A/N: I'm so glad so many of you are still enjoying this story! I hope you enjoy this next chapter ?

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 10: Revelations

Ana and Christian entered her building and they walked over to the elevators. Ana didn't say anything, though inside her heart was pounding and her mind was swirling with uncertainty. Did she seriously just invite Christian upstairs to her apartment? He was just coming by to wait for a tow truck, she reminded herself. But still… it felt odd how unexpected her evening was turning out to be.

"Nice building," Christian complimented, looking around the spacious atrium as he followed Ana to the elevators. "You must like it here."

"It's alright, I suppose," Ana said, pressing the up button. "I've been here for about three years now. You mentioned you live across town?"

"Yeah, in the West Village," Christian said, checking his phone. "And like you said, it's probably going to take like two hours for a tow truck to bring my car back at this time of day."

"I don't know why you even bother having a car," Ana shook her head. "Or why you came all the way out here just for a simple coffee date."

Christian scratched the back of his head, suddenly looking awkward. "Well, that was because of… nevermind."

Ana frowned at him. "What are you talking about?" The elevator doors finally opened, and they stepped inside, the doors sliding closed behind them.

"The other day, I noticed you got a latte from that coffee shop," Christian admitted, avoiding her gaze. "I saw the name of the place on the side of your cup, but I swear I didn't know you lived next door. I had brought up to Kate earlier today that maybe we could go out for coffee sometime, and she insisted we go tonight after work. Since I'm still pretty new to New York, I didn't know any good coffee shops, so I Googled this place and suggested it. And I deeply regret that decision," he added with a grimace.

Ana stared at him in disbelief. "I would feel bad for you, but I still don't know what on earth possessed you to ask out that shrew in the first place. She was obviously nuts."

"A fact I'm sure you're going to rub in my face for the rest of eternity," Christian looked at her sarcastically. "Haven't I suffered enough?"

"Are you really asking me that question?" Ana asked jokingly, and Christian rolled his eyes. The elevator doors opened, and they both stepped out before walking down the hallway toward Ana's apartment.

Ana took out her keys and moved to unlock her door, but just as she was about to open it, the door next to hers suddenly swung open. Joanie's head popped out.

"Ana?" she asked eagerly, but then froze when she noticed Christian. "Oh. Hi."

"Hello," Christian said politely to her.

"Joanie, this is Christian," Ana introduced. "He's just gonna hang out at my place for a bit while waiting for a tow truck to pick up his car."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Joanie said sympathetically, stepping out of her door into the hallway. It was clear she wanted to talk to Ana about something, but didn't want to say anything in front of Christian.

"I need to call the tow truck company," Christian said, pulling out his cell phone and holding it up. "I'll be right back."

"Okay," Ana said, and Christian walked down the hallway out of earshot, dialing the number on his phone.

"Ana," Joanie whispered excitedly, walking toward her and grasping onto her forearm. "I've got great news!"

"What is it?" Ana asked, raising her eyebrows interestedly.

"I got my period today!" she whispered happily, squealing with unrestrained joy as she bounced on the balls of her feet. "I'm definitely one-hundred-percent not pregnant! Isn't that awesome?"

Ana hadn't expected that to be her good news, but she let out a laugh nonetheless. "Wow, that is awesome, Joanie. I'm happy for you."

"I even texted Carson to tell him," Joanie admitted, giggling. "He was happy, obviously, but I think he felt it was TMI. I don't really care, though – I'm just so happy this whole pregnancy thing is behind us."

"It's good that you can at least share that sort of stuff with him," Ana smiled at her. "And I'm sure he's happy not to be a father."

"Yeah, for sure. But I'll let you get back to your guest now," Joanie said, nodding toward Christian standing at the other end of the hallway. "See you later, Ana."

"Bye Joanie."

Joanie went back inside her apartment as Ana opened the door to her own place, smiling to herself. Her smile dropped, however, when she noticed that her apartment was still pretty messy from when she got ready for work this morning. Dirty dishes from breakfast cluttered her kitchen counters, and some of her clothes were tossed haphazardly across the furniture.

Why do I have to be such a slob?

Embarrassed, Ana quickly moved around and tidied the place up, feeling thankful that Christian hadn't walked in with her apartment looking so messy – he would undoubtedly hold it over her head for weeks. She quickly gathered up her clothes and tossed them into her dirty hamper in her room before picking up her dishes from the counters and placing them in the sink, where they were more out of sight. She had just finished tidying up when Christian walked inside.

