I've been writing a lot of Camp Rock lately but the characters are so malleable that I like writing them into different situations.
Camp Rock doesn't exist in this story (or at least not in the way you think) so don't yell at me that it doesn't follow canon because… duh.
Also, forgive the bad French, if you happen to know French. I used a translator and my limited knowledge of the language.
Disclaimer: I don't own Camp Rock or any of its characters. I just use them to further the enjoyment of all.
Mitchie listened warily to the voice on the other end of her telephone, desperately wishing she could just curse at the man and hang up. As much as she loved her job, sometimes clients could be the biggest pains in the ass. She had been arguing vehemently with the man since she picked up the line two hours ago.
"Look, I'm not paying this charge. You couldn't do it in the time frame I wanted it, so I took my business elsewhere," he complained.
Trying to explain contract rules to this man was like trying to teach a brick wall how to write. "I understand that, sir," she answered him patiently, "but you didn't go to another vendor until after you had already signed the contract. When you did, we were still well within the time limits that were set out in said contract. If you read it you will see that there is a fee for breaking that contract. With an order the size of yours, ten thousand dollars is a standard fee for breaking a contract."
"Well I'm not paying it and you can't force me to."
"You'll have to take that up with our legal department." She slammed the phone down in anger. That was the third client this week that she had lost and it was getting frustrating. She had worked for Rock International most of her adult life and had worked her way up to Executive VP. Considering that her twenty-ninth birthday was in about six months, it was the largest feat that had ever been seen in this company. She was the youngest VP to ever earn the title and certainly the first woman to do so.
Despite the name, the company had nothing to do with rocks or minerals of any kind. They were one of the largest suppliers of precious metals in the world, rivaled by only one company: C.A.M.P. Inc. Unfortunately, Shane Gray, her rival since she had gotten into business, was their new Executive VP. He was actually only a few years older than her, at thirty-one, but his mind was sharp and he apparently oozed charm. The fact that he was a male was just the icing on the cake. For some reason, when it came to precious metal, a lot of customers preferred a male to a woman. The three clients that had cancelled their contracts with Rock International had all jumped ship to CAMP.
Mitchie leaned back in her chair, wishing that the day was over. The week had been brutal and she knew that her boss was going to ream her a new one when he found out they had just lost another contract. It was a large contract and Shane had managed to schmooze them into thinking that it was better to go CAMP than Rock. Her only hope was that the ten thousand dollar breech of contract fee would deter them from switching to the dark side. Somehow, she didn't think that was going to happen. Instead of a four million dollar contract they were only going to get a measly ten grand.
The fact that she had done the same thing to CAMP last week, just with twice as many clients, didn't even occur to her. In this business, no one paid attention to how many clients you brought in, only how many you lost. Mitchie turned back to her work when a memo popped up in her inbox. She clicked on it and pulled it up.
All-
There will be a press conference tomorrow at two PM to make an important announcement. Staff will be informed at noon so that we can properly prepare for conference and reaction. Both will be held in Conference Room C.
R. Rock
Mitchie looked at it confused, sure that her boss never mentioned a press conference to her. Usually she was the one that scheduled them and she knew that she hadn't scheduled this one. She looked at it again, noting the words "big announcement" and she shook her head in dismay. How big could the announcement be if even she didn't know about it? The only person above her was Richard, or R. Rock as he signed everything, and he told her everything that went on in the company. She deleted the email, knowing that she had more important things to worry about than what Richard considered a big announcement.
Shane cursed at the phone as he slammed it down. He thought for sure that he had that one in the bag, that the company was going to come over to CAMP but once again he had underestimated Mitchie Torres. She had slapped the clients with a ten thousand dollar breech of contract fee and they hadn't been willing to pay that much extra just to get the product a week or two sooner. He hadn't realized that they already entered into a contract with Rock International and by the time he had, it was too late to back out. He was going to get burned hard for this one and it was his own damn fault. Usually he was better at this game of chance. Unfortunately, Mitchie always seemed to be one step ahead of him. Last week she had taken six prospective clients out from under his nose without even blinking.
The two of them had reached their goals in life around the same time, making them rivals for most of their careers; Mitchie working for Rock International and Shane for CAMP Inc. In reality, despite their avid rivalry, Shane didn't even know what Mitchie looked like. Neither was in the limelight much and they never spoke to each other. They were just the right-hand men of their bosses, who were the ones dealing with the press. Sometimes he wondered what it would have been like had they been working for the same company but he pushed the thought from his mind. One of them would have pulled ahead and the other would have faded into the background. The rivalry wouldn't have been avoided, just intensified within the same company.
When his email dinged at him he looked up and saw a message from his boss. Pulling it up, Canter, the only one left from the CAMP acronym, had only typed him a short note.
Meeting with Rock International tomorrow at noon. Sorry the notice is short but plans were just recently finalized.
V. Canter.
Shane had been unaware that Victor Canter and Richard Rock even spoke, though he couldn't say he was surprised. They had known each other since grade school, even went to college together and Shane just assumed that they were friends despite their opposing businesses.
What Shane couldn't figure out was why Victor and he were going over there. And it wasn't just them; the entire board had been CCed on the email, meaning they were going over there too. What could be going on that the board needed to attend? Shane didn't want to guess but he was getting a bad feeling in his gut. Whatever this was, it wasn't going to be good.
Shane was a half hour early to the meeting, as he usually was. He liked to have time to compose his thoughts and be prepared, especially for something like today where he had no idea what was going to happen. Whatever was going on, Canter had kept it well under wraps. No one in the office knew what was happening, Shane included. Inside, Shane was furious. Why have a VP if you weren't going to inform him about what was going on in the company?
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts and his anger that he didn't notice the woman when he went to enter the building until he collided with her.
"Shit!" she cursed, jumping back as coffee sloshed everywhere. The little caps on the coffee cup didn't really do much to hold the liquid in and this was no exception. The dark beverage missed her clothes but splattered onto her light pink shoes. Shane looked up to apologize and almost forgot to do so. She was stunning with her dark hair pulled up into a French twist, pink cardigan that matched the shoes and black skirt. She looked sophisticated and professional and if she hadn't cursed so fluently at the accident he would have never thought differently.
"I'm so sorry," he said, handing her a handkerchief he carried so she could wipe the drink from where it had spilled on her hand. Unfortunately, there was little that he could do about the shoes. It was too bad because they looked expensive.
Mitchie was about to unleash her fury but when she looked up at her assailant, all anger died on her lips. He was tall, probably around 6'3", and incredibly good looking, especially in his tailored suit, which she noticed, though he hadn't, had some of her coffee on the front of it. She smiled and Shane noted her face turned from cold and professional to warm and inviting with the one gesture.
"It's fine. Accidents happen and you were just as much a victim as I was," she told him. He looked confused until she pointed to his tie and he saw some spatters of brown.
"Damn it," he muttered. He took off the tie, throwing it into his briefcase. "I have a spare in my car," he told her with a shrug. "I'm really sorry about your shoes."
Mitchie shrugged back at him. "I have a spare in my office." They both laughed at the joke they had shared. Shane looked at his watch and realized that if he was going to stop by his car and get his other tie and still make it to the meeting on time, he would have to stop flirting with this incredibly sexy woman.
"I really need to get going but it was nice meeting you." They nodded to each other before Mitchie walked into the building and Shane back to his car.
The first thing that Mitchie noticed when she walked into the conference room was Victor Canter. The second thing that she noticed was the man that she had spilled her coffee on about thirty minutes ago was sitting right next to him. Mitchie couldn't even begin to fathom why their competition was sitting in the room but she had a sinking suspicion that she wasn't going to like it. Her gut was fifty percent of the reason she had made it this far and she had learned to trust it. Right now it was screaming at her that something was wrong. She took her usual place next to Richard, opening her folder and taking out a pen. Somehow she felt she should be brandishing a sword instead of a writing utensil. About five minutes later, Richard asked everyone to settle down.
"Everyone, I know, is wondering what this is all about and the appearance of our guests." He gestured to Canter and what Mitchie assumed was the board for CAMP Inc. "Victor and I have been in private discussions for some time now about our two companies. We have finally come to the conclusion that instead of two rivaling companies that we are going to merge into one dominating one."
Mitchie just stared at him, not sure if she had heard right, praying that she hadn't. Richard couldn't be merging with CAMP Inc. There was no way that he could have done something like this without at least doing her the courtesy of telling her first. She just stared at him, ignoring that Victor's people were equally as stunned. Shane's mouth was hanging open. Victor had been talking about making Shane a partner in the company, on equal footing with Victor. Now, without telling a soul, he had yanked that opportunity away leaving Shane feeling betrayed.
Victor picked up where Richard had left off. "We feel that we can double the profits if we merge the companies because there will be no rivalry left. There is no one else to go to for precious metals that have the reputations that our two companies do. Together, we can accomplish so much."
"We want a full, seamless merge," Richard said. "So instead of choosing one name over the other we have decided to merge the names as well as the people. Our two companies will now be call…" He pulled a sheet off a poster behind him, revealing a new logo for a new company. "CAMP Rock International!" the two announced together.
Mitchie just sat there and stared as the conference room exploded. How could this have happened with her being none the wiser? How could she have not seen something so huge coming? Richard and Victor were attempting to quiet down the room.
"I know everyone is worried about their jobs," Richard told them, which of course was the only thing that most of them cared about. "But this isn't a merge to save a struggling company; it's a merge to make one dominant company out of two financially stable ones. No one is going to lose their jobs. You may be getting a different job or be switched to a different department but everyone will have a job with the exact same benefits and salary."
"In fact," Victor interjected, "this might be a golden opportunity for some of you to move up the corporate ladder!"
Mitchie knew that didn't mean her. The only more up she could go was to be partners with the two men, something that would never happen if this silent merger were any indication. And there could be only one executive VP in the company. She knew that Victor had one already; she'd been his rival for years and she didn't see that changing just because the companies merged. After a few minutes, Richard came over to her with Victor and his dark haired associate, whom she had met this morning, in tow. She stood up and shook their hands politely.
"Mitchie, of course you know Victor. I'd like you to meet his VP, Shane Gray. Shane, this is Mitchie, my Executive VP."
They both looked at each other, stunned, realizing the person they met this morning was the one person they had hated all their careers. The shook hands firmly and held each other's gaze, neither refusing to back down. They both knew that this was going to end badly for one of them.
