Zachary North

"Meeting adjourned. Let's all have lunch." I dismissed the procurement group and nodded to Jane, my secretary, to stay here in the conference room.

After the group left, I faced her to remind her and spoke.

"Make sure that all of their reports pertaining to this project will tally to the quoted file that the finance had sent me. If not, look into both of them and make a report as what the discrepancies are." I stood up and buttoned my blazer.

"Understood, Sir. Anything else?" She asked.

I shook my head and took my phone before dismissing her to have lunch.

I took a sigh of relief when I entered my office. I called my dad to consult with him about the expansion project that I've been planning since I assumed the Chairmanship position. Even though he's already retired, I still ask for his advice. He's the original brain of this company and I don't intend to replace him.

We conversed for like thirty minutes regarding the project I named as Tanzania Project.

"Zachary, my son. It's lunch time, why don't you take a break and have lunch." He asked but I just chuckled.

"Dad, I can't afford to have lunch, I have a company to run. Also, I had eaten a sandwich awhile ago in the meeting." I told him and took one of the files that's littered atop my table.

"Even when I was the chairman, I took breaks, especially lunch. Your mom used to call me to remind me to eat. Even after she passed away, her words and reminders always made me stop whatever I was doing and heed on to her." He chuckled sadly.

That was true though, mom always remind us to not let work eat us alive. That we have to enjoy life outside work.

"That's because you have her, Dad." I blurted out unconsciously.

I face palmed myself when I realized what I have said. Fucking shit! He won't leave me alone after this.

"Well son, you have to man up and start asking her out."

I furrowed my brows when he said that.

"What are you talking about?" I stilled and straightened my form when he said that.

"You know what it is, Zachary." He said and I sighed.

"Dad, I don't know." I feigned ignorance and tried to divert my attention to the file on my table.

He laughed.

"Okay. Anyway, if you're afraid to eat by yourself, why don't you ask your sister to have lunch with you." He suggested.

"Yeah, I'll ask her. And dad, I'm not afraid to eat all alone. I'm busy, that's why." I countered.

"Yeah yeah." He chuckled and continued, "I'll disconnect now, I have to get ready for golf now."

"Alright. Say hello to your golf buddies for me, Dad. And don't tire yourself." I reminded him and gave a faint yes then disconnected.

As I was going to review the file, my stomach grumbled telling me that I have to eat.

I stood up and took my wallet and phone and headed to my sister's floor to ask her to have lunch with me.

As I opened the door of her office, I immediately saw her straddling Niccolo on her couch while making out.

Then she spoke amidst their make out session.

"Of course I did, it's been a hell of a week. I've been busy these past few days because my asshole of a brother gave me tons of work."

I scoffed and entered. Before I closed the door, I commented.

"Woah, I didn't know that you two are shooting porn right now. And sister, you hurt me by calling me an asshole. Not that I care." I strode inside her office and made myself comfortable in one of her loveseats near the couch they're in.

She then rolled her eyes at me and sat on Nick's lap.

"That's because you are one, Zachary. What are you doing here? It's lunch don't you have any meetings to attend to? Oh yeah, you didn't have any be ause you made me attend all of it." She narrowed her eyes at me and I grinned at her.

"Anyway, at least I had timr to have girls' night with my best friends last night. Oh by the way, Nick did you know that Alex had a date with Erin last week?" She asked Nick in bewilderment.

What?! Last week? Erin had a date with Alex? Alexander Vice? last week I saw him at Carlton Hotel with a woman that's look like...

NO!

Don't tell me the woman I saw with Alex was indeed Erin?

"What? So Erin finally agreed to date Alex?!" Nick asked her in shocked.

No no no no no... Erin won't date a playboy. She said it to me herself.

I fisted my hand and glared at the decorative vase annoyingly sat on top of the thick Vogue magazine in the middle of Olivia's coffee table.

"Yeah I was kinda surprised too. He even came to Erin's apartment last night and Jowee and I almost killed him." Olivia spoke in anger while pacing to and from in front of us.

"Why? What did he do?" Nick asked cautiously, as if he didn't want her to explode. She stopped acing and glared at him as if she wanted to kill him.

Based on her facial features, I believe I won't like what she would say next.

"What did he do, you asked? He just kissed Erin without her permission, that's what he did. And he even had the nerve to apologize to my friend last night, that's preposterous Niccolo. He so dumb! He just ruined his chance to date Erin, but he promised that he will ask for her forgiveness until she forgive him. The nerve of that guy. Geez Louise." She said in angrily.

That's when I lose it. I want to throw that annoying vase and ripped all the annoying petals from those flowers. It's making me mad even more!

All of my focus were directed to that annoying flower until Olivia called me.

"Zac, are you okay?" She asked, concern etched on her face.

