If I was desperate to find a silver lining in all of this, it was the fact that the Mallory merger had finally gone through, and I was no longer supposed to report to Mr Ridgely. He'd earned my respect with the way he worked, and his knowledge in the field undoubtedly made him the absolute best, but it wouldn't kill him to be nice to people every once in a while. Vivian, his assistant bought doughnuts for us, looking relieved that she could go back to her normal schedule instead of dealing with the mess of us in that ugly conference room. After almost ten days of gruelling work and a lot of elbow grease later, we were finally free.

I wanted to cry. Instead, I held it in till I could finally go upstairs to see Lydia and tell her how happy I was to be back to working with her. Anything was better than working with Ridgely. Quinton, one of the guys from the team invited me out for drinks with the rest of the men, and I agreed to the idea. I told them I'd meet them at the bar after I finished winding up my things and they left the room quickly, obviously eager to get the fuck out and celebrate.

Debating if I needed to go upstairs or just leave, I reached the elevators before I could make a decision. Fine. It'll be a short and quick visit upstairs and then I'd be off getting wasted and actually celebrating a successful day at work with some friends. It would be fun.

When I reached the thirtieth floor, the silence of the place was very welcoming. Finance was filled with shouts across the hallway and tons of chaos, and HR was pumped up with pop music all the time. This was calming. Lydia appeared to be drowning in paperwork when I turned in the hallway, drawing her attention to me.

"Hey, cupcake!" Her bright smile made my day feel better than it already was, and as I hugged her, I felt all the stresses of the day disappear.

"I think we agreed you'd call me something less embarrassing." I blushed.

She pinched my cheeks in response before getting back to work. "Need help?" I asked, already tying my hair up and away from my face. Lydia passed half the pile to me, and I sat at my desk, sending a quick text to Quinton: Something came up ☹ Have a beer for me!

Barely twenty minutes in, there were the ominous footsteps on the marble floor before the doors to Aiden's office opened. I didn't look up from my work, afraid I would lose my spot on the sheets.

"Lydia," His voice was calm, even though everything about him screamed don't-fuck-with-me, "Have I employed Thea to be your assistant?"

Oh boy. Is that even something to be pissed about?

"I actually offered-" I stood from my seat, but Aiden only looked at me with a tilted head, and my mouth dried up. His stance was menacing, looming over us like a demon from hell. I gave Lydia a sideward glance and she just shook her head ever so subtly.

"Pack your stuff and wait in the lobby, Thea. We have somewhere to be." He said before turning away from me completely, eyes on Lydia. "Finish these files on your own and then drop the Western Union proposal to my home."

"Yes sir." She continued to work on the paperwork as I packed my things, feeling awful that she got yelled at for no reason. Silently I vowed to be as far away as possible from Aiden's style of bossing people. It just didn't sit well with me.

The building was getting very, very silent as people ended their shifts and walked away from their offices. Even Mary was packing her belongings, clocking out of the system when I came in the lobby. Ritualistically, she rolled her eyes and I ignored her, walking out to get some fresh air. The city air was humid, almost and the weather reported incoming rain in the next few days.

Rains always reminded me of my father. He would always try to come home early on the days it rained, and we would spend the evening dancing to songs from the 80s. When we would dry up, mom would make hot chocolate for us and we would huddle up to watch some Disney movies. Our house was never lacking in laughter and smiles, not one day without love. Feeling my heart pinch, I found myself dialling Dad's number in seconds.

He answered on the third ring, never too late in answering my calls.

"Hi Papa," I tried to sound cheerful, hoping the conversation would be light and he could take all my worries away as parents do.

"Hi pumpkin," Dad's old, familiar and kind voice came from the other end, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Of course, I am, why would I not be?" I knew he'd catch on. He always did. But I had burdened them enough. No more.

"Let me know when you want to talk about what's bothering you." Damn it. I hated having educators for parents, they knew kids too freaking well. "How's your new job going?"

My parents were aware that I was interning at Steele Enterprises, but the full extent of my work was kept a secret. They would lose their minds, and I would frankly have no explanation for them that would make any sense.

"It's so taxing!" I complained, looking up at the sky, "There are days when I am really too exhausted to do anything but sleep once I get home. But I think it will be worth it in the end."

"Hard work is never wasted, you know?" Dad's words were always on point, and they always made me feel better. We talked a little about home, and he made some comments on my eating habits as usual, but nothing out of the ordinary.

"Thea, I don't have all day to wait-" Without realizing, I held a finger up at Aiden, who had shown up in front of me, still having that tensed up jaw and hard eyes.

"Who is it, pumpkin?" Dad asked on the other end, obviously having heard the loud and rude man.

I glared at Aiden. If I would have told papa about my boss treating me so poorly, he would have made me quit the job. "My Uber driver," I told papa, glaring at Aiden still. His car had been brought out to the front, and I walked straight to it, intending to finish my conversation with dad in peace.

"That's very rude of him. Give him a poor rating if he says anything mean again."

I humoured my old man, "Sure. I think I'll give him one star only for his attitude."

"Good. Now take care of yourself, and come see me soon, okay? Can you take a day off on your birthday?"

"I'll try."

"It's barely two weeks away, peanut. You need to let us know. The new neighbours will be happy to see you."

Discomfort rose in me, "I have to go, papa. I'll let you know soon."

He sighed, "Thea if you want to talk about-"

"Bye." I disconnected the line, putting my seatbelt on. Somehow, even after talking to family, I felt strangely hollow. This wasn't like me at all. I didn't know what I was needing anymore and having a problem with no solution in sight only gave headaches and death wishes.

