Alphahole (Alphahole Roommates 1)

And I have another question. Why do eyeglasses on a hot guy make him even hotter? Even if he’s a jerk! It’s not fair. My eyeglasses make me look like

a nerd. They don’t make me look hot. At all. Hence my wearing contact lenses most of the time.

I go back to my new desk and start clicking into my company email and find a series of emails from George that have been forwarded to me by Stacy, the marketing intern I met in the boardroom. She’s not much younger than me and seems like a go-getter. She told me she’d gotten a briefing from George before he went on leave and was forwarding a bunch of stuff to me on campaigns that were ongoing.

All she went over with me, I knew I’d be hitting the ground at full speed ahead. Good: throw myself into work and focus on winning. On being a one percenter like Aiden talked about.

Aiden. Fucking fucking Aiden.

I’ve already been strategizing for my approach to make sure I wow them with my skills, and that plan goes into effect immediately. Even more so after the way Aiden put me in front of a firing squad of questions that morning, too.

I am glad that at least Mr. Carmichael seems to like me. Right now, that might be all I’ve got. That and Ally, who I’ve known for two hours who acts like we’ve been friends for a decade.

***

I do a backwards swan dive onto my bed and stare at the ceiling. A long day. I am exhausted. Still jetlagged and just… pooped.

Mr. Carmichael took Ally and I to lunch, telling us Aiden had something come up. I was relieved to not have to sit with him for an hour.

Mr. Carmichael told me my new look was fantastic. I didn’t think I looked bad back in Buffalo, but I guess my makeover did more for me than I’d imagined. Good to know it was worth every last dime in my savings account to have Layla make me over.

I did that the day before I found out Caitlin racked up my credit card, leaving myself flat broke.

He also apologized if he’d shocked me over the news of my office. He then said that when I started talking to him in the boardroom that day, it was very apparent I had potential. This job was originally going to go to Kevin, my former boss, until our conversation clued him into the fact that I was the one responsible for the social media success that had gotten our company on Carmichael acquisitions radar. I wasn’t surprised Kevin tried to take credit. And now I knew why his signature wasn’t on my goodbye card. And why he wasn’t there for my goodbye cake. He was pissed that he got passed over.

I tried to be humble about the compliments. I didn’t talk bad about my former coworkers. Mr. C. and I talked some more about the direction that he wanted to take things in, to capitalize on my methods at my old office to help Carmichael take our online presence to the next level.

I tried to fake a great mood for the lunch hour, but truth be told, I was annoyed about the Aiden situation, upset that my former coworkers were about to be unemployed. Mr. Carmichael said I should keep that quiet since they hadn’t started swinging the axe yet. He actually said that, with a smile, as if it wasn’t absolutely cruel. I was disappointed in my new CEO’s callousness but tried not to show it.

It didn’t help when Sonia, a coworker back in Buffalo posted on my Facebook page that she hopes I’m having a great day and then put a sad face and said that the office won’t be the same without me.

Talk about feeling guilty!

Speaking of Facebook, there was a message there from Steph in my inbox. I’m not ready to read that yet. I saw the first two lines.

“I have some explaining to do and I hope you’ll give me a chance to do that …”

Nope. Not today, bitch.

Moral of that story? If you have a friend who seems like your bestie, but she has something nasty to say about absolutely everyone in the world, don’t kid yourself into thinking she has nothing bad to say about you.

On the ride back to the office from the restaurant, I changed my profile picture to a picture of my coral-painted toes covered in sand at the beach on Sunday and got 37 likes and a bunch of Where are you? type comments. I didn’t answer. Yet.

I was happy when lunch was over and looked forward to getting back to my desk, so I could rock my job. I didn’t deal with Aiden the rest of the day. His office was empty all afternoon.

After work, Ally and I took our cab with a different driver this time, back to the apartment building, which had a different lobby guard this time, and both pooped from our first day, said bye on the elevator when she got out first. I think she picked up on my mood and she was subdued for my benefit.

“If you feel like hanging out later, text me,” she said.

“Gonna catch a wee nap,” I said, with a yawn.

“Me, too,” she said and waved bye as she left the elevator.

I pass out two minutes after changing into sleeping shorts and a tank top, backwards diving into my bed.

***

There’s pounding on the door. It’s dark in my bedroom. I guess my nap was a long one.