Layla
I stood next to Liam in the exact same place I got coffee this morning, Sunrise Cafe. We stood behind a few people waiting to order.
“This place has really good food, and it’s quick if you’re in a rush,” Liam said, looking down at me. Even with my heels, I was shorter than everyone. We made it to the front and Liam immediately sprouted off his order to the younger girl. She shot him a small, shy smile as she clicked it into the computer. I waited for him to finish, but Liam didn’t move.
“Are you going to order?” he asked.
“Yeah, but just waiting for you.”
“No, I am paying.”
“No, I won’t let you pay,” I said, shaking my head. “I can pay for myself.”
“Nope, not going to happen. Think of it as your ‘welcome to your first day’ lunch.” Seeing as he wouldn’t budge, I rolled my eyes. I ordered a Caribbean salad and just got water. “That’s all you’re getting?” Liam asked as he handed over money to the girl.
“Yeah, it sounds really good,” I said, shrugging. The salad had mandarin oranges, Chinese croutons, chicken, shredded almonds, and a delicious-sounding dressing.
The girl handed him a number stand and Liam steered me toward an empty table by the window. I sat across from him and glanced out the window. People walked by at a brisk pace trying to get to where they are going.
“Thank you for lunch,” I said, sending Liam a smile.
“You are welcome.” He smiled back. Before awkward silence could wrap around us, I asked him a question.
“So, you were born in Australia?” I asked, leaning forward and resting my head on my hands staring at him.
“I was. I was born in a small town just a little outside of Sydney. I lived there until university, when I got accepted into NYU on a basketball scholarship,” Liam said.
“Wow. You must have been really good at basketball to get a scholarship at NYU. Did you just graduate?” He couldn’t have been more than two years older than I was.
“Yeah, I graduated almost 3 years ago. I’m twenty-five.”
“What did you major in?”
“Well, at first I didn’t know what to major in. I thought I’d make my way through the four years then get drafted maybe. But my second year in, I got hurt, really hurt, and had to quit basketball. That’s when I figured I better start going for something else. That’s when I decided to major in business and math.”
“I am sorry; that sounds terrible,” I said and I meant it. It would suck having all your dreams crash around you in just an instant. “But at least you got a good degree and are working at a nice place,” I said, trying to sound bright.
“You’re right about that.” He chuckled. Just then, someone came with our food and set it in front of us. My salad looked really good and was huge. My stomach growled the moment the plate came to rest in front of me. I blushed and shot Liam an embarrassed smile. He stared at me in amusement then shook his head.
“Someone is hungry.” He grabbed the sandwich he got.
“Yeah, I am. I didn’t get a chance to eat this morning.” I started eating my salad and was surprised by how good it was. We ate in silence for the next few minutes before Liam asked me something.
“So, how about you? Where did you go to college? Major?” he asked.
“Well, I grew up about thirty minutes away from here. I went to NYU as well, and just graduated almost two years ago too, and I’m twenty-three. I majored in Journalism,” I said.
“Wow, we barely missed each other. Not surprised we didn’t see each other since the campus is so large. But Journalism, that’s pretty cool. What made you go into that?”
“I honestly don’t know. I like to write and I like English, so it was an obvious choice I guess.”
We talked back and forth while we ate our lunch. Liam was easy to talk to and I could feel myself relaxing around him. I knew that I had at least one friend at work now. Looking down at my phone, I saw it was way past 1 o’clock and I wanted to be back before Ashton.
“I think we better head back. It’s almost one thirty,” I said, cleaning up my lunch.
“You’re right. Here, let me take that,” Liam said, grabbing my plate and going to the garbage. While he threw away our stuff, I slipped my bag on my shoulder, grabbed my phone, and fixed my outfit. “Ready?”
I nodded and followed Liam out the door and toward the building.
“Thanks for lunch, Liam,” I said, smiling over at him.
“No problem. You’re great company. I’m glad we’ll be working together,” he said sincerely. We walked through the doors of the building. I saw Neena and shot her a small wave. She waved back but was blocked as someone came up to the desk to talk to her. Silently, we stood and waited for the elevator, people standing around us. With a bing, the doors opened and we were immediately surrounded by people. Liam and I were smashed against the side of the wall as more and more people trickled in. Liam’s arm wrapped itself around my waist and pulled me back against him so my back was to his chest. I could feel warmth radiating off of his arm and through my blouse. I blushed and looked down, not knowing what to do with his arm around me.
