly wanted to take a thorough tour of this place. Which was ridiculous since I had never been interested in any other places except the meeting hall in my past visits to other companies.

I dismissed the thoughts as Adrian's secretary led us to the conference room where a few board members were present, talking among themselves. I ignored the old Mr. David Cameron who started sneering the second I entered and took a seat on the opposite side followed by Leah and John on my either side.

Soon, other members started filling in and I gave a nod to some of them. After everyone was settled, Adrian entered with his secretary and just like that, there was complete silence in the room. I both admired and envied the man for this.

Eva's was a multinational clothing brand while The Stones Inc. dealt with multiple things like jewellery, electronics as well as some sports accessories. We discussed about introducing the complete fashion collection by the merger Eva's clothing and The Stones jewellery keeping the young adults as the target people of our products.

Adrian was a really good presenter. He talked about all the prospects of this business and I could see the reason behind his success. He listened attentively to everything anyone had to say and then presented his ideas. Seeing him this way, completely in his element did strange things to my heart. Whatever it was, I named it as pure envy.

The meeting turned out to be longer than expected and by the time it was done, everyone seemed exhausted, including me. Everyone stood up and shook hands with each other as we closed the meeting for the day. Soon everyone started walking out of the room, there were only a few left including Adrian himself.

I added a few things for John to note down and after we were done, I saw that Adrian and his secretary were the only ones remaining there after us. I guess they had something to discuss about the meeting. I awkwardly nodded and gave a small smile to Adrian, making my beeline to the exit but was suddenly stopped by his deep voice.

"Ms. White, if you have a moment, there's something I wanted to discuss with you. I needed your opinion on something." I mentally swallowed and gave him a terse nod as I had a feeling what this something was.

Ignoring his secretary who was busy glaring at me and my secretary who as swooning at him, I turned to John and asked him to go on with Leah who was still oblivious. I told him that I'd be in the office later.

Now it was just the two of us in the hall and I reluctantly turned around to find him looking at me with a strange, thoughtful gaze. "So, what is it that you wanted to discuss?" I asked, looking up.

"I think you have an idea what I want to discuss." He replied without missing a beat. I sighed. Guess I'd have to put aside my pride for a while. I took a deep breath and started to apologise about last week but before I could open my mouth, he interrupted.

"On a second thought, why don't we take this to lunch? I'm starving and by the looks of it, you are too. So let's have lunch together and talk about this. To be honest, this meeting room is suffocating me. Let's go!"

And with that, he practically sprinted out of the office without even looking back as if he expected me to follow naturally. I scoffed alone. Talk about manners. And just when I was about to say the hell with it and just leave him waiting, my stomach decided to warn me by wailing aloud. I sighed yet again. I might as well get this thing done with. So I took my purse and exited the meeting hall and found him waiting inside the elevator. I rolled my eyes. Who even waits inside the elevator?

Just like last time, he offered to drive us and I agreed without protests because now that I thought about food, my hunger meter started to rise again and I was afraid I would do some serious damage if I drive myself. And besides, his car was way cooler than mine, not that I'd ever admit that to him.

We went to a different place this time as I didn't really want to impose on Maggs although Adrian claimed otherwise. He took me to the restaurant down the street from Maggs' place. The same place Maggs was talking about that day. Her rival restaurant. I couldn't believe him! His reason was that he was checking their menu and would suggest his aunt to upgrade hers to the better one. Idiot.

While Maggs' place was equally fancy as well as a touch of cosiness combined perfectly, this place was more of a 'cute little diner' type. We sat on one of the central tables and gave our orders. As we were waiting for our food to arrive, I decided to get it over with now so that I could enjoy my food.

"So... about the other day..." I started and cleared my throat. Apologising was not something I was used to. I hoped he knew it and didn't make a fuss about this. I took a deep breath and continued, "Adrian, I'm sorry that I lashed out that evening. I didn't mean to be so harsh on you. I don't know what came over me. It... just happened. You didn't deserve that and I'm... sorry."