"No! Don't you ever, ever call me an asshole again, Olivia." I warned her and went out of her office fuming in anger.

I was pressing the private lift button to take me to my office when of the lifts opened. Two of the employees hesitantly greeted me and went inside the floor.

"Get out!" I snapped at all my employees inside the public lift.

They were shocked when they heard me and no one moved. Which made me more irritated.

"If I tell you again, all of you will get fired!" I said in a pissed tone and immediately all of them got out, including the elevator operator.

"You. Stay. I don't want anyone to ride this lift as I got up." I told the woman as I entered and she nodded in fear.

As I got on to my floor, I saw Jane just got done eating her packed lunch.

"Jane! Where are the Norton files I asked you this morning?" She jumped as she didn't expect me.

"I h-haven't taken it out yet from the file room, sir, due to our meeti---"

"The meeting was already done! I am not paying to waste your time eating! I want the files now!" I cut her off and raised my voice. At the same time, other employees working on this floor has started to arrived.

"All of you, go back to work now! If I see anyone of you slacking, this will be your last day here in NGC!" I told everyone before storming inside my office.

I went straight ahead to my liquor cabinet and poured me a bottle of whiskey. I quickly downed a glass of it and took a deep breathe.

You fucking piece of shit, Alexander Vice. I told you to stay away from her! You even had the fucking nerve to kiss her, she's mine you asshole.

Erin is fucking mine.

Oh yeah, then man the fucking up and start asking her out!

My subconscious mocked me.

"I will. I fucking will!" I replied darkly.

I've heard you many times but before you even ask her, you cower and bury yourself to work.

It's true though, my overthinking always made me step back in asking her out. I always think that I will ruin her and my sister's friendship, and all I can see was Livy's sad face when I saw her silently grieving in her room months after mom died.

I groaned and threw the glass across my office. I held my head with both of my hands and groaned again.

I fucking don't know what to do anymore! This was what I felt when I knew Erin had a boyfriend. I wanted to kill that Travis and chop him to pieces when I heard it from Olivia.

Neil and Sky witnessed how messed up I was back then. They teased me about it and kept on mentioning what happened that night.

That night. That was the night I succumbed to my feelings to her.

It was Olivia's 18th birthday.

Dad held a grand celebration for Olivia's coming of age. We invited a lot of businessmen as well as their families to join us in celebrating my sister's birthday.

As for Livy, she invited Jowee and Erin as well as all of her acquaintances in school.

Before the night of celebration, Dad booked the presidential suite for the whole hair and makeup team for Livy to get ready into. Of course she wanted yer two best friends to be with her while getting ready.

As the clock strikes at 7pm, I heard a knock on my door. It was the organizer telling me that it was time to go down the venue as the event will be starting.

I went inside the room and checked myself then headed out. When I entered the lift, I immediately closed it to avoid someone to get in the same lift with me. It was my biggest pet peeve ever.

But then as the doors were closing, a feminine voice begged to hold the lift doors opened.

I was not a complete asshole to ignore the woman because what if she's in a hurry, right. So with a heavy heart, I pressed open.

I scooted at the lift's corner and stared blankly at the floor wishing that this woman won't throw herself at me when she realized who I am.

"Oh, thank you, Zac." I perked my head up because I know whose that voice was.

As always, her beauty rendered me speechless. Especially now that she's glammed up and wears a sexy dress, that made me forget that she's seven years younger than me and that she's off limits.

I cursed myself when I felt the childish crush I have on Erin. Ugh. What the fuck. I should really get a grip. She's off-limits for all the right reasons, Zac.

"A-are you not getting out?" I heard Erin's shy voice. I looked up and she was outside the lift pressing the open button to hold the door open.

She blushed when we had an eye contact. I chuckled and shook my head.

"Sorry, I was pre-occupied." I told her and went out of the box I was in. She smiled at me and walked towards the venue.

I chuckled again at how cute she was. I very well know that she has a crush on me. Everytime when I was around, she would always gets shy, blush, and won't even look me straight in the eye.

Little did she know, I was also attracted to her. The first time I saw her in the manor, her beauty swept me off my feet but of course I thought back then that I was only acknowledging her beauty. But every time I see her, she always knocked my breath away by her beauty and shyness.

Of course I thought it was just a petty reaction so I ignored it. However, whenever I went home, there's this excitement in me because I will be seeing her.

It's embarrassing to admit but I have a little crush on my sister's friend, which by the way was a fucking minor.

No one knew about my strange crush on Erin even my 2 best friends because it's a shame to say it out loud. I will just ignore this petty crush because I know it will pass eventually.

As the night went by, I was restless from watching Erin from all the stupid hormonal teenagers invited tonight.

"Easy Zac, no one will slipped off from your watch. Stop being a protective brother just for one night." Sky spoke while Nick laughed.

