Returning to work from the weekend was eventful but not in the way Emily anticipated. Alison came through the glass doors at exactly 8:30, barely glancing in Emily's direction on the way to her desk, and offering no response to her 'Good Morning'. For a moment, Emily feared she was in for another stretch of excruciating silence, but that wasn't the case.

"We start shooting the Levi's campaign today in Studio A. I want final approval before we start photographing anything, have Hanna or Guillermo call the office when they're ready. You can come with me to get footage for that 'day in the life' thing Avery wants to do."

Those were Alison's first words to Emily, not a 'Good Morning', not a 'How are you?', or even a "How's your back?'. No mention of the way Alison had held her, the way she spoke to her. It was straight to business as if the events of the Garden Party never happened. Emily felt herself blinking in disbelief.

"The New and Hot New York Restaurants piece Tosia is doing, she needs to include Principe, the seafood restaurant in SoHo that just opened. I don't know how she missed it, but tell her to get reservations ASAP so the article doesn't have to be pushed back. They're going to be the new 'It' spot when fashion week comes around."

Emily only half listened to Alison continue to rattle off her itinerary and instructions. She'd spent the entire weekend playing out scenarios of coming back to work and having a conversation with her boss about their heated exchange at the company party, if Alison even considered it that. It's possible Alison thought of it as simply reprimanding an employee…which would be weird, but it was still a possibility no matter how strange, and that's why Emily wanted to talk about it. To understand exactly what it was. Until they did, Emily was stuck entertaining an endless amount of possibilities, no matter how outlandish.

In some of the scenarios Emily imagined Alison would apologize, and Emily would tell her it wasn't necessary. When she'd felt Alison's hand on her back, she assumed it was CeCe, but even after seeing it wasn't, she didn't pull away. She leaned into Alison's touch and hung an arm around her neck. Emily was struggling with what that meant. Was she attracted to Alison? The EIC was beautiful, and intelligent and had a certain charm about her but she was also mean and hurtful. It surprised her, but Emily enjoyed the feeling of Alison stroking her back when she told her nothing was going on between her and CeCe. The sting of Alison's nails in response to her sarcasm was equally surprising…and enjoyable. That realization brought on a wave of guilt Emily hadn't anticipated. What about Maya?

"...Send a gift to the New York Liberty thanking them for attending the party and listening to our pitch. I'll leave the details of it up to you." Alison concluded her directives and paused briefly before asking, "Is there anything you wanted to say to me?" she locked Emily in her gaze.

The choice of words didn't escape Emily, Alison wasn't asking for her messages, or for any updates to be relayed. This was it, Emily knew, this was her chance to speak up about the moment she and Alison shared on the balcony. Except it didn't seem like Alison was interested in a conversation, it was more like she was asking out of an obligation to give Emily a chance to be heard before moving on. Emily hadn't considered that scenario, where they brushed the incident aside and never spoke about it.

"No," Emily lied, trying to mask the conflicting emotions that she was sure showed on her face.

… …

As they arrived at the Levi's photoshoot, Emily trailed a few steps behind Alison. The studio space was vast and buzzing with activity and conversations. Emily had expected to see panicked faces and people running around frantically, but there was none of that, everyone moved with choreographed precision.

Alison wasted no time, she inspected the set first, taking in every detail. Emily watched her examine the lighting setup, the positioning of the props, and the backdrops. Alison didn't say anything, she didn't nod in approval or purse her lips in disdain, she just moved on without giving away her feelings on anything. Just like she had this morning, jumping straight into work without any mention of the embrace she and Emily shared, giving Emily nothing, no indication of how she felt about it or if she'd even thought about it since then. Emily pushed her ruminations aside as she followed Alison to where a group of models congregated, Hanna's closet interns fussed over the details of their outfits. As they approached, the interns stopped and took a few steps back to not be in Alison's way.

