"Oh? You certainly can."
Despite the affirmation, Lance only looked more bitter. He was not fooled by the casual answer. If anything, he seemed about to drown in the sea of bitterness he had alluded to earlier, as if his life had just reached its end.
While Alex seemed to be letting him off the hook, the only thing he was hearing was an invitation to jump from the pan into the fire. It was like the pyre was already set, only waiting for him to start the fire and immolate himself.
He lost the energy he came out of the car with, and deflated. A small smile flashed past Alex's lips.
"Let's go."
Only Sharon, on his right side, caught the curve that existed for only a moment, and looking at Lance's listless appearance, she had to suppress a soft chuckle when she compared to his previous motivated state.
Then it was Alex's turn to miss her smile, while Lance caught sight of it. His eyebrows flew up and he complimented:
"You do have a beautiful smile."
Fortunately, Lance lowered his voice to keep the conversation between them, because despite the lack of a welcoming party, the entrance and the lobby were not empty.
He regained his smirk that seemed to carry at its edge a hint of mockery at the situation, and glanced at Alex after a look around:
"The welcome is a little cold, isn't it, Chairman Lenner?"
Alex gave him a sideways glance and calmly corrected:
"Interim Chairman."
Lance's smile deepened, and he conscientiously nodded:
"Yes, right, Interim Chairman, Temporary Chairman, not Chairman at all."
The insincerity in his eyes along with his smile said how much Lance actually believed his own words. And what amused him even more was the knowledge, no, the certainty that Alex himself knew the same thing he was certain of.
Sitting down on the seat of power was easy, but getting up from it, that was where the challenge would be.
Alex's lips twitched at the sight of Lance restraining his urge to laugh out loud, and he turned his gaze away, putting into practice the saying 'out of sight, out of mind'.
Lance let out a short laugh and turned back once again, this time to extend his hand toward the blonde following them:
"Oh, right! We have not been properly introduced. Hello, I'm Lance Lotter. Nice to meet you."
The blonde nodded with polite but slightly distant smile:
"Sharon Kenner."
Lance turned thoughtful, his brows rising up to illustrate it:
"Kenner, Lenner."
He looked between the blonde and Alex, before suddenly flashing a smile:
"Haha, isn't that interesting? Your names differ by only a single letter. They almost even sound the same."
Sharon only made a small gesture of acknowledgement. The fact Lance pointed at was something Alex had noticed when he had heard her name a few nights ago, something she had already known before, on top of something else, another even more uncanny similarity locked away in her heart.
She stole a glance at Alex's back before looking back at Lance as he asked with a smile:
"By the way, I'm Alex's friend, since we were children. What is your relationship with him?"
The three of them arrived at the elevator whose door was already open, and held by one of the guards of the lobby. Alex glanced at him before going inside, while Lance nodded in thanks as he followed behind.
It was as the door closed, blocking the curious stares, that Sharon finally replied to the inquiry:
"I am Mr Lenner's secretary."
Alex inwardly rolled his eyes at Sharon's intermittent respect, coming out only when convenient. He remembered that same respect when she was pleading for him to take her words seriously when she woke up in his apartment Saturday morning.
He pressed on the button of the last floor, and let the quiet of the metallic box settle his mind. But the quiet didn't last long before it was broken by Lance. He leaned toward Sharon, and lowered his voice to ask a question:
"Can you tell me how you managed to get yourself inside his apartment? It is like a small miracle that he allowed you inside."
Sharon blinked. She seemed unable to comprehend how it was a miracle, as Lance was saying, though, inside, she could not help but recall how she came to be Alex's housemate.
Lance read the inability to answer she was showing in her eyes, and raised his eyebrows:
"You can't tell?"
He stole a glance at Alex's back, and lowered his voice further:
"I'm like Alex's childhood sweetheart. I know him better than anyone–"
"Pfft!"
Sharon stifled a laugh, unable to help it. Even Alex seemed to twitch in front of them, making her struggle even more to restrain her smile.
"You really should smile more, Sharon. You are so pleasing to the eyes, that must be part of the reason why Alex let you in his place."
The familiarity in Lance's tone as he smoothly narrowed the distance between them made the blonde inwardly raise her eyebrows, but she didn't let out any rebuke.
Sharon calmed down and turned her eyes forward. Lance didn't mind the attention that had shifted away from him. He continued:
"Only two women have ever been into Alex's apartment, his mother, and one of those he considers a sister. You must be special for him to let you in, trust me. If you manage to win his heart, you win the jackpot. And I'm not talking about money, or success in life. He seems like a heartless bastard on the surface, but actually–"
"Lance, shut up."
"Okay!"
He had already talked too much earlier in the morning, so he zipped his mouth without having to be told twice. But right after the prompt reply, he turned to Sharon to mouth in an almost soundless whisper while pointing at Alex's back with his finger:
"He is feeling shy!"
Well, 'almost' was the word to pay attention to.
This time, Sharon restrained her urge to laugh with better success. She stole a glance at Alex with her blue eyes full of smiles, and caught him glancing backward from the corner of his eyes. Unfortunately, Lance, with his focus on joking with the blonde, missed the gaze, an ominous glance that recorded the offense, and filed it away to process it later, much to the jokester's misfortune.