Chapter 4: Avoiding Drew

8th April 2011

Waking up the next day was hard. May woke up to find herself still on the couch and Drew sitting by the breakfast table eating what smelt like a full on English breakfast. May slowly rose to her feet and headed up the stairs to their room to freshen up before heading out for another long day.

"Hurry up or you'll be late." Drew said and that was the only thing he said to her all day.

May tried to hurry herself in the shower and rushed her make-up and hair process. She kept her make up simple and natural looking and her hair straight down like every other day. Her outfit choice was what took up the most time. She raided through the racks and looked at her shoes, eventually settling on a pair of black Jimmy Choo's to match her red dress which cinched in at her waist and spread out slightly as it reached her mid thighs.

Once she was certain that she was done, she left the room and down the stairs to see that Drew had already gone. May guessed that meant she was heading to work alone.

She made it to the office a bit past nine, something that Brianna had noted down and was sure to tell Drew about over lunch again. May hid in her office all day as she researched possible themes for the other places. May felt weird when she flicked open the fourth file to find that it was a haberdashery. Looking at the file reminded May of the one she worked in when she met Drew. She closed that one over, not wanting to think about it just yet.

She raided the Internet until she found some decent themes for the upper-class shops she had to plan. It took her a long time to think what kind of thing she could do, having no limitations only made things harder in her opinion. May was so focused today that she didn't leave her office once. Not for tea or a bathroom break. She didn't even notice Drew when he came to get an update from Brianna about May's progress.

"What has she been up to today." He asked her.

Brianna had prepared herself for Drew's arrival by preening just before lunch hour started. "I have no clue. She's been hiding in her office today. But I don't think I've seen her touch any of the documents. She's been on her phone all morning." Brianna answered, trying to put ideas in Drew's head. And it was working.

"Really?" Drew asked, a bit surprised. He had always pictured May to be a hard worker, she had a job whilst she went to university and in Drew's experience, university alone was a big enough of a nightmare on its own.

Brianna nodded briskly. "I was a bit surprised too. I thought that since you hired her she must be somewhat of a hard worker but..." she stopped herself from saying anymore.

Drew got the message and changed the subject. "Care to join me for lunch again?"

Brianna nodded.

xxxxxx

When May looked up, the office outside her room was dark and so was the sky behind her. She looked down at her wrist and saw that it was almost ten and she hadn't eaten all day. She was a bit surprised that her stomach didn't grumble at all up until now.

She packed up her stuff and started to head home. She remembered Drew said she has her own office at home and he showed her where it was too but she had never used it before or seen the inside if it. First things first though; she had to shut her stomach up.

May had no other alternative than to eat at home since all restaurants had taken there last orders and were waiting for the last of their customers to leave. Alfred had already gone to sleep seeing as Drew was in bed by the time May returned so she was forced to cook her own food. She looked in all the cupboards until she found one that held all the quick fix snacks like the ramen that she adored and practically live on during her skint student days when she wasn't being treated by one of her CEO boyfriends.

She was in a daze while she cooked her noodles. Her mind was fixed on one thing that she suddenly thought of today: how did Drew know she didn't get back to the office until three yesterday? Someone must've been keeping a close eye on her. A stalker. A spy… A snitch.

After her meal which she enjoyed greatly, May headed up to the office and opened the door. Behind it was a fairly large room with a large black chair and a dark mahogany table by the window. On the side across from the table was a TV, not as big as the one downstairs but it was still pretty big. On the far side from the door was a bookshelf that matched the desk.

May sat down. If she wasn't going to sleep then she may as well get some work done. It would give her an alibi as to why she wasn't sleeping in her room.

And something to throw at Drew's face in the morning.

xxxxx

13th April 2011

May woke up from her slumber in the study. She had slept there every night for the last week. She hadn't seen or spoken to Drew much either lately. He still shouted at her whenever she tried to go about work her own way.

May waited until Drew had left their room every morning before she snuck in and showered and changed into a fresh set of clothes and shoes before going downstairs, only sometimes early enough for a quick breakfast.

She went into the bathroom and made sure she was a) awake and b) looking extra tidy today because she was in for a tough day presenting her design ideas for her four projects, one of which she was extra confident about though Drew would probably hate her ideas seeing as he seemed to hate everything about her lately.

She straitened her hair like every day and tried to conceal the bags under her eyes as a result from the seventh consecutive all-nighters. She chose a beige coloured dress that hugged her figure and flashed her thighs and wore a pair of red stilettos to match. She flashed a winning smile to her reflection and left the bathroom.