The models had all been through Hair and Makeup and stood stock still as Alison looked over them. Emily thought back to the notes she'd read on the campaign, today was only Day 1 of shooting and it revolved around the brand's unreleased collaboration with a rising menswear designer from Amsterdam who focused on high-quality minimalist garments. It explained the elevated aesthetic of the clothing and the almost bare set. Days 2 and 3 would be centered around Levi's Spring Summer offerings and the plans she'd read for those shoots seemed much more elaborate while still in line with the All American, Effortlessly Cool, and Always in Style traditional marketing of the brand. Emily gave herself a mental pat on the back, she'd been trying to be a sponge and just soak in whatever she could, and apparently, things were starting to make sense. She was actually looking forward to being on set at the subsequent shoots if Alison decided to take her along.

"Alison, What a pleasant afternoon we're having,"

"Guillermo," Alison acknowledged the man.

"We're on schedule and ready to start shooting," the Creative Director spoke with excitement.

"You think you're ready to begin shooting?" Alison asked, her tone causing Guillermo to second guess himself.

"Uh..yes, well I believe so,"

Alison turned to face the set, motioning for Guillermo to do the same, "You chose solid backdrops, great colors, they'll compliment the denim very well," she complimented. Guillermo, flattered and surprised, was about to thank her for the kind words but Alison continued, "The orange backdrop is wrinkled, did you notice that?"

"I'm sure Peter the photographer-"

"Peter isn't the one who just told me everything was ready," Alison interrupted. "You are the Creative Director, Peter answers to you which makes you responsible for him, his mistakes become your mistakes because you didn't care enough to catch them." Alison spoke calmly and assuredly, "If I took photographs taken in front of a wrinkled backdrop to my meeting with Levi's when I update them on our progress, do you think they would care that you led the shoot? No, because your mistakes are my mistakes when I don't care enough to catch them. Do you understand what I'm saying?" the tone was harsh but not Alison's usually scathing condescension.

"I do,"

"It's not enough to make great choices, you have to follow through, down to the tiniest of details. One careless mistake can ruin you." Alison was talking to Guillermo, but it was Emily who clung to the words. "Nix the flower vase and chair, you don't need them." She gestured to the props.

"One careless mistake can ruin you"

It was possible Emily was reading too much into it, looking for signs or clues that weren't there, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Alison wasn't talking about the wrinkled backdrop when she said it. Is that how Alison saw things? A careless mistake that could ruin her. They found Hanna near craft services. Emily tried again to push aside the intruding thoughts, she couldn't spend the entire day dissecting every word that came out of Alison's mouth, searching for hidden meanings.

"I have notes," Alison greeted.

Between bites of the baby carrots she was eating, Hanna responded, "Of course you do," she smirked. The Style Director turned to Emily, "Hello Emily, How are you doing? I hope your weekend went well," Hanna exaggerated the greeting, clearly trying to show Alison how a conversation usually starts.

"I'm good, Hanna, thank you." Emily managed a reply, still distracted.

Alison ignored it, "Karly, the model wearing the dress, get her back in Hair and Makeup, pull her hair back, sleek, out of her face. Xavier needs to lose the earring. We want minimal, very little makeup, and no jewelry. Remember to get shots of the jacket buttoned up and open on both of them. There's no such thing as too many photos, and don't let anyone rush. We do it right and we do it once. There will be no reshoots."

"Is that all?"

"I'm sure I could think of more if I wanted to," Alison quipped, and Hanna feigned being hurt by the words. "but I have a meeting at Serafina so the rest is up to you. Keep me updated."

As hard as Emily fought it she was pulled back into her thoughts. Maybe Alison was constantly chastising Emily because she liked her, like kids on a playground teasing their crush. Except they weren't kids on a playground, Alison was her boss who went out of her way to be terrible to Emily whenever she found the opportunity. They were leaving the studio when Alison stopped and turned suddenly to face her.

"You didn't record anything."

"What?" Emily asked, she'd been wrapped up in her own head and it took a second to register what Alison was talking bout.

"I brought you along so you could get footage for the 'day in life' content, but you didn't film anything."

"Right. Sorry, I can uh," Emily searched her bag for the Socials phone.

"Don't bother with it now, we're done here," Alison led the way to the lobby.

When they emerged from the DiLaurentis McCullers Drake building Alison looked back at Emily who was still trailing just behind her, "You didn't call the car did you?" she asked, noticing the black Audi that usually drove her around wasn't out front.

