Ally stares at the bead of condensation slowly making its way down her cup of iced coffee. She'll do just about anything to focus her attention away from the awkward silence filling the conference room.
She doesn't dare risk a glance at her father sitting next to her, or at his boss Mr. Starr sitting at the head of the table. Her father is desperate to market whatever new product StarrTech has come up with. He hasn't marketed a successful product in a while, from laptops whose keys stuck to the screen if they were closed for too long to cell phones that gave first-degree burns to anyone who touched them while they were charging. If he doesn't head the marketing team for this new product (which projects almost guaranteed widespread success), then there's a very real possibility that he will get fired.
She does steal a peek at her father's rival for this project, Mike Moon. He's had nothing but success in his previous marketing ventures, and he really doesn't need the money from this one. Still, he's competing against Ally's father for the position to market this product.
"Jim, listen," Mike Moon finally speaks up. Ally returns her gaze to her coffee cup. "I know this is a tough decision to make, but I have proven time and time again that I have the assets and skill to multiply the projected sales of the StarrLenses by tenfold. This product will revolutionize the world of technology, but you need a marketing team you can rely on to ensure that it reaches its full potential."
"Jim, I know I can sell the StarrLenses," Ally's father pipes up quickly. "Mike can use the assets and skill he's talking about to help sell products that don't have as much projected success. I will make certain that the sales will be greater than anyone ever expected."
"I've made up a graph to display the predicted gross margin…" Mike Moon starts talking, pulling out posters from a bag on the table.
Ally steals a glance at his son, sitting next to him. He's already looking at her.
She looks around at all the rich important people at this gala, wondering how she got here as an intern.
Well, that's not true. She knows how she got here. Her father is one of the company's marketers, and he brought her along. She thought he was going to show her the ropes of socializing and making important connections in the corporate world, but he ditched her to do that by himself the moment they walked in.
She walks further into the party and takes a glass of champagne from a waitress carrying them around on a tray. She takes another look around the room, inwardly rolling her eyes at all the sophisticated old people schmoozing here.
But then she catches someone's eyes from across the room. He doesn't look like a sophisticated old person. In fact, he looks around twenty-one, her age. His blond hair sticks out among the grays and dyed-browns of all the other men here, and his mischievous smile is nothing like the fake ones everyone else is wearing.
He starts making his way across the room and over to her, so she takes a sip of her drink in an attempt to escape their staring contest. When she lowers her glass, he's taking the last few steps before he's standing in front of her.
"I must say, I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting before," he says, his voice smooth and rich like hot chocolate and that smile still on his face. He holds out his hand and she smiles, putting out her hand to shake it. Instead of shaking her hand, however, he turns it and kisses the back of it.
"No, I don't believe we have," she replies, furrowing her eyebrows. "I'm Ally."
"Ally," he repeats. She likes the way her name sounds in his voice. "Short for Allison?"
"Nope, just Ally. And you are?"
He grins. "Austin."
After holding her gaze for a few seconds, Mike Moon's son glances at their fathers and Mr. Starr – who are all focused on Mr. Moon's presentation – and then back at her. He makes a quick, small gesture with his head to the door of the conference room. She nods.
After another glance at the three businessmen to make sure they aren't looking, the pair discreetly leaves the room.
"One more minute in there, and my eardrums would've burst themselves to escape the misery."
"Austin, you're not even trying to learn anything," Ally chides him.
"Yeah, because I don't want to go into marketing. And besides, if you wanna learn so much, why are you out here with me instead of in there with them?" He looks over at her, that stupid, mischievous smirk forming on his face.
"You're right," she says. "I should go back in there – "
"Hey, hey, hey," he interrupts quickly, resting a hand on her back so she doesn't turn around. "Since you're already out here, you may as well stay. It would be rude to just walk back in and interrupt that oh-so-important meeting."
"Fine. What should we do in the meantime?"
