This actually shocked Liz, as she definitely hadn't been expecting this kind of response.
Her boss wanted to…talk to her little brother to help him with his bullying problem?
Were bosses supposed to do that?
Besides, he had experience with it?
How did that make any sense? He was the son of the great Bradshaw family, which was one of the strongest and richest in the world. Who could possibly bully someone like him?
As Liz unwilling ruminated on questions like these, she didn't notice that she had left the CEO hanging.
After waiting for an answer for a few seconds, it seemed that Will had also realized that his offer was quite…unusual.
The only reason he had done so was that he had been reminded of his time back in boarding school.
If possible, he didn't want others to go through something like it.
Only, now, this silence made him think that it really would be inappropriate for a boss to help an employee with something like this.
"You can say no, I was just-"
"No! I would love it! Derek asks about you, too, and he always wanted to meet my boss! He's always excited about 'Take your family to work' day!"
The response from the CEO had made Liz understand that her actions were actually rude.
Here was an honest offer, and she had started to overthink.
Hence, she had blurted this out, with the hope to diffuse this situation.
Derek had, indeed, asked about her boss, but he was nowhere near enthusiastic as she had just stated.
As for Will, he was stuck in another awkward spot as he had put forward the offer, and it had been accepted.
Thinking for a moment and giving up, he just resumed eating, while a thought passed through his head.
Why was almost every personal interaction they had always so weird?
…..
"SIS! YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE WAY LUKE PUNCHED THOSE PARENTS! IT WAS AWEEESOME! A HOOK AND THEN-"
As Liz opened the door to the house using her keys, she felt a small body run into her and hug her tight before drowning her in these details.
She had just been through a long flight and a drive, and she felt tired to the bone.
On the plane, the rest of the time had gone to catching up on her regular work that had been put on hold due to the Sylvex situation.
As for the CEO, the man had been busy doing something or the other, so there weren't more opportunities to talk.
Even after they got off the plane, he had only said that he would see her the next day before walking away to his limousine.
Tired as she was, Liz had no problem with this, so she just got into the Mercedes and greeted Rao before dozing off.
Of course, that nap had done nothing to take away the tiredness of working her ass off for the past two days.
However, right now, when she felt those two small hands around her, she felt content and relaxed, as if she had just been enveloped by the softest bed in the world.
She had missed this little kid, so instead of getting to the scolding part, she just hugged him and let him rattle on.
While still hugging him, she picked him up and walked inside before nodding to Mary who had smiled on seeing that she was back.
Setting both of them down on the sofa, she kissed Derek's soft cheeks quickly before the kid got a chance to resist.
Surprising her, he actually stopped talking and kissed her on her cheek before softly saying 'I missed you' before getting off and running to the kitchen.
These three words made Liz sigh with happiness, but she got up suddenly a second after on seeing something.
Her eyes had followed Derek, so she had spotted the end of a shirt which was poking out of the corner of the kitchen aisle.
Derek had grabbed a biscuit and run out to the porch, and Mary was on the stairs.
Showing a 'hush' symbol to Mary, Liz tip-toed to the kitchen aisle before pulling her leg back and kicking with all the force she could muster.
"OW!"
With a loud shout, Luke, who had been hiding out of the fear from Liz's legendary anger, got up and looked around as if he was surprised that he was even here.
"Oh, Liz! Welcome back! What's up? Want a biscuit?", he said, in the most innocent tone possible, holding up a plate of biscuits that seemed to be freshly baked.
Seeing her take the biscuits, he was just about to relax, but he yelped again when he felt another kick connect to his ass.
Smiling contentedly, Liz put a biscuit in her mouth before saying, "You're not getting off that easy, Lucas Gerrymander. Now, tell me what happened."