Fuck, Emily cursed herself, "Calling it now."

… …

Emily wasn't sure what kind of footage Avery wanted of Alison but she captured a short video of her getting into the car when it came around to pick them up. She got another good shot of Alison inside the car on their way uptown.

"I'm sorry if this is annoying," Emily apologized, putting the phone away.

Alison stared out the window, "It's fine. I have years of experience with people shoving cameras in my face." she replied nonchalantly.

Emily wondered what that was like, the most she'd ever had to deal with was people staring at her or coming up to ask where they remembered her from. She was never really sure how to answer that question. The car ride was quiet, neither of them saying anything until the car approached Serafina.

"What are we doing here?" Alison asked her driver as the car came to a stop.

"We've arrived at Serafina, Ms DiLaurentis."

"Yes, but this is 38 Madison, we should be on the Upper West Side on 77th," Alison corrected him.

Emily shrank in the backseat as she realized she'd sent the driver to the wrong location.

"This is the location I was given, Ms DiLaurentis. I can take you to 77th now."

"Just wait a moment," Alison said as the car started again, "It's going to take at least 40 minutes to get there, likely more with traffic."

"I am so sorry, I can call the restaurant now to let them know you're on your way," Emily offered, she was panicking. She'd forgotten what retailer Alison was meeting with, or she would have offered to call them too.

"No, Don't do anything." Alison turned her body as much as possible in the backseat to face Emily. "Were you listening to anything I said this morning?" she stared Emily down.

Emily knew she hadn't been listening as well as she should have, everything Alison said when she arrived at the office had been an echo in the background of Emily's mind. She couldn't focus, she'd completely forgotten to get footage at the photo shoot, she couldn't even manage to remember to call the car as Alison wrapped up, and now she'd sent the driver to the wrong restaurant location and Alison was going to be an hour late to her meeting at best.

"I'm sorry-"

"I don't want any more apologies. I want you to do your job." Alison said flatly. "Is there anything you need back at the office?"

"No," Emily replied meekly.

"Good. Get out."

Stunned, Emily struggled to find her words, "I don't..are you..?" her thoughts a jumbled mess.

"Get out of the car. Go home. Come back when you're ready to work." Alison had turned back around, eyes fixed ahead, her expression neutral.

The car fell silent as Emly sat there in shock. This was Alison. This is who she was, through and through, detached, hostile, and uncaring. Emily studied her as she continued to stare straight ahead unaffected. This is the Alison that Emily needed to catalog and remember. She stepped out of the car, up onto the sidewalk, and from there she watched it disappear into traffic.

Emily remembered a quote she saw once that said you weren't really a New Yorker if you hadn't cried on the subway. She tried to hold back the tears, but it didn't work. When Emily made it back to Toby's, he wasn't home yet, which was good because she didn't want to explain why she was home early and in tears. She turned on the water in the bathroom as hot as she could stand it before stripping down and getting in the shower. Emily had hoped she could wash away the difficult day but she knew it wasn't that easy. She took solace in the hot shower and steam-filled room until the water ran cold. As Emily laid down on the couch sleep seemed appealing, she'd spent all weekend and the better part of the day exhausting her brain with scenarios and theories that turned out to be pointless. She just wanted a break, she turned off the 3 phones she'd been carrying around, made herself comfortable, and closed her eyes.

… …

"Take me back to the office," Alison instructed from the back seat, her voice a mixture of triumph and frustration. Despite being an hour late to her meeting with Nordstrom, she managed to convince their Chief Marketing Officer to buy more ad space than the company originally intended. Leaning back against the plush leather she allowed herself a moment to savor the accomplishment, ad space negotiations were crucial and could be extremely challenging. The successful meeting would be great for GLOW, and Alison's mind was already thinking ahead to when Saks and Neiman Marcus found out about their competitor's increased spending, they would no doubt want to increase their own to keep up. The corners of Alison's lips turned up as she thought about the increase in GLOW's ad revenue.

