I spent a whole week working with Jason now that Aiden was back in the office. Jason's workload in itself wasn't too much for me now that I had a taste of overtime weeks, and we sneaked in some amount of fun in our day-to-day work as well. We worked on everything from ad copies to briefings with agencies and meetings with small-time, hole in the wall businesses as a part of the agency wing that Jason handled. It all felt like it was too many things on one plate, but Jason taught me the trick was very obviously, to be good at trusting your team to do a good job. There were very stark differences in how the two men presented themselves, and while I wondered what a future with Jason would look like, I had no desire to give up what I had with Aiden.

I had now started coming home to dinner for two prepared by Josie's marvellous hands and usually only came back in my own apartment only to get dressed for the day. Heck, I'd even moved my toothbrush to Aiden's bathroom. This was, as anyone would say, the quite opposite of slow, but we had a good thing going, and eventually, when we needed our personal time, we could talk about it as the situation arose.

The last day of work arrived sooner than I thought, and I found an odd feeling creeping on me like I was leaving behind an important part of me and life after today would never be the same. I walked into the office with Aiden, the last day I'd be doing that as an intern here at Steele Enterprises. The elevators were crowded going up, and as discreetly as possible, Aiden let me go with a brush of his fingers against the back of my hand. No one would ever notice, no one would ever see.

And I liked it this way.

About lunchtime, I was kidnapped by a very excited Mary and Jade, practically dragged and shoved into Jade's car, driving to an unknown destination. We ended up right in front of a salon, me being manhandled all the way to the doors. It looked, and presented itself as very expensive, making me almost scream that I didn't need such expensive care. Ada and Basil had done a good job accommodating my crazy work hours these three months, and I would be damned if I let another woman touch my eyebrows. Mary opened the door for us to slide in, "It's all paid by Mr Steele. Now go and get a good day of pampering."

Confused, but warmed, I sent him a heart emoji text before being led inside by the aesthetician. A tall, dark man with pink hair, naming himself Jeff explained the vision he had in mind, with the most animated flair to his hands, in jarring contrast with his deep voice. He kept talking about making me the most avant-garde he could make a model, and something about bleaching my eyebrows making me interrupt him, "None of it."

"But... it'll be a fun little surprise for your boyfriend!"

"You have no idea who my boyfriend is, do you?" The word sounded foreign, strange and unwelcome on my tongue. My boyfriend is so...stupid. Childish, frivolous, ephemeral. This was deeper, intense, something else entirely.

Jeff's blank face told me everything I needed to know. I needed to take charge, so I listed down all the things Jeff would be doing. Waxing, an essential need. A mani-pedi was next on the list. My manicure had been slowly deteriorating, brought to my attention by Aiden this morning when a nail chipped while trying to open a bottle of chilli flakes for him. My hair needed some nourishment as well, trim and some touch-ups to my roots. A quick observation of my eyebrows showed some attention required there too and feeling the bill rising by the second, I stopped my assessment there. Jeff threw in a facial routine as well, telling me that he loved indulgent boyfriends and would do anything for those types of clients.

We started with waxing, and when the small woman asked me if I wanted my little palace waxed too, I hesitated for a moment. We were taking it slow... But I wanted more, and so did he, as far as I understood. On more than one occasion we've had to physically restrain ourselves or take cold showers when we took things too far. I'd come close to ripping one of his shirts away and he'd seen me in basically only my underwear. If he was surprising me with this, I might as well surprise him with something else. I gave her the green light, regretting every decision that led me to this moment when she pulled the first strip off. While she finished up her work, I asked her about more permanent hair removal methods, like laser perhaps, and how safe it would be there. Because I would certainly not endure that one more fucking time.

The second woman worked on tweezing and threading my eyebrows, while another submerged my feet in warm water. My pedicure and manicure worked in tandem while the woman working on my facial massage asked me for more details about work.

Where does your boyfriend work?

Steele Enterprises

What does he do?

He's in senior management.

Is he rich?

I guess so.

Is he good in bed?

We'll find out tonight.

This seemed to be catnip for them, and they seemed to be more excited about my chances of getting laid than I was, making me wonder if I should be concerned about this? I mean I was pretty sure about Aiden, but like... I shook my head. Aiden and I were fine. If the night leads to sex I won't stop it, and if he wants to take it slow, I'll respect it. It'll be fine.