"Tow truck's on its way," he informed her, holding up his phone. "Thanks again for letting me hang out here till it comes."

"No problem," Ana said easily, trying not to look like she had been frantically cleaning a moment ago. She felt slightly awkward as she watched Christian glancing around her apartment.

"Nice place," he complimented, closing the door behind him. "Much nicer than the underground cave I always imagined you inhabiting."

Ana couldn't help but let out a snort. "You mean my summer home? I'll show it to you sometime," she joked, and Christian smiled humorously.

"So your friend out there," Christian walked over as he nodded toward the door. "Joanie? She seems nice. A bit young, though."

"Yeah, she's my neighbor's daughter," Ana explained. "She's only seventeen, but she's really sweet. I consider her a friend."

"Is she the one who…?" Christian began to ask, but then stopped himself, shaking his head. "Nevermind, it's none of my business."

"Is she the one who took the pregnancy test in my apartment?" Ana asked, raising her eyebrows, and Christian nodded. "Yes, that was her. Don't tell anyone I told you, though."

"Of course not," Christian said quickly. "But does she know? That her pregnancy test caused a fight between you and your boyfriend?"

Ana felt her heart catch in her throat, and she swallowed. "No, she doesn't know, and I don't plan on ever telling her. She would only blame herself when it was Jose's dishonesty and immaturity that broke us up."

Christian's eyebrows raised. "So the two of you are officially broken up then?"

Ana nodded. "I was planning on meeting up with Jose for dinner tonight and breaking up with him there, but just as I was leaving, he called me to cancel. He knew what I was planning to do, and, like the chickenshit he is, he didn't want to face it," Ana rolled her eyes in annoyance. "So I broke up with him over the phone, and that was that."

Christian laughed with disbelief. "Wow. He refused to face you after yelling at you when he found that pregnancy test box? He really is a chickenshit."

"Which is why I say 'good riddance'," Ana sighed, moving over toward her kitchen counter to grab a bottle of wine. "I need a drink. Would you like some wine? I have a Cabernet open already."

"Sure, thank you."

Ana busied herself pouring two glasses of red wine before bringing them back over to Christian, who was now standing at her kitchen island. "Hopefully this is a bit more palatable than the coffee you just had with Kate. Do you have a place picked out for the second date yet?"

Christian gave an annoyed glare as Ana simply smirked at him, bringing her glass of wine up to her lips. "You're hilarious," he mused, also taking a sip of wine. "And I'm sure you're delighted at the fact I might lose my job now that I've pissed off the CEO's daughter. You'll get your office to yourself again in no time."

Ana raised her eyebrows at his pessimistic tone. "You really think Kate's going to try to get her dad to fire you just because your date went south?"

Christian shrugged. "I have no idea. I'm sure Max would vouch for me if Kate did try to get me fired, but I honestly don't know how much pull Kate has in her father's business."

"He wouldn't dare fire you," Ana frowned. "Firing someone because his daughter demanded it would be ridiculous in the first place, but he would definitely be opening himself up to a lawsuit. It hardly seems worth it. "

Christian looked at her for a second before smiling. "Are you defending me, Steele? I have to say, I'm touched – I never thought I'd see the day."

Ana scowled at him, though she felt her cheeks turning a bit red. "I'm just saying… getting the chance to work at this level in the corporate world isn't easy. Anyone else in your position would put up a fight."

"That's true," Christian agreed. "The fact that I uprooted my life and moved here all the way from Seattle for this job should be proof enough that I care about my career."

Ana blinked at him in surprise. "Wait, you moved here from Seattle? When you said you were new to the city, I thought you meant you were from like New Jersey or something."

Christian smirked in amusement. "Nope. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington. Got a problem with that?"

"Not at all. I was actually raised on the West coast too. In Portland," Ana admitted.

"Really? I actually would've assumed you were from around these parts," Christian said honestly. "Or maybe from Georgia since your mother lived down there."

Ana looked down at her wine glass, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable. "No. My parents got divorced when I was little, and I spent most of my time being raised by my dad out in Portland. My mom actually moved around quite a bit before finally settling down in Georgia, but I was already in college in Boston at that point. I only stayed with her down there for the last couple months of her life, when she had late-stage breast cancer."

