APOV
Beep Beep Beep. I groan, roll over, and turn my warm off. I contemplate sleeping in a little longer but I want to be up and practically ready by the time Christian gets up so it's more believable when I tell him I've already eaten. I lift the blankets off me but feel his hand sneak around my waist.
"Don't get up yet." I hear him mummer.
"I have to if I want to eat breakfast and be ready on time." I see him half smile, eyes still closed. I lean down and gently place a kiss on his cheek then get up and make my way to the kitchen. Gail is already there preparing what looks like pulled pork for tonight's dinner. "Hi Mrs. Jones, oatmeal please." I say while sitting down on a bar stool.
"No problem dear." She gets to preparing it, gently sprinkling some brown sugar on top. Ew. I thank her, take the bowl, and head in the direction of our room. Quickly though I make a stop at one of the bathrooms on the way. Best to dispose of this here… That way if Christian asks Gail if I had breakfast she'll say yes and I wont have to worry about having to carry this past him to our toilet. I wouldn't want to risk Christian hearing me flush it or worse walking in.
I walk over to the toilet and scrape the oatmeal into the porcelain bowl. It's satisfying watching the gross food disappear down the drain. I quickly make my way back to our room and slip into the bathroom to get ready. Thankfully Christian is still sleeping and faced the other way.
It's just starting to rain as I get in the car. I feel bad as I watch Sawyer jog quickly to the drivers side and scurry into the car. The drive to SIP goes quickly and quietly. I briefly wonder what Sawyer does while I'm in my office but push the thought aside as I have quite a few manuscripts to get through. I work steadily until 12:30 when I hear a knock on my door.
"Come in." I say with my eyes still cast downward at my current script.
"Hey." I hear Tyler say and I look up just in time to see him push past Hanna. Poor girl, at least she tried to be the first one in to announce his arrival. "So I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me today. I would have called or emailed to make plans but we didn't exchange either of those. I remembered you worked here so yeah… how about lunch?" I giggle at his nervousness and close the manuscript I'm working on.
"Sure, just give me a moment to clean up." He nods and exits with Hanna. I tidy my desk and grab my purse. I don't have to have any food, I'll just get a drink.I convince myself then look at my phone. Do I really want to bring it? It'll probably just be ringing from Christian wanting to know why I'm having lunch with him. I'm sure Sawyer will be calling him soon if he hasn't already. I drop my phone on my desk and walk out without it.
"So what would you like? Anything, I'm buying." Tyler insists as we get in like at the deli a few blocks down.
"I'm just going to get a green tea please." He looks at me.
"Com'mon Ana, get something to eat, don't make me eat in front of you." He makes a pouty face. I smile and roll my eyes.
"I'm just not hungry, really, I'm okay." I say with a smile.
"Nope, com'mon girl, you gotta get some food in that belly. Either you pick or I'll make my best guess." What is it with men and food? Although it'd be interesting to see what his best guess would be I order a veggie sandwich on flatbread. He orders a pizza sub and a green tea and pays for our meals.
"You're gonna wither away if you don't start eating more than veggies." He says playfully but for some reason it irritates me. Who is he to tell me I'm going to wither away, we just met. I give him a look and walk a few steps away. I hear him quickly catch up to me and grab my arm to spin me around.
"I'm sorry Ana, I didn't mean to offend you! Please come sit, lets have a nice lunch." I tell myself to relax, that I'm overreacting. I nod and turn back to him completely. "So where do you want to sit?" He asks, then follows as I lead the way to a booth at the side of the room. We set our sandwiches down and slide in opposite each other.
"So what were you up to this morning?" I ask.
"I was just in town shopping." He says lifting up the H&M bag that I didn't realize he had until now. I nod at his choice in clothing. "How about you? How was your morning?"
"Busy, I still have a big pile of manuscripts to go through sitting on my desk."
