Working at Matthews Paper Corporation was an experience.

Maya Hart thought that manufacturing paper would be dull yet there she was at her desk, fired up as usual. The cause? Her boss, Joshua Matthews. Better yet, her piece of shit boss who thought he could do whatever he wanted, Joshua Matthews. It was ridiculous how someone only a few years older than her could let a position of power get to their head.

Sure, his position in the company was hard. Because his father was too old to take care of things he had to step up a lot earlier than intended. Maya was sure that if working at Matthews Paper Co was difficult for her then it was even worse for him. Behind his attractive face was a sea of responsibility, Maya suspected. Josh had it hard and Maya knew this.

Although moments like the one she was in now where she had just shared a yelling match with her boss made her unable to find that sympathetic side that usually took residence in her brain.

In that moment, he was an asshole.

Just who did he think he was yelling at her for trying to help out his niece? "You shouldn't be chatting on the phone, Maya. There are customers waiting on the other line that are higher priority."

Honestly. All she needed to know was if everyone was in work today. She'd been on the phone with Riley for a maximum of five minutes. It wasn't like they were making arrangements to go out or do their nails or something. She just needed a question answered and Maya was available to talk.

Call her crazy, but she didn't see what he was making a fuss about.

"If you squeeze your pen any harder, it'll explode." An amused voice said from the entrance to her cubicle. Maya glanced up to find one of her co-workers, Isadora Smackle watching her tentatively. She followed her gaze and realized that in her blind rage, she had began to squeeze the life out of her pen. It was the good one too. Her grandmother bought it for her when she heard that she had an office job.

"You don't really work in a cubicle unless you have a fancy pen." She had said wisely. Maya never remembered why her grandmother had thought this but it didn't keep her from cherishing it. Or in this case, strangling it.

"Have a run in with the boss again?" Isadora asked though Maya was 99.9 percent sure she knew the answer already. Anyone in their office with ears knew that the two argued constantly. Josh was too uptight to let little things go and Maya was too headstrong to just take a lecture lightly.

"I'd rather not get into it."

She chuckled before dropping a forest green letter on her desk. Maya's eyes shifted from Isadora to the letter that her name scribbled across the front in neat dainty handwriting. What the hell?

Confused yet curious, Maya ripped open the letter that contained a card obnoxiously covered in Christmas things. Holly, mistletoe and even an actual candy cane taped to the front to add extra cheesiness. Before Maya even opened the card to see what it was she knew who it was from.

She opened it and inside, written in the same handwriting as the envelope was an invitation to a party the following night.

An office party.

Riley couldn't be serious. Office parties were weird and there was no way in hell she was going to be around Joshua Matthews voluntarily. She lifted her head to ask Isadora if the party was mandatory but her small colleague had already left.

Anyway, Maya thought before taking the candy cane off and promptly throwing the invitation in the trash, she wasn't going.


She hated how all it took for Riley to convince Maya to go was a ten minute phone call.

"It will be fun." She said. "You love parties, what's the big deal?" She said. "I promise there will be so many other people from the office you can talk to that you won't even notice my uncle." She said. The more Maya thought about it the sadder she it became that he was making her miss out on possibly a fun night out. So she came to the resolution in her shabby one bedroom apartment that she wasn't going to let Joshua Matthews run her life.

He may have power over her at work but not for every aspect of her life, she was her own person and she was going to enjoy herself. And look damn good while doing so.

{~}

Riley's party was fun. The girl had put in hours of effort to make sure that it was and wouldn't allow anyone to sit on her couch and mope. Which was why Maya found herself trying to cling on to some sort of conversation with Dave, the coffee guy. She didn't like referring to him in that sense but in the six months that Maya has worked with Matthews Paper Co, she's never heard Dave say anything other than, "What kind of coffee would you like?"

Being in an actual conversation with him outside of his coffee running day job felt weird. Not because she didn't know him personally but it just seemed like Dave didn't really enjoy casual conversation. He would start a sentence and then slowly drift from what he was saying and leave her hanging. At first, it was endearing because sweet ol' Dave was nervous about talking to people outside of work.

Maya got that. Seeing people outside of work felt weird for her too.

So when Dave started drifting for the sixth time that night, Maya's mind followed.

She let her thoughts venture and she imagined Dave having a strong voice followed with strong opinions. She imagined him a few inches taller with a sharper jaw line. Black hair instead of brown hair and infuriating blue eyes that made her giddy. It was at that moment where she realized who she was imagining Dave to be.

She needed air. And possibly one of the fancy fruit drinks Riley was making everyone grab on their way into her apartment.

[~]

Getting air seemed like such a good, fool proof idea. It was for about two seconds until she realized there was someone outside. The very person that seemed to consume her thoughts the moment she stepped away from Dave. It was that very person that she hadn't seen throughout the two hours she was at Riley's party. She contemplated going back inside, she wasn't dressed properly to be standing outside in the cold, she thought. That seemed like a valid excuse should he see her.

Yet when he turned around to look at her by the door, all she could say was, "You smoke?" Josh glanced down at his lit cigarette like he just realized it was there and smiled wryly.

"Only when I need a distraction."

