Convincing her

The following day, the classes went on as normal and Michael met up with Jared to talk to him about the progress he has made.

"Why do you guys have to meet? Isn't telling him enough?" Jared asked suspiciously.

"You are being too skeptical," Michael said as he had his lunch.

"So you'll be meeting him this evening?" Jared asked as he turned to look at Michael's face.

"Mmmh" Michael replied. Jared saw that he was completely unconcerned and shook his head.

"Do you realise who you are going to meet?" Jared asked his voice filled with frustration.

"Well, he works at Lewis & Co" Michael replied.

Of course, he knew who Lucas was, but he really did not see the big deal. He didn't do anything wrong in the first place so there was no reason for him to be nervous about anything.

"He is the future Lewis & Co." Jared said still not understanding why his friend looked like he was going to meet a longtime friend.

"I still don't understand why you are so anxious about this" Michael commented.

"Forget it," Jared said and had to consciously stop himself from pouting.

"When are you supposed to go meet him?" Jared asked.

"In about two hours," Michael said as he leaned back on the bench they were sitting at. They were in the gardens so it was pretty quiet and also because Michael did not particularly enjoy being in crowded areas.

"Where are you meeting?" Jared asked.

"In his office, I'm guessing since I've been booked for an appointment," Michael said in a carefree tone.

"The company is pretty far from campus, shouldn't you be making your way there already?" Jared asked.

"It takes about forty minutes to get there, there is no reason for me to leave so early," Michael said.

"But you'll be late, you need to consider traffic and things like that" Jared said.

"I don't think it'll be that heavy, besides, I'll let him know if it looks like I'm running late, and I'll be leaving in thirty minutes," Michael replied.

"Just do whatever you like," Jared said as if giving up on his friend. Michael couldn't help but chuckle at his response.

"Don't worry about it" Michael said as he continued to leisurely lounge on the bench.

***

Lucas' schedule for that day was so packed he thought he was going to collapse. He had to be present in a lot of the contracts that the company signed with smaller companies and he also had meetings with the different departments that had their deadlines coming up.

He was so absorbed in his work that he had tuned out his surroundings and was busy going through the documents that were sprawled all over his desk.

Soon enough he heard a knock on his office door before it opened revealing Dave who walked in as if to inform him of something.

"Boss, there's someone here to see you, he said you told him to come today" Dave reported.

"Who is it?" Lucas said his eyes still fixated on the documents he was reading.

"He said his name was Michael" Dave answered. His response finally received a reaction from Lucas. Lucas looked at him from the top of his glasses and nodded.

"Let him in," Lucas said before he resumed with his reading.

After a few minutes, a knock was heard again before Dave walked in with Michael. Michael awkwardly stood there for a couple of seconds as Lucas was tidying up his documents before they could talk.

Soon Lucas stood up and shook Michael's hand before asking him to sit down.

"Do you want anything to drink? Tea? coffee? juice?" Lucas asked as he sat back down behind his desk.

"Juice would be fine" Michael answered. Lucas pressed a button on his phone and proceeded to ask one of his secretaries to bring him juice and a coffee. He knew he needed the caffeine since he wouldn't be functional if he didn't recharge.

"Let's go sit over there," Lucas said as he pointed to the area where his sofas were arranged.

He sat on the sofa that was at the head and Michael sat on his left-hand side.

They were silent for a bit and Lucas figured that Michael might feel a bit awkward with starting the conversation. If he only knew that Michael was currently marvelling at his office and had started idolizing him he would not have been concerned at all.

Michael had never met Lucas at all, although he knew of him, he had never seen his face before. So seeing how professional he was and how he carried himself, he couldn't help the admiration he felt for him. He even intended on working hard so he could at least achieve this level of success.

Unlike Lucas, Michael was from a single-parent family and had two older sisters who really doted on him since they have a big age gap. They were a middle-class family so he has never lacked anything and the fact that he was smart and socially awkward meant that he has zero dating experience even though girls have tried to get his attention before, he was too dense to figure out that they were attracted to him.

He was studying international business more for his curiosity rather than ambition, but when he entered Lucas' office, he knew he wanted to be like him. He couldn't help but notice that under very close inspection he seemed slightly tired but he was still so charismatic and chic, so his eyes were shining with admiration at that moment.

"So you're my junior?" Lucas commented as he closely observed Michael. He noticed that his gaze had changed. It looked strangely familiar but he couldn't pinpoint where he had seen it.

[A/N: It's the same as the gaze your girlfriend uses to look at your brother]

"Ah, yes" Michael replied after coming back to his senses. Just after he was done replying there was a knock on the door and a secretary entered the office holding a tray. She set down the glass of juice and a mug of coffee before silently leaving.

"What are you studying?" Lucas asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

"International Business" Michael replied.

"Interesting, I studied the same thing, do you enjoy it?" Lucas replied.

"It's alright. I had a lot of options to choose from and the program has a little bit of everything so I was intrigued" Michael explained.

Lucas observed him again for a couple of seconds as he stayed silent. He already knew about him as he had a background check done on him but it looked like he was a decent person. He was just trying to see whether he would lie to him or not, and also try to accurately gauge his personality.

"What was it that you were saying about a stalker?" Lucas asked as he put his mug down and crossed his leg over another and leaned back to listen to what he had to say.

"Well-" Michael started.