"Cute and funny. You're just the whole package." He grins, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the hallway to another empty conference room.
They stumble down one of the hallways away from the party, shifting between kissing and trying to see where they're going. A tiny voice in the back of her mind is screaming that this is completely unprofessional because they're both interning at the same company, but she ignores it.
Then Austin suddenly pulls away from her, one arm tightly wrapped around her waist and the other hand on a door handle. He looks down the hall both ways and then pushes the door open, pulling her inside and reconnecting their lips.
She thinks she hears the door slam shut, but her heartbeat in her ears is too loud for her to be sure. Austin tastes like champagne and coffee, which for some reason doesn't surprise her.
She doesn't really know how they got here, him kissing her neck while he pushes her shawl off her shoulders and onto the ground, but she does know that she doesn't want this night to be over. Her dad did tell her to mingle after all, and after a few drinks and small talk they were mingling a little more than her father probably intended.
"Nothing like a little inter-office romance, hmm?" he hums against her lips with a smirk, taking off his suit jacket.
"Yeah, whatever," she mutters, focusing on trying to loosen his tie.
He smiles and places his hand on top of hers. "Clip-on." He tosses the tie off to the side.
"I can't believe we've been getting away with this for the past four months," Austin says, breathing heavily.
"I can't believe we've hooked up in almost every room in this office," she replies.
"We should have a checklist or something."
"We could go down to the graph room and be super vague about our reasons for wanting that list."
"We could say it's for interior decorators or something," he suggests.
"I don't know how I feel about us getting so good at sneaking around and lying," Ally says.
"I know how I feel about it."
She rolls her eyes and checks her phone, freezing when she sees the time. "We have to go," she says, trying to straighten out her clothes and smooth down her hair.
Austin looks at the watch on his wrist. "Come on, their meeting doesn't end for another five minutes!"
"Yeah, and we need to figure out what to pretend to be doing so they don't get pissed that we disappeared."
He sighs, looking up at the ceiling and groaning in annoyance. "Fine."
The pair walks out of the empty conference room and down the hall. Austin immediately makes his way over to another intern who's filing papers and starts flirting with her. Ally rolls her eyes and starts making a cup of coffee.
As soon as the three men emerge from their meeting, both Austin and Ally rush over to them.
"Where were you?" Ally's father asks her.
"I, um, knew that this was stressful, so I wanted to make you coffee to distract you," she lies.
"Oh. Where is it?"
"Still in the coffee machine. Who got the job?" she asks in a rush.
"We both get an opportunity to pitch an idea to Jim next week, and then he'll decide who gets the lead," her father replies.
"You'll get it," Ally says. "You have to."
"Thanks, honey," he replies. "If I get it, you can be right next to me helping me out."
Ally grins. "I can't wait."
Her smile fades when she sees Mike Moon and Mr. Starr walking down the hallway together behind her father. She locks eyes with Austin, who rolls his eyes and makes a talking motion with his hand.
"Are you okay?" her father asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she says, focusing her attention on him again. "It's just…have you ever thought about working with Mr. Moon on something? Leading a project together?"
"Never," he says immediately. "We would never be able to get along well enough to cooperate."
"So you guys are just gonna be enemies forever?"
"We aren't enemies. We just…have a mutual dislike for each other."
"Right. Well, I know you're staying late to work on the pitch, so I'll let you get to it. I'm gonna go get some dinner and head home. It's been a long day."
She hugs her father goodbye and leaves the office. She drives to the nearest bar and walks inside, sitting alone at the counter.
"Can I get a Bellini and an Old Fashioned?" she asks the bartender. He nods and walks off to make the drinks.
Suddenly, a pair of arms wraps around her waist. "Waiting on someone?" a low voice murmurs in her ear.
She turns her head to look at the smirking boy who's already gazing at her. "You're lucky I realized it was you before I punched you," she says, a small smile forming on her face anyway.
"I figured you would," he replies, letting go of her and sitting on the bar stool next to her.
