E I G H T

MY HUMILIATION WAS UNENDING.

But I shouldn't have been too surprised at this point. Fiona White seemed to be synonymous with it, because none other than Emelie Standifer was leaving Ashton's office as I came in.

"Lunch tomorrow," she asked in a sultry voice, trying but failing to pucker her lips seductively. "At my place, of course."

"Are you sure this is just lunch we're having," Ashton asked in a flirty manner, not even skipping a beat.

"You dirty dog," she said, feigning shock although she appeared thoroughly pleased with herself. I honestly couldn't blame her because Ashton Baldwin was hot ― bolded, italicized, and underlined ― and they looked great together. Even now in her skin-tight jeans and white button down blouse, she somehow perfectly complemented his dark black suit and slacks.

Of course, besides the two of them and everyone who frequented this building, no one else saw it. I had ruined her marriage inadvertently and now she was completely infatuated with my boss who was screwing her in order to secure the venue he needed for a huge event he was planning ― it was the last thing I doubted either of them wanted to get revealed to the press. In fact, besides Elijah, I had a feeling I was the only one who knew the full story behind why she was here so often.

"Well you're the one who was barking up my tree," Ashton said and it was enough to make me gag, "in fact, up and down my ― Fiona, how are you?"

My eyes were closed but I could feel both of their eyes on, making my cheeks flush hard and the fact that I looked like I just escaped a warzone made it even worse.

I opened my eyes to find that sure enough, they were both watching me, Emilie with mild humor while Ashton was clearly uncomfortable. The smug look on her face was enough to make me want to dive behind my desk and never come out, but she was blocking my way to it so all I could do is stand there and face the music.

"Hi, Fiona," she said, "I was just leaving." She walked past me, making sure not to bump into me on her way out. "Have a nice day, the two of you."

When she was finally gone, I found myself releasing a breath I had no idea I held. Ashton ran a hand through his hair and looked past my shoulder to make sure that she was actually gone.

"I don't like her - that much, at least." He shook his head before looking up at me with a half-grin on his face. "Like, she's nice to look at but she doesn't seem like a good person -"

"She left her husband," I piped up, "to be with you."

"Ah," he held up a finger to affirm this. "That is true, she's definitely not a good person. Beyond bad if you ask me."

"Then why did you do it?" I was waltzing into dangerous territory considering the fact that he was my boss and his sexual life was none of my business, but the question was nagging at me. Now it was this woman against me and I know what lead up to it (the letter, the sass, and all of that stuff), but it was still puzzling to me how he could put himself through it. How much exactly was at risk for Ashton Baldwin if he failed to acquire that venue?

He shook his head again, this time meaning business because sure enough, this was bigger than just Emilie Standifer and his sexual habits. It was strangely terrifying, how much trouble I got this man in and yet he didn't want to fire me. There seemed to be both bad guys and good guys in this mix and he seemed like he was one of the latter.

"You and I both know that I can't discuss that with you," he said. "You've caused enough trouble here on your own, little troublemaker. Who knows the damage you could do when you're armed with knowledge of things you shouldn't know?"

I frowned, not only at what he was insinuating, but at the mention of a new nickname he had for me. "Little troublemaker? That one's new."

"That one fits," he said before turning around to head back into his office.

-

FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, I WAS LATE TO WORK AGAIN.

But it was okay, for the only one who really seemed to notice was Elijah who was upset about not being able to spend anymore time with me in the mornings.

"We always have the afternoon bus," I said, twirling the cord of the phone around my finger absentmindedly. I had a stack of papers I needed to start on filing to send down to one of the lower floors by Ashton's request, but he was in a meeting in Chicago so I had a good bit of time before worrying about it.

"Maybe bus rides could be our thing," he laughed. "It's definitely not a conventional friendship, but we pull it off nicely. I have some people on line eight, so I'll have to call you back."

"Let's go to lunch today," I blurted and I could feel the embarrassment spreading over my face in the form of a deep red blush. I didn't normally get this excited over going to lunch with a boy - especially if he was just a friend, but being here had become very suffocating when considering all of the thin ice I was treading over. Not only had I been set up by Meredith, but I was coming to work late every day and I made a sworn enemy of Emilie. It was too much drama and I was just one girl.

"Sounds great," he said, "bye for now."

"Bye for now," I repeated and he hung up.

I was pulling open my laptop when Ashton Baldwin walked past my desk without a word, making me look up at him in concern. He seemed considerably upset today which I knew was likely my fault, and if it was then it was up to me to fix it whether he wanted me to or not.

