Every morning Sydney would smile at me as I walked through the office. I had put my foot down with Dimitri in regards to buying me over the top clothes, but he still managed to sneak a few pieces into the closet over last week.

I was pretending these were pieces he bought before I told him to stop. Today was a nice dress. It was black with a sweetheart line. It had a red line down the middle of it on the front and black. It was form fitting, but not too formal for work. The back had a silver zipper that went down the whole dress, with a secondary zipper at the bottom to adjust the slit in the back. I think I was more thrilled about that than anything else. I may not have been short, but sometimes a tight knee length dress didn't have a wide enough slit. And then I did that awkward walk thar was not attractive.

I had complained to Sydney about some of the whispers as work, and she practically made it her mission to remove suspicion. It was mildly entertaining to watch.

I came over her desk to drop something off that I took from the printer by mistake.

"Wow. Hubby really spoiled you with that one!" Sydney exclaimed, "D is going to make you the best dressed woman in the building."

I smiled at her and smoothed my hands over the body of my dress.

"Yes, he was really happy with his find," I smirked.

"D?" Jasper piped up from his desk. He truly was nosey when it came to everyone's personal business in the office. I liked to think of him as the office old lady, constantly gossiping about everyone and everything. He was bad for doing it about clients too. Sometimes doing it in front of other clients.

"My husband, Dimitri," I said.

"Your husband has the same name as your boss?" Jasper antagonized.

"Yes," I said dryly, "It's a family name for my husband."

"What's a family name?" Dimitri asked as he went out to the paper station, pulling some dividers out of the tray.

I cleared my throat.

"My husband's name."

"Oh, yes. It's his maternal grandfather's name, isn't it?" he asked, falling directly into the lie that we had rehearsed. We both felt it was nobody's business at work who we were married to and didn't want to stir anything.

It also wasn't a complete lie. Dimitri was named after his mother's father.

Jasper rolled his eyes but dropped the topic.

"Either way, your husband has impeccable taste. Especially those red bottoms he bought you," Sydney said with a wink.

"He spends far too much money on me," I joked, backing up but bumping directly into Dimitri. He grabbed my waist for a moment so I didn't trip over him, but laughed.

"Careful, Rose. I don't want to call your husband and tell him you fell on your ass," he said as he righted me, laughing as he walked away. I discreetly flipped him off, but not enough because Kirova saw me. My eyes widened and I all but ran back to my desk, hitting the chair hard enough to make it roll.

Dimitri walked in and eyed me curiously, but turned when Kirova all but marched into his office.

"I believe I have spoken to you about office etiquette, but now you have crossed the line!"

Dimitri raised a brow at me and looked between us.

"Judging by the guilty look on your face, I feel like I know exactly what's going on here."

"Mr. Belikov; I do apologize for Ms. Hathaway's blunt behaviour-"

"Didn't I tell you last night that if you flipped me off again, I was going to knock you into the pool?" he asked me and I blushed. Kirova's pinched, bird-like face screwed up hearing his words.

"Excuse me?"

"I had dinner with Rose and her husband last night. We've been friends for years. Rose flipping me off behind my back is a running joke. I think habit may have just pushed past thought when she did it."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Actually, you threatened to throw me into the pool, not knock me into it. And then you laughed hard enough that wine came out of your nose," I retorted, spinning slightly in my chair. The same conversation did happen last night, and he did laugh so hard that white wine came out of his nose. And then he complained about how much it burned for an hour.

"Is that why you asked for her to be your assistant? Was this something that was planned? Because while you may be acquainted with her husband, I don't believe that he will be very impressed that you have put in a last-minute time request for both of you for your conference," Kirova stated, turning on Dimitri. I tried not to scoff a laugh as her daggers turned on him, but he seemed unfazed as he made himself a cup of coffee.

Well, he was making me one because it was my 'special' mug that his mother sent me.