The bartender returns with their drinks, and Austin immediately takes a swig of his.
"Rough day?" Ally asks, raising her eyebrows at him.
He shrugs. "I just hate that job."
"Have you told your dad that?"
"Yeah, but he really wants me to follow in his footsteps. I don't wanna disappoint him, you know?"
"You're an adult," she says. "You can do what you want."
"I know that," he replies. "But I also want to bond with my dad. It's been a while since we've had something in common, and I can tell he really likes the idea of me learning from him and all that."
She tilts her head. "That's sweet. But don't you want to have something you actually enjoy in common with him? You're miserable."
"Hey, it's not all bad," he says, nudging her gently with his elbow. "I've got you. And four more rooms in the office to check off the list."
She rolls her eyes. "You know, that was almost cute."
"Almost cute is my specialty," he tells her with a grin, taking another sip of his drink. He picks up her glass and hands it to her. "And being more than cute is yours."
"Smooth," she says, narrowing her eyes at him and taking a sip of her drink.
"Another one of my specialties."
Ally wakes up to loud knocking at her front door. She exhales and looks over at Austin, who is still soundly asleep beside her. Making sure not to wake him up, she gets out of bed and gets dressed. Then, she walks out of her room and opens her front door.
"Ally!" her father exclaims with a bright smile on his face.
"Dad," she splutters, "what are you doing here? Not that I'm not happy to see you, it's just…" She glances at the clock hanging on the wall beside her father. "Noon. Oh."
"I have some great ideas for this project," he says, walking into the apartment, dragging a suitcase behind him.
"Um, how about I come over and we work on it later?" she suggests, glancing nervously at her closed bedroom door.
"I'm too excited to work on it later," her father says. He sits on the couch and opens the suitcase, pulling out stacks of notepads, pens, and a laptop.
"Yeah, I can tell. You're kinda yelling," she tells him.
"Aren't you excited too? I just know I'll get the job with us Dawsons working together!" he exclaims, clearly not taking the hint.
"Of course I – " she starts, but she's cut off by her bedroom door opening.
"Ally, come back, I wanna see that ass - et turnover graph...from that, um, conference…last week. You know, so I can review the asset turnover." Austin tries to save himself, but he seems to have forgotten the fact that he's wearing only boxers. "Oh, hey, Lester. Didn't see you there."
Ally's father's jaw drops, his face going pale. Ally resists the urge to dig a hole and die in it.
"I…should go," her father says, his voice sounding distant.
Then he gets up and leaves, his suitcase and supplies forgotten in the living room. Ally looks at Austin. He's still staring at the door in shock.
"You think he knows?" the blond asks.
"Do I think he – of course he knows!" Ally exclaims, smacking Austin's arm with each word. "You just came out of my bedroom in your underwear saying you want to see my assets!"
Austin looks at her. "Asset turnover graph, actually. I did my best with what I had!"
Ally smacks her palm to her forehead. "I'm dead."
"Dude, we're adults. Our parents can't kill us anymore," Austin points out.
"I wouldn't bet on that. Our dads literally despise each other."
"So did Romeo and Juliet's parents, but that didn't stop them."
"You do realize they committed mutual suicide."
"If I find you passed out, I promise to make sure you're breathing before making any rash decisions," he says.
Ally rolls her eyes, groaning in annoyance. "You're insufferable!"
"You're overreacting." Austin rests his hands on her shoulders, tilting his head to catch her gaze. "So what? Your dad knows about us. I doubt he's gonna call my dad and spread the word. And I double doubt there's gonna be any backlash for it at work."
She crosses her arms and looks up at him. He smiles softly and presses a kiss to her forehead.
"You're also very cute when you pout like that."
"Don't call me cute when I'm mad at you."
He drops his arms, frowning at her. "Hey, what did I do? It's not like I called your dad and told him."
She exhales. "Whatever, I'm mad at the situation!" she snaps. "But you're the closest living thing, so I'm projecting it onto you. So don't call me cute when I'm mad at you."