Christian was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry, that must've been really difficult," he said to her sincerely.

Ana narrowed her eyes before pointing a finger at him. "You see – that would have been a proper response to hearing about my mom's death when you and I first met," she stated tersely. "The wrong response would be to imply to our boss I actually got a two-month-long vacation. Wouldn't you agree?"

Christian let out a small laugh, smiling embarrasedly as he looked away from her. "Yeah, that was kind of an asshole thing for me to say, wasn't it? I don't blame you for thinking that I'm a huge jerk."

"Why'd you say it then?" Ana asked, trying to hide how much she wanted to hear his response by bringing her glass of wine to her lips.

Christian hesitated once again, placing his hands on the edge of the kitchen island and tapping his fingers, contemplating his answer. "If you want the long answer, I suppose it's because of my family," he admitted. "I don't know if anyone told you, but I used to work for them – for my father, to be exact. He's the CEO of an international mergers and acquisitions company called Grey Enterprise Holdings, and I was the head of the marketing department."

Ana raised her eyebrows in surprise. She hadn't expected him to say that, and she wasn't quite sure where he was going with this. "So you have a super-rich family that owns a giant corporation?" She suddenly gasped in realization. "Oh my God, you're just like Kate! Both of your daddies are CEOs! That's why you felt a connection with her, wasn't it?"

"No. I'm nothing like Kate," Christian insisted, looking annoyed at Ana's triumphant smirk. "Unlike her, I actually worked really hard at my job, and it's because of me that GEH had one of the best marketing teams in the country. We were recognized by Neil Patel himself."

"So then why'd you leave?" Ana asked. "Seems like you had a pretty good situation, running the marketing department at your family's business."

Christian grimaced. "My father… he's a difficult man to please, to say the least. He has to be like that, of course, since he's running a billion-dollar operation and has no tolerance for stupid mistakes. It's what makes him a good businessman, but not so much of a good father."

Ana frowned sympathetically. "I see."

"Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot from him," Christian said fairly. "And I'll always be grateful to him for that, but it got to be too much after awhile. He made me feel as if I couldn't do anything without him, and that my marketing skills couldn't translate into the real world. I felt like there was nowhere else I could go outside of the family business."

Ana couldn't help but feel affronted on Christian's behalf. "So he basically made you feel trapped at your job?"

Christian nodded. "Yeah. I was completely miserable, to say the least, and I eventually came to the decision that I needed to leave GEH for my own mental health. I wanted to prove to my dad, and to myself, that I could be successful without the help of my family. I was determined to forge my own path without them."

"So that's why you took a marketing job at the other side of the country," Ana concluded.

"I have a lot of connections out here in New York, and Max was actually the one to reach out to me," Christian explained. "He told me that one of his marketing agents at Kavanaugh Media was on leave for an undetermined amount of time, and he asked if I'd be interested in filling in for them. I wasn't going to be running a whole department, but it was still a great opportunity. And it was my one shot at getting out of my situation at GEH."

"So how did your father react to you leaving?" Ana couldn't help but ask, and Christian let out a humorless laugh, shaking his head.

"Not well," he said simply. "No one in my family knew I was looking to leave GEH, so when I dropped it on them, it was a huge surprise. My dad was pissed, my mother was heartbroken, and my siblings thought I had lost my mind. I don't think any of them actually thought I was going to leave until I really did."

Ana couldn't help but feel her heart go out to him. "So is your family still upset about what you did?"

"Sort of. I think my mom and siblings have come to terms with it – they've all reached out to me at one point or another over the past couple months to see how I've been. But my father hasn't spoken to me since I left," Christian said, and he grimaced. "I honestly don't know if he ever will."

Christian hesitated again, looking like he wanted to say something else, before finally looking Ana in the eye. "The day that I met you, when I learned that you were the marketing agent I had been filling in for, I was afraid that I was going to become redundant because you were coming back. I felt I had sacrificed so much for this job, that I had burned so many bridges back home, that there was no way I was going to leave here without a fight. I'm ashamed that I felt so threatened by you: I think that's why I was so rude to you when we first met. A part of me wanted to make you look bad in front of Max if we were going to be competing for the same job."