"No. I asked for Rose to be my assistant because she respects privacy and is phenomenal at her job. I also know that her husband isn't going to have an absolute fit when the two of us go to a conference in a few weeks to the Bahamas. We have been friends for many years, and I had discussed the matter with both of them before I notified you. And he is coming with us," he explained, "I'd like to remind you that while you are the office manager, ultimately, the contracts and decisions are made by me. You and I will be having a discussion later on today, Ellen."

I bit my tongue and pointedly looked at my emails as she huffed and walked out of his office, shutting the door harder than necessary.

"Point two to Belikov, nothing for Kirova," I said under my breath.

Dimitri set the mug on the desk. "Don't poke the caged animal," Dimitri sighed and I smirked at him as I took a sip.

"But it's just so much fun!" I whined, picking up the phone when it rang. I cleared my throat before speaking normally.

"May I ask who is calling?"

"Yes, it's Natasha Ozera from Nightingale Marketing," the woman on the other side said. I nodded and put the call over to Dimitri. He smiled and greeted her informally as if they were close friends. I stepped out of the office to give him some privacy and went towards the vending machine near the back.

I rubbed my face as I waited for my candy to drop.

"You okay?"

I turned and nodded to one of the newer editors. She was young and reminded me of Mary Jane Watson from Spiderman with her soft features and red hair.

"Yeah. The storm last night," I explained as I leaned down to pick up my candy. Meeko was so upset with the storm, I ended up bringing him into our closet. The closet was soundproofed and I made myself a makeshift bed on the floor with extra blankets. At least then we got some sleep. Dimitri was curious about where we were until he walked into the closet to get dressed this morning, almost tripping over us.

"Oh, yeah, that was brutal. I was on the Monorail last night," she said with a forced shiver.

"Welcome to Seattle, where it rains almost all the time," I joked and stepped to the side so she could get her candy. "I'm sorry, I'm blanking on your name."

"Reid," she said politely, "Rose, right?"

I nodded. "Yep," I said as I started walking back to my office, sitting down quietly and picking up the first page of an article Sydney asked me to look over when I had a minute. Dimitri was still on the phone when I came back in, and the tone of the conversation was relaxed. I wasn't ever one to be jealous or insecure, but there was something about the fondness in his smile while he talked that bugged me.

I tuned him out and read over Sydney's article, not realizing that she was standing in front of my desk when I finished it.

"God! Put a bell on!" I exclaimed, shooting Dimitri a glare when he laughed at me.

"How was it?" she asked, sipping the steaming cup of coffee in her hands.

"Perfect," I said with a smile, handing it back to her. She nodded and slipped out of the office, and I ran my fingers through my hair, spinning in my chair to look at Dimitri.

"How long was she standing there before I realized?"

"She's been in the office long enough to make a coffee," Dimitri said as he tented his fingers together, "How was her article?"

"Good, she's always been good," I said as I tapped my nails on the desk. I nodded to myself and pursed my lips, looking out the window as I ran my lounge against the wire behind my teeth.

"What's on your mind? You have your concentration face on."

"Who's Tasha?" I blurted, grimacing internally and externally for my lack of tact.

"Tasha works for a marketing firm that Court Publication has been trying to get a contract with for the last few years. Arthur let it go before you got hired, but brought another proposal up a few months back. Tasha was just promoted. We knew each other when we were teenagers," he explained, "Why?"

I shook my head as I turned back to my laptop. "Just curious."

I was seriously looking forward to our honeymoon. The weather was starting to get cold and wet, leaving everything slick with ice and slush.

Kirova didn't seem to be enjoying the weather either, and that meant that she was extra backbiting in the office. There were a few times that she even snarled at Dimitri when he asked her something, or when Arthur asked her something. All she got in return from Dimitri was a raised brow and a mildly unimpressed expression.

Dimitri was a surprisingly self-sufficient boss, which left me with not a whole lot to do sometimes. So today, I planned to reorganize some of his contact files. He had a few potential authors that he was meeting with, and the previous assistant he had wasn't all that great. Now, she was also as old as his babushka, and he didn't have the heart to let her go after her husband passed. He let her ride out the last three years before she took her retirement, but it left some of his files a mess.