My mind grasping for anything that could cheer him up, I instantly blurted, "hey, boss, looking good today."

He turned around and stared at me in confusion which I knew only made things worse. I was definitely not a smooth talker. I had my decent lines here and there, but when it came down to the real work and being on the fly, I was hopeless. Right now was obviously a prime example of that.

"What is this we have here," a man said behind me - or well, in front of me, but I was turned to face Ashton - making me spin around and meet the eye contact of a man and a woman both with stern looks in their eyes. "Are you harassing your boss?"

"No," Ashton quickly stepped in with an impatient smile. "It's a little game the two of us have going on here. Strictly professional boundaries, no need to worry."

I looked over at Ashton, raising a questioning eyebrow at him. Who the hell were these people? His first appointment was at eleven and it was five minutes after nine, so it was unlikely that they were clients. Unless, of course, they were his most prioritized colleagues - meaning I had to go before I screwed up whatever plan he was working out with them.

"I'll excuse myself," I said as I got up from my desk and he nodded gratefully.

I had relocated myself to the water cooler while trying to draw as little attention to myself as possible by drinking a cup of water like everyone else did when they were here. I heard that a lot of the gossip happened at the water coolers, but apparently, Elijah had found a way to get it all going straight to his line on the ground floor. Thankfully, that meant I wouldn't have anyone looking at me strangely if I was just getting a drink and not conversing with anyone.

There were two other people there, one lady and one man, who seemed to be bored out of their mind - not to mention extremely thirsty unless they were trying to stall until they made it to their lunch breaks. I lowered the cup from my mouth and smiled at them only to receive blank stares back before they refocused on their stalling.

I was ready to try and strike up a conversation so I could try and break myself from the "new employee" mold, but their eyes both widened at something behind me before turning away and heading back to their desks. They looked just about scared out of their minds, so I could only assume that it was something bad. It was something I had to get myself used to here at Baldwin Industries - anything that was bad or could be potentially bad. It summed up just about everything since I started to work here.

Spinning around, the first thing that I saw was Ashton.

This definitely meant something bad.

"Hi, can I speak with you for a moment," he said, his voice struggling to keep it casual when I could tell he wanted to yell and throw things right about now. "Out in the hallway, Ms. White?"

I frowned, mentally preparing myself for what was bound to happen outside. Before I could do it myself, he grabbed up my hand and lead me outside by himself, stopping when we were far from the door where he knew that people would be trying to listen in on us.

"I'm so sorry -" I started, but he cut me off.

"What in the hell was that," he asked.

"Well as much as you call me a minx and a troublemaker, I should at least be able to come up with embarrassing things to say to you," I defended myself. "I'm sorry about the clients overhearing that, but I'm not exactly sorry for saying what I said."

He frowned in confusion, his eyes widening at my words. "You should realize I'm your boss, not to mention you earned those titles, troublemaker."

"Yeah and a boss has their employees go out and buy them condoms?"

Ashton placed his hands on his hips, frowning at me. "You're right, I owe you for that much, but what you did back there was unacceptable - not to mention embarrassing."

"Why? Who were those people?"

"My parents," he growled. "They were here because they knew about you billing the spa appointment to corporate. They think I'm giving escorts and gold diggers access to my accounts again - which might I add, was about five years ago and I'm a changed man now."

If I had a drink in my mouth, I would've turned around and spit it out all over the floor, but that was not the case today. Instead, I had to just sit there watching Ashton awkwardly. Not only was I getting him into even more trouble, but this time it was with his family instead of just business partners like Emilie Standifer, who he seemed to have been able to handle. I knew his parents would be a different story if they thought I was some type of hooker trying to suck up to their wealthy son.

I sighed, leaning against the wall because it felt as if my knees would give out at any given moment. "Well, why don't you just fire me to save yourself the trouble," I asked. "I'm obviously expendable and more trouble than I'm worth. Wouldn't it be better to just get rid of me instead of waiting on me to cause another accident?"

He froze, looking me in the eye and I could tell that he was surprised. A company employee asking to be fired was surely unprecedented around here because usually people wanted to work here. It was one of the biggest business in Philadelphia alone, not to mention the state of Pennsylvania itself. Ashton Baldwin was (until recently) one of the top eligible bachelors under thirty on the east coast. I was just some entry-level girl with a track record for causing problems around here. Usually, someone in the position I was in would be begging to keep their job, yet here I was asking if he could just fire me and get it over with so he could save himself.

So I was surprised to see him shaking his head. "No," he said, "because contrary to popular belief, I want you here. I like you here."