General POV

"Hayden?" she questioned frowning..

"How old is your daughter?" He asked ignoring her question.

She furrowed her eyebrows..Daughter.. What daughter? she thought. Then realisation dawned upon her "Oh you mean Noel.. she is four" she replied.

Hayden thought she did not denied Noel being her daughter and felt an unknown sinking feeling when she continued "and she is not my daughter, she is my niece".

He sighed in relief unintentionally and a small smile absentmindedly appeared on his face.

She noticed it " You are smiling" she stated in her usual chirpy manner forgetting their previous conversation.

He didn't realised he was smiling..until pointed out, the smile immediately dropped and clearing his throat he spoke "About earlier..." He knew she would be speechless so he decided to tease her about it. Hearing it from Hayden's mouth, Elena got red like tomato thinking about her idiocy. She avoided eye contact with him, replied "uh.. I thought..." But then she remembered their fight in his office.. She immediately frowned, mumbled nothing and turned to go. Hayden knew what was she thinking about so he immediately held her wrist stopping her from going. She turned again to him when "um.. that day in office, uh um... i was not in a good mood so.." he explained awkwardly..

Elena knew what was he trying to say but she refused to budge.

"So?.." she asked pretending to have no clue about what is he trying to say.

"So um..... I am sorry" he replied too fast with so much difficulty..

Elena couldn't contain her happiness " its ok" she replied beaming "and it was my fault too, I should not have persisted, Its up to you. Who you want to share with.. you problems if you want to, so I am sorry too" she said grinning like a Cheshire cat. Hayden was staring at her mesmerized thinking how beautiful her smile is and its so easy for her to apologise. He did not even realised he was again subtly smiling at her. He composed himself and asked one last question which was bothering him since the time she had snapped back at him. "So Delilah will call you for the next meeting?" It came out more as an order rather than question.

She doesn't want to be rude " yeah sure" so she replied positive but deep inside she knew she was looking forward to meet him again.

Hayden left from there feeling light that everything is sorted and that she will come back because deep down he knew too that she was a nice girl..which he was never going to admit it in front of her by the way.. and all those insults thrown at her by him the other day were just his vent out probably.. but he was slight worried too thinking about the walls he had spent his childhood putting would come crumbling if he spent more time with her and he can't risk his emotions and feelings at display. Irked by his today's irrational behaviour and his usual composed nature, he became agitated and decided to ignore the topic for now. He will think about it tomorrow, he thought. Today he was feeling light , easy than usual days, so he thought of avoiding his rash behaviour for a day... Tomorrow he will talk to her in the meeting like nothing happened. Yes.. sounds like a plan, he thought..

There party was soon going to finish. Michael and his wife thanked Elena for the marvellous arrangements. After exchanging few more words, she asked her teammates to take care of the pack up and all, and she took Noel with her to head home. On reaching the apartment, they both changed into night pjs and got freshen up to go for bed. Aliya was not back by then, so Elena made Noel sleep with her. They both got into deep slumber discussing the party.

****

Constant ringing of alarm woke Elena from her deep sleep. She checked the time on nightstand, it was 6 a.m, she got up , brushed her teeth and took a bath.

Then she woke Noel up and asked her to take bath with her help every then and while.

In the meantime she got ready and then readied Noel for her school. Making pancakes and toast for breakfast, she ate herself, made Noel eat and left some for Aliya with a note. Dropping Noel on her way, she reached her office where Erica was already ready to read out the schedule to her.

She got know about her important meetings and also a meeting with Hayden.

Hayden was feeling lighter in the morning. So he got ready for his office in a black suit.

He wished Martha good morning and had his breakfast. On reaching the office , he called Delilah to read his schedule out loud while he settled down.

"Sir you have a meeting with Mr. Black in about half an hour then after 2 hours you have meeting at fifth floor conference room with finance department and then last one before lunch is with Ms. Kingsley" she informed..

He dismissed her by waving his hand and smile a bit thinking about Elena. Meetings went smoothly due to his intimidating aura and soon it was time for his meeting with Elena. He was seated in his office checking some important files when Delilah called him to confirm he was ready for the meeting.

Since that accident last time, she was being extra careful informing each and every time someone is there to meet him even with appointment. He asked Delilah to send her in. He was looking forward to meet her since yesterday she said yes but he composed himself thinking about his last night's promise to himself to not act on impulse.

Elena knocked on his office door. When he said come in, she entered in, noticing he was busy in working on his laptop. She was in dilemma as in what to call him - Hayden or Mr. McCarthy. Who knows what mood is in he today..

she thought about it for a while and then sat on the chair in front of his desk. Sure she had called him Hayden in her mind thousand times when she thought of him. But she didn't want to fight with him, so she decided to be formal to make him less angry or so she thought.

Hayden was waiting impatiently for her to say something, trying to play cool pretending to be busy in work.

Elena cleared her throat " Hello Mr. McCarthy.. I have made a presentation for you to see and finalize some things"

Hayden was confused as to why was she behaving so professional with him. Sure he wanted the same thing just moments ago, but her behaving so formal with him irked him in some way, although he stopped himself from frowning.

"Yeah Ms. Kingsley.. lets start" he replied formally too.

Elena started explaining her presentation with full concentration using hands to quote words. Hayden was not interested in marriage. Who cares about arrangements when he was not even interested in marriage. He was subtly noticing her. Her moves while explaining him points with expressions and a polite smile on her face..

When it was finally over, he noticed there were still 15 minutes left for lunch break.

"So that was it Mr. McCarthy, I hope you like it, if you want some changes you can tell me or you can ask your P.A. to email me, I will surely make amends" she said wrapping up.

He was itching to ask the reason for her behaviour like this after yesterday but refrained himself and instead said "I will escort you out Ms. Kingsley" putting emphasis on her name.

They both stepped into the private elevator pressing ground floor. In the middle of nowhere the lift stopped due to some technical issues. He was going to call the security when Elena clutched Hayden's wrist in a firm grip closing her eyes tightly. He asked the security to check into the issues fastly and turned his attention fully to Elena.. "What happened Elena" he asked

"Nyctophobia Hayden please call them again" she said still holding him tightly with eyes shut.

"Calm down, they are looking into it, just 5-10 minutes, its ok, shhh... Relax, open your eyes Elena , Its not that dark" he continued some soothing words not hesitating or feeling awkward for a moment. She hesitantly opened her eyes facing him, looking into his face. Hayden held her, rubbing soothing circles on her back. She calmed for some minutes but mere glance to a side, she felt that fear again, closing her eyes.. she hugged him tightly. He stiffened suddenly due to her actions, but relaxed after some time wrapping his arms loosely around her. He cooed her for some minutes placing kisses in her hair. The act was just an involuntary action which he didn't realised at that time but continued rubbing her back feeling protective for someone other than Martha, Sean, Leo and Michael in his lifetime. It was almost 10 minutes, he was thinking about calling someone again when the lift started going down with a jerk. She opened her eyes blushing and untangled herself from him. He too realising the position they were in.. straighten himself facing front.

After some seconds "you okay?" He asked softly facing still at the front.

"Yeah, I am so sorry" she whispered lowly.

Soon they reached the ground floor, she turned back to him and said "Bye Hayden" smiling softly she turned and exited the building. Hayden smiled to himself shaking his head. When he noticed his staff eyeing him curiously, he turned towards them with cold eyes intimidating them, making them disperse back to their work and left from there...