"Busy is good I guess, better than being bored." He trails off as he tears open the wrapper on his sandwich. I nod in agreement then meticulously open my own wrapper, folding any paper that isn't immediately touching my sandwich. I look up and he's already 3 big bites into his. I look at mine and pick off some of the bread. Oh god, I don't want to eat this. I slowly lift it to my mouth and take a very small bite. Okay this whole sandwich is probably 360 calories, so this bite was prob-
"Hey, what's up? Looks like you're trying to do math on your sandwich or something." He says interrupting my train of though.
"Sorry, was just thinking.." He nods in acceptance.
"So, do you have a boyfriend?" He asks and I briefly wonder if I should tell him about Christian.
"Yeah, he's here in Seattle as well. Runs his own business."
"Does Mr. Mogul have a name?" He asks playfully. I hesitate.
"Christian."
"No way, like Christian Grey?" I nod. "Nice, how'd you two meet? I hear he does quiet a bit of charity work."
"Yeah he does, and actually my roommate at the time was sick and needed me to fill in for an interview with him. Then he ended up speaking at my graduation. What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Yeah, she's in Canada right now though, visiting family." I nod and we continue talking about our significant others. It's sweet the way he talks about her. Apparently her name is Ashley and she just graduated psychology and wants to start her own practice specifically for teenagers struggling with self harm.
By the time it's time to get back to work I've eaten half of my sandwich and it's stopped raining. Tyler walks me all the way back to my office where we exchange numbers. We say goodbye and he leaves. Once I'm alone I really start to think about what I've just done. So much food in my body I feel sick.
I quickly pack up my things and rush out of my office to see Sawyer talking to Hanna. Perfect. I need to get this out and I don't want to do it at the office.
"Sawyer, I'm not feeling well, would you take me home please?"
"Sure Mrs. Grey." He ushers me to the car and hastily we make our way back to Escala. As soon as I enter the penthouse I rush to the bathroom and force the food out of my body. Sawyer knocks on the door shortly after. "Ma'am, are you okay?" I groan. "Should I call Christian?"
"No!" I panic. "I mean, I'm fine, just going to lay down. Let him work." He nods and walks off. I pull myself up off the floor and wash my hands and mouth. Slowly I make my way to our bed and lay down. That must have got rid of most of it. My phone dings once; an e-mail.
To: Anastasia Grey
Subject: Sick?
Date: May 8 1:25pm
From: Christian Grey
Hey baby, are you alright? Sawyer called me saying he took you home because you're ill?
Christian Grey
CEO, GEH, Inc.
I sigh, I wish Sawyer hadn't called him. I quickly type a response.
To: Christian Grey
Subject: Sick
Date: May 8 1:30p
From: Anastasia Grey
Yeah, I'm fine though. I just don't feel well.
Anastasia Grey
Editor, SIP
To: Anastasia Grey
Subject: Worried
Date: May 8 1:32pm
From: Christian Grey
Would you like me to come home?
Christian Grey
CEO, GEH, Inc.
I type a response saying no and the message sends just as I receive a phone call.
"Hello?"
"Hi Ana, It's Flynn. I was just calling to book your next appointment. A space opened up tomorrow at 9am and I was wondering if you'd like it?"
"Sure, that'd be great." I say.
"Perfect. If you wouldn't mind bringing the pad of paper that'd be great." I agree and we say our goodbyes. My eyes suddenly feel heavy and I give into the sleep pulling me under.
CPOV
I receive Ana's email saying that I don't need to come home. It makes me sad that she's not feeling well and that I'm not there to take care of her but I do have a lot of work to do and she'd probably just be sleeping anyway. A few minutes later I receive another email except this one is from Welch.
To: Christian Grey
Subject: Tyler Neliner
Date: May 8 1:41pm
From: Welch
Christian, attached is the background check on Tyler Neliner as requested.
Welch.
I open the attached file.
Name: Tyler Andrew Neliner
Address: 123 Skyline Rd Seattle Washington
Phone: 889-210-1142
DOB: 02-07-1985
Age: 30
Gender: M
Relationship Status: Single
Business Owner: N
Job: Liaison at Tech Corp.
Immediate Associates: Jack Hyde, Julia Munro, Allison McKay