Leave. Leave. Leave. Her mind told her but she only stepped further outside, even closed the door. Something in her didn't want to step away from the Joshua Matthews that didn't look so polished and put together. Instead she joined him by the railing and leaned against her back facing the door while he faced towards the city.

"What could you possibly need a distraction from? The thousands of dollars you earn a year?" She joked and he cracked a smile before eyeing her up and down. For a moment, she almost believed he was checking her out.

"I don't think I should answer that." Then he took another drag of his cigarette. It was alarming how she managed to find his small action attractive. She considered blaming the three fruit drinks she had grabbed off the tray Riley had set aside in her kitchen. Maya also blamed the fruit drink for her sudden curiosity as to what was making Josh break composure and smoke.

What could possibly break the cold exterior that he wore endlessly?

"Oh c'mon. I won't laugh. Is it because someone moved one of the pictures in your office an inch over? No one pegged you as the type for symmetry but I've known you a little longer than everyone else." She didn't acknowledge much how being in Riley's life from such an early age also meant meeting Josh at an early age. A time where Josh didn't constantly have a stick up his ass.

He breathed a laugh before fully turning to her. A piece of black hair curled over his brow in the process and Maya clenched her fist to keep from moving it back.

"If you know me so well then guess what's got me so distracted."

"If I get it right, you'll tell me?"

"Sure." Was his noncommittal answer but Maya took it. She was too buzzed to try and scheme her way around it anyway. Her thoughts had to focus on what could be bothering Josh. Surely, it wasn't work. Could it be...

"Family?" It sounded plausible. There was so many of them that Maya could see someone getting overwhelmed and needing a nicotine distraction.

"Nope." He said before taking another drag. She tried not to let her disappointment discourage her from continuing on. Family was off the list, so that just left...

"Friends?"

"Wrong again. You sure you know me, Hart?"

Resisting the urge to slap him, she flipped him off instead and continued to think. What other aspect of a person's life could stress them out? Friends and family were the basis of most things. It made sense that those things bothered him. If she was a rich young guy, what would bother her besides family and friends? A thought instantly came to mind but a sudden fear to voice it came over her.

Apparently, her poker face isn't nearly as good as she remembered it to be. "You thought of something. Spit it out, you might be right." For some reason she didn't want to be. The thought of Josh thinking about some woman in a special light seemed to bother her more than she was willing to admit.

Somewhere in her mind was reassuring her though. If she'd been wrong the past two times, why would she be right this time?

"Girl?"

He stayed silent and for a moment she thought she'd been wrong. Why would Josh let some girl get under his skin so easily? This was Josh, after all. He probably needed a distraction from how luxurious his life was. Then as he lifted the cigarette to his lips, she saw him nod his head.

"What's her name?"

"Don't worry about it."

"What? You make me go through the trouble of guessing and now you won't even tell me? That's bullshit."

He shrugged and turned back towards the city, "That's life. Maybe I'm not in the mood to talk about my love life." Love life? Was he already involved with this girl? How long have they been together? More importantly, why did she want to know so bad? Maya turned to face the city as well, hoping all the bright lights will help take the thoughts of Josh and a random girl being together.

The two stood in silence for a few minutes until Maya's mind wouldn't shut up.

"How long have you known her?"

"A few years. Someone from my family has been friends with her for a while." He said before flicking the rest of his cigarette into one of Riley's plants. If she wasn't too busy trying to analyze the Matthews family and all of their friends, she probably would've told him off. Then probably gone and snitched to Riley.

"Oh," She answered softly, "Do you really like her?" She shouldn't have asked. Why on earth would she want to know? Just the thought of him and that mystery girl was making her uncomfortable and now she was asking for specific details? She needed to leave. She needed to step away from the conversation before it got messy. She needed to tell him that she didn't want to hear anything about him and the girl he loved.

Yet the thought of looking in his direction intimidated the crap out of her, so she stayed in her spot staring at the view of the city. She even had a view of people walking in the night, people who didn't have to worry about hearing intimate details from their boss.

"I don't know. I feel like recently she just won't get out of my head. She's loud, outspoken and has a knack for driving me crazy. And every time we get really into an argument, I try my hardest to not kiss away all the insults I know she wants to throw at me. She's the most interesting and unique person I know. I can't help but love everything about her. She's witty, opinionated and has these eyes that just...get me," He took a breath before landing the final blow, "It doesn't help that she's best friends with my niece."

Finally, she couldn't help but look at him and she turned to find him already looking back at her. The girl he couldn't stop thinking about was...her? Maya searched his face for any sign of lying or joking but he seemed serious. That seemed even scarier than the thought of him pranking her.

Before she could voice any of her running thoughts, the balcony door slammed open and Riley stood there looking relieved. Just like that, their moment was over and Maya could breathe again.

"Thank god I found you. Zay said he needs help bringing the keg into the apartment. Could you go help him?"

Something seemed to come back to Josh too because he blinked and seemed to just realize where he was. He ran a hand through his hair, scraping up the loose strand and shot a bright smile at his niece.

"No problem, Riley." No acknowledgement to Maya or that he just confessed to loving everything about her. No acknowledgement that he's thought about kissing her every time they argue. He just walked past his Riley in the doorway and went on his merry way. Like he didn't just screw everything up.

"You okay, peaches?" Riley asked from the doorway.

Not even close.