"Fine. You're not cute. But this still isn't a big deal. Everything will be fine." He kisses her cheek. "I promise."
Work on Monday is even more awkward than Ally expected it to be. Her father isn't being subtle about using her position as an intern to his advantage by sending her off on odd jobs whenever Austin is within view.
They haven't talked about what happened over the weekend, and Ally doesn't think they ever will. Her father isn't one to confront awkward situations, so she knows he'll just do everything in his power to keep her away from Austin and hope she takes the hint that he doesn't approve.
Austin's father, on the other hand, seems to have no idea about her relationship with his son. Mike Moon wouldn't hesitate to confront the situation head-on and outright forbid Austin from seeing her if he saw fit (despite the fact that Austin is twenty-one years old and lives on his own). But even though Mike doesn't know about them, Ally can hardly stand to be around him without feeling awkward and uncomfortable.
As soon as her father goes into Mr. Starr's office to talk to him about the project, Ally rushes to the breakroom, breathing a deep sigh of relief. She grabs a bottle of water from the fridge.
"Someone's been avoiding me," she hears Austin's voice from behind her. She turns to see him leaning against the doorframe. "Ally, you're not this scared of your dad, are you?"
"I've just been busy. This is a workplace, after all," she says.
"Ah. So you going radio silent on me for the past three days has nothing to do with the fact that your dad found out about us?" He raises his eyebrows at her knowingly, crossing his arms.
"I told you, I've been busy," she says, avoiding his eyes.
"Being busy has never stopped you before."
"Yeah, well, classes are about to start up again, and…" She trails off and sighs, staring down at her water bottle and squeezing it with both hands.
"Okay. They're starting for me too, but I still have time to talk to you here. Where we both work and see each other every day."
"My dad's been sending me on jobs all over the place to keep me away from you, so really, it's not my fault…"
She hears his footsteps as he walks over to her. She looks up at him and he raises his eyebrows.
"You would avoid me if it was your dad who found out," she says defensively. "You said yourself you don't wanna disappoint him. I don't wanna disappoint my dad either."
"I'm not even your boyfriend. What's there to be disappointed about?"
"Gee, I dunno, but I'm sure his daughter sleeping with a guy she isn't even technically in an exclusive relationship with doesn't help. Not to mention that that guy is the son of his arch enemy!"
Austin winces and glances at the door nervously as she raises her voice. She takes a deep breath. "Sorry," she says, lowering her voice again.
"So…what?" he asks. "Are we just gonna end this?"
"I feel like we should both focus on work and school. Especially me. If my dad doesn't get this lead…"
Austin rolls his eyes. "Yeah, my dad's being a real ass about it. I'm still working on convincing him to take a different lead instead."
"I just don't know if this is the best idea."
"It's not. But that's what makes it fun, right? Ally, think about it. You follow the rules to a fault for everything else. What are you gonna do if you lose this outlet for all your rule-breaking energy? You could turn into a maniac. And if you turn into a maniac, I'll be even worse. I mean, this is me on my best behavior."
She smiles a little. "That's not promising."
He smiles a little too. "No, it's not. So really, if you think about it – but not too much – this thing we have going, it's actually helping us focus on work."
"I guess you kinda have a point. It's not a very good point, but it's a point."
Austin bites his lip and raises his eyebrows hopefully, and she can see the nervousness in his eyes. "Is it a good enough point to keep this going?"
She nods, but she puts a hand up before he can get too excited. "But we have to be more careful."
"Done," he says with a smile.
"Ally, you realize how unhealthy this is, don't you?" her best friend says, watching her pace the length of the living room.
"Well, I can't just stop now, Trish!"