The sense of satisfaction was short-lived as she thought about what would have happened if she wasn't able to salvage the meeting. As her assistant, Emily's sole function was to help Alison, but for the entire morning and most of the afternoon, Emily only slowed her down. Of course Alison had noticed the lack of focus and the mind wandering, but she didn't think it'd get so bad she'd have to send Emily home. Alison was sure she knew where her assistant's mind was all day.

The incident, as she started calling it, had crossed Alison's mind too over the weekend, but she brushed the whole thing off as inconsequential. So when she'd arrived at the office she immediately dove into the day's agenda with Emily, she didn't want to risk any lingering spark between them. Alison's plan was simple, focus on work, burying any romantic sentiment Emily might have gleaned from her actions. She was well aware she had to at least give Emily the opportunity to express herself but she'd hoped Emily wouldn't take it and was relieved when she didn't.

Focused on getting back to her desk and taking advantage of having the office to herself to work on the June cover, she almost didn't see it. The tall glass vase of peach avalanche roses stopped Alison in her tracks, she stood in the middle of her office staring at the lavish display. The talent ideas she had for the June cover, the Levi's campaign, the run-through on her schedule later, the ad space meeting victory, it all became white noise in her mind. The flowers stood proudly on Emily's desk with a small card sat beside them.

"Wow, those are beautiful." Avery admired the arrangement. "Someone's trying to impress her."

Alison bit her tongue and approached her desk, as she settled in she listened to Avery update her on GLOW's current social campaigns and the growth in GLOW's accounts from the previous week. TikTok engagement was up 30%, Instagram was the same and Twitter was down 15%... no…Twitter was the same and Instagram was down…it didn't matter Avery would be sending out an in-depth recap of the numbers to everyone via email.

"That's great, thank you," Alison dismissed her.

Avery stayed where she was, "There was one other thing, It's about Emily actually-"

The mentioning of Emily's name caused Alison's eyes to dart toward the empty desk and the roses that sat there. "I have a very full day Avery," she said curtly looking from Avery to the door.

"Ok." Avery took her cue to leave that time.

Alison turned her attention to her computer, as she began drafting her concept for the June cover. The options Hanna and Aria had given her for the cover weren't the direction she was looking to go in, so she'd begun her own list. Hunter Schafer and Jenna Ortega were at the top of it, both had upcoming projects that could benefit from the publicity, GLOW of course would benefit from the digital cover and all the accompanying content. Aria would need to reach out to their teams immediately. She picked up her office phone and dialed Aria's extension, once Aria answered, Alison hung up, she'd done it enough times that Aria knew it meant to come to her office.

The flowers caught Alison's eye again. There were at least 40 roses, freshly cut, and vibrant. Avery's observation that someone was trying to impress Emily was right. It was showy and sweet but not over the top and so Alison knew it wasn't CeCe. Her sister had a more grand taste, if she sent flowers it would be a custom arrangement at least.

"Roses!" Aria swooned as she entered the office. "They're so pretty," she hovered near the vase.

Alison rolled her eyes, realizing she was going to have to deal with people complimenting the flowers on her assistant's desk every time someone came into the office. The indifference she was trying to maintain wavered slightly.

"The June cover. I have my top two picks." Alison jumped right in. "Hunter Schafer and Jenna Ortega, we need to reach out to their people, find out their availability."

"Ok, sure," Aria replied, still enamored with the roses. "Peach is the best color to get your crush," she added, as if she had read it somewhere and was sharing the tidbit of information.

"Did you get that from a Buzzfeed article?" Alison didn't try to hide the annoyance in her voice. She called Aria to her office to talk about the cover, not the flowers taking up space in her office.

"Red roses are for lovers, pink is overdone, peach is flirty and playful while still being intentional," Aria continued, taking one of the empty seats across from Alison.

Already opening her mouth to dismiss Aria's explanation as asinine, Alison stopped herself. It wasn't the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. There was a thoughtfulness behind the color choice that couldn't be ignored. It roused a question she'd only allowed herself to think about briefly before, who sent them? It wasn't CeCe, Alison was certain of that. Paige would be the next suspect, but she wasn't bold enough to send flowers to a woman's office, and her taste was questionable at best, she would have never been able to pick out such a lush bouquet. How many people in the office could have intentions toward Emily? Were they even from someone in the office? The question lingered in her mind, demanding an answer.

