Louis Tomlinson could not help smiling. Gosh, it had been so long since he smiled like this. He felt slightly guilty with how rude he was to those business people. But on the other hand, he felt darn victorious.
"Do you know how important are the people that you insulted?" Liam's voice was very controlled. They're in the empty hallway outside the function hall.
"Do you know how big of an emotional damage you've done to the family of my boss?" Louis threw back. This time, the smile on his face is gone. "I bet, you think that's nothing compared to the damage that I did with your business relationship to your associates, right?" Louis wasn't able to stop his voice from getting a bit high and loud. "I'll tell you something, Liam, I don't care if you want to hurt me, but don't you dare hurt other people just to get to me." He stated firmly.
Liam merely smiled condescendingly. "Oh, how scary. What are you gonna do, Louis?"
"Have you tried Googling yourself in the net, Liam?" He asked the guy out of the blue.
"What-"
He smiled when he saw the confusion in Liam's face. "You should. You'll be surprised with what you'll see."
"What the hell are you saying?"
My, my, Louis feels like he's in cloud nine seeing Liam Payne so confused and rattled.
Louis sighed. "Do you know that the chronicles of your 'escapades' in the Internet was longer than the Vietnam War? You should really be careful. You're a prominent man- rich and all. What's more, you've been to different countries making the gossips in the net feast on you. Take note- those who write about you are multi-racial."
"What the hell are you saying?" Liam repeated.
Louis looked at Liam with wide eyes as he feigned an exaggerated look of surprise. "You don't know? Well, the women you've been with are so happy having spent the night with you that they blog about their experiences with you. They should've put you on Wikipedia under the tags, 'Sexual Experiences, Liam Payne'. You should really read their write-ups and comments. It's quite- uh, colorful." He said as if he was examining a marvelous work of art.
The horrified look on Liam's handsome face was priceless.
Serves him right. Louis couldn't believe the number of women that had been involved with the guy.
"If it's any consolation, you don't have any sex video. Well, at least there's not one in the net. Anyway Liam, Sophia Smith was one of the women that you've been with, right?" He smiled. "Do you think Uncle Geoff had already seen and read it, Liam?"
The man glared at him. Oh, this was really fun. "Don't you dare tell-"
"I will really tell him, you asshole!" Louis hissed. "Stop the rumors at the office or I swear, your almost-saintly conservative father will have a heart attack upon knowing things about you." Louis glared back at Liam for a few seconds, then he walked away. He started counting mentally. Five... four... three... two... one-
"Wait."
Louis smiled at himself when he heard Liam's call. Hmm, that was fast. He thought that it will take him another set of five seconds before the man give in. It looked like he really care about his father after all.
He turned his head to him annoyingly. Liam appeared like a trapped animal. The man walked towards him. "I thought you said I was childish. What do you think it is that you're doing now?"
Louis shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes, you have to sacrifice some of your life policies for the sake of more important things- like protecting other people from being hurt. Oh, I'm sorry if you didn't understand that. I forgot that you're a self-centered, uncaring, indifferent, inhumane bastard who doesn't care about other people's feelings as long as you get what you want." He said matter-of-factly.
"You really like to talk, huh?"
He just smiled at him. "Talking has always been one of my talents. Do you want me to use this talent of mine to your father?" Louis was about to turn away from Liam again but he grabbed his arm.
Liam glowered at him. But after a while, he sighed defeatedly. "Let's make a truce." Liam calmly suggested. "We both want the same thing. It's better if we help each other than the other way around." Liam was serious.
"Why should I believe you?" Louis challenged, raising his eyebrow.
"I'm a businessman, Louis. In the business world, it's always better to earn a friend than an enemy." Liam said drily.
Louis stared at Liam for a few seconds. There are tons of reasons why he should not accept Liam's offer. But he had this tendency to believe the best in people, and so, he quickly agreed with him.
"Deal." Louis replied, offering his hand for a handshake.
"Deal." Liam said firmly taking his hand in his.
And that was how these two people who could not stand each other became reluctant partners.
*****
"Are you serious? You buy this much junk food?" Louis said disgustingly referring to the bags of imported chips that Liam put in his shopping cart.
"Stay the hell away from my food preference." Liam pushed the cart and took another bag of imported chips.
"This is not healthy at all! You know what, I can't just watch like this. You should not eat these junk-"
"Louis, I appreciate your concern but I don't need your opinion." He cut Louis off.
It was Sunday morning and they decided to have their first meeting to discuss their strategies to sabotage their engagement. And to whatever reason, they ended up buying groceries because there is no food in Liam's flat.
"Fine. If you want to eat these and destroy your kidneys, go. But at least, buy local junk food to at least help our economy." With that, Louis took the imported junk food and put it back in their respective shelves, and took the local chips in exchange.
Liam gritted his teeth. They've been like this since earlier. Almost all of the imported products that he took, Louis exchanged it with locally manufactured products.
"Why do I have to put up with this? This is my food, my money-"
"And this is your country." Louis interject. "By buying imported goods, you’re helping the economy of other countries. Come to think of it, the quality of their products is almost the same as ours. Will it kill you to buy our own manufactured products and help the economy of your own country?" Louis almost pouted with a face glowing with sincerity as he looked at Liam like he was a very unreasonable and bad person just because he chose to fill his cart with imported chips.
Liam closed his eyes in frustration- to calm his nerves and to avoid looking at Louis' pouting lips. This boy was really killing him.
"Fine." Liam said heatedly then he pushed the cart. When they got near an employee of the store, Liam uncouthly asked what aisle is the local toothpaste. The employee quickly answered nervously. Probably startled by Liam’s rude way of asking. He pushed the cart again irritatingly.
"Thank you." He heard Louis say to the employee that he asked. When Louis reached him, the boy preached at him again. "That's basic manners, you know. You say 'thank you' when someone helped you, you say 'please' if you need or want something and you say 'sorry' if you hurt someone. Didn't your father taught you that?" Louis said with a voice laced with disapproval and irritation.
Liam could not believe it. Louis have no right to get pissed. "Unlike your father who seem like a very dedicated and hands-on father to you, mine had been very busy with our business and almost did not see me while I was growing up." He spat.
"Oh." Liam did not expect the tone of Louis' voice. It was apologetic. He didn't like it.
It's true that Geoff almost had no time for him since his childhood, but he sure did not want anyone pitying him for that. He just said that for sarcasm. Besides, he did not want any other emotions other than genuine animosity between him and Louis Tomlinson. There should not be any concern between them. There should only be plain business with them- and that is to sabotage their engagement.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that." Louis said, voice still apologetic.
"You say sorry if you hurt someone..." Liam's mind replayed Louis' words earlier.
He doesn’t like this.