"You should. You're hooking up with your dad's arch enemy's son, who you should despise. I mean, the way you describe him, he literally embodies everything you hate! He's a lazy, sarcastic troublemaker who acts like your boyfriend but doesn't want to commit to a relationship with you! Plus, you're having to hide it from your parents – "
"I know all that!" she exclaims. Then she stops walking and sits next to Trish on the couch. "But he's, like…really hot."
Trish sighs. "I know. I've seen the pictures. But you aren't a 'no labels' kind of person, Ally!"
"Yeah, but I'm kinda okay with it if it's him."
"You're okay with just sex," Trish says doubtfully.
"Well, to be fair, we talk and hang out, so it isn't just sex. But even if it was…he's, like, really good at it."
Trish rolls her eyes. "But he's stopping you from finding an actual boyfriend!"
"I have my whole life to find an actual boyfriend. I like what I have going with Austin. I just don't like the stress of sneaking around. Even if it does make it ten times hotter."
"This is gonna end badly," Trish says.
"Probably. But this middle part is pretty fun."
Just then, there's a knock on the door. Trish knits her eyebrows, and Ally mirrors her look.
"That's not him, is it?" Trish asks.
"It shouldn't be."
"Is someone trying to break in?"
"That's possible."
Ally walks over to the door and looks through the peephole. Sure enough, she sees the familiar shock of blonde hair she's grown so used to.
"Looks like you finally get to meet him!" Ally says with slightly forced enthusiasm. "Please be nice."
She opens the door and feels her forced smile turn genuine at the sight of his twinkling eyes. "Surprise," he says with a smile. He starts leaning in to kiss her.
"Austin, meet Trish!" she says quickly, stepping to the side.
Austin stumbles a little and then looks at Trish with confusion. "Um, hello, Trish. I'm Austin."
"I know who you are," Trish says, standing up with her arms crossed. "I'm Ally's best friend. And do you know what that means?"
Austin gives her one of his signature smirks. "You don't like me."
Trish knits her eyebrows, which makes her look even angrier, but Ally knows it's because she's confused now, too. "What makes you say that?" Trish asks with overtly fake sweetness, the angry look still on her face.
"The best friends never like me," Austin replies, shooting finger guns at Trish.
"Gee, I wonder why," Trish says. And with that, she walks out of the apartment without even saying goodbye.
"That went well," Austin says, looking at the door. Then he looks back down at Ally.
"What are you doing here?" she asks him, trying to hide the smile on her face in an attempt to look annoyed.
"I need a reason to come over?"
She crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at him, but he just smiles down at her. She hates the way that look makes her heart flutter.
"I'm not having sex with you tonight," she says sternly. "So if that's why you came…"
"That's fine," he says, putting his hands up innocently. "That isn't why I came."
She knits her eyebrows, letting her arms fall to her sides. "It's not?"
He shakes his head, his smile starting to fade. "No, I actually, um, wanted to talk to you."
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah," he says quickly. "Everything's fine, it's just…I'm quitting tomorrow."
Her eyes widen. "You're – what?"
"That internship…I can't do it anymore. I hate it. It just isn't me. I actually got a bartending job that I start next week, so I'm not gonna be doing nothing."
"Why are you telling me this?"
He shrugs, finally meeting her eyes. "I just got the call that I got the job before I came over here. As soon as I made the decision to actually quit the internship, you're the first person I wanted to tell."
"I am?"
"Well, yeah," he says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "You're the first person I want to tell for everything."
She bites her lip, already regretting her next words before she says them. "Like a girlfriend."
His eyes widen slightly and he takes a step back from her. "Ally, you know I'm not – we're not – I mean – "
"But that's what a girlfriend is for, right? Being the first person you tell things to. And being the only person you have sex with. I mean, you do realize that you're basically getting all the benefits of me being your girlfriend without actually having to commit to a relationship, right?"
Austin swallows. "This is just fun, you know that. We're just friends. With benefits."
She knows from the way her heart pangs when he says friends that it's way too late to deny her feelings for him anymore. She let herself fall too hard too fast before she even came to her senses enough to care about how much he could end up hurting her.
