Ch 2
I took a deep breath and when I opened my eyes he was still sitting there, confidently, with a small smile on his face. Crap… I had hoped it was all just a nightmare and when I opened my eyes he'd be gone.
No such luck.
It's official: my one night stand from hell was my new assistant.
Oh karma, how I hate you.
I wanted to beat my head against the desk. Repeatedly.
This is what I get for finally letting go and having a little fun… well a lot of fun, but we're not going to go there right now.
The clearing of a throat reminded me of his presence, and that this wasn't just a joke my subconscious was playing on me.
It's decision time. Do I pretend nothing happened or make Mr. Cullen understand that if we can't act like professionals I will need to look for a new assistant? I put on my best mature 'don't-mess-with-me' face and finally addressed him. Hopefully this time I would be able to control the reflexes of my middle finger.
"Mr. Cullen, I think we have found ourselves in a very unique situation."
"To say the least." The look on his face was one that I remembered seeing last night in the bar. The face of an arrogant, stuck up, hotter than hell bastard.
"If I were you, I'd wipe that smug smile off your face and act like an adult," I chastised. "Now, I am willing to admit it takes two to tango, but in this office I am the boss. And thus I require you to act appropriately. If we can both act like adults I see no reason why we can't continue on as associates."
He sat there for a second just taking it all in. I bet he didn't expect me to be so polished.
"So now you want to be a professional?" he asked with a devilish smirk on his face.
You've got to be kidding me. This is how I got into trouble last night; he's a huge, irresistible smartass.
He reminds me of… me, but with a dick; and a nice one at that.
He must have seen the scowl on my face because he quickly threw his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Just kidding."
"Ok, you've got the rest of the week, which gives you two days to prove yourself," I said sitting back in my chair and relaxing, showing him who's boss.
"No problem. I'm nothing if not thorough."
Wow, does he even realize how good he is at what he's doing? How even though I want to hate him with every fiber of my being, I'm helpless to that gorgeous smile and amazing emerald green eyes.
Just as I was about to shut down his inappropriate comment, I noticed Jessica standing in the doorway.
"Yes Miss Stanley?" I wondered how long she was standing there, and how much she heard.
"They're expecting you in the large conference room," she replied.
I quickly thanked her and glanced at my packed schedule for the day. I guess that five minutes to freak out in the bathroom will have to wait till later.
"Ok, let's go," I said to… it seemed in appropriate to call him Edward, but too formal to keep referring to him as Mr. Cullen.
"You can call me Edward, it's ok," he said seeing my hesitation.
"Sure... Edward it is," I replied as we walked down the hallway to our first of many meetings of the day.
Four hours, three meetings, two new projects, and one headache later I finally got to sit down at my desk. I really underestimated how much more work this job was going to be. At this rate I would be lucky to get out of here before eight. It's a good thing I don't have anyone to go home to; it doesn't look like I will be spending much time there anytime soon.
Seeing how late it was I quickly ordered a sandwich from the deli across the street. "I was just about to go get a late lunch, you want anything?" I asked when Edward walked into my office.
"No thanks, I just finished all the paperwork down in HR. Looks like you're stuck with me now, boss." He was munching on a Powerbar he probably got from the vending machines downstairs.
"Well, while I'm gone, why don't you start on checking that memo that I left open on my computer?"
"I'll get right on it," he mumbled through bites.
When I finally got a few minutes to myself I ran across the street to my favorite sandwich shop, On A Roll, to grab a tuna on rye. My order wasn't ready yet so I dug my phone out of my purse and called Alice. It went straight to voicemail; just my luck. "Hey A, it's me. You'll never guess who my new assistant is… the one and only one night stand from hell. Gimme a call when you can, I'm slightly freaking out." I hung up and noticed all the people in the deli staring. As if my day couldn't get any worse.
Lucky for me they finished my sandwich and within minutes I was on my way back into work.
"Oh Bella!" I turned back to the reception desk.
"So… what's he like?" Jessica asked with a dreamy look on her face.
"Who?" I asked.
"McHottie," she whispered.
What in the world is she talking about now? I must have given her the 'you're-crazier-than-a-crowd-of-teenagers-at-a-Justin-Bieber-concert' look because she leaned in and waved me closer.
"Your new assistant," she elaborated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh." She was interested in him; well she certainly was his type, "We'll see. He seems like he knows what he's doing." I kept it vague. She doesn't need to know how well he certainly did know what he was doing, most importantly between the sheets.
As she was digesting my vague answer the phone rang, and while she was occupied I quickly retreated to my office.
