Happy New Year, my dears! Did everyone have a great Christmas and New Years Eve? I hope so. Just a couple of quick things: 1) If you haven't already checked it out, my collaboration with LucyLiterate is up! Glimmer of Green is posted on my page. 2) I'm taking liberties with this story. As most of you know, I make this up as I go along. So if you know more about the corporate world than I do, I'm sorry if I completely butcher it lol. I also want to look at this story as a puzzle that will be solved as we go along :D Anyway, that is all. I hope you enjoy! My mistakes are my own.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. I do own this asshole though.

Friday

It had been almost a week since Psychofest 2011, as Angela and I were calling it. I made sure to call and tell her every single detail of the destruction that Mr. Cullen's girlfriend, or whatever she was, inflicted on his office. She knew that I'd helped him clean and the completely asshole conversation he had with me afterward. It was completely uncalled for, I thought. Angela brought up a good point, saying that he might have been incredibly embarrassed and considering he was a dick, wasn't sure how to handle his emotions afterward.

Like that even made up for his shit-tastic attitude.

I'd been mad plenty of times in my life and rarely took it out on others. So it wasn't out of the norm for me to be beyond pissed that he made assumptions about my personality. Angela told me to let it go because it wasn't worth it, and she was right. It was still hard to let that stone in my stomach slip out.

Since then, Mr. Cullen had been very distant. More distant than normal, if that was even possible. He was cold and his half-assed version of polite, keeping contact with me to a minimum. When he needed something, he emailed me. It was only if something was imperative, like his coffee, that he yelled at me in his usual manner.

It was a relief to not have to deal with him in person, but it was also hard on me. I was lonely and bored. I sure as hell didn't miss Lauren, but there was something reassuring about knowing that her annoying ass was right next to me. Even then, there were a dozen other people on my floor that I could talk to or visit if I wanted to. Now, it was just me and this half-hermit half-asshole.

So, when my phone rang that Friday afternoon, and it was Jasper on the other line inviting me out to lunch, I said, "Hell yeah." In a whisper, of course. I missed the cheery son of a bitch. After a large stack of folders were filed, it was noon and I was running out to meet Jasper on the first floor.

"Bella!" he called out to me as soon as I'd stepped off the elevator.

I smiled at my old boss and friend, quickly letting him wrap me in a friendly one-armed hug. "Hey Jasper," I greeted him.

"Let's go," he said. We had were walking out of the building and heading towards a Vietnamese Pho place down the block. "You doing okay?"

I shrugged, momentarily blinded by the sun. "I'm okay. Just busy, busy, busy. How have you been?"

"Good! Alice and I are heading to Hawaii next week, and I'm ready to go. Besides that, same old shit like every day," he laughed.

"Nice," I chuckled at him. It hit me then how much I really missed having someone to talk to, even if it was only for a little bit.

"How are the big wigs upstairs treating you?"

I took a moment to think through my possible answers. Despite the fact that I had no qualms about talking shit about others, I usually only did it to people that knew I didn't like them. Like Lauren and my next door neighbor. While I knew that Jasper wouldn't go off and run his mouth telling everyone that Mr. Cullen was a huge ass, I wasn't sure whether I should tell him how I honestly felt. "Eh," I settled for a snort. "Mr. Cullen is... demanding and particular." I added a waggle to my eyebrows.

"I'm all too aware of how demanding and particular Edward is," Jasper laughed. "That's a really nice way of putting it."

The fact that he called my new boss by his first name, led me to believe that he knew him personally instead of solely professionally. Every person that I'd ever gone to pick something up from had always called him by his last name, except the COO. "Do you know him well?" I couldn't help but ask.

We were right in front of the Pho restaurant and Jasper opened the door for me, ushering me in with a sweep of his hand. The hostess sat us at a table for four, leaving us with menus on the table. "We went to Dartmouth together. He was my roommate for two years," he answered, looking down at the laminated menu.

I scoffed, turning my attention to see what I wanted to order. "Really?" I was a little nervous by then, trying to be conscious of the fact that my mortal enemy and old boss were friends. Don't say anything stupid, I reminded myself.

