Chapter 121 - Unexpected

The board meeting felt torturously slowly and unnecessary to Lena. It felt like the kind of meeting that people often mentioned could've been put into an email but somehow was still made into a physical meeting because it could be. 

Most of the updates that was hearing from the board were nothing new to her. She already knew that everything between this month and the last was still stable as far as business and money went. The only new thing was that she had to report in the recent business partnership that she was entering with John Foster and bring up the deal with the Marcus whoever that annoyed her. 

She hadn't bothered bringing up the issue of the recent money that had been disappearing from the company. She didn't know who to trust after all and she wasn't willing to rule anyone out until she got solid evidence. 

"In what way would this deal benefit us?" One of the men on the board asked as he looked over the file that James had provided everyone in the room with that contained information about the company that John owned. Of course these type of questions always came when they thought that she was making a mistake. 

"It's beneficial to expanding our each. It's a small yet reliable company that would help us to take off some of the transportation load that our company has been taken on. Not only that, but making connections further into the state is beneficial for when we want to expand out that way in even further in the future." The princess explained. She hated having to explain herself in this situation, but knew that it was necessary until everyone at the company realized that she wasn't some naïve child and actually knew what she as doing. 

"Did you do all the back work to make sure that the money you invested into would be beneficial in the long run?" Another asked. 

"I did personally and found that over the next five years it has potential if handled correctly to double in which case we would benefit from the extra pay off." James butted into answer this question since he was the one who had compiled all the information on John's company at Lena's request. She was thankful that he was willing to answer the question so that she didn't have to. 

It had briefly crossed Lena's mind before that she could fire everyone in the room on the board if she wanted. They all seemed like shrewd business people that were reliable and knew what they were doing, but she wasn't always certain that they weighed out how annoy they were most of the time. 

The rest of the meeting went on in a similar fashion with a mountain of questions from everyone in the room each time she brought up one of her proposals or they noticed something that she had done without talking it over with them. 

"I'm the head of the company. You are allowed to give me input and advice or speak out about any concerns you have as they come up all of which I will take into consideration with each action that I do. As the one who is in charge of the company however, I don't need to tell you about every little thin that I am planning unless it directly impacts you." Was the response that she had given at the end of the meeting before walking out of the room with James following closely behind her. 

She didn't care if the rest of the board was ready to end the meeting or not. She had brought up everything that she felt mattered at the meeting and more or less got the answers that she had been looking for. If there was anything else, they could send it to her in an email altogether.

Right now she just wanted to get back to her office so that she could request lunch and drink the rest of her coffee. Coffee would hopefully make her annoying headache go away so that she could focus on other things again.

"Do you think that we need to do anything different princess?" James asked once they were in the elevator. Lena let out the sigh that she had been holding in. 

"No, they'll come around eventually. It just takes time apparently for them to understand that I do actually know what I am doing." She replied as the elevator doors opened up. 

"Also, unless there's anything else that you need to do here or report to me. You can leave for the day." James seemed delighted to hear this. 

"Are you sure? I don't mind being on standby since I'm sure not everyone was thrilled about the way that you left the meeting." Lena waved him off though.

"It's fine. They can't really do anything anyways. At most they might complain to my father but it isn't like walking out at the end of a meeting before anyone else is a crime." She replied as she approached her office door. 

"I will see next week then, Princess." James said before they parted ways.  Now at least she could breath slightly better for the rest of the day aside from what was looming over her tomorrow when she would meet with Evalyn. 

The rest of the day until it was time for them to go home went by without a problem. She wasn't much of a conversationalist during lunch, but that was fine to her since Samuel had a lot to say and ask about what would be going on during the engagement party. She didn't mind answering the questions because it was something was familiar and traditional to her family that didn't require a lot o thought to think about answering. Genson also seemed to wisely understand he was better off not making any more comments when he brought them their lunch without so much as one complaint over having to do it.

On the way out of the office and while they were heading to the underground parking garage where Clive was waiting for them, Samuel caught her off guard by suddenly hugging her from behind. She felt herself unintentionally stiffen from the sudden and unexpected contact. Samuel had wrapped his arms around her waist and had his head resting on her shoulder. 

"Even though you say that it is just working that's bothering you, your mood seems worse than usual for it to just be work related problems that are bugging you." He told her, his voice low as he was rather close to her right ear by the way he had his head resting on her shoulder. It was an unfamiliar sensation to her. 

"Are you sure that there's nothing that you want to talk with me about?" He pressed when she didn't respond to him right away. The timid boy was really starting to become less timid when it came to things that he was curious about. 

"It's more so than usual about work related issues because I had to attend a board meeting that was unnecessary and annoying." She replied, tilting her head slightly so that his face wasn't so close to hers. She wasn't really certain about the current situation she was in but the one thing that she could say was that Samuel was being very gently despite how tightly he was hugging her. 

"Are you sure that's all it is?" He asked again, his breath tickling her ear. The hot air made it hard for her to not react more than to just shift her head slightly again. She really wanted for him to let her go, but she was trying to be nice about not resisting what she supposed was an affectionate advance on to her. 

"Yes, and now I would very much like to go home so that I can forget about it and do something to make this headache go away." The princess replied. Samuel made a 'hmm' noise before shifting and kissing her on the cheek catching her off guard again. Somehow it felt more intimate than any of other kisses they had shared, perhaps because of the situation that she found herself in.

"Alright, we will head home then, but you know that I am here if there's anything that you need to talk about that I can know." He told her as he unwound his arms from her waist. 

"I know." was all she simply said before they continued heading to the parking garage. She honestly didn't know what else to say in response to what had happened. It was completely different and unexpected from anything that she had experienced before. 

She would have to think about for a little bit, but perhaps hugging wasn't all that bad. She had never really let anyone outside of who she thought of as family hug her before. It had always felt like it would give people the wrong impression about her and thus she had avoided it. Perhaps though, hugging her fiancé would be something that she could get used to.