In a span of two months, I had gone from marching into Aiden's office demanding money to sitting in his chair and making huge fucking decisions that made me sweat. When I arrived at work on Monday morning, Monica had ushered me into Aiden's office, firing up his device for me and logging me in for a video meeting.

Confused and frazzled, I wanted to say something to Monica but got interrupted when Aiden popped up on the screen, giving me a million instructions at the speed of light. He was still at his family home, as I figured by the background, and for a change had dressed in a tee-shirt. In his absence, Aiden expected me to run the ship, taking whatever calls I thought were necessary and only try contacting him if it was completely unavoidable.

"Any questions?" He asked at the end of his scribbled list, which I knew he had come up with in the middle of the night because he hadn't been able to sleep well.

"Uh, yes. First of all, what the fuck?" I muttered, but the traitorous earphones were good enough to have caught it, amusing Aiden.

"I'll have you know that swearing is against company policy." He shook his head, but I sensed some amount of playfulness in his face, that pushed me to continue the lighthearted tone of our conversation.

"Okay, the real question: What happened to letting Jason and Langley take over?"

"Walter's on a leave this week. Something about a baby shower in the UK. Would you let Jason handle everything on his own?"

Yes. Yes, I would.

"I still don't feel confident about this," I muttered again, looking through the files Monica had set on the table. I recognized a lot of them from passing conversations and some of these were typed by yours truly.

"Then maybe I shouldn't give you the seed fund if you don't want to be at the big table." He snapped, making me flinch. It wasn't the fucking same, but I wasn't about to argue with a grieving man lashing out.

"I'll do it." I pursed my lips, taking a pen from my bag and trying to make some sense of the mess in front of me. I really needed to figure out what the fuck was going on before I could do anything else.

"Great. The first task of the day is to fire Evan Jacobs. Works in finance, but as I said, Walter's out of town. Then move on to whatever is necessary next."

Before I could ask anything else, the call returned to the blank screen, Aiden having disconnected from his end. Shit. I called in Monica to get a run-down of who Evan was and why I was firing him, before sending her off to get Evan to my office in twenty minutes.

Evan Jacobs was a balding man, but he couldn't have been anywhere above his mid-thirties. He walked with a certain arrogance in his gait like he knew he was better than everyone else. Oh boy, if you were, you wouldn't be caught in this situation. I was looking through Aiden's unanswered emails when he walked in, not even having the decency to knock first. This wasn't going to end well for him.

"Where's Mr Steele?" he asked, taking a seat in front of me and crossing one leg over the other. That was technically one of the worst ways one could sit in a formal environment, and Steele Enterprises was usually not so forgiving of such behaviour.

"He's not coming in today." I quipped, "I'll be taking over for him."

He almost laughed, and the irritation under my skin began manifesting on my face before I could control it. Whatever he was getting fired anyway. And for good reason.

"Now, as I understand you're working in senior-level investment, is that right?" I said coolly, trying not to let his attitude deter me.

He nodded. I took the black file laying in front of me, turned to a page in a record of transactions, "It'll be safe to assume you know how to read this statement?" I slid the file to his end, tapping on the right side, "Just read through this and tell me if there's anything unusual going on here."

While he cocked an arrogant smirk on his face and read through the lines, I typed in a response to Jason, asking me when would be a good time to meet and discuss the plans for the week. "It's wrong." Evan slid the file back to me, relaxing in his chair.

"What seems to be the problem, Mr Jacobs?"

"Listen, intern-"

"It's Ms Scott," I said icily, having enough of this crappy entitled attitude. I had wanted to take my time and ease into it but screw this.

He sat up straighter, fixing his tie ever so slightly, "Miss Scott, the balance of payments isn't adding up. Essentially the left and right sides of the sheet should be tallied, and this sheet shows a difference of about six million."

"Strange, don't you think? How you would come across exactly five million to put down for a nice house in the West Village, and get your wife a new car right after this money goes out of Steele accounts?"

Evan's face paled for a second, before he recovered, "Look, I don't know what story you're trying to cook up-"

"It's not a story and don't you dare talk to me like that ever in your life." I snapped, "You've been caught in this by independent auditors, and please spare me with whatever bullshit you have to speak next. Your services from Steele Enterprises have been terminated. You have twenty minutes to gather your belongings and never show your face again. You will not be receiving any severance pay and no recommendations from anyone in the company. You cannot seek employment in any of the Steele businesses and our lawyers will be contacting you regarding the payment of six million dollars in full. I would say good luck for the future, but I don't say things I don't mean. Now get out of my office!"

Evan scrambled to his feet and walked out fast enough to make him slip as soon as he was out, stumbling and regaining his footing before walking away. Monica came in as soon as the coast was clear, "I'll send someone after him to make sure he's out soon."

"Twenty minutes," I told her, taking a sip of my water. Jesus. My face was red and hot, and the air conditioning in the room suddenly felt broken. That was a whole power trip.