He looked genuinely ashamed of himself when he said that, and Ana could only stare at him in disbelief. She hadn't been expecting that kind of explanation, but after learning about everything he went through with his family, it sort of made sense. And she couldn't help but feel an odd sort of flattery that a man like Christian Grey actually felt threatened by someone like her.

"Max would never do that," she eventually said. "That day we met, he straight up told me that you and I would be splitting my clients because he didn't want to lose you."

"I know, and Max explained what our situation was going to be after you left that day," Christian admitted, bringing a hand up to rub the back of his neck. "I felt bad about how I behaved, and I'm sorry."

Ana frowned at him, however. "If you did feel bad, you would've stopped being rude to me, but you just went on being a jerk for weeks! How am I supposed to believe you?"

"I wasn't…" Christian began, but then stopped, an oddly frustrated look on his face.

"Everyone at the office has been telling me how nice you are, and yet you've been nothing but an asshole to me," Ana insisted, moving around the kitchen island toward him. She wasn't quite sure why, but she refused to let this matter go. "I mean, I guess you were nice to me in the copy room the other day, but for the most part, you've just been making cracks at me about my quality of work or my appearance."

"Well, you've been a jerk to me too," Christian deflected, taking a step toward her so they were right in front of each other. "Don't act like you don't constantly make cracks at me on a daily basis."

"I only do that because you were rude to me first," Ana said petulantly, crossing her arms. "Most people would agree that if you actually got to know me, I'm a pretty nice person."

"Well, maybe I don't want to be 'most people'," Christian argued. "Maybe I kind of like that you treat me a little differently than everyone else."

Whatever Ana had expected him to say, it definitely wasn't that. She faltered slightly as she blinked at him. "What, so… you're a jerk to me because you like attention? That's kind of childish of you."

The look Christian was currently giving her didn't exactly say 'childish', however: Ana felt her heart pounding like a drum inside of her chest as they stared at each other.

"It might be... but I think you like it too." Christian shifted closer to her so they were barely a foot apart, and Ana couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from him. Something zinged in the air around them, making Ana's skin prickle and her brain go fuzzy.

"Yeah right," Ana murmured, sounding unconvincing to her own ears.

"I know I can be a jerk to you," Christian said quietly, his gray eyes boring into hers. "But if I'm being honest, I enjoy seeing your reactions to the things I say. The angry look you get on your face, the flush that comes over your skin… even the snappy retorts that come out of your smart mouth. It's fascinating to me."

Ana felt like she couldn't breathe, her heart was pounding so hard in her chest. She wasn't sure how to respond to that, but after a moment she brought herself to speak: "So… you admit you enjoy getting under my skin?" she asked, her voice oddly breathy. "Is that what the whole flirtation with Kate was about, then?"

"Me spending time with her clearly bothered you," Christian said, a small smirk breaking out across his handsome face. "And a part of me wanted to know how far I could push it. Clearly, it went a bit too far."

"Obviously. You said it yourself that Kate might get you fired now," Ana said, frowning at him. "After everything you went through in Seattle, was trying to get under my skin really worth it?"

Christian stared at her, his smirk dropping slightly as he regarded her. "Maybe not. But what's life without a little risk?"

Ana suddenly felt hot all over. Christian was looking at her in a way she couldn't quite decipher, but something inside of her couldn't seem to look away. Christian had essentially admitted his behavior for the past few weeks was all because of some fascination he had with her… she had never expected that to be his reasoning, and she wasn't sure how it made her feel.

She wasn't sure of anything regarding Christian anymore.

The odd look on Christian's face seemed to fade after a moment, and he blinked a few times, as if coming out of a trance. "Um… I should probably go," he murmured, looking away. "I'm sure the tow truck will be here any minute now."

Ana didn't say anything, knowing he was looking for an excuse to get away from her. She gave him a tight smile. "Right."

Christian looked as if he wanted to say something else, but stopped himself. He turned to head out the door, but then paused before turning back to face Ana. "Thanks for letting me hang out here for a bit, Ana."

Ana wondered if he wanted to say something else, but didn't push the issue. "Of course."

Christian gave her a smile, a bit of that familiar glint in his eye as he turned and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

A/N: Ooh that slow burn is heating up a little XD

Hope you all enjoyed that chapter! Next up, Jessica and Nadia have a proposition for Ana.

Please review :)