"Shikera, I want to pursue Miss Leigh and I need your help. Will I get it?" Maxwell asked.

Shikera was dumbfounded by the question, as she had not expected it at all.

"Maxwell, you heard Cyprian earlier. She has a boyfriend already," she answered him, laughing off her shock. Maxwell might have thought Cyprian was just joking with saying she had a boyfriend, she thought.

But Maxwell proved her wrong with his reply.

"I know that. It shouldn’t be any problem if I want to pursue her too, except she is dating your brother."

"She is not dating my brother but—"

"That’s great then, you should help me too. As for her current boyfriend, he shouldn’t have any fear as long as he treats her well and loves her, right?"

Shikera was clueless on how to convince Maxwell against this now. How would he go up against Ethan DeLoach’s assistant without getting hurt in any way whatsoever?

"That is true but I still don’t think it’s right," she subtly tried to warn him.

"I think so too!" A man who had been walking before them said, turning to show his face.

"Mr Lane!" Shikera exclaimed, more surprised that the man had been eavesdropping on their conversation than his face that she was seeing after so long.

Maxwell looked from Shikera to Andrew, and noticed how the latter’s eyes sparkled as he drank in Shikera’s surprised face.

"You are close to Mr Lane?" he asked, directing his question at Shikera.

"Not really, our team’s conference room is on the same floor as his office. And the entertainment department are also kind of close to him," Shikera explained.

"But that’s not the reason why we are close. Shikera is a very exceptional reporter so there’s no reason why she would not be close to the CEO. And now, she has graduated to an Anchor. Isn’t it only right that we become friends, since she will be relating closely with me for a while?" Andrew backed her up.

Maxwell nodded, agreeing with their words.

As they stepped into the elevator and Maxwell pressed the button leading to the fourteenth floor, Shikera was asked another question that threw her off balance.

"Do you have a boyfriend now, Shikera?"

"Boyfriend? No!" she hurriedly answered, even thought she was still unsure of the reason why Andrew was asking her that.

"That’s great then..."

★★★

Maxwell wrapped up the meeting as quick as possible, while giving the excuse that he hated long and formal meetings. Their job wasn’t one to do with formality anyways, so why stress themselves over it?

Noah also supported him and used that opportunity to ask Shikera to call him by name, as long as she was an anchor, so as to familiarize herself with the informal atmosphere in their station.

As soon as they were done introducing Shikera to the rest of Maxwell’s team, everyone stood up to leave the room when the door was suddenly swung open and someone rushed in.

"I’m...I am so sorry for coming late again!" The person apologized with bowed head.

The collective sighs in the room showed Shikera that this new comer was an habitual late comer.

Maxwell rose up from his seat and walked towards Shikera.

"She will be your assistant, and you better not be nice to her because she will definitely take it for granted and come late even on days she is not supposed to," he chuckled.

The lady they were talking about raised her head slowly as she protested against Maxwell’s words.

"I will not—" Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Shikera, and the latter felt her jaws slack in astonishment.

"Shikera Anderson?!"

"Skyler McCallum!"

Skyler closed her eyes and reopened it, as if trying to make sure the image in front of her wouldn’t dissapear.

"Wait Shikera, you’re still alive?"

"What? You wanted me dead already or did you send assassins after me and they told you their mission was successful?" Shikera asked with a straight face, not the least bit surprised that that was the first question Skyler thought to ask.

The two were oblivious to the stares they were getting from the rest of the people in the room, as they continued their reunion conversation.

"No, that’s not true. There’s no way I would have done that! It’s just that uhm...Reese died four years ago so I thought you too..." She trailed off, noticing the meaningful glare that Shikera seemed to be throwing at her.

"Just because one of our classmates died four years ago doesn’t mean the rest of our classmates have to die too. How about I ask you why you are not dead yet?" Shikera scoffed.

"So you both were classmates?" Maxwell asked, and both Shikera and Skyler nodded.

"We were high school classmates. Skyler is just so strange that she keeps making strange assumptions of everyone in our class. But I guess that is just her way of telling me she is happy to see me," Shikera explained, so as to make sure they wouldn’t get curious on why Skyler had thought she would be dead.

Skyler also got the hint and kept her mouth shut. She was actually very happy that she had seen Shikera today, as she could now see a light at the end of the tunnel her family had been in for the past four years.

Maxwell agreed with her, "Skyler is really very strange and I would have fired her long ago, if not for her ability to apologize well."

The group burst into laughter and Skyler was not excluded, with Shikera being the only odd one.

"Why am I getting an assistant anyway?" she asked, as this was a very uncommon thing in the industry.

Noah was the one who answered her, with a proud smile on his face.

"My mother saw the proposal and was very pleased with it. She hyped it a lot among her friends and requested us to promote it too, so she says you won’t be any less than a celebrity actress soon, as long as you get captivating spotlight issues and that is why you need an assistant."

"Lady Preston?"

"I don’t have another mother," Noah chuckled.

The group excused themselves, leaving the former classmates alone. Noah left the room last, but not before telling Shikera to see him in his office before leaving.

After the others had gone far, Skyler hurriedly moved closer to Shikera.

"Why are you working here? Aren’t you supposed to be working in your father’s company?"