Arthur Schoenberg was the editor-in-chief of Court Publications and still was at this branch location. He rounded the corner and came into the office, raising a brow when he saw the state the office was in.

"Did you sneeze and the whole room blew up?" he asked as he stepped over stacks of paper.

I snorted. "No, just trying to reorganize Dimitri's stuff. His previous assistant made a mess of things," I explained, my hair twisted into a knot with my letter opener holding it together.

Arthur moved around the office, stepping over my shoes that I discarded so I could sit comfortably on the floor.

"How are you liking your new position?" he asked as he sat on the couch. I glanced over my shoulder and shrugged with a nod.

"It's good. Things are a little slow right now, but otherwise, everything is good," I said as I started putting papers back into the binder, setting the now full binder back in place. It looked like a lot of this was more corporate stuff than publication.

"Good. Dimitri has had good things to say about you. But I also know that he is slightly biased," he said with a chuckle. I raised a brow at him and cleared my throat.

"What do you mean by that?"

"At least one person needed to know. For obvious reasons," he said with a smile, "I was going to be his witness, but Ivan was able to get there in time. I was the backup."

I nodded and went back to the papers.

"You don't believe it was special treatment?"

"No. You were one of the people I recommended for the position, aside from Sydney or Blake. But I think it worked better for you as his assistant. You know what he thinks before he does some days."

"I guess that happens when someone snores in your ear all night long," I joked. Arthur laughed and nodded before drumming his fingers against the couch.

"Where is Dimitri?"

"He's got a meeting with Tasha Ozera and someone else from Nightengale," I said dryly.

"Ah. I guess you are just as thrilled about this as he is?"

I raised a brow at him.

"What?"

"They dicked me around, and now they're yanking his chain now," he said with a shake of his head.

"I take it that's why they've been monopolizing his every waking moment?"

"Yes."

I rolled my eyes and set the stack of papers in my hand down on the floor.

"I don't like her," I said quietly.

"Not a lot of people do," Arthur said as he left the room.

"Hi."

I looked up from my laptop and smiled politely. A tall woman was standing in front of me. She had long black hair that almost looked too dark to be real and icy blue eyes. Aside from the large purple scar that marred her cheek, she looked like a model.

"Hi. Can I help you?"

"I'm Tasha Ozera. I'm looking for Dimitri," the woman said, adjusting the briefcase slung over her shoulder, "I was told this was his office."

"He's in a meeting with the editor-in-chief, but he should be finished shortly," I said as I glanced at his calendar, "Did you have an appointment with him?"

"No, but I was in the area and thought maybe I could steal him for a working lunch," she said with a smile and it made my teeth grit. I had only been in her presence for moments and I didn't like how she made me feel.

There was just a gut feeling that made me weary of her. That and she wouldn't going to be able to 'steal him for a working lunch' because he already had lunch plans.

I could hear Dimitri's voice floating down the hall as he spoke to Arthur and I stood up, clearing my throat softly as he reached his door.

"Tash, what a surprise," Dimitri said kindly.

"I was in the neighbourhood, thought I'd stop by. This is quite the building you have."

Dimitri smiled and crossed his arms comfortably over his chest.

"It is quite nice," he said, "Is there something I could help you with?"

"I thought maybe we could grab lunch. Do some business talk and catch up?" Tasha said with a smile, subtly brushing her hair behind her shoulder. The words sounded innocent at face level, but there were undertones in her voice that made me narrow my eyes.

"Sure, that sounds fine," Dimitri said but I cleared my throat.

"You have a meeting booked for your lunch today," I reminded. He looked at me and the corners of his eyes softened.

"Do you mind rescheduling that for tomorrow?" he asked. I forced a smile and nodded, but I was a little butt hurt. It was the first time this week we'd be able to get out of the office and decompress. Sometimes it was hard to stay completely professional all day.