"Yeah, I know that," she says, trying to hide the pain in her voice. "But I don't know if I can do this anymore."
"Why not?"
She looks up at him. "You know why."
He holds her gaze, his face unreadable. "Ally – "
"I like you, Austin," she blurts, immediately looking away from him again and staring at the floor. "I'm not gonna apologize for it, and I'm not gonna let you make me feel like I did something wrong because I didn't. So if you wanna keep having meaningless sex, you'll have to find someone else because it stopped being meaningless – "
He takes two strides forward and grabs her face, kissing her to cut her off. She closes her eyes and kisses him back – more out of habit than anything else – and tries to ignore the voice in her head telling her this is probably the last time he'll ever kiss her.
He pulls away sooner than she expected and rests his forehead against hers, brushing his thumb over her cheekbone. "I didn't think you could ever like me," he tells her quietly. "I'm like if you put everything you hate into a blender and then poured it into a human mold."
"Shut up," she says, pulling away to look up at him. He watches her. "You can't just kiss me when I'm telling you I can't be friends with benefits anymore and then tell me you don't believe I like you."
"Ally, the only reason I was so serious about not labeling this was because I thought asking you out would just scare you off."
"Scare me off?"
He smiles a little. "I've liked you from the moment I met you. I knew you were too good for me, so I thought just hooking up would be enough until I could find someone new. But I don't want to find someone new. I want you, Ally."
She swallows. "You…want me?"
He nods, his eyes twinkling. "Yes."
"Like…to actually be your girlfriend?"
"More than anything."
"You realize that means more than just sex, right? We'd have to go on dates and – "
"I know," he says with a laugh. "I want all of it. What do you say?"
"I mean, our dads will probably kill us and then each other, but…okay."
He grins. "Okay?"
She smiles and kisses him again, and he wraps his arms around her waist.
"Of course, you idiot," she says when they pull away. "I told you I liked you first. Now less talking and more kissing."
"Are you only saying yes to being my girlfriend because of my body?"
"No. Shut up and take your clothes off."
"Jim was going on and on about how impressed he was with your work after you left yesterday," Ally's father tells her on the phone. "He says you and I make a great team. He even apologized for not giving me better leads sooner."
"Well, I'm glad he finally came to his senses. Good thing you ended up getting the StarrLense lead instead of Mike."
"Yeah. Mike's been doing just fine with whatever Jim gave him instead. I hate him, but the son of a bitch is good at what he does. It's too bad his son quit on him."
Ally closes her eyes as said son shifts in bed next to her, tossing an arm over her stomach.
"Yeah. Too bad."
Her father hesitates, and she knows he's debating confronting her about when he caught them a few weeks ago. But he must decide against it, because he says, "Well, I just wanted to let you know you're doing a great job, honey."
"Thanks, Dad. I'll talk to you later. I love you."
"Love you, too. Bye." He hangs up, and she sets her phone back on her bedside table, sighing as Austin presses his lips to her neck.
"G'morning," he mumbles.
She turns her head and kisses Austin's hair, inhaling his scent.
"I have to tell my dad about us," she tells him.
He tilts his head to look up at her, and she meets his confused eyes.
"You…what?"
"I can't keep this from him anymore."
"You realize he'll kill me and then you without hesitation, right?"
"If he knows I'm happy being with you, I think he can learn to be okay with it."
Austin smiles a little. "You're happy being with me?"
She chuckles and rolls her eyes. "Girls do tend to be happy being with their boyfriends."
He smiles more. "I'm happy being with you, too. I think our dads might be warming up to each other anyway, now that they're both being successful."
"I think so, too. And hey, even if my dad does kill us, at least we'll still be together."
"This is true." Austin tightens his grip around her and nuzzles his face in her neck again. "I love you, Ally."
She freezes in surprise, but then almost immediately relaxes and grins at the ceiling, her heart pounding against her chest. "I love you, too."