"Welcome to Cullen and Co. Ms. Swan." Angela said with a bright smile as she led me through the glass doors. I smiled back at her and tried to quell my nerves as she led me through the pristine halls. I followed her in awe as I took in the area. I'd been on site with Edward a few times but never here. It was beautiful, it was mostly made out of glass, the walls, the doors, even the water fountain that sat in the lobby.
"I'll take you to the break room first, and then I'll take you to all the main offices, the ones you'll need to worry about." I nodded and kept on her heels as she led me around. She led me down a mirrored hallway and pushed on one of the panels. It swung to the side, opening up to reveal a small break room like any other, except it was wall to wall windows, even the part that backed the mirror hallway.
"You're pretty much on break whenever you aren't busy. The amount of freedom here is unbelievable." She said excitedly before leading me out again and pushing the wall/door thing closed. I made note of the fact that it was the third large panel from the Cullen Crest water fountain.
"This is Mr. Cullen Sr.'s office." She said strutting past it with a hair flip, as Carlisle could probably see us just as clearly as we could see him. He looked up and gave me that same charming half smile Edward wore on occasion. I waved at him and he nodded, standing and walking around his desk towards the wall.
"Ms. Swan, we're excited to have you here." He said as he pushed open, what was apparently, the door.
"I'm glad to be here, Mr. Cullen."
"Well, you're in good hands with our Angela." She smiled and blushed as he winked at her.
"Thanks, Mr. Cullen." She said before ducking her head.
A phone started ringing in his office and he turned to look at it over his shoulder before furrowing his eyebrows. "I'm sorry, ladies, I've got something to attend to, but I'll be sure to catch up with you late, Ms. Swan." I nodded and he waved once more before turning the large glass until it closed.
I turned to Angela and she was still blushing. "The accent gets me every time." She giggled.
I chuckled at her. "So all of the walls are just glass? That doesn't seem very…"
"Oh no, honey. They're all on their own circuits which allow the windows to darken and panels descend turning the windows into one or two sided mirrors." She informed me, walking farther down the hall way. "We'll be coming up on Mr. Cullen Jr.'s office, he's not usually in, he's most likely onsite, but maybe that's for the best." I furrowed my eyebrows at the Junior and Senior thing, they did have two different names after all.
"Why is that?" I asked, wanting to get the down low on what they thought of Edward here.
"He's kind of gorgeous, it's nerve wracking at times… Especially when you work immediately under him. I mean, Senior is more than attractive, but Ed- Mr. Cullen Jr. is Senior two point oh." She said shaking her head. I internally rolled my eyes.
That's it?
She went on. "He's really nice though, once you get to know him. Just a little intimidating at times…"
"Intimidating?"
"It's the face and the accent… Together, it's unbearable." She swooned and I laughed. Edward's accent had all but disappeared in the years I'd known him, so he must do it around her on purpose.
"Okay," I said simply. A panel to the wall swung out right in front of me and I stopped right before I smacked into it. Edward stepped out of the door looking devastatingly handsome in his work attire consisting of a form fitted blue dress shirt, rolled up to his elbows and light gray slacks, that hugged those gorgeous legs perfectly.
"Ugh." I huffed as he turned to smirk at me. Angela gasped and elbowed me in the arm.
"That's him." She whispered before raising her voice so he could hear her. "Hello, Mr. Cullen."
"Hello, Angela." He said smoothly with a strong accent, with a before turning his gaze on me. "Come here." He looked back to Angela with a smile, "Thanks for helping her out, Ang. I've got it from here." He smiled and she nodded with a giggle before scurrying off. He stepped aside and let me enter the office ahead of him.
"Well, hello to you to." I said with a roll of my eyes. "Why'd you stop her, I was taking my tour."
"I can give you a tour and something to ogle while I educate you."
"What's up with the accent?"
"They get a kick out of it. It makes work a little sexier for them." He smirked, picking up a remote and clicking it a few times until the windows went dark, blocking out the hallway.
"You are so full of it." I laughed, watching the panels in awe. "I thought they only turned into mirrors."
"Some do, but I change in here and shit, I don't want to have to watch myself or others when I get down to my skivvies." I nodded and walked farther into the pristine office, taking in the white carpet and the glass desk. I went and sat behind it, looking over the three picture frames he had there. There was one of him with his parents, Emmett and their dog, that I remember taking a few years back. Another of his niece Emily smiling as she posed in what looked like a princess costume. Then there was one of the two of us in his front yard, him behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist, beaming as I scowled at the camera. Much like I was scowling down at the frame.
"What?" He asked taking the picture from my hands and laughing at it. "I love this picture." I curled a lip at him and he laughed harder.
"Why that one? There are so many pictures of us and you chose that one."
"My hair looks good in it." He shrugged, plopping down in the chair that sat on the opposite side of the desk.
"I swear every day you get shallower." I shook my head, still recognizing that he had a picture of me on his desk. My stomach tingled as I looked at the desk full of the people closest to him.
"Just be happy you made it onto the desk of toleration." He smiled setting the frame down again.
"The what?"
"The desk of toleration. All the people I can put up with every once in a while are on this desk."
I crossed my hands over my heart and fluttered my eyelashes. "Thanks, babe. That makes me feel so special." He winked and I shook my head.
"So are you actually going to take me on a tour?" I asked, picking up the family 'portrait' I'd taken.
"Nope." He said popping the P. "You're office is in the room off of this one, as you'll be working as my personal assistant." I choked on air and sat forward in the chair. "You won't be in the office that much though, because I'm not really in here a lot. And you'll be with me…" He wiggled his eyebrows and winked again. "Always." I sighed and bit my lip, leaning back in the chair.
"Oh we're going to hate each other after this." I sighed with a chuckle and he shook his head.