"The two of you will be working together from now on, co-VPs, neither above the other. You are both too valuable to lose and I think that together, you can do spectacular things for this company," Richard told them cheerfully. All he and Victor could think about was the bottom line and not all the people that this would inevitably affect. "The press conference is in five minutes but afterwards, Mitchie, I want you to show Shane around. His new office is going to be Jonas's old one."
The one down the hall from mine, thought Mitchie begrudgingly. At least hers was still bigger and had a better view. If she had been kicked out of it for this idiot she would have really pitched a fit.
Shane's thought process wasn't much different. He couldn't believe that he had to pack up his office and move it into this building. It was going to waste a lot of time that he could have been using to plot against Mitchie and take her out of the game. Two VPs just wasn't possible in the company, thus why it was never done. Decisions took longer the more people that you had to confer with and Shane didn't want to have to talk to Mitchie every time he wanted to make a decision.
The press conference was tense, Richard and Victor the only cheery two in the bunch. Shane and Mitchie were staring daggers at each other the whole time, wondering what was going to happen now that the other one was around.
Mitchie, for one, was furious at herself. She had flirted with him this morning, flirted! She couldn't believe that she had done something so ridiculous. She was sure that Shane would try to use it against her in some way, though she could combat it by saying he flirted just as much as her. It was like they were in grade school all over again.
Shane glared at her, ideas teaming beneath the surface of the perfect mask he put on. He had never been so angry in his life and if pushing Mitchie out of the picture was the only way to get ahead then that was what he was going to do. It was all about the numbers in business and his would be higher if it was the last thing he did. Not that it was going to be easy. Mitchie didn't get to where she was by mistake. She was brilliant at what she did and it would take a lot of work to push her out of the office. Usually he would feign friendship before going behind her back but he knew she'd see right through that. Neither of them wanted to be friends or partners, that much was clear. However, perhaps he would be able to feign cooperation. Tell her that he'd put up with her for "the good of the company" and all that nonsense.
After the press conference they approached each other, their expressions wary. Mitchie decided to be the bigger person and speak up first.
"Shane," she said, nodding curtly.
"Mitchie," he responded.
"If you'll come with me, I'll show you where your office is." She turned and left the conference room, not even looking behind her to see if he was following. She walked quickly, quicker than Shane would have expected of someone who was 5'7". If he hadn't been so much taller than her he wasn't sure he would have been able to keep up. As it was he was just barely keeping stride with her.
She pointed out different things to him as they passed: copy machine, cafeteria, Richard's office (he noticed that hers was strategically placed across from it) and finally what was to be his own office. He scowled when he saw it.
The office was significantly smaller than the one he currently had and he wasn't sure how he was going to fit all of his belongings into it. It looked out over the city but the view was mediocre at best, certainly not the view of the Hudson that he had. The furniture would have to go immediately and he hoped that it wouldn't be an ordeal to get it out of here. It was cheap generic office stuff and he much preferred his mahogany desk, though he wondered if it would even fit in here. The whole arrangement sucked.
"Who do I call to have the furniture removed?" He asked her, walking around the room, trying to size it up.
"You would need to speak to maintenance about it. I can give you that number," she told him. She was still standing at the door, ready to leave at a moments notice. The sooner that she could get out of here, the sooner she could begin to secure her job.
"And where is my assistant to be?" he asked, not seeing anywhere to place Melody. Mitchie just looked at him amused.
"Company policy is that there are no personal assistants."
"New company, new policy," Shane answered. "So where is my assistant to reside?"
Mitchie glared at him and stepped into his office. "Do you know why Richard doesn't allow personal assistants? Too much money and if they change the policy to allow yours that means they'll have to allow them for anyone else who wants them. Don't be stupid enough to assume that just because your great buds with Victor that he's going to make a move that's going to cost him more money. Chances are your lovely assistant is going to become a department secretary." She stalked out of the room, not even bothering to discuss the office with him further.
The second that Mitchie got back to her office she started making calls. If she didn't out-do Shane Gray she knew that Canter and Rock wouldn't keep her around for a second. As usual she was fighting for her spot, fighting to prove to everyone that she was better than they thought she was.
Mitchie got lucky in one aspect. For the next few weeks, Shane was consumed with taking over the office down the hall. Furniture was being moved out and then in, books shelved on the walls and carpeting put down. Shane was so busy moving himself in that he didn't have much time for anything else. Mitchie used this to the best of her ability, contacting everyone she knew to bring in the business and dealing with all the things that Richard and Victor didn't want to.
Everything was changing over almost seamlessly. The first thing to change was the logo on the building, now reading CAMP Rock International. Next came the email addresses, something that bothered Mitchie the most. She had given her email out to so many people; it was going to be a hassle now that it was .com instead of . It seemed the whole company changed in the two weeks that it took Shane to move into his office and Mitchie wasn't handling the changes well. What was worse was that she was handling Shane's presence even less well.
Though he hadn't even fully moved in he walked around as if he owned the place and her opinion didn't matter. He had tried undermining her several times in front of their bosses but luckily Mitchie was able to handle it. In the end he looked more foolish than she did. He had tried to keep his assistant and was immediately vetoed when Mitchie then requested that she also be provided with one. It was hard enough making sure that everyone kept their jobs. The last thing that Richard and Victor were going to do was hire on a new person for Mitchie and God only knew who else when they discovered the VPs had secretaries.
Shane had never worked without an assistant before and was finding the whole process tiring. All the things he had taken for granted, like keeping his schedule and fielding his calls, were now left to him and he didn't know how to handle a lot of them. It was making him look inept at his job, which he wasn't. He just wasn't used to doing menial things. Mitchie was getting the upper hand when he had thought to have it himself. He quickly realized what a serious disadvantage he was at.
Finally, two weeks after the merger was announced, Shane was settled in. All of his things were in his office, however cramped it was, and he was starting to get the hang of not having Melody around. At times it seemed as if his workload was doubled but he took it in stride, never complaining in case Mitchie could use that against him. He picked up again with clients, though to his dismay, Mitchie had already finished his work for him, putting her name on the contract. Shane cursed his luck wondering why it was he who had to move and not her. Better yet, they should have just moved to a completely different building. Shane knew how impractical that was though. They were already breaking a lease with the other building; it would be even more expensive to break the lease of Rock International's building too and since it was bigger, that's where everyone went.
Despite all the set backs, Shane already had a plan in mind and the beginnings of it were to make nice with Mitchie. A few days after his official move in, he sauntered over to Mitchie's office. She was hard at work, fingers typing furiously at her keyboard, music playing softly in the background. He was surprised at the noise, thinking she had seemed more like a "silence is golden" type of worker. He stood at her door, clearing his throat to announce his presence. She didn't even look up.
"Just a second," she said, her eyes intent on her computer screen. Shane saw intense concentration in her dark brown eyes and wondered what she was working on that took up so much of her attention. Her fingers moved faster, trying to speed up so she didn't keep whoever was at her door waiting. Finally, her fingers ceased, she clicked her mouse a few times and then looked up. Her face went from appeased to annoyed faster than Shane could blink. "What do you want?"
"We are colleagues now. Why is it so hard to believe that I want to talk to you?" he asked, giving his best smile.
Mitchie eyed him warily. She knew he was up to something but couldn't figure out what it was. "It's not, but you've been talking to me for the past thirty seconds and still haven't told me what you want. Maybe your time isn't valuable, but mine is."
Shane let the comment pass though he could feel the anger rising in him. He couldn't rise to her bait. His plan was to make her think that he wanted to work with her and if he continually fought with her, that wouldn't happen. "I came to call a truce."
"Unlikely," she scoffed at him.
"You don't think that it's true?" he asked, trying to look as innocent as possible. She narrowed her eyes at him, scrutinizing.
"I think that you must think I'm an idiot if you honestly believe I'm going to fall for something like 'I want to call a truce.' I'm not an idiot, Shane. I'm not going to fall for your stupid, childish games. Now, please get out of my office. I'm too busy to sit here and eat your bullshit." She didn't wait for him to leave, just immediately averted her eyes back to her computer screen and started typing away once again. Shane didn't bother to interrupt her again.
He all but stalked back to his office, fuming. Once again he had underestimated Mitchie. He had thought he'd be able to at least have a little more time to convince her but she saw through him in a second, leaving Shane back where he started. He would have to convince her more thoroughly that he meant what he said. Of course, he didn't actually mean it but she had to think that he did. He sat down in his chair thinking about the ways to pull this off. Mitchie and he had been rivals for years and it wasn't going to be easy to earn her trust. She had the same mindset that he did: be better or get fired. Neither of them could live with the getting fired option; however he hoped to be the one that continued to work here. He would have to show her his intentions, make her trust him through his actions. That meant that he would have to help her out, something that she was going to be immediately distrustful of. If he kept it up consistently though, she would never see it coming. Before she realized it, she would trust him, give him important information and essentially, seal her demise.
One way or another, Shane Gray was going to decimate Mitchie Torres.
Mitchie moved another pile off of her desk, looking desperately. She knew she had it this morning but she'd be damned if she could find it. The piles of papers had, as usual, taken over her desk to the point where her computer and keyboard were the only things visible. She moved another pile to the floor frantically, praying that it hadn't gotten thrown out between this morning and now but knowing it was entirely possible.
Shane found her crawling under her desk, oblivious to whoever happened to be walking by. Her stiletto heels poked out from around the corner, the only thing visible of her body. He sauntered into the room, amused smile on his face.
"So, what exactly are you doing under your desk?" he asked, surprising her. She let out a yelp of surprise, hit her head on her desk and then cursed fluently. Shane choked back a laugh as Mitchie once again took him by surprise. She was so ruthless and efficient that when her business like demeanor slipped it always caught him off guard. If she hadn't been his sworn enemy, it would have been cute. The situation as it was it simply reminded Shane that, deep down, even Mitchie Torres was human.
Her head emerged from behind the desk and she placed her arms on the top of her desk but she didn't stand up. Her hair was slightly disheveled and she looked annoyed and frantic all at the same time. "What do you want, Shane? I'm busy."
"Doing what? Searching for spare change?"
Her eyes narrowed and annoyance pushed away any other feelings she was having. "I'm searching for a copy of a contract. They tried to break the day before the merger and now that we have merged are looking to get the time frame you offered them and the price we offered them. With this new merge, contracts are in all sorts of upheaval."
"What's the company's name?" He asked, scanning the papers strewn everywhere in her office. He didn't understand how she worked like this. Everything in his office had to be put away and neat or he would go crazy. Mitchie clearly didn't work with the same inhibitions.
"Heckler & Koch," she answered, her head back under her desk in a search.