"Sure," I said and turned back to my computer, pulling up a website to order takeout from down the street. Dimitri pulled the blinds shut, which was normal for when he left the office. I looked up before he left and he crooked his finger at me, Tasha nowhere to be found.

"I promise, tomorrow I'll take you to that sushi place you love so much," he whispered as he held my chin between his thumb and index finger. I nodded gently and he drew me in for a kiss, his fingers running over my jaw.

"I've got to get this contract in place. They've tried to back out three times," Dimitri whispered, and I nodded in understanding.

"I get it," I said quietly. Dimitri smiled softly at me and kissed me again. I leaned into him and drew out the kiss longer than I should have, but I loved the way his hand slid across my waist and settled on the small of my back. He pulled back and kissed my forehead before taking his duster off the coat rack behind him.

"I'll bring you back a latte," he said before stepping out of the office and closing the door behind me. I sighed, picked up my laptop and moved to the couch in the room, kicking my heels off as I got comfortable on the couch.

I ordered my food and waited as I scrolled through my social media, lifting my head when an email popped up on my screen.

Janine Hathaway
Subject Line: Anything you need to tell me?

I looked at it and sighed quietly, rubbing my face gently. I hadn't exactly told her that I got married, but just that I was seeing someone. Somebody must have let slip that I eloped. We didn't have the best relationship, and I wasn't surprised that she sent me an email instead of a text message. She was a little 'old school' that way. Plus, an email she could confirm if I read it.

I decided that I was going to wait until later to respond to her. She rarely reached out to me unless it was to start a fight, so I wasn't going to do it now while I was at work.

The airport was loud and chaotic, but I was barely standing still as I waited.

"Roza, you're going to hurt yourself," Dimitri said as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, hugging me from behind as he rested his chin on my head.

"I'm just so excited to see her!" I squealed, gripping his forearms as I leaned back into him.

"Do you think she will be angry that she missed the wedding?"

I shook my head. "No, she said she wasn't angry when I told her. But she did say that she wants to do a celebration dinner. She said that she had something important to tell me," I said as I smiled up at him. Dimitri smiled and kissed my nose.

"I'm looking forward to them telling us all about Thailand. I would love to go."

I smiled at him and looked ahead again, spotting Lissa's head bobbing amongst the others coming from the gate, her husband Christian a step behind me. I wiggled out of Dimitri's arms to go to Lissa, but when she was closer, I tensed up and stilled. She looked like she did when she left four months ago, but there was one very different thing.

"Shut up! Oh my God!" I squealed as I ran to her, hugging her when she dropped her bags. She laughed into my hair as she crushed me in a hug.

"Pyro! I didn't know that your dink worked! I thought it was an accessory," I teased as I pulled back, my hands landing on Lissa's protruding stomach.

"You never said anything in your emails!" I squeaked.

Lissa's hands covered mine as she smiled.

"Because I wanted to see your reaction. I only found out about a month ago when I was hospitalized for dehydration," she said, "But you'll be an auntie in four and a half months," she said as she squeezed my hands.

I grinned at her and then hugged her again.

"I am so happy for Liss. I know how much this means to you," I whispered, kissing her cheek as I pulled away. Lissa's face pinked and her eyes watered. She looked upwards and blinked to rid herself of the tears before clearing her throat.

"How about dinner? Dimitri and I know a place that just opened and you will die over it," I enthused, looking from her to Christian. Christian shrugged, never one to turn down good food. Despite him going to Thailand to help Lissa build houses and teach English, he was a private chef for a while before. He was a fantastic cook, and I always listened to his opinion about a restaurant before going.

Not that I would say it to his face, but he had heard me say it to him when I was drunk. So we both pretended we never heard it.

Lissa looked at Christian and agreed. I leaned down and picked up Lissa's bag, but it was already off the floor and in Dimitri's hand.

"Congratulations, Lissa," Dimitri said as he offered her a gentle hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you," she said as Dimitri moved to congratulate Christian. Lissa looped her arm through mine as we walked, her head resting against mine.

