Chapter 38
Chapter 38
The post-it note said Liam had asked her to meet him at 3pm without fail.
According to the perks within her new shitty job, as long as Hartie wasn’t negotiating a meeting, she was free to clock out by 2pm.
As far as she knew, her halfsister had left the office after Devan left her cubicle.
If the company wasn’t paying overtime then she wasn’t staying to pay attention to Liam.
She packed up her bag and deftly looked around for a second before remembering and straightening without care.
They had isolated her here. She had no coworkers. She was just supposed to sit tight in a narrow cubicle in a narrow hallway that nobody ever passed by.
A small, almost sad smile lifted her lips.
Her only fault was being born to Camille.
She also wanted a comfortable office. She also wanted to negotiate deals. She had spent all her life learning, but she was only ever good enough to bring Hartie coffee.
…
No matter! It was only a matter of time. For Asher, and for herself, she would rise above all these people. She’d rise so high that they would be nothing but specks in her eyes.
She speedwalked to the stairs, taking them two at a time.
She was excited to see her baby.
That was without fail.
Also, Aston was coming from a long business trip today. And they were going to discuss her first mission with him.
Aria held no delusions.
She knew she wasn’t excited solely because of the mission — that she would be highly paid for. She knew she was attracted to the psychopath that she married.
The feelings were fleeting, like little butterflies beating at her heart and tickling it.
It was a crush.
Pure and simple.
An arsonist had a crush on a traitor. What a combination.
She felt like a child, her steps lighter just because she was going to see her crush. Her crush who had kissed her three weeks ago.
She ignored the fact that he had done it to convince her grandfather that he had done a good job pairing them together.
A kiss was a kiss.
He had kissed her and she had liked it.
Pure and simple.
“Ugh”, after a few minutes of climbing down the stairs, her light and happy feeling left her.
She suffered the most in this company, really!
She had to go down six flights of stairs to get to the elevator that would send her to the garage of the company.
SIX FLIGHTS.
While Hartie and Liam, the people on the real top floor, had a private elevator. She bet they had never used the stairs.
When she got to the lobby, she took in large gulps of air to calm down her panting.
She had cultivated a somewhat cool image to the women in this lobby.
“Hi, Aria!”
“You’re off early today”
“What’s the occasion?”
She was avoiding their boss, that was the occasion.
“Hi, Oh it’s nothing, I just have a date with my son”
“I really want to see his picture,”
“He has to be super cute, I saw in the tabloids but I didn’t see his face”
“Don’t believe everything you see in the tabloids, Megara”, Aria tutted, bringing her phone out of her pocket.
She didn’t have any deep interactions with them, beyond the surface level greetings.
But they were INFORMED about Aria’s life in the tabloids. And for the second time in her life, her gossip was met with “girl, tell me more” instead of “die you whore”.
It wasn’t a matter of choice when it came to whether Aria would favor them or not.
“Eeekkk! He’s the cutest little bun!”, said Megara.
“He looks like a scholarly little baby”, said Sandra
“And you’re certain this pure soft thing is from…you know who?”, asked Jennifer, who was grinning with a teasing look in her eyes.
Yeah. Jennifer was here too.
She was the only one Aria still liked amongst the people she had met on her first day here, and coincidentally, they had both gotten promotions.
Hers was legit at least.
“Who knows? Maybe it belongs to my old high school flame.”
Megara snickered. “Your life is so eventful”
“I should warn you. Mr Rothschild is in today, and he hasn’t looked happy all day,” Sandra said, suddenly grabbing at Aria’s arm.
“Oh I know”, Aria said, the thought of an angry Liam doing… nothing to her insides.
Damn it.
Aston had completely poisoned her body.
“Wait… is that why you’re leaving?” she asked.
Aria winked and pocketed her phone.
“I wish I could leave too”, Megara pouted.
“Don’t fret about it, your salary is higher than hers”, Jennifer said, as if offering condolences. “You got the shortest end of this life thing, Aria”
The mention of Aria’s microscopic salary brought fresh pain to her penniless heart.
“Tell me about it.” Aria said and held her bag tighter. “I gotta go.”
“Bye Aria~”, they chorused.
She waved at them and left through the door. The elevator was finally in front of her.
With a grin on her face, both from cheating Liam and the thought that she would see Asher and Aston soon, she hit the button.
The elevator doors opened and she got in, hitting the lowest floor’s button.
With a ding, it descended.
Her cubicle was on the 27th floor.
She was currently on the 20th floor.
The elevator dinged again when she got to the 10th floor.
She cast her gaze to the ceiling. Elevator rides were the most awkward things on the planet. She wished she’d be alone on this one till she got down but she wasn’t so lucky.
As the doors opened, all her thoughts paused.
She blinked.
He blinked.
She shot her hand forward and hit the close button rapidly.
He grit his teeth and ran inside before the door could close.
Damn it.
“Where do you think you’re going, Aria?”, Liam’s gritty voice threatened as he stepped in front of her.
She had to mark down this date in her calendar.
This had to be one of her worst days ever.
Didn’t Liam have a private elevator?!
What was the probability of Liam EVER getting in the same elevator with her?!