"You mean this contract sitting right here on this table?" he asked her, picking up a piece of paper that lay on a small side table by her door. It was obviously meant for people to leave things on so they wouldn't have to venture into her very large, and very hazardous, office. Her head shot up again and scrutinized the paper from across the room. Seconds later her entire face lit up and Shane was taken aback by it. She hadn't smiled once since he had come here and this unreserved smile transformed her into a stunning woman, completely different from his cold-hearted business rival.
"Yes!" She jumped to her feet and crossed the room surprisingly fast considering the shoes she was wearing. Usually Mitchie barely reached his shoulder but with her shoes on her hair brushed the bottom of his chin. The shoes also made her slim legs look like they stretched for miles. Shane shook the thought from his head. The last thing that Shane needed was to note the attractiveness of his co-worker. Not that she wasn't, in fact when she smiled she was so sexy it was noticeable on him, he just didn't have the time to act on it. Besides, Mitchie didn't strike him as the type to have a casual work relationship.
He handed the paper off to her and she took it in exuberance. Seconds later she had a wary look in her eyes, distrustful of his help.
"Why were you here anyways?" The venom had returned and Shane sighed inwardly. It was going to take a lot more effort than he had originally thought to get Mitchie to trust him. If it hadn't been essential to his plan he wouldn't have been wasting the energy.
"I was just passing by and saw you under your desk. It's not everyday you see a girl crawling on the floor in a skirt so I thought I'd see if you needed help." He gestured to the paper that she was holding. "Obviously, I was correct in my assumptions."
Mitchie didn't trust him as far as she could throw him and her anger at herself for not remembering that Linda had left it there this morning didn't help the situation. She knew that Shane was up to something and not to take anything he said or did at face value. He wanted something and whatever it was she wasn't going to give it to him.
"Thanks," she mumbled before turning around and returning to her work covered desk. If the piles were going to be gone by the end of the day, or at least the ones on her desk, she didn't have time to sit here and chit-chat with Shane Gray.
"Hey, do you want to get lunch?" he asked, his stomach aching for food. He had been working all morning and now, at two PM, was the first time he'd had a moment to take a lunch break.
"No time," she answered without looking up from her computer screen.
"You have to eat sometime," he pressured, wondering when this girl stopped to take a breath. She held up a sandwich that was on her desk and then took a bite as if to prove her point.
"You don't take a lunch?" Shane asked her.
"Never. Too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Why would I ever waste an hour doing nothing but eating? Unless I'm taking out a client I eat in my office."
"You're one of those people who never takes a vacation aren't you?" He always broke for lunch, knowing that if he didn't take a time-out he'd go crazy. However, if Mitchie was adding that extra hour to her day, he certainly wouldn't be taking a break either. His best bet was to convince her to take a lunch.
"Not in the three years since I've become VP." She was surprised that Shane did. He worked just as diligently as she and the fact that he took lunches and vacations and still managed to the same volume of work that she did bothered her. Hopefully those things would hinder him now and give her the edge that she needed.
"C'mon, Mitchie, lighten up a bit and let's go to lunch," he persuaded. Mitchie sighed audibly and finally looked up from her computer.
"Go away," she said annoyed. "If you want to take a lunch break, go ahead, but I have too much to do. Richard depends on me for just about everything and if I don't do what he needs then things just don't end well." She turned back to her work. "Now, please get out."
Shane walked out of the office infuriated. It was like she had a list of all the ways to drive him crazy and was employing each of them at the same time. He didn't know what it was about her that seemed to push all his buttons but he was expending more energy on bringing about Mitchie's demise than he spent on romancing most women he dated.
When he returned to his office he called the local Chinese place he liked to deliver to his office. He then sat back in his chair and thought. His only hope was to land a deal and not let her in on it and then when he presented it to Canter and Rock she would be humiliated that she didn't have a hand in it. They would probably fire her on the spot. The only problem was that deals like that were few and far between and he didn't think one would drop in his lap.
His other problem was getting Mitchie to let her guard down. Shane couldn't say that he blamed her. She was at the top for a reason and, as a woman, it was probably that much harder for her to crawl her way to the top of the corporate ladder. Shane was fairly certain she was the first woman VP Rock International had ever hired, not to mention the youngest VP ever, woman or man. She had a one track mind and time for little else. The things he had heard suggested she didn't even have much of a personal life.
He rubbed his eyes in frustration and tiredness when he heard the intercom buzz. He pressed the button, leaning back in his chair. "Yes?"
"Your lunch is here, Mr. Gray," said Linda, the department secretary.
"Send him on up," Shane told her. He clicked the off button wishing all his solutions were just that easy. One way or another, he was going to figure out how to take care of Mitchie.
"Hey, Mitchie," Shane called, knocking on her door. She looked up from the file she was scrutinizing. "You ready for the meeting?"
"Meeting?" she asked.
"Yeah, the meeting with Victor and Richard? They want our notes on how the merge is going? I sent you an email last week…" he said, not knowing what else to tell her to get her to remember.
"Shit." She buried her face in her hands and made a frustrated groaning noise. "I completely forgot about it. I'm still dealing with this stupid Tess Créations file. Apparently, nothing is good enough for this woman."
Shane made a face. He had dealt with that woman when it was still just CAMP Inc and had been relieved when she switched over to Rock International. It appeared that it was coming back to haunt him. "What does she want now?"
"She's trying to worm her way out of the paying the tariff. I told her if she paid tariffs, though, we'd pay shipping."
"Tariffs are about twice the price of the shipping. Why would she agree to that?"
A slow smile crossed Mitchie's face. "I don't know but she did and she should be faxing over the signed contract…now." Not two seconds later a machine behind her beeped and in came the fax. She grabbed it off the fax machine, stuck it in the folder and then stood up. "I guess we'd better get to this meeting."
"Yeah, I guess."
She walked towards the door, past Shane, who followed her out the door and then fell into step beside her. "Thanks for not letting me forget about the meeting," she said to him.
"Don't worry about it. I know how busy you get and that sometimes you needed to be reminded of your schedule," he told her as he held open the door to the conference room. She eyed him warily, stopping abruptly in the doorway.
"How?"
"I've been here for three weeks. It's painfully obvious that when you're working on something complicated you tune out the rest of the world. I've seen Linda come into your office three times just this week and remind you to eat and each time you looked surprised that it was already two in the afternoon." He saw her demeanor relax and look of slight surprise and embarrassment come over her face.
"You pay close attention to things, Shane."
"Or maybe you just don't pay close enough attention," he responded. They sat down in the large conference room and soon after Victor and Richard walked in, talking like old buddies. The merger had barely fazed them and they were having no problems sharing power, unlike the rest of their staff. In fact, they looked relieved that they were sharing the responsibilities of such a large company.
"So," Victor started after some casual conversation, "how are things going in this first month?" He looked expectantly at Shane, who cleared his throat.
"Sales are up… well honestly an exorbitant amount, though that was the idea so it's going well. We've managed to keep everyone's jobs, though many people took on new careers. Contracts have been a little dicey since the merger. The less honest companies have been trying to say that the merging companies voids their contracts and they should be able to renegotiate at a lower rate and threaten to go to another company."
"What have you been saying to them," Richard asked as he made notes in his folder.
"At first I would just try and talk to them and could usually renegotiate with little to no variance from the original contract until one particular company would not re-sign the original contract."
"What did you do about it?" Victor again.
"I discussed it with Mitchie and she reminded me of the reason these companies merged in the first place and I simply reiterated the information to our customers."
Victor's look told him to continue.
"There no longer is anyone to go to that could handle an order as large as the one he was requesting," Shane said, it being obvious that he took pleasure out of telling the customer this. Both owners smiled at the story.
"I'm glad that you two are working together. I knew that you would be an asset to each other," Richard said. Mitchie just nodded. She had told Shane that but she didn't think that he would ever include her in the credit for it. He had been putting off the vibe that he was going to take all glory for himself and the fact that he was openly sharing it with her shocked her into near silence. "Mitchie, what have you got for me?"
She opened up the file she had brought with her. "Shane wasn't the only one having problems with contracts. Tess Créations started in on her contract again." She noted the exasperated look on her bosses' faces. Tess's business had been nothing but a headache. If it weren't for the excessive amount of money she was bringing in they would have dropped her ages ago. However, you don't say no to fifty million dollar deals.
"Have we placated her yet?" Victor asked
"Actually, Shane gave me a good idea; offer her something that makes it look like we're trying to be helpful. I told her we would be shipping if she paid the Tariffs and she agreed. She's already signed the contract."
Both men smiled, knowing that the numbers would be better on the side of the company. There were a few other things discussed in the meeting before they finally broke up. Both Victor and Richard were very impressed with their VPs and how well they were working together. Shane was glad that he was giving the impression of cooperation and Mitchie seemed to be buying it also, finally.
"Let's go eat," Shane said after the company heads had walked out.
"I don't take lunches," Mitchie told him.
"C'mon, Mitchie. We've had a hard day's work and you've had to deal with that horrendous woman Tess all day." He leaned in close, close enough that she could see the lights of the room reflecting in his dark brown eyes. "Treat yourself for once." Before she could answer, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet. She headed out the door and he once again held it for her. As she walked through it, she could feel Shane's palm at the small of her back, guiding her out. She was glad that he couldn't see the blush that graced her cheeks.
"What do you want for lunch?" she asked, suddenly realizing how starving she was.
"I don't care but I know this fantastic Italian place if you're up for it."
Mitchie's mouth practically watered at the thought as she pressed the down arrow for the elevator. "Sounds delicious. You drive then."
"Sounds good to me," he answered and they stepped into the elevator.
"So tell me," Shane said, taking another bite of their shared chocolate cake. Neither had been hungry for a full piece. "What caused you to get the position you're in now?"
Mitche took a bite and then leaned back in her chair, pleasantly stuffed. "I actually had no intentions of rising so high. I started working here at twenty-three, fresh out of college. I took a job with the advertising division of the company." The shock on Shane's face was evident and Mitchie laughed. "Yup, I have a degree in Communications with a concentration in advertisement. I worked on that for about a year and then my boss left, the head of the department and I applied for her job. They had loved my work so much that they hired me. I did a lot of their contracting on the side because I dealt with customers so well and that particular department was short handed. A few years later I moved from head of advertising to director in charge of contracts. It wasn't that large of a step from there to VP. When the job opened up a year ago, my name came up and before I knew it, I was being offered the job."
"You weren't kidding when you said that it fell into your lap," he said, slightly envious of the ease of her gaining her job. She just nodded and took a sip of her drink.