"Never." He pushed himself out of his chair and braced his hands on the desk, leaning across it. "First order of business here at Cullen and Co. is the mandatory sexual harassment training. Luckily I missed the last one-"
"Probably because you were somewhere sexually harassing me." I mumbled and he stood back before shrugging.
"Most likely, but you weren't my employee then, so it was okay."
"I don't think you've quite grasped the concept of harassment." I said as he walked behind the desk, rolling back the chair so that I'd stand. I did and then set the frame back down on the desk.
"I'll get it one day." He said slinging his arm over my shoulders and pulling me to his side. "Now listen, babe, we're going to have to keep this strictly professional in the office." I rolled my eyes. "That means no quickies, bj's under the desk or make out sessions in the break room."
"Yeah, I'll try and contain myself." I deadpanned. "You might also want to work on calling me Bella."
"As opposed to?"
"Babe… Baby?" He nodded.
"I can always try." He kissed my forehead and moved away from me, grabbing his sports jacket off the back of his chair. "To training!"
"Do you know where we're going?"
"Not really, but I heard that Dad leads it so we can just find him." He said raising his eyebrows and pushing open the panel, letting me out. "Remember, professional." We headed down the short hall stiffly as we passed coworkers and he sighed behind me.
"Maybe not so professional, I'm already bored." He pointed at a panel and I lifted a hand to push it open, meeting unmoving glass and almost smacking into it face first. Edward stood solemnly behind me and I turned to glare at him, sending him into hysterics.
"Asshole! That hurt." I gasped as he pushed in the panel two away from the one he'd originally pointed at. Once we were inside of the office I punched him in the shoulder. "I think I broke my nose."
"No, you didn't… That's your fault anyway, who opens a door with their face?" He said doubling over and bracing himself on his knees.
"You know me, all or nothing." I sneered, wrinkling my nose at him.
"That was cruel, Edward." Carlisle laughed from behind his desk. "There's a problem already?"
"We're here for sexual harassment training." Edward said gesturing to one of the seats, letting me sit before him.
I shook my head, "You sit first. I'm not falling for that again."
"Sexual harassment training?" Carlisle questioned lifting an eyebrow in my direction. "Well looks like you're already making improvements, Bella. If I got another complaint about this one I was going to have to staple him to the chair to get him through the meeting." He smiled and Edward rolled his eyes, sitting down and pointing at the other. I snickered and tentatively scooted farther back in the chair.
"There's nothing wrong with it, just sit…" I kept eye contact with him as I slid slowly into the chair and he smiled once I was down. "See it's not that bad."
"I'm sure you two know the majority of the material they want me to cover." Carlisle said leaning over and pulling a thick file from his drawer. He flipped through it for a second before pushing to quiz like forms our way. I picked mine up and glanced over it.
"Whatever you miss we'll go over it." He said relaxing back into his chair and resting his arms on the armrests.
"If I do better than you, you owe me a kiss." Edward said tapping his lips. Senior huffed from behind the desk and tossed a post it note pad at him. I quickly filled mine out, scoffing at some of the questions.
Nancy just received a promotion, is slapping her buttock the correct way to congratulate her? Yes/No
You notice that Derek has spilled a spot of ketchup on his slacks at work; do you address the matter by reaching into his lap and touching the spot to bring it to his attention? Yes/No
These were questions that even Edward could probably get right…
On the other hand…
Nah, he could pass.
I finished the form and slid it towards Mr. Cullen, sitting back and watching Edward do the same, with an arrogant smile. He patted my knee and I rolled my eyes.
"You look kinda nervous, babe," He teased, Mr. Cullen's eyes peeked over the top of the file and I paid him no attention. "afraid you didn't do well?"
"Not at all. I was always the better test taker." I said lifting my chin. He laughed and we waited for Mr. Cullen, to first look back to the paper, then finish grading them. He handed both of the papers back to us and I pursed my lips when I saw I missed one.
"It's okay, Bella. That was a tricky one." Mr. Cullen winked and Edward turned his paper to face me, showing that he hadn't missed any.
"Wait what the he-" My eyes shot to Carlisle and I cleared my throat. "heck?"
"Don't be too impressed, Bella." He said looking at Edward with dismay.
"I wrote the quiz." Edward gloated.
"Then why have I gotten two sexual harassment complaints from Ruth at the front desk in the past two months?"
"I don't know, shouldn't those go to HR?" He asked and I crossed my legs, pursing my lips at him.
"Edward." Carlisle snapped.
"Ruth's always looking to sue for something." He rolled his eyes, "She's money hungry."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"He touched her butt." Carlisle informed.
"I did not touch her butt. If anything, I slapped her ass-" Mr. Cullen sat up, ready to jump on that and I pressed my lips together to keep down my amused smile. "that was an accident too. I mean, she's like seventy years old. I have no interest in that, anyway." He rolled his eyes. "It's completely implausible, I mean, if it were Bella's ass I slapped, then you could probably believe it." He shrugged and I nodded with scoff.
"Edward still-"
"Dad, accident or not, she probably enjoyed it." I turned to Carlisle and he gave me an exasperated look, tugging his hand through his blonde hair.
"Looks like you've talked yourself into a thirty minute informational session." He said pulling out the folder again and this time pushing a booklet towards Edward who rolled his eyes.
"I was joking…"
"No you weren't." I laughed and he winked at me.
"You can leave if you'd like. I'll send Edward back in a while."
"Uh uh, she's staying; you can personally assist me through this crap." He said turning to me. "And you aren't getting out of that kiss you owe me."
"We'll see." I said before nodding to Mr. Cullen, whose eyes darted between the two of us rapidly, like he was watching a tennis match.
"Alright, well let's get started."
I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it!
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