"Yup. That's how I got hired at MSM." He paused for a moment before continuing. "That's also how I got you hired as his assistant, Bella."

My eyebrow went up on its own. This strange puzzle was slowly piecing itself together and my mind was reeling. It seemed strange to me that I'd even been considered for the position since there were other employees in the building with a lot more experience than I had, but in hindsight, I wanted the job security. Why ask questions? "I thought you said that you put in a word with the older Cullen," I whispered.

Jasper nodded before giving me a tender smile. "I did. Edward already knew how great of an employee I thought you were. He was the one who told me to find you another position before we had to let go of our contract workers at the end of the year." He winced. "Don't tell anyone I told you that."

"Huh," was the brilliant response I came up with. Even though my job wasn't on the line anymore, I felt the back of my neck start to itch at how closely I'd come to losing my job. Of course, letting go of employees, even if they were contract workers, was a big deal.

"I thought I was going to have to find a reason to fire your favorite person and give you her position, if push came to shove," he laughed.

My heart swelled in appreciation of the man in front of me. He had watched out for me and made sure that I was taken care of. He'd gone out on a limb to get me a better position that I could have ever anticipated. Sure his friend was an asshole and he pretty much fed me to the sharks, but his intentions were good.

"You just want an excuse to get rid of her," I joked.

"Pretty much," Jasper snickered. "I heard her go into Carmen's office last week raving about how the copier can make double-sided copies."

"Oh God. Remember that time she told Alec he could find a color picture of George Washington at the library?" I was so busy laughing at Lauren's stupidity that I didn't notice the man walking up to our table with his hands shoved into his pockets.

The clearing of a voice to my left snapped me out of my laughter, while Jasper continued laughing his ass off. I turned my head slowly to see green eyes peering at us in amusement. The all too familiar man, with his black three piece suit, stood at the head of our table silently. A moment later, Jasper stopped laughing and looked at his friend and my boss. "Hi," Mr. Cullen finally spoke.

"Hey man, you want to sit?" Jasper asked, gesturing to the empty chair on my right.

Mr. Cullen didn't look at me directly, settling for ducking his head into a curt nod before slipping into the seat next to mine. I didn't know whether to greet him or not, considering I'd just seen him less than thirty minutes before. I settled for giving him a small smile, which he returned with a tight pull of one side of his lips.

"Not to make things awkward, but you haven't returned my phone calls in like a week."

The green eyed man sitting next to me glared at his friend. "I've been busy," he said in an icy tone.

Jasper waved him off and rolled his eyes. "Oh please. We'll talk about it later. Bella doesn't need to know how much of a dick you are."

It was a miracle that I wasn't drinking any water because I'm sure I would've snorted it out of my nose. Instead, I snorted but at least made the effort to look down when I did it. A second later, I looked up to see Jasper smirking in my direction. The waitress dropped by right then to take our orders. We sat there in awkward silence for a minute after placing our orders, while Mr. Cullen took off his jacket and Jasper just stared at him.

Scratching at my face, I tapped the table in front of Jasper to get his attention. "How's Alice?"

Jasper grinned and then went into a story about his wife, Alice, and her thriving mobile dog grooming business. My conversation with him was seamless like usual, but I couldn't help noticing Mr. Cullen's lack of input. He ate his food in relative silence, occasionally looking up in Jasper's direction. He only glanced in my direction when I'd start laughing over something Jasper said.

"You have to come to my birthday party two Saturdays from tomorrow," my old boss mentioned. "It's not like you have anything else to do."

Snorting, I rolled my eyes at his cocky but completely accurate assumption. Jasper asked me every Monday for a year how my weekend went, and he was well aware of the fact that my weekends consisted of the same two things: Angela and possibly my family. Our activities usually consisted of going to flea markets and antique stores; we were boring and proud of it. So, I stuck my tongue out at him. "I'll clear my schedule for you."

Deep blue eyes flickered over to the man sitting next to me. "You're still coming, right?"

"I told you that I would," Mr. Cullen snapped.

Jasper opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but then closed it again a second later, like he thought better of it. I could tell his jaw was clenched underneath the stubble of dark blonde hairs on his face. He looked over in my direction instead, and forced a smile on his handsome face. Jasper reached into the back pocket of his pants and pulled out his wallet. "I got lunch, Bella. Do you mind waiting for me at the door while I pay?"