"That's not to say that I didn't work hard to get where I am. My name came up because of all the extra hours I put in and all the good work I did. It just wasn't my original intention." They were silent for a moment before Mitchie spoke up. "What about you? How did you get where you are today."
Shane smiled, remembering all the work he put in to get where he was. "I actually wanted the job I have, or rather, I always wanted it. I went to school for business and a job opened up as an executive assistant to the head of procurement. I learned a vast amount from that man and, like you, when he retired I mad a bid for his job and got it. I just climbed my way up from there. Six months ago VP opened up, I went for it and I got it."
"And now look at us," she joked, "sharing the position we have both so recently earned." Shane laughed with her but inside he was angry. He shouldn't have to share his position and he wasn't looking forward to doing so with Mitchie. Sure, she was fun to be with and smarter than almost anyone he had ever met, attractive and alluring but without being obviously so. None of that mattered, however, because she still had his job. He had worked all of his life for his job and this partnership was not something he had envisioned in his plans.
"Jesus Christ, it's already been almost two hours!" Mitchie said, looking at the clock behind Shane. He turned and sure enough they had gone too far over their time. He stood up and helped her on with her coat.
"I had a good time, Mitchie," he said as they were leaving and strangely he meant it. Mitchie was easy to talk to and get along with, something he didn't often experience. He found himself wanting to tell her things just to see her reactions. Seeing her relaxed at lunch was new to him and it had just made her that much more attractive in his eyes. He had to suppress those feelings, though. Mitchie was not a potential girlfriend or even a potential one night stand. She was his rival and as long as he kept that in mind everything would be fine.
"And you're sure they're looking?" Shane listened patiently to the response. He had been on the phone for hours, getting all of his facts straight before making a move. "Great, thanks so much." He put the phone down on the receiver, smiling. He had done it. He had found his edge, his big deal that would push Mitchie out of her job.
DeBeers, the largest diamond distributor in the world, was looking to become partners with a precious metals company. The information was so new that DeBeers themselves barely knew about it but Shane had found out through one of his contacts. If he could secure DeBeers for CAMP Rock International it would be the largest contract that either company had ever seen. The contract would easily bring in close to a billion dollars a year and if Shane could get them to sign then he would be the sole reason that CAMP Rock had it. They would fire Mitchie for sure.
"What are you smiling at?"
Shane looked up and saw Mitchie standing in the doorway, smiling at him. He always forgot how amazing she looked when she smiled and the loose tendrils of hair around her face that had escaped the usual French twist that she always sported just made her all the more appealing.
"Just a good day," he told her, glad that she hadn't over-heard his conversation. She couldn't know about this deal, ever. "What did you need?"
"I need you to send a quote over to Kay Jewelers. They've been asking for one for weeks but I've been putting it off because they're splitting their business between us another company. We can get it done in time but we charge more than they want to pay. The other company charges less but takes more time so they're splitting the difference," she explained.
"I hate when they do that," Shane complained.
"Me too. And their order wasn't even that big to begin with so it's barely worth it. Contracting has been avoiding their calls and it finally got hoisted onto me." She placed the papers down in front of him. "Also, there's benefit next week that we have to attend. It's to tell everyone how the new company is doing and what it means for our future and all that jazz."
"You just keep telling about things I hate. Do I have to bring a date to this thing?" he asked her, wondering if he could wrangle one up in a week.
"Unfortunately, yes. However, I think that I have a solution to the problem."
Shane raised an eyebrow in question and Mitchie continued. "If we go together, neither of us has to find dates and then we can break up afterwards saying we didn't want to affect our business relationship."
Shane laughed loudly, realizing what a brilliant idea it was. "You've got yourself a date, Mitchie Torres."
Shane looked at his watch for the third time and wondered what could possibly be taking so long. "Mitchie, we're late!" he called again, knocking on her office door. He heard some shuffling from inside but nothing that sounded promising.
"You're so impatient. I'm not a guy. Getting ready in ten minutes is not an option."
Shane resisted the urge to groan. For all of Mitchie's attributes, being on time was not one of them. He was about to knock on the door again when it opened. So did his mouth.
Mitchie's gown was floor length and black, making her look taller than her usual 5'7". Of course, the stilettos she wore on her feet also helped that situation. The gown was sleeveless and backless but had a high neckline and hugged every curve of her body. There was a slit in the dress up to her knee on the right side, showing off her gorgeous legs. Her hair was pulled up on top of her head in a pile of curls, very different from her usual French twist. Diamonds around her wrist and in her ears completed her ensemble making her just the right amount of elegant.
"Wow, Mitchie, I'm impressed," he finally managed to spit out.
"You don't clean up too bad yourself," she said, indicating his designer tux that, like almost everything he wore, was tailored to fit him absolutely perfectly. He offered her his arm and she took it.
The limo was waiting for them out front and he held open the door, letting her slide in first. The trip took less than five minutes and they could see the reporters outside, ready to question whoever it was that lay inside the car. Both Shane and Mitchie knew that their bosses wouldn't be arriving until later and that it was their job to satiate the press until the event started. Shane turned to Mitchie and she noted that he looked about excited as she did. Both of their faces were grim but they plastered on smiles for the press.
"Ready?" he asked her.
"Why not? It's not like the situation is going to improve any."
Shane opened the door and from the sound of the commotion, was recognized instantly. He stood to the side and held out his hand. Mitchie took it, surprised, and he helped her out of the car. She looped her arm through his like she had at the office and prepared herself for the onslaught of questions. However, what happened neither of them expected.
"Are you and Mitchie dating?" Both VPs had to keep their mouths from opening in shock. As usual the press could care less about the important things and focused as much as possible on the gossip. They both smiled politely.
"What should we tell them?" Mitchie murmured through her teeth.
"Well we have two options," he responded, moving his lips as little as she did. "We can set them straight and then have to deal with questions about the company or we can play along and avoid the subject easily like we had hoped for."
"I have an even better idea," she told him. "Follow along."
"Mitchie, Mitchie!" a reported from CNN called, trying to get her to answer a question. "Are you and Shane Gray an item? Have the two VPs become one?"
Mitchie resisted the urge to gag at the tasteless innuendo. "There is no official relationship between Shane Gray and myself," she responded.
"Then why show up together? Why were you on his arm?"
"We both spend a lot of time at the office, it only made sense that we come together. We're a team and we decided that we should present ourselves that way."
"Is there any chance of an interoffice romance?"
Mitchie looked over at Shane coyly then turned back to the reporter. "Who knows? But tonight it's just two new friends coming to a work function together." She sauntered back over to Shane and once again linked arms with him. All the other questions were answered in a similar fashion: insisting they weren't a couple but giving the indication that they might be one day. Finally they were past all the flashing lights and into the building. Shane leaned over, his lips against her ear.
"That was brilliant. Always keep them wanting more."
"Oldest trick in the book," she answered smiling. "You owe me a drink."
"I'll buy you two. Imagine what they'll say to me romancing you with champagne."
"It'll be completely scandalous. It's a wonder how we'll ever get through the night without being all over each other."
They managed to get through most of the night without too much hassle. It soon became clear to the press that if they were dating, they certainly weren't going public with it. They hadn't kissed once or even held hands. All they did was talk and then, when the time came, gave a presentation to tell everyone what was happening with the company. Dinner was served and then it was dancing and drinking for the rest of the evening for all the guests. The gossip mill had died down and Mitchie and Shane managed not to have to answer any difficult questions about the company or their non-existent relationship. Halfway through the night Mitchie felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked up and she saw Shane hold his hand out to her.
"May I have this dance?" he asked with a coy smile. She chuckled and accepted. He was an excellent dancer and she felt like she was floating on the floor. She had taken dancing lessons most of her life and it wasn't often that she had a partner that could keep up with her. Shane just continued to surprise her.
"I have to hand it to you, Mitchie, this whole night was a stroke of brilliance on your part," Shane told her, spinning her out of his arms and then easily brought her back.
"Just good PR practices. Give them hints of what they want and what they don't and they won't get either."
"Whatever your strategy, this night went about a hundred times better than what I had expected because of your quick thinking."
"Just be glad that these things are few and far between," she commented, her voice indicating her dislike of banquets such as this.
"Thank God for that. Imagine if we showed up to two of these things in a row together. I don't think the press would know what to do with themselves," he said, producing a laugh from her.
"I guess the romance is just going to have to end here," she told him, jesting. Shane put his hand over his heart like it was devastating him. Mitchie laughed but she couldn't help feeling a bit sad. Shane was having an effect on her that she wasn't expecting. She was starting to like him, to genuinely enjoy his company, much more than she had ever thought she would. He was funny and witty and made things easy. There was no fighting, no competing like she had originally thought that there would be. Somehow she had come to trust Shane and believe that maybe there could be two of them and that one didn't have to be picked over the other. There were things that they had thought of together in the past months that she would have never thought of on her own had not something Shane said prompted her to think of it.
"I've had a good night, Mitchie," he told her and was surprised to find that he had. His plan to get into her good graces was ever present but he was finding he was lying to her less and less. He was telling her things she needed to hear to trust him but in the past few months since the companies had merged, his lies had become truths. Two months ago he probably wouldn't have had this much fun with her, probably wouldn't have come with her at all. Now he found himself glad that she had suggested it and even happier to be dancing with her. He wasn't sure if he liked it or not. In the end he supposed it didn't really matter. He was going to get the DeBeers account and she was going to get fired and what happened in the meantime really had no relevance.
Mitchie walked into her office for the first time that day. She had been running all over town, and then all over the building, getting things done so that Tess's metal would be shipped out on time. The delays with this order just kept building up and unfortunately not all of them could be blamed on Tess. Mitchie had just come from shipping and made sure that everything had gotten out. Barring any other major disasters, the order would ship out tonight.
She unlocked her door, hung her coat and purse on the coat rack and walked over to her desk. She was surprised to find food from her favorite Chinese restaurant on her desk, still hot. There was a note taped to the top of it. Mitchie picked it up and unfolded it.
Mitchie,
You forgot to eat again, don't deny it. Ordered from them myself and they won't deliver unless the order is over $10. Thought that you would like to have something.
Shane
Mitchie was touched by his thoughtfulness. He was right; she had once again forgotten to eat, not having the time to sit down and do so. She couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. Mitchie wasn't sure what was happening between Shane and her but she couldn't say that there wasn't a part of her that loved it. She never had anyone take care of her but herself and it was sweet that Shane did. Her heart was warming to him despite how she tried to fight it. She hoped that one day she wouldn't have to.