The rest of the day almost went off without a hitch. Edward had just returned from running something off for me and I was just responding to an email when the phone rang. Without thinking, I hit the speaker button and answered, "Miss Swan."
"Oh my God Bella, Your sexy one night…"
Mortified I quickly grabbed the handset and spun my chair around to face the wall of windows. "Alice, now's not really the best time for this. Why don't I call you later?"
Thankfully she took the hint and after promising to call her as soon as humanly possible we quickly hung up. Of course Edward was sitting in the chair opposite my desk with a single eyebrow raised. Why did he have to ooze sex appeal?
"Uh... personal calls are to be kept to a minimum." I tried pathetically to cover up my embarrassment.
"It's ok, you don't have to explain. I have a feeling my brother is going to have a similar reaction."
"You have a brother?" I asked.
"Yeah, your friend the blonde was dancing with him all night."
"Rosalie."
"And I think my friend Jasper has a thing for the short girl," he added.
"That's Alice." I paused before asking, "Is this appropriate?" We haven't really crossed any boundaries yet, but I don't know what's normal conversation for the one night stand that turned out to be your new assistant. Maybe I should Google that.
"Look, I want to apologize… I was a complete ass."
"That I won't argue with," I deadpanned.
"I just didn't know how to deal with…"
I put my hand up to stop him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone walk past the door to the office, anyone could hear our conversation if they wanted to.
"I don't think this is the place for this talk." I explained nodding towards the hallway. Edward turned and saw Jessica standing in the hallway talking to someone. I leaned a little closer and elaborated, "This place tends to have ears, and I don't think that's how you want your first day to be remembered."
"Good idea, we'll continue it… sometime."
I nodded in agreement. "In the mean time, why don't you get out of here."
"Ok, you coming?" he asked as he grabbed his coat and started to put it on.
"Nah, I'm going to be here a while with this." I lifted the notes we took from the meeting earlier.
"You want me to stay? We can knock it out faster," he offered.
I was impressed, I had given him a free pass and he still offered to stay late to help out. Just another piece to add to the puzzle that was Edward.
"Nah, get out of here."
"Ok, have a good night, boss." He left the office with a sexy smile and a wink. Oh yeah, he definitely knew what he was doing.
It was about an hour later when I finally got up to stretch my legs and grabbed a bag of chips from the vending machine in the employee lounge. I flopped back into my chair and started writing the last report of the night when there was a knock at my door. What I saw when I looked up made my jaw drop.
Edward was standing there leaning on the door frame with a pizza box in his hand. He changed from his suit and tie into jeans and a t-shirt. He seemed to be one of those guys who looked good no matter what he wore, and from my memory he looked good even when he wore nothing.
"I thought you might forget to eat," he chuckled as he walked toward my desk, "Or eat horrible food from the vending machine." He picked up the half eaten bag of chips and threw them in the garbage can.
"You didn't have to," I said as he put the pizza box down and grabbed a slice for me.
"I know. This is my peace offering. I'm sorry for being an ass."
My eyes never left his as I took a big bite of the best meat lover's pizza I've ever had. "Apology accepted." I inhaled that slice and quickly grabbed another. "This is the best pizza I've ever had," I moaned between bites. I always thought food was the way to a man's heart-who knew it worked the other way around?
He chuckled and said, "It's Sal's, right by my place, the best pizza I've ever had outside of Chicago."
We ate the better half of the pizza and when we were done I begrudgingly turned back to the report waiting on my computer. It wasn't going to finish itself. Edward cleaned up the pizza and put the leftovers in the fridge in the employee lounge and returned to the office as I was finally turning off my computer for the day.
"Thanks again for dinner," I said as I gathered my things to leave.
"No problem. I just wanted to make up for earlier."
We walked out and after a quick, awkward goodbye we went our separate ways. As I walked the few blocks to my place I couldn't help but wonder about Edward. He seemed like such a nice guy, why was he picking up girls at bars and having one night stands instead of spending the rest of his life with the woman of his dreams? Why was he working as a lowly assistant if he had a gorgeous apartment in one of the most high end complexes in Seattle? Why does he act like a complete ass at 7AM and bring me pizza twelve hours later?
As I got ready for bed that night, I asked myself if I would ever know the answers to any of the questions I have about Edward. Would we ever have a normal professional relationship? Would we ever have a personal relationship? I thought we had a great connection at the bar; I wouldn't have gone home with him if I didn't. All of the thoughts, clean and dirty, swirling around in my head don't exactly fall under normal employee relations.