"Where are we going?"

"Checking out a place for your office. It's not too far from home, and it's a ten-minute walk from the train station. Most employees would find that convenient. We're meeting with the architect now. If you like the place, we can get started on the work right away."

"I almost don't want to ask you how I'm going to pay you back," I said gingerly, even though my excitement was practically bubbling in my veins. My own office!

"You can start by being a little excited."

"That would be easy if I wasn't sitting next to a total moron." I quipped before sighing and taking my words back, "I'm sorry. It's just bad timing."

"If you're expecting me to ask you about it, I won't."

God, as if I needed someone to ruin my mood further.

"I wasn't intending to tell you either. You don't strike me as the type to care about anyone."

That was a lie. Aiden cared. Aiden really cared. Only in ways that weren't glaringly obvious. The city passed by us, and as untethered as I was feeling, there was some mind-numbing effect of watching buildings pass by.

"It's a loan." He said finally. "I'll loan you the office floors for a year at 12%, then you can buy it off me. Or find another office."

"12%?! You think I'm made of money?"

"Consider it incentive to work harder." He rolled his eyes.

Bitch.

"If you're going to act like a child the whole time, I might as well turn around the car and send you home. I can't have this poor attitude in front of others."

"You have the emotional intelligence of a lime." I grit out. "I am perfectly capable of handling my emotions in front of others."

"I can see that."

I took deep breaths. Both of us being angry at other things and lashing out at the other for no-fault wasn't going to work out.

We stopped not too far away from home, in front of a white, tall building with the insignia of the Steele businesses on it. He handed over the car to a valet as we walked past the gates. He seemed to know the building well and took us to the back, where we took an elevator to the fifteenth floor.

"Mr Steele, it's a delight to see you here today." Jesus. The door hadn't even opened fully yet and the ass-kissing had begun. The person in question was a man in his late forties, looking like he had accidentally ingested too many pills of antacids.

"Nice to see you too, Mr Fray." Aiden shook hands with him, introducing me.

He smiled at me for a fraction of a second before he was back to Mr Steele, telling him how delighted he was to hear from him after a long time. Aiden looked at me once and rolled his eyes. At least he was aware that the ass-kissing was going too far. The place was beautiful, no doubt. Devoid of any furniture and any décor, the place was a blank canvas where I could almost envision my office. This is where I would work for the rest of the foreseeable future.

God, I wished I would have a romance novel moment where I would see a place and fall in love with it immediately. If there was such a place, this was not it. We walked along with the place, listening to whatever the fuck Fray had in mind. Closed walls, dark colours, signature Steele Concept, blah blah. This was all so unoriginal, I wanted to cringe. We sat down at a table finally for further discussions, Aiden pulling a chair for me at the head, while the two men sat on either side of me.

Mr Fray took out an iPad from his bag, propping it straight in front of Aiden with a stand. With the way I was seated, I could barely see anything on the screen, and my interest in his words dwindled further. This place could have been beautiful. The natural light in the office came from literally three sides out of four, and this man wanted to block all of it behind walls and dividers and dark themed palates.

"A moment, please Liam." Aiden excused the man off the table, turning to me.

"You've been awfully quiet."

"I don't have anything nice to say."

"Tell him what you want, and if he doesn't respect it, then we can walk away. You hold the power here, Thea. Stop expecting me to take all calls for you."

"He wasn't going to listen anyway." I rolled my eyes. "The way he sees it, you're the one paying him. I haven't been able to see a single stupid plan you saw now because he's not interested in selling to me. He wants to sell to you."

"Then make him listen." Aiden clenched his jaw, calling Mr Fray back to the table. Jesus, fuck. I hated being put on the spot. But I suppose this was for my benefit as well. Might as well roll with it.

"Mr Fray, I wanted us to go for some lighter shades in this office. Something yellow, green, pastels, that sort of vibe. It would be a shame to cut off all that light in favour of dark designs." I said, looking through the designs on the iPad Aiden had turned to me.

Mr Fray took the device from me, flipping through some pictures before picking one to his liking, turning it to Aiden again. I bit back a frustrated groan. This was supposed to be my office. Would it always be like this? Always having to rely on Aiden to get people to listen to me? Always having people look to him for approval instead of me? The thought was unsettling. It was a man's world, but how would I breakthrough that stupid fucking ceiling?

"This is still dark according to Thea's tastes. Find more summer tones in any of your designs." Aiden passed the device to Fray, who appeared frazzled as he leafed through his photo gallery.

"I don't have a plan drawn up in those shades as of now, but if you give me a week, Mr Steele, our team can put together some initial designs and plans for your new tastes."

Jesus, fuck.

Mr Steele this and Mr Steele that.

"There won't be any need, Mr Fray. We won't be employing your services for this project after all." I stood up from the table, Aiden following. "Thank you for your time today."

Grabbing my bag, I made my way to the elevators, biting back all my frustration.

"Mr Steele, I thought-" I could hear the faint conversation as he tried to convince Aiden to do business again. 

"You heard her Fray. What she says, goes." Aiden's footsteps were quick to follow me, and he entered the elevator just before the doors closed. "Whatever pissed you off today, I'd like to see it more often at work."

"I don't think you'd like to see me being a mini-you at work."

"I'm never that rude while dismissing people." Aiden rolled his eyes. The look on my face must have said everything. "Well then, fear is a good incentive to work hard."

"I don't know, respect usually works for me."

"Two sides of the same coin." Aiden ended the conversation there, and I had no mental capacity to argue. All I wanted was to go home and curl up and try not to think of my life at home. Sleeping would be a good start.  

one step forward, three steps back.