Mitchie glanced at the clock again, noting how late it had actually gotten. She wanted to go home more than anything, to curl up in her soft bed and sleep what was left of her evening away. Unfortunately, Victor had needed her to take care of this immediately so here she was, at two AM, still working. They were sending a huge shipment over to France to an up and rising jewelry company. The deal, which Mitchie had procured, was actually the best investment so far this year and therefore every need was catered to with the company they were dealing with. She had finally smoothed things over a week ago and then today, five minutes before closing, Victor called saying they were having problems with the shipment getting through customs. It seemed the French government was wary about bringing in that much gold, silver and platinum. She'd been arguing with them ever since. If this shipment didn't get there in three days, the whole contract would be void.
"Inacceptable. Il doit être là à l'heure!" she yelled into the phone. "Non! Ne faire pas—merde!" She had been transferred again to the US embassy, which of course had no jurisdiction when it came to the transfer of goods. "Hi, Jenny, it's Mitchie again. Yeah, of course they transferred me back to you because they don't want to deal with the fact that they're wrong. That would be great, thanks." She hung up the phone, knowing that she would have to wait for Jenny to work her magic.
Shane was also at the office late only his problems were with Germany. It was similar custom problems but it had been easily resolved. He had caught a few hours sleep before coming back to the office and calling Germany. Time differences were a bitch. On his way out he saw Mitchie sitting at her desk. She had her shoes off and propped up on her desk which was, surprisingly, clean. In fact the whole office was emptied of most of the papers that he had seen there a month ago when he had found her paper she had been looking for. Her long legs were bare, her pantyhose having been disposed of many hours ago, her hair was let down out of her usual French twist and she leaned back in her chair with her eyes closed. Her pink skirt rose to just below the point of immodesty and her jacket and blouse were thrown over the back of her chair, leaving her in a black tank top. She had no make-up on but Shane didn't think he had ever seen her wear make-up just like he had never seen her so relaxed. Her hair fell to her waist at least though it was hard to tell when she was sitting. Seeing her like this, a little more casual and slightly rumpled, was just about the sexiest thing he had ever seen.
The thought surprised him but only slightly. Spending so much time with her had been making him soft towards her. It was hard not to be considering how everyone loved her. In the four months that he had been here he had not heard a single bad word about her and was loved from the person directly below her all the way down to the temp that worked the front desk of the office. She made it a point to talk to and know every one of them and make them feel as if the entire company would collapse if they weren't there. In some ways it was true, for if they didn't have that front desk receptionist they would have many angry customers and make a major dent in their business.
She looked up when she heard him enter and she smiled at him. Shane couldn't help returning it, noting that just a month or so ago her response to him would not have been so warm. She was beginning to trust him, possibly already did, which is why she knew nothing about the DeBeers account. He may like Mitchie but that still didn't deter him from his objective. He was going to be the one who ended up on top, not her.
"Having problems?" he asked her.
"Yeah, could you give the French Customs Director a good kick in the ass for me? Or better yet, just his secretary since she's the one who keeps diverting my calls."
"You're having trouble getting an order through to France? Do they keep redirecting you to the US Embassy?"
"So you've tried dealing with French Customs before have you?" she asked, amusement in her voice. Shane held out his hand and signaled that she should give him the phone. He dialed the number, waiting for it to connect.
"Ambassadeur Jean-Luke, sil vous plait… Shane Gray." He was silent for a moment and then starting speaking rapidly in French. Mitchie had a hard time keeping up but she knew that he was telling the Ambassador that the delays weren't acceptable and would severely damage the relationship our company had with his. Who this ambassador was, Mitchie didn't know. Shane pointed to her file and gestured for her to give it to him quickly. "Vous perdrez toutes nos affaires si vous ne traitez pas ceci immédiatement…Un-cinq-six-neuf-neuf-zéro-deux-zéro-huit," he read off the top page and then paused again. "Tess Créations. Oui…Oui… Merci pour votre aide." He hung up the phone with a decisive click. "Done."
Mitchie looked at him in astonishment, disbelieving that he had just handle something in two minutes that had previously taken her two hours. More and more Shane was creeping into her good graces, making her heart flutter just a little when he helped her out. He was so different when she had first met him and her impression had been that he wanted nothing but to bring about her demise. Now she saw that he genuinely wanted to make this a true partnership. She was starting to think that it could be possible.
"I can't believe you just did that."
He smiled at her, making her heart melt just a little more. "The French are easy. All you have to do is bully the right people."
"That would have been nice to know two hours ago. Maybe I could have actually gotten some sleep tonight."
"Go home and get a few hours rest before coming in tomorrow," he said, standing next to her and leaning against her desk.
"Can't," she answered, "I have to look over and approve the advertisements for the quarter." She pointed to a huge board leaning up against a chair with magazine advertisements on it. A few marks and suggestions had been made in red marker but Shane could see that it was no where near being done. It was going to take her at least another three hours to finish it up and by then it would be too late to go home. She lived an hour from here. By the time she got there it would be time to come back so she would just change into a spare change of clothes that she had in her office and caffeinate herself to get through the day tomorrow.
Shane slipped off his shoes and grabbed a red marker off of her desk. He sat down on the floor cross legged and began scrutinizing the photos in front of him, making marks where he thought corrections needed to be made. He didn't know what the advertising portion of their company was up to, but there were some major things wrong with the ads.
"Shane, what are you doing?" she asked him tiredly.
"Helping you."
She walked over and sat down next to him. She would point out things he missed and together they collaborated on what would make it better, the different things they should try and what things absolutely had to go. When they finished, they were both laying on her floor in exhaustion. The day had been inexplicably long for both of them and in about three hours they had to get up and do it again. Mitchie was already half asleep despite how hard the floor was.
"If we're even going to pretend to get some sleep tonight we better get going," Shane commented standing up. Mitchie looked at him from her place on the floor. He stood in bare feet and dark dress pants. He had removed his tie and jacket and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. The collar of his shirt was undone and his hair fell messily in his face, completing his sexy disheveled appearance.
"I've given up on sleep," she told him. "It's too late to go home so I'll probably catch a few hours in my chair, get dressed and be ready to go in the morning."
"You're going to sleep in your chair?" he asked surprised. She just nodded her head and he sighed, knowing he couldn't convince her to go home. "If you're going to insist on being a martyr and stay here at least take the couch in my office. It's big enough to be comfortable for you."
"What about you?"
"I'm going home. I only live ten minutes from here." He held out his hand to help her up. Mitchie sat up and grabbed it, allowing herself to be pulled up off the floor. Shane pulled her up a little too forcefully causing her to literally fall into his arms. She gave a little yelp as he caught her, his arms wrapped tightly around her to keep her from falling. When Mitchie looked up their faces were inches apart and Mitchie could see all the different shades of brown in Shane's eyes.
Shane acted before he could really think. He just saw her there, pressed up against him, gorgeous eyes staring into his, her tempting lips parted in surprise and he leaned down, kissing her roughly. His arms tightened around her, crushing her to him but she hardly noticed, her own arms wrapped around his neck and standing on her tip toes so that she could reach him. Her mouth yielded to him as his tongue dipped into it, caressing it in every way he could. He lifted her off the floor slightly and her legs wrapped around him. He carried her over to her desk and swept everything important off of it with his arm before sitting her on it, his mouth never leaving hers. Her hands grabbed his shirt, pulling it free of his pants and his hands slid under her shirt, caressing her.
"Oh, Mitchie," he breathed when their lips finally parted and he began to place kisses along her neck. The sound of her name brought Mitchie to her senses.
"Shane," she said as his tongue traced her collar bone.
"Mmm?" he mumbled back, never looking up.
"Shane, stop," she said more forcefully. Shane caught the tone of her voice and somehow managed to pull himself from her wonderfully tanned skin.
"What's wrong?" he asked, aching to touch her again, kiss her.
"We can't do this," she said, her head shaking. Shane looked at her, wondering if she was joking and realized that she wasn't. With an extreme effort he pulled himself away, stood next to her and leaned against the desk, his palms flat on its surface.
His breath came heavily as he spoke to her, "You better get some sleep."
"Shane, I-"
"Mitchie, if you don't leave now, then we're going to both do something that we regret. Please, go into my office and get some sleep."
Mitchie closed her mouth and quietly slipped out of the door. Shane just stood there, trying to get everything under control again. He had never responded like that to a woman, never lost control like that but the second his lips landed on Mitchie's he just couldn't stop himself. If she hadn't said something they would probably both be naked and on the floor by now… or bent over her desk. He groaned, sexually and mentally frustrated. He wanted Mitchie, wanted her more than anything and he couldn't assure himself that it was merely a sexual attraction. She had been getting under his skin all this time, creeping her way into his life without him even realizing it and making him lose focus. He couldn't lose focus. This job was everything to him and if he lost it because he couldn't keep it in his pants he was going to regret it the rest of his life.
Shane stood up, now in control and walked into his office. Mitchie lay on his couch, already asleep, her breath coming evenly though her body was shaking from the cold. Shane cursed, forgetting that he kept his office at a cool sixty-five and grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch, covering her in it. He looked at her and she seemed so peaceful and unthreatening when she let her guard down, let someone see into her life. Seeing her now you would never know how ruthless she was.
Well, he could be ruthless too. The DeBeers contract would go through any day now and then he could present it to his bosses on Monday at the weekly meetings they always held with Mitchie and him. He would humiliate her and make sure that her job was worthless. All he had to do was keep focus for a few more days.
He watched her sleep and tried not to think about how hard that was actually going to be.
Mitchie woke the next morning when the light hit her face. She closed her eyes and hid from it, not wanting to get up. Finally she realized she'd have to and she stretched, expelling the remains of sleep from her bones. It took her a second to remember that she wasn't in her bed and was actually lying on Shane's couch. She was still in her skirt and tank top, her hair askew and she knew she'd have to change before everyone showed up.
"It's about time you woke up," came Shane's voice from behind her. He stood in the doorway, clean clothes and freshly shaved holding a cup of steaming coffee that she hoped was for her. She smiled lazily at him and he walked in, handing her the cup in his hand.
"Thanks. I haven't been asleep that long," she countered. Shane looked at her surprised and then realized she probably had no idea what time it was. He flipped the clock on his desk around and she saw that it read ten-thirty. She nearly spit out her coffee. She had slept three hours past what she intended. "Why didn't you wake me?" She threw the blanket aside and was about to run out the door but Shane caught her.
"I don't think you want to go out there," Shane told her.
"Why the hell not?"