Jeff's little trim cost me more hair than I imagined, and I lost about two inches of my hair and twenty years of my life when he made the first snip. "Darling, it was more dead than the fish at Walmart. It needed to go."

Still not sure about the length, I continued to observe as he cut my hair, adding layers and framing my face. I would have still been okay with Ada's regular trimming, but once my hair was coloured, dried and styled, I had to admit this look was absolutely gorgeous. The sides of my hair were significantly shorter now, falling softly and highlighting the roundness of my face in the nicest possible way. Jeff looked pretty proud of the results too, taking his time to make the perfect video to post on his new social media TikTok or something. Was Instagram not a thing anymore? God, I was so out of it. I reminded myself to download the app as soon as I got home to see if there was anything that would add well to my already planned, designed and flawlessly brilliant funnel. A few extra sources never hurt anybody.

Feeling ridiculously pampered, I headed out of the store, checking my phone for any messages from Aiden. He had replied to my heart with a smiling face, which may have seemed rude, but this was Aiden, and the smiley itself was enough of a proclamation of his true feelings. His second text came with an address to The Plaza, and I felt the excitement build up in me. Whatever he had in mind, I was really fucking liking it so far.

His third text came just as I was looking for a cab telling me to send me a picture when I get a chance.

My heart was about to burst. When he said he was going to communicate better, he had really fucking been trying. And he had adopted a no-filter approach, which got a bit comical sometimes but had been working out well overall. With the location set and the cab in motion, I took about a million selfies, trying to look for the one perfect baby that I could send to Aiden. I wondered if I could extend the same level of communication as Aiden and just send him the first one I would click. Letting go of my fears I clicked one final picture, sending it to him and closing the camera feature. We reached the iconic hotel in about an hour, most of which I spent trying to figure out just what the fuck Aiden was up to. It was nearly seven when we arrived, and much to my surprise, I found him waiting in the lobby. Jesus, he took my breath away. He'd come into work dressed in a light blue shirt under his regular black blazer and pants. When he found the time to change into a fitting black shirt with a red tie was a question, but it got swallowed in my surprise seeing the small yellow dots littering his tie when I moved closer.

"Gryffindor!" We'd taken his test a few days ago when I had been feeling a strange homesickness for the Great Halls of Hogwarts, and much to Aiden's annoyance my TROLL IN THE DUNGEON enactment followed by a dramatic faint had put him off the series. Not deterred in the slightest, I had made his account and made him take all his tests. I was a Slytherin, and I had always known I would be. Ambitious, Leader, Resourceful. The absolute best house.

Aiden – brave, determined, chivalrous. A match was made in Diagon Alley.

"A little attention to detail." He shrugged, extending his hand out to me. I had worn green this morning, but I hadn't thought oh let me dress according to my Hogwarts house. I just picked a green dress and went with it. It was similar to the red dress I had worn once upon a time, just slightly longer. Slowly I had been dressing more confidently too, finding my crumbled confidence return.

"You know what they say about those?" I slipped my fingers in his, letting him lead me wherever he wanted to go. "The devil lives in the details," I answered his questioning brow.

"You think I'm hiding something from you?"

"Not really, but I also don't know you inside out." Brutal honesty wasn't my strongest suit, but with Aiden, the candour came naturally. I didn't want to sugar-coat anything, nor did I have any need. He would listen and he would not take offence.

"We have all the time in the world for that." He shrugged, watching the numbers dwindle till they hit the ground floor. The metal doors slid open and we were greeted by a bellboy who offered to take us upstairs. "Third," Aiden mentioned to him.

"You're scared of heights, aren't you?" He murmured in my ear when I leaned into him.

"How did you know?" I thought I had been working on it well enough that it wasn't visible in normal circumstances.

"You always grip to something in elevators, you prance around my office all fucking day but you don't step near the glass and you refuse to have breakfast with me on the balcony. It's not exactly rocket science." That was very observant of him. I pressed a kiss on the corner of his jaw.

He straightened me up when we reached the third floor leading me ahead down the hallway.

"What are we doing?"

"It's a small dinner, a few people. Just celebrating you tolerating me for three months." He cracked a grin and my smile mirrored his. "This is really sweet, thank you!"

Aiden nodded at the staff member, who opened the door to reveal all the people I had been working with all this time. I spotted Jade's mess of curls first, hurling herself at me, "I cannot fucking believe you lasted three months with Satan." Her whisper was soft, and I glanced back at Aiden who still had a small smile on his face, so he hadn't heard it.