If only they knew.

When the night was over, Livy, Jowee, Erin, and some of their friends went to Livy's room to have an after party. Which of course included alcohol-laced punches that was Dad approved of.

I, on the other hand, went to the hotel bar to drink and think about my indescribable behavior tonight.

After three drinks, I decided to call it the night and retire to my room. As I arrived at my hotel floor, I saw Erin in her pyjamas leaning on to the wall near my door with her eyes closed.

"Erin? What are you doing here?" I asked her as I stood in front of my door.

She opened her eyes and looked at me annoyed. When she recognized me, she immediately smiled. Oh no... She's drunk.

"I had to stay here for 30 minutes because I didn't want to tell them the truth." She slurred and hiccuped.

I raised my brows because of her cuteness. This was the first time she talked to me without any shyness lacing her voice.

"So your consequence was to stay here outside?" I asked.

She nodded and spoke. "For thirty minutes."

"Oh. How long were you standing here?" I asked enjoying how the real Erin was talking.

"20 minutes? Also, this timer will ring once I completed the dare." She showed me two of her fingers and furrowed her brows. Oh geez, this woman was so drunk.

"What made you choose to stay here rather than answering the question? What was the question?" I asked and stood in front of her then placed my hands on to my pants' pockets.

"Shhh." She placed a finger onto her lips and smiled.

"Let me guess, they asked you who your crush was?" I guessed and she widened her eyes.

"How did you know?" She crossed her arms on her chest and pouted.

"Wild guess." I chuckled at her behavior. She's actually confident in front of me. I like her being drunk, her true self is showing.

"They wanted to know who my crush is but I'm not dumb to tell them. It's my biggest secret you know." She zipped her mouth and gave me a tight lipped smile.

"Lemme guess, it's one of the jocks in your school, right." I commented to prolong our conversation as well as to accompany her. It's dangerous for her to be here outside all alone even if it's in a hotel.

"Yuck! No. My crush is better than them or anyone." She said in disgust and wrinkled her nose.

It boosted my ego, you know. That she sees me better than anyone.

"So who it was?" I asked not to force her but to prolong the conversation.

"Ugh. Okay fine. It's you, Zachary. So stop asking, I opted to not answer this but I guess I have to tell you, right. The first time I saw you at the manor, I couldn't take you off my mind. I even asked myself why can't our school have a guy like you. If ever there's a guy like you there, I will definitely have a---"

I couldn't take it anymore so I kissed her. At first I intended it as a peck on the lips but a full blown french kiss happened when she responded and even put both of her arms around my neck.

I held her body against mine and I can feel her knees giving out due to the intensity of the kiss so I snaked my arms around her waist. My lips traveled from her lips to her jaw then to her neck. She moaned my name and gripped my hair which made me more turned on.

Kissing her was what I longed to do and it felt so right even if it's wrong and she's off-limits.

Then a bell suddenly rang telling us that we need to sunder from each other as what we were doing were very wrong.

I took three wide steps away from her and spoke.

"You need to go inside. Don't tell them what transpired and forget whatever happened between us." I told her and went towards the lift.

As I entered the lift, I cursed myself for losing my restraint and control tonight and I blame the alcohol for that.

You're a fucking idiot, Zachary. She's fucking off-limits. You shouldn't have kissed and left her. Did you see the hurt in her face when you told her that to forget the kiss? Fuck!!!! Idiot! What would you do if she will recall what happened? Oh my God what will I do?

I was panicking the whole lift ride down the lobby and as I exited, I called my two best friends because they surely know what to do.

Fuck! I lost my control tonight.

Control.

Since that night, I find it hard to control myself whenever Erin's around. Memories of our heated kiss on that hallway always shows up in my mind whenever I see her. I wonder if she remembers what happened especially when I knew that she remembered the night we had our second kiss on the same night but different year, on Livy's birthday.

Ugh.

But since the night of Distillery Night, I am finding it hard to control myself around her. It's like there's this force that's pushing me toward her. And I am fucking afraid that if I succumbed to it, she and I will end up hurting.

That's what I was restraining myself to in the first place. To hurt her and to be the reason why her friendship to my sister would end.

So, I am taking my answer to my subconscious.

No, I will not ask her out but I still can warn her about Alex.

I'm sorry Alex, even if I consider you as one of my friend, but in order to protect Erin, I will expose you to her.

Hello loves,

Finally, we already know what happened that night. It's the night of their first kiss!!! 🤭

Anyway, Erin's gown on Livy's q
18th bday was the one posted above. Also, I am very sorry for the amount of profane words written in this chapter, I just want you to know how frustrated he is. But I will try to limit it every time it's Zac's POV.

If you liked this chapter, please vote, comment, and share this book to your friends.

As always, thank you and stay safe!

xo
kimmypatata