I nod and swallow. My chin wobbles. Shit, Carly. Don’t start crying at work.
“It’s cool, Car. It’s day three. Okay? Don’t sweat it.”
I nod, fighting back the tears. Thank goodness for my new bestie.
14
AIDEN
Today, I’m hot for teacher, because fuck… she looks good in those sexy glasses.
Fuck, but even her toes are cute. Painted orange. She has a little gold ring on her second toe. I’m sitting here staring at her talking to Ally over the half wall between their cubicles. Staring at her cute little fuckin’ toes in those sandals. Those toes were in my lap last night, resting against my semi-hard cock and I’d played with that toe ring while she was buzzed and clueless, calling me “Hot Sauce” and “Banana Thief”.
I envision the tips of those toes against my shaft again.
“You’re thinkin’ good thoughts, I see.”
I shake it off as my father comes back in.
“Spam folder mishap.” He shrugs.
“Ah,” I say, knowingly.
Because, yeah, I know.
I’m the one who fucked with her email settings. Right after our first meeting Monday morning. Wanted to see how she’d handle it. And there are a few more tests coming her way. Frazzle her. Take down her confidence a few pegs. This’ll flush out any hidden agendas and make her more vulnerable, rather than her thinking she’s on any kind of equal footing here. Everyone here is firmly under me, in any way I can make them be. She’s gonna be under me soon.
It’ll be interesting to watch ho
w she recovers. And how she handles what I’ll throw at her next.
Couldn’t have planned it any better, though, her showing up late today on top of that, and my father noticing that his little golden girl wasn’t Miss Perfect.
I listen to my father for another minute, talking about Eastmark, decline his invite to go to lunch, telling him I’ll be doing a working lunch with the errant Miss Adler, and then he smirks at me, strangely.
When he leaves, I login to my non-company laptop and start up my VPN so I can covertly click through to the company Twitter account.
15
CARLY
Until eleven o’clock, I deal with my emails. The IT guy, Bill, tells me they don’t know why, but the only two people whitelisted on my email were Alice and Stacy, the intern. Everyone else was set to go to junk by me.
By me.
I insist I didn’t do that. I wouldn’t have.
He shrugs, eyes on the coffee stain that’s on my freaking boob, and then flushes red when I catch him looking. Not like he could avoid it. It’s there glaring at everyone. He checks a few other things on my laptop and then tells me I’m good to go.
I’ve eaten my breakfast, taken two Advils, not from wine, because of a tension headache, and had my second cup of coffee and I’m feeling like things are getting closer to under control.
At 10:59, I grab my notebook, spin my chair, and head to Aiden’s office.
He’s on the phone when I get into the doorway. He gestures to his chair and mouths “Shut the door.”
I close the door behind me and sit down.
He eyes my blouse.