If only they knew how far Aiden was from the devil...Every single day he climbed into my bed, every single day that he woke up before me to make sure my coffee was made just as I liked it, every single day that I come home feeling like the world was crumbling around me, Aiden was there... and they never saw him like that. It was a shame.

Monica grabbed me next, telling me how much she would miss sharing lunch with me and me keeping her in the loop with office gossip. Monica was always drowning so much that I had to fill her in, talking about who's kissing whom and who's stealing whose lunch. It had been fun.

Jason, the over-the-top person he was, all but threw a cute tiara over my head, with Jade rushing over to secure it with pins. A match made in heaven, really. Mary, Kieran, Alison, there were so many familiar faces that I was simply jumping from arm to arm settling down only when Jason called me to take a seat next to Aiden.

I was quick to grab the opportunity, reaching under the table to squeeze his hand. This wasn't a comfortable place for him to be in, but he was doing it all for me, and I loved it. Dinner was filled with drinks and amazing food and the best conversations. Jason blended in well with the lower staff, seeing as Jade kept cracking jokes at his expense first, others eventually relaxing. Aiden stuck out still, and while I would have done the same, I understood there was a reason for him to appear as stoic in front of his employees. Fear is a good motivator.

I kept sneaking in bits of conversation with him, but he was very painfully out of place the whole night and I was simply proud of him for sticking through the dinner. I hiccupped when I finished my third glass of French wine Aiden had specifically ordered, telling me it was the same label from our night. The small detail made me want to kiss him, but I settled for texting him a heart emoji instead.

Since the room was all ours for the night, we took tons of pictures, Jason even carrying me on his back for some of them. Aiden stayed out for most of them until I physically pulled him in the frame. As compared to our loose postures and touchy hands, he stood relatively stiffer, but at least he smiled nicely, and I was already falling a little harder with every passing second. Alison was the one who suggested there must be a picture of only me and my boss, and I could not have been gladder for her existence. While random pictures of him around the house were a good addition to my phone gallery, this was significantly nicer. I already knew one of these pictures was going to be my phone background image soon enough.

Ensuring everyone else had been safely deposited to their transportations, Aiden got in the driver's seat of his car too, and after making sure my seatbelt was tucked in. "Thank you," I tried not to slur my words, but it was challenging.

"Are you sleepy?"

"A little drunk, I guess. I hadn't eaten lunch and Jeff only offered a salad. I didn't want to eat a salad."

He laughed, "Should I start running a McDonalds from home? Will that stop you from skipping meals?"

"That sounds so fucking delicious," I moaned, "But I'll get fat. I'll be so fat you won't have any trouble keeping it in your pants."

"Believe me, it's always going to be a fucking struggle around you."

"I'm tired of struggling." I approached the topic.

Aiden caught on soon enough and at the next red light just turned to me and said, "What do you mean? Do you not want this anymore or-"

"Oh my god, you donkey!" I laughed, "I mean I am tired of not fucking the daylights out of you." Crimson coloured my cheeks as I realised what I had just said, "Well that's too much faith in muscle memory. But I do want to have sex with you or I will literally die."

"How long has it been since you last had sex?" Aiden was so practical and poised, it was hard to believe I had fallen for him so hard so quickly.

"Like, a year? I think so. I don't remember. That's bad. What about you?"

"Three months." He said with conviction.

"Of course, Mr Organized. Do you remember the date as well?"

"Jason's birthday. The day I met you."

"Before or after?"

"After. You messed my head. I needed to get it out."

"Did it work?"

"It should have," he sighed, "but you lit a fire under my pants the next day."

"I'd like to know if the fire is still ignited," I grumbled, absentmindedly touching the necklace that started it all. He took my hand in his and brought it to his lips. I had expected a kiss, maybe, but the way his teeth were exposed against my skin, scraping and hurting, his tongue soothing and then teasing, fuck.... This was worse.

"How much further are we from home?" I mumbled, looking out of the window.

"Ten minutes," Aiden said.

"Either pull over or make it five," I complained, bringing his hand over to my legs, where I desperately needed it. Aiden gulped audibly in the silence of the car, and I could almost hear the acceleration of the car increasing as he floored the car home.

Lmfaoo drunk Thea is a whole mood. Chapter 29.5 was technically not in the original outline but I needed the writing practice, so it's about a whole chapter of nothing but smut, to be honest, lol. Enjoy the double update!