When she made it down stairs, Drew had already left, like every other morning, leaving her to make her way to work by herself. She tried to run through her presentation quickly in the car, earning strange looks from the driver (who couldn't hear her because the glass screen was closed over). All he could see were May's lips moving rapidly along with some hand motions and various facial expressions.

Once there, May wasted no time in going to her room and dropping her stuff off before she headed to the sixteenth floor to prepare for the meeting. She got there early. The only other person that was in the room was Brianna, who was also setting up for her presentation.

"Good luck." Brianna said, as she finished and took her seat.

May did the same. She wished Brianna luck too, though she looked confident enough without it.

The room fell silent after that as they waited patiently for other colleagues to arrive and most importantly, Drew. Within minutes people did start to arrive, other people who were also looking to sell their ideas to Drew. They looked nervous as they set up their laptops and tried to regurgitate their presentation to themselves. Watching them made May feel nervous. Was Drew really that hard to present to?

When Drew arrived, he brought with him a frightening aura, one that made May doubt all her ideas. Was there enough time for her to think of new ideas now? No. She had to suck it up and just go for it. Luckily, she wasn't first. She sat and listened to all the other people's ideas and she had to admit, she was surprised at everyone ideas. Someone had suggested an aquatic themed restaurant where three of the Walls had floor to ceiling fish tanks. It sounded expensive to fund but Drew seems to like the idea the most so far. That was going to be tough to beat with her romance themed restaurant.

After hearing everyone's ideas- especially Brianna's, she felt threatened. She knew that Drew wasn't going to go with any of the ideas that she stayed up all night for but she wasn't going to go down without trying.

She stood up and started to speak. She handed Drew a copy of her document and started her rehearsed talk. "I've lived in the north of La Rousse city for five years and I've been to many of the restaurants up there and I can honestly say none of them portray romance in the way we girls see it. Therefore, I'm proposing a romantic theme for the restaurant." May started, showing her confidence that came to her seemingly out of nowhere. She gave a quick glance at Drew, who seemed to show more interest than she thought he would. "I've been down there and I've had a look at the place. It's very high up and has a gorgeous view of the city below. I think it has the potential to be very romantic. Just picture it." May paused and started to strut round the room, everyone's eyes following her.

"It's night time and you're with someone you love and it's dim. You're looking down at the lit up city whilst enjoying a nice glass of champagne and some delicate amuse bouche." she took a deep breath and was about to proceed onto the next section of the first project when she was stopped. She looked over at Drew, who had stopped her.

"Move onto your next project." He said.

May refrained from saying anything. Instead she nodded and moved on. She presented her next two projects which, strangely enough, were also interrupted before she was done presenting.

She then moved onto her final project. The design of a new designer boutique. She was confident that her ideas for it would be the one that Drew would most likely go for out of all her ideas. She was reassured when she managed to present this one from start to finish uninterrupted and without stuttering, not that she stuttered through the other ones. Or ever.

Once May was done, she sat back down in her seat next to Drew's personal assistant. The room fell silent while Drew made up his mind about whose idea he liked the most seeing as they all presented ideas for three of the same places. The fourth (the designer boutique) was only presented by Brianna and May for some reason.

"It's decided," He announced, "The Company shall go for May's designs except for her boutique idea. We'll use Brianna's one for the boutique." he declared before calling the meeting to an end and leaving the room briskly.

Everyone else left rather quickly too, leaving May to exit the meeting room slowly. She saw Drew at the elevator with his assistant who seemed to be talking at a rapid pace, probably trying to get everything she needs to say so that she could go get lunch already.

If May's head wasn't so confused right now she would've definitely confronted Drew about why he chose the ideas that he didn't even let her completely finish presenting and why he discarded her boutique idea, the one she like the most.

It was only after Drew had went into the lift and up to his office did May realise she could've just asked him about then and there. She made her way to the lift, and braced herself to her first proper conversation with Drew in a week.

Or not.

When she made it to his office, the door was shut and the lights were off. He was probably away at a meeting or something.

xxxxxx

After a long week, May finally managed to make it home before the sky turned complete dark. All May wanted to do was celebrate today's presentations by taking a dip in that jacuzzi. She went up to her room and noticed that it was empty so she started to remove her clothes and danced her way into the bathroom repeating the phrase "he bought my ideas!"

But she didn't get in the Jacuzzi. Drew had beaten her to it and was watching her as she happily danced about.

May froze when she heard someone clear their throat and cursed under her breath. Luckily she hadn't completely stripped out of her clothes yet and still had on her underwear but by the looks of things, she was clearly about to remove her bra. She slowly turned her head in Drew's direction and looked at him before she quickly retrieved a towel from the rack beside her and wrapped it round her and backed out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. May could tell that she had a prominent blush on her cheeks.