"Because the entire office is here and you look like you just spent the night in my office getting fully satisfied."
Mitchie blushed profusely but realized he was right. She was barely clothed and couldn't just walk out and act like she came to work like this everyday, especially since she'd be walking out of his office. Shane pointed to a garment back hanging from his closet door.
"There are your clothes. You can get dressed in here."
"Thanks," she told him, the blush still staining her cheeks. Shane had to restrain himself from kissing her senseless knowing that not even an office full of people would stop him this time if they started. A few minutes later she emerged from his office looking a lot different than he had expected. He had picked the most conservative thing he could find in her closet, a pencil skirt, black blouse and black jacket. What he wasn't expecting was for everything to fit her like a glove and for her to unbutton the top few buttons of her blouse, exposing the tank top underneath. Her hair was pulled into her usual French twist and simple black pumps on her feet. She looked just as tempting this morning as she had the previous night.
"That's going to produce a lot less gossip," he commented, trying not to look at her as he walked by her into his office. The doorway was too small to fit them both and he felt her arm brush up against him.
"Why didn't you just wake me up before everyone got here?" she asked, following him into his office.
Shane sat down at his desk and finally had the courage to look her in the face. "You don't sleep enough as it is. Three hours isn't enough to function on so I let you get six."
"You only slept for three hours," she told him dryly.
"I took a nap before I ran into you of about four hours and slept till eight," he responded. "It's not a big deal. Both Victor and Richard are out of the office today and it's been generally slow this morning since we got that order for Tess Créations out."
Once again the care that Shane showed for her was shocking. The night before came rushing back to her and she felt suddenly awkward, not knowing what to say to him. "Shane, last night-"
"Was something that resulted from too much work and sleep deprivation," he told her calmly. "We've both been working too hard and just weren't thinking.
"Right. We'll, I'll leave you to get some work done since I've been invading your office all morning." She turned to go then stopped in the doorway. "Thanks for everything, Shane." Her smile was warm and genuine, the kind of smile that reminded him why he had kissed her in the first place and why he longed to do it again. He felt the corners of his mouth tugging upwards in a smile.
"Anytime," he told her and cursed internally. Once again he realized that he wasn't lying.
When Mitchie entered her office she was surprised at the cleanliness. She knew that at some point Shane had shoved everything off her desk so that he could put her on it but all the papers she expected to be on the floor she saw were in neat piles on her desk. Shane must have cleaned everything up knowing that even the papers on the floor would ignite curiosity. She sat in her chair and closed her eyes so that she could think clearly. Things had been happening so fast with Shane. Their friendship came easily to her and was surprisingly enjoyable but that didn't mean that it should have developed into last night. Shane was probably right, blaming it on their sleep deprived bodies but Mitchie couldn't so easily give into that. There was a part of her that liked Shane and wanted to be around him. What would it be like to date him? She had a taste of that when they went to the benefit but it had been superficial. It had still been the most fun that she had had in some time.
Last night had also been the best kiss she had ever experienced in her life. It felt as if he couldn't get enough of her, as if he wanted to sink himself into every part of her. Mitchie couldn't say that her feelings weren't similar. If she hadn't stopped him when she did she knew that it would have ended with her discovering just how many ways two people could occupy the same space. Even now she got turned on thinking about it.
She shook her head, not being able to figure out what was happening. She was friends with Shane, sure, but they were still coworkers and, in some ways, still rivals. Romantic interludes were not part of the plan and certainly not a good idea at all. She flicked on her computer and pulled up a file to work on, trying unsuccessfully to put Shane Gray out of her mind.
"Of course… yes, of course. My fax is 894-555-7120… Just sign everywhere there is an X. I will personally tell my bosses in the morning. Thank you." Shane hung up the phone and had to refrain from dancing around the room. DeBeers had decided to sign and would be faxing over the contracts as soon as they were signed. Shane had just single-handedly bagged a billion dollars for CAMP Rock International and it was going to force both Victor and Richard to keep him as the only VP and get rid of Mitchie.
There was a nagging part of him, however, that was insisting that he didn't want to get rid of Mitchie and that he wanted nothing more that to keep her as close as possible for as long as possible. Shane tried to suppress the feeling. Mitchie was his competition and had always been that. He couldn't afford for his career goals to be thwarted by something he felt. The fact that he had never had this feeling before in his life was completely irrelevant. It wasn't love or even adoration, just simply a result of spending too much time with her. It didn't matter that every time he saw her he wanted to smile and it didn't matter that he never felt as good as when something he did made her smile. He wasn't going to think about how he enjoyed caring for her when she so obviously had problems caring for herself or that he enjoyed her company or even that enjoyed it every time he touched her, caressed her without her realizing he was doing it. The fact that when he kissed her he had never felt so happy or complete in his life wasn't the point here. The point was being the only VP in this office was his goal and Mitchie stood in the way of that and would continue to do so until he did something.
Tomorrow morning they had their weekly meeting with Victor and Richard and he knew that Mitchie had little to report to them. Generally this time of year there was a large lull in business and the time was taken to solve all the other dilemmas that had been piling up over the year. Mitchie was doing just that, revamping Human Resources. It was having some major management problems and Mitchie was determined to take care of them and make HR a functioning department again.
It was lucky for him because it was keeping her distracted and he had been able to make this DeBeers deal with her none the wiser. He felt the excitement rise in him, once again feeling the thrill of making a good deal. He knew that he would be praised and looked forward to the reward that he would reap. His eyes glanced over to his calendar. It was five months to the day since the two companies had merged. It had taken him five grueling months but come tomorrow he would finally get what he had been working so hard towards.
"What have you been working on, Mitchie?" Victor asked. They had a lot to discuss in this meeting and had ordered lunch to tie them over. Mitchie looked up from the advertisements they had been scrutinizing.
"Human Resources, as we all are painfully aware, has needed an overhaul for some time now so I've taken on that project. I'm in the process of finding a replacement for the manager that's currently there because he does nothing. He's a big reason why there are so many problems and I can't imagine how anyone ever decided that he was a good person for this job," she complained. If a good Director of HR had been hired they wouldn't be going through all of this. She wouldn't be doing it now if things weren't so painfully in disrepair.
"One of the major downfalls of your predecessor. He was much too kind hearted and often hired people based on their need of the job and not their credentials to do it," Richard commented.
"I think I'm just going to pull the Director that ran HR at CAMP and then hire someone to take her place. It would be better than trying to find someone new and train them. I've heard nothing but good things about Julia."
"She was one of the best and I was sad when she had to be moved," Victor commented. "She'll be happy to have her old job back but make sure she gets a pay raise for going back over there. It's a hassle to be continually moved from one department to another."
Mitchie nodded, taking the note down in her folder. She had so much work to do on HR but she'd heard nothing but good things about the former HR Director of CAMP Inc. Mitchie hoped that things would go more smoothly by moving Julia there.
"Any other new business?" Richard asked.
Shane took a deep breath and spoke up. "Actually, a new client has signed with us."
"Really? You don't get a lot of new accounts this time of year," Richard commented.
"This was a special case," Shane told him, smile playing at his lips. Mitchie wondered what he was getting at. He hadn't mentioned a new account to her yet he looked like a kid in a candy store.
"Well, who is this new account?" Richard asked impatiently.
"DeBeers has signed an exclusive contract with CAMP Rock International for one billion dollars in the next year."
Three mouths were collectively hanging open. The shock was palpable in the room and the result was two very different reactions. Victor and Richard were ecstatic, of course. This was the biggest deal that either business had ever had in their lives and it would never have happened had the two companies not combined. DeBeers probably would have split their business between the two companies. Now they were getting one, billion dollar contract. Mitchie, however, did not join in on their excitement. Shane had purposely kept this under wraps, purposely kept it from her. Her bosses were excited now but would soon learn she had no hand in this and that Shane had manage to procure it single-handedly. She knew that they would fire her for sure or demote her so low she would quit. She felt her chest constrict and had to concentrate on breathing.
She had been stupid, really, to think that there was anything but a rivalry between Shane and her, stupid to let her guard down. She realized that he had been planning this from the beginning. Everything that he had done he had done with the idea of her end in mind. Even… the events from that night last week drifted into her head. She had thought him sincere and it was really just another ploy to distract her. Now she felt relief that she hadn't slept with him and compromised her integrity so completely. He had used her so absolutely and utterly.
"Mitchie," Richard said exuberantly, "fill us in on the details. Where are the contracts? Have they been signed already? How long term are we looking?"
Mitchie choked back tears. She loved this job and now she was going to lose it. She wrangled in her emotions and steeled her eyes. She was a big girl and this was just another set back along the way. "I don't know," she responded, her voice even. "I had no idea that we were in negotiations."
The coldness of her voice shocked Shane. He looked over and there was no more emotion in her face than in her voice. Mitchie was just the shell of the woman he knew and enjoyed so much. He felt a small pain in his chest as he realized exactly what this meant for her. She would be completely ruined with no where to go. He hadn't just taken her job from her; he had taken her entire career. He suddenly felt sick and wished he could take his actions back but it was much too late for that.
"You… didn't know?" Victor asked, a little incredulously. His eyes shot towards Shane. "You didn't tell her?"
"It didn't come up," Shane answered smoothly. There was more tension than Shane had expected. He expected a lot more elation from his bosses. Richard was the first to recover.
"Tell us the details then," he said. Shane told them who was paying what and how much they would be requiring from us in the next year. Price had been negotiated and agreed on, at actually a very good price to CAMP Rock's side and dates for shipping had been hashed out. They would be shipping all over the world, allowing the company to get their foot into the door of countries that had never dreamed to try and send precious metals to.
"And if everything goes well," Shane concluded, "then at the end of the year they'll sign on for ten years, a billion dollars a year."
"Good work," Victor told him but it didn't hold the enthusiasm that Shane had thought it would. "I think that's it for the meeting today. Mitchie, would you stay for a minute?"
Mitchie resisted the urge to cringe. They weren't even going to wait until the end of the day. They were going to fire her right in this room just like she had done to so many people before her. She watched Shane get up and walk out, no emotion escaping her face. She thought she saw concern pass over his features but she knew that wasn't right. He cared nothing for her. If he had been concerned he would never have betrayed her so fully. She turned her attention to Victor and Richard and spoke before their inevitable words came out.
"I'll hand in my resignation now and save you the trouble of asking me to leave. I've enjoyed working for this company and hope that I've been an asset to it."
"Mitchie-" Richard began but she held up her hand.
"Please, don't. Let me resign in peace. I'll be out of here by the end of the day. Thank you for all the opportunities you've provided me with, Richard." She stood up and walked out the door with her head held high.
