Fox Life

Gale was still in his office when his phone rang. He looked at the ID and felt like he should just ignore it. It was good that Elise hadn't done anything to get in his way in the last couple days, but it didn't mean she had given up on that idea.     

It was the third time she was trying to get in contact with him, but he didn't have any interest to bother with her. Yet the phone kept on ringing its melody growing on his nerves.     

"What is it?" he finally asked while standing up. Since he was stopped from working, he might as well use that time to get more coffee. It was the only thing keeping him on his feet, after all.     

"Stop acting like a fool and let me help," Elise said, sounding as annoyed as he felt. Why couldn't she just find another hobby instead of bothering him?     

The coffee machine poured him a cup of the heavenly liquid and he slowly walked back to his office. He wondered why the apparatus wasn't in his room when he was the one who drank over seventy percent of the coffee it made.     

Then again, he wouldn't like people entering his office all the time just to get a drink. It would be even worse than what Elise was doing.     

"You have no stakes in this, so just go home and play house. I have stuff to take care of, bye."     

The moment he ended the call, his phone rang again. He thought it was going to be Elise, but no, it was the security downstairs. "What now?"     

"Elise Morgan is here requesting entrance. She says she has an appointment with you."     

"Appointment?" Gale wondered if he should fire his security guards. "What appointment would I have at"—he glanced at the clock whose numbers shocked him into momentary silence—"… at five in the morning. Does that look to you like a time for business deals?"     

There was slight hesitancy from the guard, then he seemed to have realized his mistake. "I'm sorry Mr. Mosley. I will escort the lady out of the premises."     

Gale looked at the clock again, then the report he was reading before the interruption. "Wait, I'll be coming down myself."     

As the elevator went down, he wondered what Lily was thinking. Had she went to sleep as normal? She usually waited for him, but he had lost all track of time. It was something common to him before, but he had been trying to stop with that and live a little healthier.     

Trying and failing that is. He was really not meant to be anyone's guardian when he couldn't even take care of himself.     

When he reached the ground floor, he found Elise standing near the entrance. She looked bored, but not ready to leave. Well, he didn't plan to stay around, so if she wanted to keep on bothering him, she would have to vacate the building's premises.     

"Where are you going?" she asked when she was forced to run after him outside.     

"Food," he answered simply and waved for a taxi. He could've called his own driver, but it would have taken too long, and he didn't feel like risking his life by driving himself. The only reason his eyes stayed open was because of caffeine overdose.     

"You look like hell," Elise said after giving him a good once over. "What happened?" She had decided to come with him, as he had expected.     

"Nothing that matters to you," he said and entered the taxi. He closed his eyes and leaned back, but not to sleep. His mind was simply too heavy to bother with social niceties. Someone should give him a reward for even managing to understand Elise's words at all.     

He could feel her moving about, and the next moment he found himself staring straight into her eyes. She had actually pulled his head around to force him to look at her.     

"Why would you rather waste yourself to this point than let me help you? My brother has a deal with you, so I would never do something to sabotage you, and Iris is my friend. So why do you still refuse my aid?"     

Gale thought he should say something comforting and let her down gently, but he was speaking before he could form the right words in his head. "Because you're useless. What can a sheltered miss like you do? I don't need the assistance of people who don't know anything about the real world."     

He turned his head away and looked at the passing scenery. It was too harsh and he knew it, but none of his words were a lie. Since finishing her degree, Elise hadn't done anything. The reason she remained out of everyone's eyes was because there was nothing to talk about her. She just stayed at home and met up with friends once in a while.     

"Bastard," she said, but Gale didn't turn back to her. He didn't have the energy to deal with tears or an emotional breakdown. "Mark had been right. You're nothing but a swine dressed in gold and silver."     

That was one pathetic insult. Gale had heard so many worse things that hers sounded like almost a compliment.     

When the taxi stopped, he started walking toward a Chinese place he knew worked from four in the morning to three at night. He'd expected to be alone at the shop, but Elise had followed after him.     

Her thought process baffled him. What was she still doing around? He thought he'd been enough of a d*ck to make her go back to her perfect little life and never get in his way again.     

Once the food was served, Elise decided to reveal the mystery to him. "I'm not here for you, but Iris, and seeing you like this, I know you're going to make mistakes. Can you even think straight? You can't even keep up your image in public."     

Gale wasn't so certain about a taxi being a 'public place', but he let her continue. As long as he didn't need to contribute to the conversation, it was fine.     

"And unlike what you think, I wasn't doing nothing all these years. I have as much power in what you perceive as Mark's company as he does. I've been working with him on it for years, just never saw any need to stand in the spotlight. Fame only gets in the way of your everyday life."     

It took Gale a couple minutes to digest that information. He examined Elise with new eyes. She actually wasn't just baggage to her family?     

Still, it didn't change anything. It was good for her that she was smarter than he gave her credit, but he still had no plan to involve her in his work. He had enough uncontrollable factors and didn't need another wild card.     

"Say something," Elise demanded when he had remained quiet after her little speech. "Why won't you even consider giving me a chance?"     

"I don't know and don't trust you," Gale said, finally giving her the real truth. "You're a stranger. And doing it for Iris? Really? You've had two conversations with her, one of which was only a couple minutes long. And you expect me to buy that you've become besties in that time?" He shook his head and finished the last of his soup.     

A fire ignited in Elise's eyes, and Gale instantly knew he should have kept the truth to himself. He'd been hoping it would dissuade her from following him around again, but it seemed to have had the opposite effect.     

"Fine then, what if I transfer all my shares in Harril Resources to you? Would that make you trust me?"