Ashlee rushed through the office balancing two hot drinks, her purse, and the large folder she had been handed downstairs by one of the receptionists. She quickly deposited her tall hot chocolate on her desk and set her purse on her chair before continuing on and rushing into the bigger office adjoining hers. Dodging around the dark mahogany executive desk that Marcus loved, she softly set the other cup down to rifle through the cabinet behind the tucked in chair for a mug and the small cup warmer she had bought the month before.
Glancing at the chair settled directly across the desk, where she had been sitting the night before chatting and laughing about their coworker Cecily’s matchmaking antics. She even tried to set Ashlee up with one of the new interns. That had been its own mini comedy series that she had kept Marcus updated on, just to hear him laugh.
She poured the hot chocolate into the mug, turned on the computer, set out the files he would need to look at first when he came in for his upcoming meeting, and turned on the lights as she made her way out. After working with him for so long it was a mere matter of routine. Just because she was late, did not mean she would be careless. All in all, it only took her a matter of minutes to have everything situated and be back out of his office.
She was barely seated at her desk when he burst through the glass doors and stormed into the office. Ashlee looked up with a smile and was determined to keep it from sliding when she saw the scowl on his face. His dark look melted as he crossed the room. By the time he reached her desk he was smiling slightly.
“Ashlee.” He acknowledged her with a nod.
“Mr Stone.”
Marcus Stone, CEO of Stoneworks Inc., continued into his office in a less forceful storm than when he had entered hers. Before closing his door he leaned back out. “Give me ten minutes then we can go over the day.”
At the appointed time she grabbed her tablet and headed into his office.
He didn’t look up when she entered but raised his mug to her as he spoke. “Dylan Reyse called me at four this morning to set up a meeting for today. I said 2 would work because it was way too early to be thinking clearly or calling you, do I have anything then? I didn’t think I had anything today that couldn’t be shuffled around.”
“2 is good.” Ashlee wrote it into the calendar. “HR is still bothering me about hiring new staff for the IT and finance departments.”
“I’ll take care of it. You work too hard. How early were you today?”
“Just a few minutes.” She fought to hide her smile.
“Enough time to have grabbed me my favorite hot chocolate, get the files I needed to go over this morning and be seated at your desk working when I came in.” His eyes darkened as they sharpened. “How can I convince you that you work too hard?”
“You can’t.” She shot back with a playfully snarky grin. “Anything else?”
“Have you thought about what we talked about yesterday?” His gaze didn’t stray from her face. Her breath caught.
“I thought we agreed to forget that conversation.”
His jaw-dropping smile was back as he leaned forward to straighten the papers on his desk and her pulse skittered. “I believe you expressed a desire that it would be forgotten, however I didn’t agree. I want to take you on a date. You are an incredible woman and I want to spend time outside of work getting to know you.”
“I figured it wasn’t worth pursuing since I said I would not date my boss. There are far too many cliches and warning stories about that being a bad idea.”
“So I’d have to fire you to get a date. But if I fire you, you’d hate me and never agree to a date anyways. Why don’t you just say ‘no, I’m not interested’?”
“I’m not going to lie.” She cleared her throat and looked away. “I’ll get back to work now.”
She left without looking back but she was sure that he watched her leave.
The rest of the morning passed uneventfully. Files, emails, notices, reminders. She only communicated with Marcus when she had to for her job. When it was almost time for his meeting she headed across the hall to open up the conference room. Once the upper management was in she sent off a quick text that they were ready for him.
She went back to scheduling meetings and appointments with the various clients that needed Mr Stone’s attention. Caught up in trying to convince the lady she was on the phone with that she was dialing the wrong number, for the 5th time that day, she almost didn’t notice him emerge from his office. She looked up just in time to catch him nod her way.
“No, Mrs Peterson. Again, this is not your pharmacy. You will need to find the correct number to find out when your prescription is ready.”
He must have overheard as he passed because she didn’t miss his low chuckle as he pushed the door leading to the hall.
“Don’t work too hard.” He winked back at her.
Luckily he was already out the door and moving decisively to the conference room. Ashlee could safely fall apart into giggly mushiness in private. Since he never looked back whenever he left the office, Ashlee took the chance to study the man. She had a feeling that one date would more than likely turn into more and it would either end in a wonderful love story to last her lifetime or she would be finding a new job. Would it be worth the risk? She loved her job and she didn’t want to give up seeing him every day, laughing at his desk over whatever ridiculous things had happened to them that day while organizing his schedules, meetings, and clients.
Was it silly to say that she liked him too much to date him?