Shane walked into Mitchie's office the next morning, planning to talk to her about everything. His stomach was in knots from what had happened. He didn't think she would have reacted like that, draining any emotion from herself. It wasn't the Mitchie he knew and frankly it scared him a bit.
It didn't scare him as much as what he faced in her office. Everything had been cleaned out: her books, her pictures that lined the walls, all the clothes out of the closet and even her files had been emptied. There was nothing left to the woman he had come to so admire. He couldn't believe that they had fired her so quickly and forced her to leave even sooner.
He walked to back to his office, dazed. How could she leave without saying a word to him? It still hadn't sunk in what he had done to her. He knew that she wouldn't be happy, that she would be upset but to make her leave so fast and for her to not say a word to him was beyond his understanding. He wanted answers from everyone and in his anger he stalked to Richard's office, Richard who had hired her and seen her potential.
"Why did you force Mitchie out so soon? You couldn't give her a few days to clear out? She did a lot for this company," he said, almost yelling. He was so angry but he couldn't understand why. He had gotten exactly what he wanted: Mitchie fired.
Richard looked up, unamused. "You're right, she has done a lot for this company, including keeping you in the loop every step of the way despite your constant efforts to undermine her. We were going to promote her to be a partner but she quit before we could offer her the position."
"Partner?" Shane asked, stunned. He had to have heard wrong.
"Yes," Richard confirmed, "partner. It was our solution all along. We knew that two VPs in a company weren't going to work long term but we had both been planning to promote our VPs to partner until the companies merged. Instead we decided that we would watch you secretly for six months and then ask the one we thought who deserved it more. After your stunt yesterday we didn't need the extra month to decide."
"What stunt? I secured you the biggest contract this company has ever seen before or after the merger! Why promote Mitchie?" he demanded. He couldn't understand what he had done wrong, how his plan had backfired so thoroughly.
"You're not a team player, Shane. You deceived your coworker to better your career and demolish hers. Companies don't work if your employees don't trust each other. What would happen if you became partner and realized that the only way you could progress was to get rid of the other two partners? We could never promote you, Shane, and now because of your tactics we don't have a new partner or a good VP. You have cost this company a lot."
"Get her back then," Shane said, his voice low and in shock. Richard just shrugged.
"We tried talking to her and she wouldn't listen. She thinks she fired and refuses to hear otherwise. Now if you please, get out of my office. We have a lot of work to do because of you."
Shane just turned and walked out of the room, barely understanding what had just happened. Mitchie had out shone him so much it had blinded him. He couldn't see what was going on around him or even see the consequences that his own actions. Shane slumped down on his couch, laying there, still able to smell Mitchie's perfume on it. He had lost everything: his credibility, probably his job, his integrity and her. He had lost the most amazing woman he had ever known because he had been so intent on progressing his career. He was such a fool. Only someone completely idiotic would want the woman he loved to get fired.
Oh, shit, he loved her. He had fallen in love with Mitchie Torres and now he realized why everything had been different. Things had been easy because he wanted them to be, because he had wanted her to like him, because he was desperately in love with her. He groaned and rolled over, taking a deep breath and letting her scent wash over him. He loved her and then betrayed her in the worst way. She had trusted him, probably more so than anyone in her life and he had completely screwed up.
He had no idea what to do, had no idea how to fix it. How did you tell someone that you were sorry that you tried to ruin their life? He sat up determined. He had never backed down from a challenge in his life and he wasn't about to start now. He was going to get Mitchie to come back and he was going to get her to love him and everything was going to be great.
Mitchie ignored the phone which hadn't stopped ringing all day. She had turned off her machine, not wanting to hear what anyone had to say to her. She sat in her apartment for three days in sweatpants and a t-shirt watching movies and eating ice cream and chocolates. It was the worst thing for her but she could have cared less. Her job was gone, her life was gone and Shane… she pushed him from her mind.
Shane had betrayed her and it was her own fault for trusting him, for loving him. Oh, God how she loved him, even after all of this. She deserved what she got for being so totally stupid and not reigning in her emotions. She knew that Shane could never reciprocate her feelings yet she had let him in anyways. All her life she had only trusted herself and this episode with Shane told her she had been right to do so. No one could be trusted because in the end there would always be an offer that was too good to pass up. For Shane it had been DeBeers and a billion dollar contract.
She didn't even know where to go from here. She didn't really need a job so she was having a hard time making herself go and look for one. All those years with the company, all that vacation that she never took, all those million plus dollar deals that she got ten percent of had fattened her bank account beyond what a single girl living in Manhattan needed. So she sat and she continued to stare at her television screen, ignoring her phone, her computer, her blackberry. The incessant knocking at her door however became harder and harder to ignore. It didn't stop after a few minutes of her not answering and soon a voice accompanied the knocking.
"Mitchie, I know you're in there. Open the door." Shane's voice came through loud and clear and Mitchie felt her heart constrict once more. She couldn't face him, couldn't stand to see him. He kept knocking, pounding, threatening. "Open up, Mitchie."
She pulled herself from the couch, unlocking the locks of her door and opened it. Shane stopped mid-knock. His eyes took in her disheveled appearance: hair down, draped around her, clothed in gray sweats about four sizes too big for her and her eyes hollow, dead as if someone had drained everything out of her. He had done that to her.
"Oh, Mitchie," he breathed and Mitchie looked up, memories of that late night in her office, coming back and flooding her consciousness. He had said her name in a similar fashion but now there was more concern in his voice. She couldn't understand. Why would he be concerned for her? He hated her more than the gum that got stuck to the bottom of her shoe. Come to think of it, that was probably exactly what he thought of her. "Don't you ever answer your phone?" he asked her, his voice low, soft, hoping to comfort her in any way.
"Why? There's no one left to call me that I would want to talk to. You took care of that," she answered, no emotion seeping through. Shane wanted to shake her, to bring back the Mitchie that he loved so dearly but he knew that it wasn't the way to wake her up.
"They weren't going to fire you, Mitchie, they were going to promote you," he explained. Confusion showed in her eyes and Shane was relieved to see any emotion on her face.
"Why would they do that? Why are you trying to hurt me again, Shane?"
She didn't even trust that he was telling her the truth. He couldn't believe the extent of the damage that he had caused.
"Mitchie, I know you don't believe anything I say but I'm not lying to you. Call Richard yourself. They're dying to have you come back and be a partner."
"Partner…" Still her eyes were dead, uncomprehending.
"I screwed up, Mitchie. They wanted someone just like you: compassionate, loyal and hard working, someone who cares about everyone and not just themselves." He put his hands on either side of her face and forced her to look at him, to stop letting her eyes wander. "You are exactly what CAMP Rock needs."
Something he said seemed to snap her back into reality. She woke up from the stupor that she had been living in for days. She shook her head.
"I need to call them," she said, tearing herself away from Shane. She picked up her blackberry and saw a list of emails from both Richard and Victor. They wanted her back and to promote her to partner. She stared at it in disbelief. She wasn't fired; Shane's stunt had caused her promotion. She looked up and saw that he had followed her into the apartment. "They promoted me."
He nodded and watched her face break into a slow smile as she looked at her blackberry again. "Partner!" she almost screamed. He had never seen her so happy in his life. Her job was her life and he had almost taken that away from her, almost destroyed her happiness. He didn't think he could have been a bigger ass. She looked up from her phone and seemed to notice that he was still her. Her face changed so fast Shane almost got whiplash. It was like when they had first met but ten times worse. She was void of all emotion when she looked at him, showing nothing but a steely cold exterior.
"What are you still doing here?"
"Mitchie, I… I'm sorry." It sounded so inadequate for everything that he had put her through. The cold mask didn't move or even soften in the slightest.
"I'll see you at work tomorrow, Shane."
The next day at work, Mitchie looked more like herself, though Shane didn't let that fool him. She was being moved to a bigger office, ironically the one across the hall from his own. He was the VP and therefore it was only natural that he be near one of the partners. He was happy for the arrangement but he sensed Mitchie was less than ecstatic about it. All of her things were moved into the office in one day and she still had more space than she knew what to do with. He saw her circling the space, smile on her face, stunned with all the extra space that she had.
There came a knock at her door and Mitchie turned around to see someone who looked like a mover. Her brow knitted in confusion thinking that everything had been moved in already.
"Yes?"
"Mitchie Torres?" the man asked her.
"Yes, that's me."
"Where do you want the couch?" he asked, waving on the men behind him to bring in the furniture. Her eyes went wide.
"I didn't order a couch," she told him frantically.
"Well someone bought and paid for a couch, so here it is."
Mitche watched them haul it in and had them place it against the far wall, away from her desk and hidden from the hall. She signed for it and then sat on it when they left. It was beautiful. She easily sank into it, the material conforming around her body. She ran her hands over the white suede, loving the feel of it under her hands. It was a beautiful couch and exactly to her taste. She wondered who sent it before she realized that Richard and Victor might have purchased it for her. She didn't realize they knew what she liked so well but clearly they had done their homework.
Shane watched her reaction from her doorway. She hadn't noticed him walked in she had been so wrapped up in her present. It had cost a fortune but what was a fortune to him? He had more than enough money for the couch and she looked so happy. Finally she looked up and realized that he was in the doorway. He watched as her smiled fell and the emotions went out of her eyes and once again he was looking at a cold, emotionless Mitchie. It was a demeanor that she saved just for him, not that he didn't deserve it.
"The couch is gorgeous," Shane comment.
"It was very thoughtful of Richard and Victor," she responded, barely any inflection in her voice. Shane realized that she didn't know it was from him. He decided that he would keep it that way for now so that she didn't send it back. She would find out soon enough that it wasn't from whom she thought. "Was there something that you needed?"
Shane handed her a folder. "The DeBeers account. It needs your signature to proceed and Richard and Victor told me to hand it off to you. They want you to personally handle this account."
Mitchie reached for it, trying not to let her fingers shake. This was the account that had caused so many problems and now she was in charge of it. It was almost surreal but despite the responsibility, she didn't want it. The DeBeers account had almost ended everything and she was scared that should she take possession of it then her precariously built world would crumble. She placed her fingers around the folder and gently took it from Shane.
"Thank you. Is that all?" She forced herself to meet his eyes and all he saw was coldness.
"That's all for now," he told her. She didn't even respond, just rose from the couch and sauntered over to her desk, an indication that he should leave.