"I'm so glad to be home. I didn't realize how much I would miss it, but it might be the hormones," she said as I led her to the baggage claim.

"Well, you're home. That's all that matters," I said as we walked.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't be here for your elopement. I wish I was," she said sadly and I squeezed her hand as she laced it with mine.

"I have pictures and it's on video," I said softly as I smiled at her, "Married life is very different. Guess what my husband did and didn't tell me?"

"Uh oh," Lissa laughed.

"He bought the publication company I work for. And…he owns Vladimir House. I was shocked when I found out."

Lissa's eyes bugged out of her head, but I could hear Christian laugh behind us.

"Even I knew he owned it when he said he worked there. It's not our fault you're dense," Christian hollered. I flipped him off as we went to the car. Dimitri had managed to find a spot that was somewhat close to the airport. I offered Lissa the front seat but she declined and slid into the back.

The restaurant was surprisingly not busy tonight. Any time we had come here, it was packed, but tonight it was quieter. It was nice because then we could really enjoy our night together. Lissa told me all about their trip, and I was amazed at the work they did.

It was a little comical watching Lissa eat her appetizer though. She had always been a fan of bruschetta, but there was something about the smell that made her queasy, s she had her nose plugged so she didn't have to smell it. Thankfully, she faired better during her main course. Dimitri's dish smelled amazing, some kind of rigatoni dish.

I leaned back comfortably in my chair as I drank my wine, Dimitri's fingers toying with the long strands of my curls. Out of habit, my eyes flittered about the dining room and I cursed quietly.

"What is it?" Lissa asked.

"One of my colleagues is here," I grumbled, partly ducking my head. Christian's brow furrowed and looked confused.

"Why is that a problem?"

"Because nobody at the office, aside from Sydney, knows that we are married," Dimitri supplied, "Don't panic. He probably didn't notice us."

"No, but it's Jasper. He's the office gossip and loves to degrade anyone he thinks is beneath him. Especially, all of the women in the office."

"You never mentioned that," Dimitri said and I shrugged.

"I'm no snitch."

Dimitri sighed and shook his head in a way that told me he wasn't impressed, but he knew that there was still a barrier between husband and wife and boss and assistant. Sometimes I couldn't or wouldn't be able to tell him everything.

Lissa frowned but turned the conversation back to happier waters, but I felt on edge. I knew that not telling anyone at work that we were married would be hard at times, but this made me feel nauseous. I knew the moment Jasper saw us and I did everything I could not to shrink down in my chair.

We had finished our meals and were waiting for our bill when Jasper approached us, and I groaned quietly as I sat up straight, making Dimitri's arm fall away from the back of my chair.

"What a surprise running into you both here," Jasper said, and I had to clench my fists into my purse so I didn't punch him in the face.

"It is a very popular restaurant," Christian said dryly and if I wasn't so annoyed, I might have laughed.

"I'm surprised that you two are here together. I didn't think that your role extended past work hours," Jasper said to me and I took a sip of my wine to give myself a moment to respond.

"The requirements and obligations of Ms. Hathaway's job are far more substantial than yours, Mr. Keys," Dimitri said plainly as our waiter returned to the table with Dimitri's receipt and credit card. Dimitri stood up and politely helped me into my coat.

"So, it's a working dinner?" he asked dubiously.

"Yes," Lissa said, "And now you are in my way. Excuse me."

I followed Lissa out of the restaurant all while glancing over my shoulder as I went.

"He reminds me of Mia before we liked her," Lissa said once we were outside. I thought about it for a moment before I laughed. She was right. Mia Rinaldi was the class A drama queen in high school before we hit senior year. We hated her, but then started to like her. But through and through, she was who you went to for the gossip about anyone.

"Is he always condescending when he talks, or is that just to you?" Christian asked as he opened the door for Lissa to get in.

"Always. I think the only person he's nice to is Blake," I grumbled as I got in the car. When Dimitri got into the car, he gave me a look that said we'd be talking when we got home.

Let me know what you think!

Those following Project: Nighthall, there should be an update this weekend!