"Are there any other specifics I should ask their teams about?" Aria shifted the conversation back to the cover. "Where's Emily? She should probably learn to do this." She asked.

"I'll be sending you and Hanna a draft of the concept shortly, all the specifics will be in it." Alison replied adding a nonchalant, "I sent Emily home."

"Sent her home? Did you fire her? What the hell, Ali, is this about her coming to me with her ideas for the party instead of you? That was last week, get over it." Aria's words tested her resolve and it gave slightly.

Alison snapped, "I did not fire her! I dismissed her and told her to come back when she was ready to work. I need everyone around me at 100% and she was not at 100% today." despite the anger that flashed through her, Alison managed to keep her voice from rising. "This has nothing to do with the changes you approved, it has nothing to do with you at all," Alison emphasized the last part of her statement, Emily was her assistant, not Aria's.

"You can't throw people aside because they're not giving you 100%. What if they don't have 100% to give?" Aria scoffed, "People have bad days, Alison. What if she doesn't come back?"

Alison inhaled deeply, her patience wearing thin with how much of her day seemed to revolve around Emily. Alison tried not to think about how her assistant looked at her when she told her to get out of the car. She could feel Emily's eyes on the side of her face, staring as if she was etching the moment into her memory to be called upon later, it was unsettling.

With confidence, Alison asserted, "She'll be back tomorrow." It was undeniable that Emily had grown fond of the team at GLOW, just as they had grown fond of her. She meshed well with everyone and it was clear how much she enjoyed working with them. Alison wasn't blind to any of that.

"How can you be so sure?"

Aria's doubtful expression shook Alison's confidence momentarily but she told herself there was nothing to worry about. Emily would be at her desk tomorrow, she would greet her with a cheery 'Good Morning' that of course, she would ignore, and they would work together on sifting through all the proposals overwhelming Alison's inbox.

"The draft should be in your email within the hour, keep an eye out for it." Alison repositioned herself to start working on her computer. Aria took the hint to leave, not saying a word.

Alison didn't complete the draft until 2 hours later, which caused her to have to push back the run-through that was scheduled. She could always focus on work, no matter what else was going on, but she found herself stealing glances at the vase of flowers on her assistant desk. Her assistant's desk that was in her office. Alison stood and crossed the room to the smaller desk to get a better look. She reached her hand out and ran a finger over a smooth peach petal. It was fleeting but a sense of possession gripped her suddenly and she quickly pulled her hand away.

There was one person she'd yet to consider as the sender, she remembered Emily's self-described complicated situation. Whoever she was could have returned and was attempting to reconcile…but the color and abundance of the roses weren't appropriate for an apology. Regardless, it was a possibility no matter how slim, and since Alison didn't have any other leads she wasn't ready to rule it out. It would be easy to take a peek at the small white card that accompanied the flowers and see if the sender signed their name, but Alison knew deep down it was one thing to have suspicions about who sent the flowers, it was another thing entirely to have it confirmed.

Feeling as clear headed as she had since her meeting, Alison walked two fingers across the desk slowly, the simple motion transported her back to the moment she held Emily on the balcony, her hand stroking the soft, warm skin on her back. She could almost feel the weight of Emily's body against hers as she used her two fingers to gently push the vase to the edge of the desk. It took little effort on her part to send it over the edge, gravity did the rest, and the shattering sound of glass hitting the floor filled the room. Alison stepped back, away from the water spreading near where she stood. She plucked the white card from the desk and tore it down the middle before tossing it on top of the mess. It didn't matter who sent them now.

... ...

Author's Note:

Poor Emily, this is the second time she's been left in the middle of Manhattan. Maybe someone should send Alison home, it doesn't seem like she's at 100% either. The flowers never stood a chance. Thank you so much to everyone who's been leaving reviews on the chapters as they're published, I love reading your thoughts on the story and where it's going. Happy Friday! I hope you enjoyed the update.