No idea how many chapters I will be writing for this story, but there are a few more to come :)
English is still not my first language, and some chapters are likely to have more grammatical mistakes in it; anything too cringe-worthy, I wanna know so I can correct it.
Tony began to notice that something was off with Pepper's attitude when she informed him via email that she would be working from home the upcoming Friday.
Pepper hated working from home. Given the option, she would always prefer to work at the headquarters, where she had direct access to every ressource Stark Industries had to offer, from conferences room and spacious offices, to the crucial Legal Department, or her strongest ally, Julia from PR. However, most of the time, she ended up working wherever Tony was.
Pre-Afghanistan, that meant either working at his mansion in Malibu, on a jet flying across the ocean, at the back of a tech conference or a nightclub, or, if she was lucky, in a quiet hotel room, where a party was not taking place. While these last locations were certainly not the best, at least it meant that she had some kind of access to the CEO of SI and that she was on the frontline for damage control.
Nowadays, she mostly worked at his place, in the office she had on the first floor, or in the basement when she was waiting for Iron Man to come back from a particularly horrendous mission. On these occasions, she would usually fall asleep on the couch, her laptop still on her lap, until Jarvis announced that Tony was approaching. She would pretend that she was simply doing her job when she would patch the cuts and bruises, fix him water and energy bars, and in the worst cases, help him to his bed. But in reality, that fell way out of her job description, and they both knew it. They would barely exchange a word during their well-established post-mission routine, but the intensity of the looks and touches weighted heavily on them. When she deemed that her part was over, she would retract behind her professional mask, and conclude with an "Is that all, Mr. Stark?".
Tony couldn't think of a reason why Pepper would suddenly feel the need to change her habits.
Over the past ten years, she had probably been forced to work remotely only twice, when given no other options. The first time, she had caught the most awful cold while following Tony on a trip to Sydney. Two hours into the flight, he had changed the destination to Russia where some event on quantum technology was taking place, and Pepper's wardrobe had been caught off guard. When they returned to LA, she spent 48 hours at home, planning a not-so-subtle payback while high on fever.
The second time was when he had danced with her in front of hundreds of people, complimented her on her backless dress, led her outside onto the balcony, frozen when she had leaned in, and left her to get her a drink without coming back or without texting her.
That had been a major screw-up, one he continued to play over and over in his head almost three months later.
But Pepper couldn't anticipate to be sick on Friday, nor could she be pissed at him for something he hadn't done yet, so it meant she had in fact moved past his peeve and had made plans for herself.
"Jarvis, what's on Pepper's schedule next Friday?", Tony casually asked.
"Nothing on her professional schedule, Sir."
That made Tony switch his attention from the soldering he was doing on the Mark IV to his AI.
"What about her personal agenda?"
"Since she put it under personal, I would suggest not invading Miss Potts' p…"
"Daddy can replace you anytime, Jarvis !"
"Miss Potts has a 12:15pm hairdresser appointment. There is also a delivery scheduled between 2pm and 4pm, followed by a booking confirmation at the Beverly Hills Hotel's restaurant for 6pm."
Upon hearing this, Tony felt like he had been hit by a wall. He slowly resumed soldering the leg piece to its intricate mechanism, but his focus was elsewhere.
"Damn, our girl is busy", he whispered.
Tony was aware that Pepper had a romantic life. She was a fine woman, smart and elegant. She was bound to attract attention from men. Tony had seen it firsthand at Stark Industries or at social events. Everywhere they went, she would attract looks, but few were the guys bold enough to go past Tony's death glare and threatening hand shake. Tony wouldn't admit it, but he was guarding his territory.
According to her contract, he couldn't guard her after work hours, but that wasn't really necessary. In between the frequent traveling, the middle-of-the-night calls, and the unpredictability of her schedule, working as his PA was enough of a burden to prevent any lasting relationship. When thinking about it, Tony would feel something close to guilt, but that feeling would quickly fade away when picturing Pepper laughing with another guy, or adjusting his bowtie. Two things equally too intimate.
However, since his life-altering experience in an Afghan cave, he had come back as a different man, and he wished Pepper would trust him enough to accept that this new version of him was permanent.
Could he blame her, though? Could he blame her for not seeing it after the fundraiser or after his reckless behavior the night Obadiah died? Could he blame her for having a relationship serious enough for the first time in ten years that she would let it affect her work schedule, all without telling him about it?
"Does the boyfriend has a name?" Tony asked.
"Joshua, Sir."
With that, Tony's suspicions were confirmed; he was losing his PA.