It didn't take a genius to understand that he wanted to talk to Mr. Cullen alone, so I smiled and nodded. Grabbing my purse, I got up and headed out of the restaurant to stand outside. Less than a handful of minutes later, a head of blonde hair peeped out of the door before his lean frame followed. "Thanks for lunch," I thanked him as soon as we started walking back in the direction of our building.

"You're welcome," he said. Neither one of us said anything until we stopped in front of the large doors to our building. He made a noise, hesitating with his words. "Is he always like that with you?" he asked me in a serious tone.

"Mr. Cullen?" I asked, even though I knew that was exactly who he was referring to. A raise of his sandy colored eyebrows was my response so I shrugged. "Yeah?"

I wasn't stupid. Even though I liked Jasper a lot, I knew better than to insult his best friend, who also happened to be my boss.

"I know Edward is an asshole, Bella. I know that better than anyone, but he's not a bad guy." He paused and sighed. "I didn't think he was being that way with you though."

We stopped in front of the elevator and he pressed the button to go up. I wasn't sure what exactly he meant by his comment about being that way with me. A dickhead? That was the only thing I could think of. It wasn't even that he was mean to me, but his iciness and lack of interest in me was brutal. "It's okay if he doesn't like me."

Jasper snickered and waved me into the elevator as soon as the doors opened. "Bella, no one could dislike you."

"Lauren doesn't like me," I laughed.

He scoffed. "She doesn't count."

"It's more like she doesn't know how to count," I couldn't help dishing out.

Jasper snorted in response before the elevator doors opened to his floor. He took a step out but pressed down on the button to keep the doors open. "Look, if he gives you anymore problems tell me. You were my favorite employee and he has no business being a jerk to you. He's just... going through stuff."

"Okay," I said, simply.

He took a final step out of the elevator and pointed at me. "Tell me," he repeated.

I nodded. "Yes sir." I smiled at him right before the doors closed. "Thanks for lunch!" I only managed to catch sight of his waving hand before the doors completely closed on us. A deep breath of air was expelled from my lungs, like I'd been carrying around tension in them since we left the Pho restaurant.

The elevator was empty on the way up, which was nice since it gave me a chance to collect my thoughts. It seemed strange but the fact that Mr. Cullen and Jasper knew each other from before MSM made total sense. It seemed to glue together pieces that I'd ignored. The weird thing was, I couldn't imagine them being friends. Jasper was kind, outgoing, and warm. Mr. Cullen was the exact opposite.

I could only think back on that saying about opposites attracting each other. The rest of the ride up went by quickly and in no time, I was sitting back at my desk, responding to emails. I wanted to wonder why Jasper tried to defend Mr. Cullen, but I could only think that if Angela was in the same position as my boss, I wouldn't want anyone to say she was a bitch even if she was one. She would've been my bitch.

The deep voice I had to succumb to everyday resonated through the office just a few minutes later. I could hear him yapping away on his phone, his tone both frustrated and angry. Wonderful.

"I don't care what happened, you should have called me hours ago. I need you to deal with it-" his dark-clad form stopped right in front of my desk at his last words. His hair was askew and his cheeks were pink in what I could only assume was frustration. "I'll see you in a few hours, Felix."

It took him a few more seconds until the person on the other end of the line finished talking and hung up. I tried not to be conspicuous, because God knows I'd already learned that the man was too perceptive for his own good, so I kept typing away on my keyboard my reply to a general manager requesting a meeting with the chief financial officer.

Mr. Cullen cleared his throat and exhaled, deeply. "Isabella."

I let out my own deep breath as my eyes flickered over in his direction. "Yes, Mr. Cullen?"

"Our main warehouse, the one outside of Jupiter, was broken into last night," he muttered, frustration coloring his enunciation. "I'm going to need you to book two rooms in the city and a car for the weekend, starting tonight."

"Okay. Do you want me to put the car rental under your name or whoever your companion is?"

The handsome and asshole-ish man in front of me gave me a flat look. "I'm not letting you drive."

Letting me drive? Oh. Shit.

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