"Anything else you need from me?" She asked, and Lydia's face flashed in front of me. I knew exactly what I had to do with her, but for now, I smiled at Monica, "Just ask Jason to come to see me."

This was a power trip.

***

Aiden had arrived back in his apartment on Thursday evening, knocking at my door barely minutes after I had come in from work. His disturbing dark circles scared me, and when he stepped in wordlessly, a part of me was almost smiling how we had ended up making a pattern of the weirdest things. He sat down on the couch, still stiff and proper as always, making me roll my eyes.

"I'm going to change and come back" I declared, quickly stripping off my shoes and peeling off the stupid second-skin-like dress I had worn. Aiden was frozen in position when I came back out, bringing my food from the dinner table to the couch so we could talk if that's what he wanted.

"The stocks rose up today," I commented when it became evident that Aiden wasn't going to be the one talking first. The stocks of every single Steele business had fallen on Monday, making them halt trading within the first ten minutes on over half the listed Steele investments. Penny's clothing line had also been affected, even though she had been far removed from her family name in the industry. There was a lot of ire from people who lost thousands of dollars, and Aiden had brushed that off by saying, "They don't thank us when we earn for them, they shouldn't expect an apology when we create losses. If you can't accept loss, maybe don't fucking invest in stocks."

I couldn't argue with that logic, even though my relations with the stock market hadn't been great either.

"Wall Street is forgiving to blue-chip stocks." He shrugged presently, running a hand through his hair, not knowing how that small action gave rise to so many fucking feelings in me. Jason's confession had come at the worst of times, and I didn't want to be that idiot to bring up this conversation when he was clearly not emotionally all available.

While I cleaned up after myself and washed the minimal dishes, Aiden had followed me and sat down on the kitchen counter, letting his head lean against the cabinets. He was so impossibly tall, even though he wasn't much taller than me. I was a modest 5ft6in, which I thought was decently tall for women. Aiden was technically only six inches taller, but it still felt like a lot.

"Will you be staying the night?" I asked, drying my hands after putting the dishes away. I was exhausted, really and even if Aiden wanted to, I couldn't stay up for more than the next half an hour.

"Do you mind if I do?" He asked, making me hate the position we were in. Aiden wouldn't have asked, as far as I knew him, he would have followed me to bed and that would have been it. We didn't need words to communicate like this, not until a fucking brick wall stood between us, created by messes on both sides. I took a pill before turning the kitchen lights off, hearing Aiden's footsteps padding behind me. As I turned into the hallway leading up to my room, the footsteps ceased, making me stop and backtrack. Aiden seemed to have changed his mind, walking towards the door out of the house.

"I thought you were staying?" I couldn't help myself.

"I thought you didn't want me here."

I hesitated before walking over and grabbing his arm, walking towards my room. There was a certain comfort brought along with the knowledge of his true feelings, making me bold enough to be comfortable and stupid like this. I set my alarms for super early in the morning, getting in bed. Aiden took his time, taking off his shoes and socks before sliding under the covers. "Should I turn the light off?"

He nodded and I did just that, laying back down and trying to focus on my breathing.

"Thea?" He croaked, the first thing he'd said since he had walked in. A whisper of my name, in complete darkness.

My instinct knew what it was before he could say anything, I shuffled closer till we were in the middle of the bed, his back towards me, but feet tangled in mine. Holding him like this was not just a cuddling thing, it wasn't about big spoons and whatever. It was also about the fact that he took strength from me just as much as I took from him. While I needed him to hold me and guide me through the workplace, he needed me to hold him and guide him at home. Two sides to the same coin.

I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling the soft touch of his hand over my hair, and the bare whispers of a confession before his lips pressed against my forehead. My heart ached to hear the words out loud, not when I was supposedly asleep, not when the night swallowed his words whole. Blinking my eyes open, I turned on my side to face him, hand intertwining with his.

"Did I wake you?" He whispered.

"Not really," I maintained the same tone as if the bubble around us would burst.

"Can I ask you something?"

I nodded, before realizing that the room was shrouded in darkness, responding verbally, "Ask."

"You confuse me, sometimes." His hand never stopped playing with my hair, and I sunk further into the feeling, "What did you mean in my office the other day- you said you would get over that night? I'd like to clear whatever misunderstanding is in your head because I had no intention of leading you on, I genuinely meant-"

"You left me." I explained, "I had the best night of my life with you. And then I woke up and you were... gone." Aiden pulled me closer to him, as I continued, "Just put yourself in my shoes for a second. I never felt that you liked me, I just thought I was making all of this up in my head. And then when you kissed me, I couldn't believe it was real. How could it be?"

"How could it not be?" He countered, but I pressed my hand on his mouth.

"Let me finish. I don't like interruptions."

"Already more of a CEO than last week. I like it." He smiled, pressing his lips to my forehead again. This was not going in the direction I had intended, but the drowsiness also made me less inhibited, and less likely to get annoyed.