Adrian was again looking at me with same look as he usually had; thoughtfulness, confusion and a little familiarity which suggested something else that I'd not been able to put my finger on.

"I think it was because I called you Eve. Do you not like that name? Or did I say something wrong?" He asked so quietly that one would assume he was hurt by that thought. Knowing that I was about to give him a little information about myself that no one except a few knew of, I closed my eyes and took another deep breath.

"No, it's not like that. It's just that... there was only one person who used to call me Eve. The name was reserved for him only so when you called me that, it reminded me of him and I... went into attack mode. I'm sorry."

Adrian nodded his head with a weird look on his face. It was as if he was... happy? But before I could ponder over it, his expression turned into a playful one.

"Ah, so he's your boyfriend?" He asked . I don't know if the little hitch in his voice at the word 'boyfriend' was merely my imagination. I let out a small chuckle. "No. A friend. Well, he was my best friend." I said, smiling a little as I recalled the moments that we shared a long time ago. Those were the best days of my life.

"Was?"

"He's still alive if that's what you mean. Well, I pray that he is. Alive and happy. We just... we're not in touch you could say. I haven't seen nor heard about him since a long time." As I said those words, I tried to remember his face and wondered what he looked like now. I didn't even know his full name. I wondered if he thought about me too.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice that Adrian was saying something until he touched my hand and called me again. Startled, I blinked up to him. "I'm sorry. I wasn't listening." He smiled a little and repeated. "I just said that maybe you'll see him soon. One can hope, right?"

My smiled immediately vanished and I briefly closed my eyes. Hoping was something I'd given up on a long time ago as it did nothing but disappoint me in the end.

When I opened my eyes, I had the cold look I often used in business. The same look that gave me the nickname of the 'heartless ice queen' or 'stuck-up beauty' among others. And by the slight flinch of his eyes, I guessed Adrian noticed the change too. We were back to square one again. I sighed.

"Yeah... maybe." I reluctantly replied but we both knew what I was trying to do. And my heart was filled with gratitude when Adrian understood it so well and swiftly changed the subject.

He talked about his childhood instead, about how he and his best friend used to get into all kinds of mischiefs. I smiled at the thought of the young, naughty Adrian. I assumed he was referring to Nathan. He commented on the food every now and then and said how Maggs' cooking was so much better, which I agreed instantly. He paid the bill claiming that this was the only way to get his forgiveness for hurting his feelings that evening.

"You know, your best friend is right next to you." He said as we pulled out of the parking. I raised my eyebrows at him. He smiled and pointed to himself. "Me, of course." He added with a wink. I rolled my eyes at him but smiled nonetheless. "Don't dream about it, Mr. Billionaire." In return, he just said a small 'we'll see' and winked once again.

We arrived at my office and I thanked him as I got out. It was around 3 PM in the afternoon and I had a couple of files to close before I leave. Just as I was about to leave, he called out my name.

I turned around to find him getting out of his car and gave him a questioning glance. He came to me, holding out his, wait, my phone in his hand and a silly smirk. ."I believe you forgot this in the car and being your best friend, it's my duty to make sure my bestfriend doesn't spend her day crying for her phone now, don't you think so, Evelyn?"

I rolled my eyes again and walked into the building ignoring his protests about saying goodbye to my best friend. I wondered what had gotten into him today. Maybe he had a specific mood day. Today is Monday, it's a snappy day. Tuesday for grumpy, Friday for playful and something like that.

I shook my head and walked into my office. Then I called John and Leah into my office to discuss about the meeting earlier. I sensed a strange sense of contentment as things were better between Adrian and me. Talking to him made me feel like talking to someone I'd known all my life. I'd never expected this when I first saw or talked to him, but now that we had talked a few times, it felt like I had found a good friend in him.

As much as I was scared at the thought, it also gave a small flutter in my chest.