The group of five settled in Lucas office and they did not waste any time before they started discussing the contract details. Since AT Technologies were the ones that were asking for a collaboration, they had to outline more details of their project plan.
Fortunately, the two men set aside their personal grudges and were able to seriously discuss business. None of them was stupid enough to risk their own profits for private matters so the discussion was very civil.
The one who was giving the long explanations of the plans and everything was obviously Roy, and Tyler would only chip in when he missed a few details or was having a hard time answering a question that needed to be answered by the party that would be making decisions.
Everyone was very immersed in the discussion, so when Lucas' phone suddenly rang everyone was surprised. There were mixed reactions, with Lucas' expression showing pleasant surprise while everyone else looked annoyed, especially Michael who was already very engrossed in the discussion.
"If you'll excuse me, I have to take this call," Lucas said and stood up from the sofa and went to stand at his desk. It was some distance from where the others were and if he spoke in a low enough voice they wouldn't be able to hear him.
Only one person knew who was 'important' enough for Lucas to stop a meeting halfway to go and pick up a phone call. Lucas picked up the call as he sat on his office chair.
"h.e.l.lo?" he said in a soft voice.
"Babe, are you busy?" Jen asked brightly. The two girls who were sitting with her looked at her strangely. When had she started calling Lucas "babe"?
"Not really, what is it?" Lucas answered with a wide smile although he was still speaking softly.
"I must have interrupted something right? I won't take too much of your time then, did you ask Dave about what I told you this morning?"Jen asked.
"Mmh" Lucas answered.
"What did he say?"
"It's a c.o.c.ktail party, the colours are going to be royal blue and silver," Lucas said a smile still plastered on his face.
"Thank you. I'm at the mall, I came to shop with the girls" Jen said.
"Mmh, buy me a present," Lucas said.
"Don't worry. You must be busy, call me when you're free" Jen said.
"Mmh" Lucas replied.
"I love you," Jen said and Lucas chuckled.
"Mmh, me too," Lucas said and Jen ended the call.
As Lucas was talking to Jen, Michael finally realised who had called Lucas in the middle of their meeting.
"Tsk tsk, I'm sure it's that troublemaker" he muttered under his breath and he was elbowed by David.
"What?" he complained.
"I told you to only observe" David reminded. It was a reminder but there was an underlying threat in what he said. Michael immediately shut his mouth when he heard this.
Tyler had heard what Michael had said and when he looked at Lucas' expression as he was on his call he could connect the dots. He was not stupid. He suddenly felt a sour taste in his mouth after he realised that Jen was the one that called.
He had never picked up her calls when he was in a meeting, in fact, his phone was always on silent when he was in a meeting, and even after they ended, he figured that if the caller had something important to say, they would call again.
"Sorry about that, where were we?" Lucas asked as he returned to his seat.
Roy did not wait for the situation to stew on for any longer and promptly continued with the discussion they were having.
After another hour, they were finally done with everything and had talked about whatever needed to be revised.
David and Roy left the office with Michael slightly dragging his feet behind them, he did not want to leave yet, he thought that Lucas and Tyler were going to be talking about something more confidential and interesting in their absence. As a result, David ended up dragging him away from the office.
"Can you not be so diligent all of the time? You don't need to know everything" David scolded once they were out of the office. Michael pouted and looked at the closed door to Lucas' office with yearning.
Roy chuckled in amus.e.m.e.nt when he saw this, he was the first one who wanted to bolt right after the meeting, he knew that Tyler will probably be in a mood later and he wanted to avoid him while he still could
They had come out so that they could revise the contract so that Lucas and Tyler could officially sign them before the meeting was over.
Meanwhile, both men were silent in the office as they both studied each other intently, both of them were wondering what Jen liked so much about the other person.
"Mr. Ainsworth, can I ask when you'll be leaving?" Lucas said remembering that he had planned to invite Tyler to the launch party on Sat.u.r.day out of courtesy. It was still his choice on whether he would come or not.
"I'll be around until Tuesday" Tyler answered simply.
"That's great, the company will have a launch party on Sat.u.r.day. It will be at the hotel you are staying in at the moment, feel free to join us" Lucas said and pulled out an invitation card and handed it to Tyler.
Tyler opened the card and saw that it was directly addressed to him so he believed that the invitation was not just an afterthought. He decided that he might as well show his face there and if he got bored he could just leave.
He closed the card and put it in his jacket pocket before he looked up at Lucas who was smiling at him. He slightly frowned when he saw this, he forgot that Lucas was five years younger than he was and for some reason, he was experiencing what James experienced whenever Lucas was around him.
Since Tyler had no siblings he just concluded that that might be the charm that Jen had fallen for so easily from the start. It surely was deadly.