He did everything for her and Mitchie wasn't sure what to make of it. Her copies would be finished at almost an instance's notice, her folders brought to her when asked, he appointments kept. Shane kept her meetings and Richard and Victor brought her up to speed on what it entailed to be a partner in the company.
Shane also continued to do all the things that weren't deemed normal for a VP, or at least she had never done them for Richard. She had lunch on her desk daily, though she never asked for it. Usually she didn't even remember that she was hungry. At two PM everyday there was a cup of coffee on her desk, just the kind that she liked and Shane would come in five minutes before every meeting to make sure she remembered. Usually if she was still there five till, she didn't. Her closet always had clothes for every occasion, exactly the days she needed them and she never recognized the clothes. She was pretty sure that she had never bought clothing for Victor or Richard but they didn't forget to go home like she often did. There was even a brochure for Hawaii on her desk, a reminder that she now had time to book a vacation because there were other people who could cover her in her absence.
She tried not to let it affect her knowing that it was all just a ploy. Everything Shane did he did was to better his career, she knew that now. All the gestures that he made were simply to get him out of the doghouse with Richard, Victor and herself. So she continued to steel herself against him, acting as cold as she could manage, defining the boundaries for both him and her. She had fallen in love with him but so what? A person could forget and move on and that was exactly what she planned to do with Shane. She was just glad that it had happened before she did something like tell him she was desperately in love with him. She ignored the fact that her pain seemed to be increasing instead of decreasing.
Shane did what he had always done: took care of her. She wouldn't let him do anything else and in the weeks since she had been there he hadn't even been able to elicit a smile from her. Mitchie may have returned to her job but Shane knew she hadn't come back. She was only a fraction of the woman she was and not just with him. Sure, she was especially icy to him but she still wasn't her usual exuberant self around others. She smiled but it didn't transform her face like it had once done. Shane had to take care of her because he was afraid that she would wither away if he didn't. She was digging deeper inside of herself, losing herself. Shane was desperate for a way to bring her out before she ruined her career as well as her life. She thought that things were running smoothly but that was only because he was taking on her workload as well as his own. The fast, witty intelligence that she had always portrayed was gone, lost as thoroughly as the rest of her.
Shane sighed and picked up the coffee that he had ordered her. He had to do something soon before it was too late.
When Mitchie walked into her office she was sure that it wasn't hers. However, under the dozens upon dozens of roses, there were still the usual things: her huge desk, the row of file cabinets and her favorite couch off to the side. In one of the bouquets on her desk a card stuck out from the middle. She plucked the card off its spike and read it.
Mitchie,
Happy Birthday. 29 Dozen roses for your 29th. Surprise for you in your closet.
Shane
She had forgotten that it was her birthday she had been so wrapped up in everything. To be truthful she wasn't sure that she wanted to remember. She had planned for a lot of things by the time she was twenty-nine and the only thing that she had actually achieved was a stable job. She had no children, no husband, not even a prospective one and it depressed her even further. She re-read the note and walked over to her closet. Upon opening it there was a beautiful designer gown hanging up, blood red and long and more elegant than anything she had ever seen before in her life. There was a note attached to the garment bag behind it.
I've made an appointment for dinner. The limo will pick you up at five. Shoes are in the bottom of the closet and someone is coming in to do your hair at four. Be ready.
Shane
She wanted to protest, to tell him that she couldn't go to dinner because spending an evening alone with him would remind her of everything that had gone wrong when it came to the two of them. When she looked across the hall she saw that he was gone and a note was taped to his door.
I'm not letting you back out. I'll see you tonight.
She couldn't believe how well he knew her. Promptly at four the woman came and did her hair and then at five, just as Shane promised, the limo pulled up to the front door. However, instead of taking her straight to dinner like she originally thought, it stopped at Tiffany's on 5th. She got out and headed to the jewelry counter as the driver had instructed her.
"Miss Torres?" the attended asked, probably in response to her bewildered look.
"Yes?"
"This is for you." The woman pulled a box onto the counter and inside there were a pair of diamond earrings and the most beautiful diamond necklace Mitchie had seen in her life. She touched it gingerly, watching it sparkle under her fingers tips. She looked up at the attendant.
"I can't accept this," Mitchie told her. The woman just smiled and handed her a note.
"He said that you might say that."
Mitchie gingerly took the note and opened it. His cologne wafted up towards her and for the first time since the incident with the DeBeers contract, she felt her heart speed up.
It's already paid for so you might as well just accept it. It will look beautiful on you. See you at dinner.
She smiled, really smiled and then slipped on the necklace and earrings. She hurried back out to the car, not wanting to be late, afraid that he'd think that she stood him up. It was the last thing that she was planning on doing.
Their destination was not what she had expected. They were parked in front of a building that she didn't recognize, in Time Square. She got out and the doorman opened the front entry way and directed her towards the elevator. The only button that she could press was the one for the roof and she felt the elevator glide upwards. She didn't know what to expect when the doors slid open but it certainly wasn't what greeted her. Shane was there, dressed impressively as always, bathed in candle light standing in front of a single table draped in a white tablecloth. His smile was warm and welcoming and caused those wonderful butterflies in her stomach.
"Shane… what is all this?"
He took her hand, leading her out of the elevator. She could see all of Time Square from their perch and the view was stunning. "It's your birthday celebration. Don't you think that you deserve one?" he asked.
"But why would you give it to me? How does this help you?" She was so confused by what was happening. Shane always had his own agenda, something that would benefit him but she didn't know how treating her to the most romantic night of her life would do that.
"It doesn't, Mitchie. This is all for you." He hated how much her comments hurt but knew he deserved worse. He had done nothing but help himself so he couldn't blame her for thinking that this was nothing but another ploy. He had destroyed her trust in him so completely.
"But… I still don't understand." She sat down as he pulled out her chair and watched him sit across from her. Her face was confused and awestruck, all at the same time. It was the most emotion Shane had seen from her in weeks.
"It's my own fault," Shane told her. "I messed up so much but I never thought that I could do this to you. I always thought that you were stronger than that."
"You're still confusing me."
"You're not the woman I met, Mitchie. You're just the shell that she left behind when I betrayed her. You gave me your trust and I did nothing but exploit it. I turned you into this and I have no idea how to fix it, how to make you yourself again."
Mitchie dropped her gaze, keeping in tears that struggled to get out. She didn't think that she had been that bad, so bad that even Shane had noticed. If he knew that she had nothing left inside then she was sure that everyone else had also.
"I didn't realize… you had noticed," she told him honestly, the first thing she had volunteered to him since she had returned to work.
"I notice everything about you."
The revelation surprised her and she let out a small laugh. "I forgot how perceptive you were."
"I only seem to be that way when it comes to you and even then I suck at it. If I had really been that perceptive I would have seen how much I was going to hurt you."
"Shane, you still haven't told me what we're doing here."
"I wasn't kidding when I said that we were here to celebrate your birthday," he said. "I know that you think that I'm just doing to help myself but… it's all for you."
She wanted so desperately to trust him, to tell him how she felt about him before everything exploded but she couldn't. She knew what happened when you put your trust in someone; he had taught her that lesson himself. She looked at him, trying so hard to figure out his motives. Shane noticed her scrutiny and knew the reasons behind it. He was beginning to think she would never recover and it was his own damn fault. He didn't care if she never trusted him again but if he didn't get her to be herself again then she would lose everything. All he wanted was to see her smiling again.
"Dance with me," he said, standing and offering his hand to her. She took it, tentatively, and Shane pulled her to her feet. It was just as amazing as she had remembered. He was skillful on his feet and spun her around the floor as if they were not even touching it.
"There's something else that I have to tell you," he said to her, looking her in her eyes. She waited for it, knowing that he was finally going to tell her what he wanted out of all of this. "I'm leaving CAMP Rock."
She was so surprised that she stopped dancing and almost caused Shane to fall over. "Why?! You can't leave!" Her eyes were angry and she was screaming at him.
"Because I ruined my chances. Richard and Victor can't stand me and are probably already looking for a new VP and soon you'll take on all the responsibilities that are required of you. Besides, having me there hurts you. It's easy to see that you can't handle me being there and I don't want to hurt you anymore." He moved a hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "The last thing I want to do is cause you any more pain than I already have."
"You can't leave," she told him firmly. "Who's going to deal with all the contracts? Who is going to yell at French customs? Who's going to schedule my meetings and remind me to eat and force me to sleep when I work too hard? Who is going to be up to all hours of the night just so I don't have to be in the office by myself? No one else will touch me like you or kiss me like you did. Who else will I l-" she closed her mouth before the words came out. "I'm sorry. I sound like I'm begging. You have made it more than clear that you don't want what I have to offer."
Shane pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly, stunned that she really thought that. "I want everything you have to offer, anything you have, everything you're willing to give. I want to see you every waking moment and know you're near when I'm sleeping. I want to kiss you and make love to you and share my life with you. I want everything a woman can give a man and I want to give you everything and more in return. I love you, Mitchie, and I want to give you that too, always, constantly and for as long as you'll let me."
"You… what?" she asked, not able to believe that he had just said that.
"I love you," he told her.
"Don't say that," she whispered. "Don't say things you don't mean just because you want something." He had told her exactly what she had always wanted to hear but he had lied to her before. "Shane, I ca-"
Shane's lips pressed against hers, cutting off whatever it was that she was going to say. It wasn't as rough as the last one but seductive yet still urgent. His tongue lightly brushed against hers, teasing her as his hands tangled themselves in her hair. Her lips molded to his, soft and inviting as they moved against him. When his mouth separated from hers he was breathing heavily, his forehead resting on hers.
"I meant every word," he told her softly. "I want you to be happy and if that means me leaving then that's what I'll do."
"You stupid jerk," she said. "I need you to be happy."
"Mitchie, I've seen you when I'm around. You're not happy."
"Because the only way that I could stop loving you was to stop feeling everything else too."
Shane looked at her, surprised. It sounded like she had just said that she loved him, or at least had at one point. He hoped that it was still the case.
"What do you want?" he asked her. "Whatever it is I'll give it to you."
"I want you, all the time. I want you at my job, at my house, in my bed, in my life, in my heart. Everywhere, I want you everywhere. I love you, God, I love you so much." She wrapped her arms around his waist and felt all of her emotions rush her at once. Everything she had been suppressing for the past weeks, everything she had been trying to forget, came to the surface overwhelming her. Shane smiled and kissed her again.
"Then I'm yours."
The ending is kind of awkward but I'm horrible at them. Just a warning, this was a one-shot (albeit a LONG one-shot) so there won't be anymore chapters and probably no sequels. Thanks for reading!