Slowly, people exited off their floors but Liam still kept me pressed against him. We got closer to the thirtieth floor and we stood in the elevator with about seven other people. That awkward elevator silence wrapped around us all. I resisted the urge to babble about nothing as we got closer. Thankfully, a few minutes later the doors opened to our floor. Liam held me back as everyone left and slowly retracted his arm. My skin felt hot. I couldn’t help but wonder why he did that. Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice we had stopped a little bit ahead of Ashton’s office and Judy’s desk, until I practically ran into Liam. I stumbled and his hand shot out, steadying me.
“Sorry, I guess I was lost in thought.”
“No worries. Thank you for letting me intrude on your lunch.”
“Thank you for intruding. I wouldn’t have had any fun if I was alone.”
“Good. I better go. It was nice having lunch with you, Layla. If you need anything, let me know. I am only down the hall. Feel free to drop by anytime. See you later.” He smiled his pretty smile at me then walked off. My name sounded so cool with his accent. I turned around to head to Judy, my relaxed feeling fading away as I thought of what I had to do this afternoon. I didn’t get very far before I ran into what felt like a brick wall.
“Oomph.” I glanced up and looked at a not very happy Ashton. His jaw was clenched and his blue eyes were narrowed and looked darker. I tried not to flinch at how he was staring at me; it was almost like I did something wrong but I hadn’t. You forgot to remind him about his lunch meeting. “Uh, hi,” I said, stammering.
“My office. Now.” With that, he turned and strode to his office. He held the door open and looked at me. He gave me a look that said right now. I gulped audibly, and with shaky legs walked to his office, I slid by him and my shoulder rubbed against his chest. Ashton followed me and shut the door with a click. For some reason, that click sounded so ominous. I slowly sunk into the chair I sat in earlier and waited for Ashton to talk. He sat in his chair and stared at me. For a good three minutes, we sat there staring at each other. Me wondering what was going to happen, and him like I had done something to royally piss him off.
“Nice weather we are having, isn’t it?” I said, breaking the thick tension in the room. Ashton still sat glaring down at me.
“I have to pee,” I blurted. My eyes widened as soon as the words left my mouth. Really? You have to pee? You couldn’t have said anything else, could you? The awkward turtle that I am was starting to burst through. It was one of those moments when the urge to pee came up at the most inopportune time. Like right before a race, just as the announcer starts counting down, you realize you have to use the bathroom but by then it’s too late. Then, as you run, the feeling disappears.
Ashton’s eyebrows rose up and his face softened slightly but was still hard.
“Why did you have lunch with Mr. Bennett?” Ashton asked suddenly. I didn’t expect him to talk, just to sit there and make me squirm.
“What?”
“Why were you having lunch with Mr. Bennett, Layla?” he asked again, his voice hard.
“Why does it matter?” I said, feeling slightly angry at how he was treating me.
“Because it just does! You are supposed to be doing your job instead of flirting with another co-worker.” Flirting? I couldn’t flirt, and when I did try to, I sounded like Ross from Friends talking about how gas is made. The only person I had ever flirted with was Ashton, and for some reason, it just came out around him. But still, even then it wasn’t the greatest flirting.
“I wasn’t flirting with him. I was being polite because he offered to take to me lunch when I don’t know anyone. You think I would flirt with someone at work, and on my first day?” I said, feeling hurt. He sighed and ran a hand down his face.
“No, I guess not. I just don’t want you to spend two hours at lunch with him when I need you here.” He leaned back in his chair.
“Two hours? I was only gone almost an hour.”
“Around noon I went looking for you since you never came by my office. When I couldn’t find you, I figured you had left for lunch as do most at noon.”
“I was in my office refiling what your stupid other assistants didn’t do. And because you didn’t tell me anything of what my job entails, I did not know I could have lunch until twelve thirty. You can’t get mad at me for getting something to eat with another co-worker. You should be happy I am meeting new people here and that I get along with them.” I could feel myself getting angry. The way he’d been treating me and now with him being angry that I went to lunch with someone, I felt myself about to snap. I stood up knowing I better not be in the same room as him until both of us had cooled off little.
“I better get back to work. There is a lot I have to do. Whenever you want to go over those notes, let me know.” With that, I left his office and headed to mine. I didn’t do anything wrong and I wasn’t going to sit there and listen to Ashton yelling at me for something stupid. It wasn’t like I kissed Liam or felt him up in front of anyone. Shaking my head, I shut my office door and looked around my messy floor. Setting my bag down, I grabbed my work phone and looked through it, looking to see if there was anything I really needed to do. Seeing nothing on my phone and a few things on the list Judy gave me, I got to work on those and refiling, hoping it would occupy my mind for a while.
***
Four p.m. rolled around and I was just sorting the files on the ground of oldest to newest when a knock sounded on my door. I shouted for them to come in and kept doing what I was doing. My headache was back and my back hurt from leaning forward for hours. I heard my door click shut and glanced up. Ashton leaned against the door looking down at me with amusement in his eyes. I felt guilt flow through me, and I knew I acted slightly childish.