Drew smirked as he watched the girl leave. Sometimes watching May do the things she does was the most amusing thing.

Once May had redressed, she hid in her walk-in closet, making sure Drew came out before she went in. Maybe tonight was not a good night for her to use the Jacuzzi after all.

When she heard Drew come out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, she felt unsure as to whether she so should make a dash into the bathroom or sit and wait until she heard him leave before waking in, avoiding the shamed looks she'd inevitably get from him. But then again, Drew would probably give her shamed looks whenever she next saw him. Having concluded that, May decided to get the embarrassing part over and done with now, and stepped out of her hiding place in the closet and into the bedroom, where Drew was.

The man himself had nothing on but around his neck and a pair of boxer shorts on. May couldn't deny how fabulous his body looked as he stood before her. He looked at his wife with a devious smile.

The smile on his face made May panic. It sent her heart racing and her blood flow towards the surface of her skin, causing her to flush and he had barely did anything.

"So you decided to put some clothes on." Drew smirked. "Nice body, by the way." he said to her, causing her to blush even more and turn away.

May tried to ignore her blush and sent him a look of daggers at him before walking past him and making her way into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She stepped into the shower, no longer in the mood to soak in a bubble bath like she initially planned.

Once May had finished her shower, she pulled on her gold coloured silk robe over her pyjamas and unlocked the door, peeking to see if Drew was still there.

Thankfully, he was not.

May let out a sigh of relief. Surely he was done teasing her about seeing her almost completely naked three times. Three times too many for May's liking.

Her stomach rumbled. She left the room and headed down the stairs upon hearing it and thought about what Alfred was making for dinner tonight. May was hoping for something hearty, after surviving on sandwiches and improper meals for the past week.

But for some reason she didn't expect to see Drew at the dinner table in his robe. May wanted to turn back when she saw him but she didn't want Drew to think that he intimidated her; that was the last thing she wanted him to think. May took a deep breath and walked over to the table all dignified looking and feeling. Well, the best she could muster at least.

"Ah, Mrs Hayden." the butler said when he noticed her.

Drew looked up when he saw May coming down the stairs and towards the table.

May still wasn't used to being referred to as "Mrs Hayden" but she did try to respond to it when people called her that.

"What would you like to eat, Ma'am?" he asked taking his usual stance which consisted of having his left hand behind his back and the right in front with a cloth over it. His posture was what every parent would wish their child to make a good habit of.

May thought for a bit. "Something home cooked." she replied and elaborated when he didn't move. "like a stew or something like that." she said and he left.

May took the seat across from Drew, giving her a view of the kitchen. She looked at her husband and the plate of nothing in front of him. Whatever it was he had it was gone now. She wasn't sure if she should say something or not.

"You did. . ." Drew started but stopped, making May sit forward in her seat slightly in anticipation of the compliment or insult that was to follow. "Well today." he finished, watching May's reaction as he said the compliment.

May was beaming in her head. "And you expected me not to?" May asked sceptically. She sat back in her seat so that her back was leaning against the seat.

Drew shrugged. "Possibly."

"One thing that bothers me though." May started. "You went with three out of four of my ideas, the three you interrupted. Why? Why not my boutique plan?"

"They were the only good, new ideas. The other ones are so over used so as soon as you got to the point, I decided it would be satisfactory." Drew answered.

'Satisfactory?' May thought, 'I spent all week on that and he calls it "satisfactory"?'

"And about the boutique idea of yours." Drew said, snapping May out of her thoughts, "I didn't mean to give you that document. The company already decided that they won't work with us unless it was Brianna who was organising the design and everything for that branch."

"Why didn't you interrupt my last presentation then?"

"You're being over paid for a rookie. Making you do more work is my way of justifying your salary." Drew shrugged. "Any more questions May?"

Without missing a beat, May suddenly blurted out her next question. "Why have you been so cold to me for the last week?"

Drew smirked when he heard it. "You were the one ignoring me, I'd like to point out." he said as he got up and started to leave the table- and May- behind.

May thought about his answer to her last question and thought that that's not true. He never came to find her for lunch but asked Brianna to lunch. Are they having an affair?

"Oh and May," Drew stopped walking, "Take the day off and buy a new dress. I'm taking you somewhere special for dinner tomorrow night." he said then resumed walking.

May watched him leave and wondered what he had planned and why he had planned it. Nevertheless though, her heart skipped a beat when he said those words. And her mind drifted back to when they had first met.

xxxxxx

It took me a long to post something that I had written about 2 years ago now! WHY? I have no clue but it's up now and I hope everyone liked it :)