"I thought you regretted it." I mumbled, "You just froze me out and then sent me packing. What else could I think?"

Aiden shuffled in place, moving away from me. When light flooded the room, he was sitting up, staring at me like I had grown an extra head. I should have focused on his face, not allowing distractions to take me away from the conversation, but my eyes dropped to his bare chest, sprinkled with enough hair to make him seem ridiculously attractive once again. As if I needed more reason to be drooling over him.

"I told you I sent you home because Jason needed you there."

"You were mean," I mumbled, staring at the ceiling instead. "It's like you do a complete 180 and expect me to read your mind or something. I kept asking you and you just sent me away. I just assumed that you didn't want me around, and then you sent me home, therefore you must have regretted it and you didn't know how else you could get rid of me."

"Baby that's..." Aiden's eyebrows furrowed, only realizing what he said when I looked over at him, eyebrow raised.

"Thea, that's absurd." He corrected, but I sat up too, throwing the covers off, "Say that again."

"Huh?" If my tired eyes weren't deceiving me, there were some hints of a blush forming on Aiden's cheeks, making him look more adorable than ever. I had never thought that I would ever deem Aiden Steele as cute, but then again, I had never thought he would end up in my bed either.

"Say it again," I demanded, feeling more awake than any single morning.

"You can make fun of me later, I wanted-"

"If you don't start a sentence with baby, I don't want to hear it." I interrupted, making him blush harder, mumbling something before clearing his throat.

"Okay, uhm- uh-" He fumbled, looking anywhere but at me, trying to form the words. His misery was endearing, but I really wanted to hear him say that again. After a second of hard blinking and disturbed throat noises, he managed to say it again, making me feel like the insides of a fudgy brownie.

"Baby, I, uh-" He sighed, "Shit this is hard, Thea."

"I know." I encouraged.

"I don't like talking like this if you haven't noticed."

"We can wait for this conversation. I know you're going through some rough shit-"

"I want to talk now."

"I was actually going to bring up your communication issues," I bit my lip, but his confused face encouraged me to go on, "You just really don't let me in, ever. I only get to see you how you present yourself to me, and I just feel sometimes that I know you only enough as everybody else at work."

"You know me better than anyone else."

"It's not enough," I protested, "I don't know shit about what you do outside of the office, what you like, what you hate, are you really allergic to fucking cilantro. All I know is that I like what I understand so far, but it's not- My heart is screaming at me to kiss you right now but my brain- my brain knows that we're not there yet."

"I- I don't know if I'm really capable of that." He confessed, and I was glad for his honesty. It stung me like a fucking slap, but it was better than building my hopes up for something that would only result in heartbreak.

"But I want to make it work." He surprised me, eyes intent at our intertwined hands, "Because I think a lot, Thea. I think for hours on end, and there's literally no one I want to come home to. There's no one else I want to kiss, no one else I want to fall asleep next to. If you'll have me... If you'll have me despite everything that I am incapable of, I want to at least give it a shot before making any concrete decision."

"I want to make this work," I implored, tightening my grip on his hands, scooting closer. "So I'm willing to try this out and see where it goes. Only if you promise me that we can take this slow, and you don't freeze me out."

"I can do slow." He nodded, "But I'm not so sure about the second part. If I leave you in the dark about something, you have my permission to keep me out of your bed as long as it takes me to realise that I'm being an idiot."

"You wouldn't even notice." I rolled my eyes, falling back in bed.

"Trust me, I will." He leaned over, resting his head on the palm of his hand, elbow pressing on the mattress next to my head.

"When you were in Ireland..." I swallowed, not wanting to sound too crazy or clingy, "You didn't send a single text, no call, nothing to tell me you didn't regret us. Just vanished."

"It's a business thing, I was very busy. You can ask Monica. I had to give her some nights off or she would have overworked herself to death."

"Which is why you needed me there." I pouted, "You shouldn't have sent me away."

"And have you miss stuff that'll be super important for you in the coming weeks? What kind of stupid move would that be?"

"One that would involve neither of you working too much-" A yawn interrupted me, reminding me that it was still the middle of the night and I had to go through another gruelling day at work tomorrow. I had come to realise that while Aiden wasn't physically running around a lot, his work was very challenging to the brain. I had even switched my regular pop playlist for some piano pieces in a random Spotify playlist on the way home, not having the energy to process more words.

"That's a big one." He snickered, "We can talk tomorrow." I turned over to switch the lights off, returning to find his arms waiting for me. I scooted right in, his heartbeat at my ear, listening to the rhythm and relaxing my body again. When my hands threaded through his hair and I brought his lips to mine, I was quite satisfied with the hum of appreciation that came from his chest.

"What happened to take it slow?" He mumbled, kissing the tip of my nose before capturing my lips again.

"Slow." I reminded myself as well, settling back in bed and shutting my eyes.

I could do slow. 

Cuties 🥰