I slowly stood but being the clumsy person I was, I somehow managed to trip on a pile of paper. I closed my eyes waiting for impact on the ground but after a second, I didn’t feel anything. I opened them. A hard chest was right in front of me and a pair of strong arms wrapped around my waist. Looking up, I saw Ashton had caught me before I hit the ground. My cheeks turned pink and untangled myself from his arms.
“Sorry,” I said, ignoring the feeling of wanting him to wrap his arms back around me.
“You’re so clumsy.” He smirked down at me and stuck his hands in his pockets. The way he did it made his shoulders come in slightly, and I swear I saw his tricep muscles bulge through his suit jacket. Ashton, why are you so hot?
“And I don’t have my shoes on either,” I joked back. He shot me another smirk then stepped back.
“I came to see if you were busy. I wanted to go over those notes from this morning’s meeting.”
“Yeah, one second, let me clean this up,” I said. Not thinking about it, I turned and squatted to pick up the papers littering the floor. After stacking them in the order I wanted, I laid them inside the cabinet and shut it. I would finish tomorrow. I felt Ashton’s eyes on me as I worked and I self-consciously pulled my skirt down. Straightening up, I slipped on my heels again and grabbed the folder on my desk from this morning. Turning around, I saw Ashton staring at me with a hungry look in his eyes. His blue eyes were almost black, and his jaw and fist were clenched.
“Ready?” I asked him, walking toward him.
“Uh…yes.” He shook his head, seeming to clear his thoughts. Inside, I was pleased I got that reaction out of him. Instead of his usual calm and collected look, he actually looked flustered. Sending him a small smirk, I slid past him, purposely rubbing against him as I passed. Payback for being rude to me all day. I walked to his office and heard his footsteps behind me. He closed the door and walked to his desk. He once again had his calm and collected face back on. I slid the folder and my notes across the desk to him.
Ashton read the through my notes and he looked pretty pleased. He set them down after five minutes and looked at me.
“Good job. Were you at all lost during the meeting?”
“A little bit, but I figured it out while everyone talked,” I said honestly. I knew tonight I would have to do some serious research on everything about Miller’s Industries. I did not want to go in blind if there were any important meetings this week.
“Good. The meetings are held about every month so I know what each department has going on and that we are all on the same page.” I nodded. A few seconds of silence surrounded us. “Layla, I—”
“Ashton, I—” I started at the same time. I smiled at him then gestured for him to go first.
“I am sorry for getting upset with you earlier. I shouldn’t have accused you of flirting with Mr. Bennett. When I couldn’t find you, I kind of got worried since I hadn’t heard from you. I promise I won’t do that again.” He was sincere. I held back a smile that he was the first to apologize.
“I’m sorry too, Ashton. I shouldn’t have lost track of time and reminded you of your meeting as well, or at least texted you. And I am sorry I yelled at you then stormed out,” I said.
“It’s okay. I realize this is your first day and I’ve dumped a lot of stuff on you that you don’t know how to do. I will try and be better at that as well.”
“Thank you,” I said, smiling. He sent me one of his rare half-smiles back.
“How about, to make it up to you, I take you to dinner?” Ashton offered, the look on his face almost nervous. Small butterflies filled my stomach as I thought about eating dinner with Ashton again.
“Sure, I’d like that.” I bit my bottom lip.
“Good. Let’s go. There’s nothing else left to do here.” He stood up and walked to my chair and held his hand out for me to take. I put my small hand in his big one and let him pull me up and to the door.
“Just let me grab my stuff from my office.” I shot him a quick smile. I walked back to my office and grabbed my bag and phone. Turning the light off and shutting the door, I walked back to Ashton who was saying goodbye to Judy.
“Have a good night, Layla,” Judy said once I stopped beside Ashton.
“You too, Judy. Thanks for all the help today.”
“No problem, sweetie. Take care of her, Ashton,” she said, her voice low in warning, and I looked at him. He nodded and put his hand on my lower back and guided me to the elevator. Since it was 4:30, people were starting to pack up their things and they stared at us as we walked by. I could bet there will be a rumor started by tomorrow about me sleeping with Ashton. Thankfully, the elevator came a second after Ashton hit the button and no one else got in with us.
As we rode down to the lobby, Ashton stood a little behind me with his hand on my lower back. I could feel the heat radiating off his hand and seeping through my thin blouse.
“By the way,” Ashton whispered into my ear. His warm breath spreading goosebumps along my skin. “You look very hot in that outfit.” Just as the words left his lips, the elevator dinged open and he sauntered out, a smirk on his gorgeous face.