T W E N T Y - S E V E N

ELIJAH DIDN'T HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING.

While I would've enjoyed a chance to enjoy some privacy and quiet, there was anything but inside the office today. The moment people saw the two of us walk into Baldwin Industries together, it just clicked for some people. The rumor mill had instantly exploded and I was fortunate - or rather unfortunate - to catch snippets of conversations that involved people calling me all sorts of names. Thankfully, I was still assisting Nolan or it would've been even more disastrous. My only priority was avoiding Ashton when necessary because there was just too much pressure.

That was easier said than done when my plan was one-sided. Because Ashton and I seemed to run into each other everywhere. When I went to print something out for Nolan so he could more easily cross-reference and annotate it, I found Ashton being talked to by some of his employees who I happened to recognize as the sales hotties who all shot me a wink, each one making my stomach fill with dread. And speaking of my stomach, I later found Ashton in the break room, taking a bite out of the burger Dana had bought me. In his defense, it had been in there for a while and he didn't want it to be wasted, but I knew he had ulterior motives when he ripped it in two and handed me the other half. Of course I accepted it because I knew about not wasting food way better than he did. I didn't appreciate him playing to his strengths when pitting them against my weaknesses, but the gesture made my heart melt a bit - which was surprising when considering how my heart was a puddle of goo at this point.

I was finally able to get some peace and quiet at my desk since the commotion died down when people realized they had jobs to do. But it didn't exactly last very long when I felt something press against my back. It wasn't hard like Ashton's body, in fact, it was quite soft. So I shouldn't have been surprised when I turned around to be met with a face full of large boobs - specifically Dana's.

"Dana?" I said, having removed myself from her booby trap - in the most literal sense, "what the hell?"

Of course, this made her burst into a fit of giggles, nearly keeling over from how amused she was. She had to take a few minutes to recover, in which she had pulled up a chair to my desk and pulled out a bag of chips which, from some reason, was in her purse but I didn't plan on questioning it.

"Sorry about that," she said as she put a potato chip into her mouth. "But I was stopping by to ask if you could do lunch with us. We know everybody wants you to describe the scenery on the inside of Ashton's pants, so it'll just be Elijah and Eric - and maybe Lily, but I don't know yet. Only if she wants to come."

I hadn't went out with my friends in a while, so I was honestly delighted to be asked. Even if it meant having Dana's boobs nearly choke me. "I'd love to!"

-

LILY WASN'T ALL THAT ENTHUSED.

Not about going to lunch, of course, but about Ashton, who I told her the truth about. But then again, she was just a naturally cool and calm woman who I was sure didn't give a damn about my romantic relationships, which I guess I needed a bit of in my life. All of the perspectives I got on my dilemma were either from romantics who believed that winning over Ashton's heart despite his lifestyle and parents and usual choice of women would be the perfect triumph for all of the hard work I had put in for the past two months, or they felt that Luke's gentleness and down to earth charm gave him a dreamlike quality - not to mention the fact that he had developed some pretty deep feelings for me early on that I reciprocated deep down - made him a better man for me to be with. No, I needed someone with no preconceived notions - or attraction to men on Lily's part - to give it to me straight (no pun intended).

"So, what do you think?" I asked after finishing the story about dinner and sex with Ashton during which she rolled her eyes at about five times.

Lily just shrugged before tapping the elevator button for the first floor. We were all going to meet in the lobby with Elijah before heading over to Carrie's like the last time I ate out with them. "You know that I'm really not that interested in your boy problems, but maybe you should just not be with anyone. Not forever, but just not some guy that you work - or worked - with if you really feel stuck between the idea of choosing either one."

"But where else am I going to find a guy," I whined, "I guess Breton could set me up with one of his teammates, but I don't want him to say nasty stuff about me in the locker room in front of my cousin."

Lily pinched her temple in disappointment. "Straight people literally are everywhere, plus you're an attractive woman. Sure you're a bit strange, but I'm sure if you threw a rock out of a window, you'd hit some guy who wants to get up in your guts."

"You're not helping, Lily," I said with a chuckle. "Think of this like some movie where apparently, every other guy in the city is either ugly or taken or not attracted to you. So there's other fish in the sea, but the only edible ones are Ashton and Luke. What would you do, then?"

She was about to answer as the doors were beginning to slide closed, but a foot slid through and stopped them at the last second. The owner of said foot cried out in pain as I reached for the button to open up the elevator doors. "I'm so sorry," I said, "I didn't see you coming and I would've held the door open and -"

I trailed off when I saw that the person who stopped the elevator was Nolan, who was looking rather upset with me right now.

"Ms. White," he greeted tersely.

"Mr. Abernathy," I responded in turn.

"I'm Lily, Lily Masters if you don't know me already," Lily said, offering out her hand to him politely.

With that, we fell into an awkward silence, so Nolan just pressed the button for the 18th floor and took a slow step back from the elevator panel.

"So," he said after what felt like forever when we went down a couple of floors, "what were you ladies talking about?"

"Nothing," I said quickly, my cheeks heating up in embarrassment. The last thing I needed was for Nolan to know I had slept with Ashton. I was sure he had already heard the rumor from someone else, but I didn't want for him to hear the truth from me. That would've just been completely unprofessional.

"Well, it seems to be something, since you still haven't found a good candidate for my replacement," Nolan offered playfully.

"Maybe you're just an irreplaceable kind of guy," I said, desperately hoping he wouldn't grill me or anything.

Lily frowned. "Candidate? Replacement? I didn't know you were leaving - or I heard it and probably didn't care to remember."

Nolan raised an eyebrow at her but then only shrugged it off. "Yeah, you work in H.R., so I'm sure you know about my situation. Well, I think the most responsible thing I could do about it is resign so I can give that my fullest attention. Fiona here should be cross-referencing the applicant pool right about now, but I guess she's doing whatever she's got going on right now."

I sighed. Tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear, I said, "Sir, I'm sorry, but all those applicants seem awful."

"Awful?" Nolan asked and I was scared that he would go into shock. "They're all top graduates from Ivy Leagues with top degrees and tons of prior experience in finance. They're the creme of the crop, not awful."

I nodded although I still disagreed. Most of them were ugly and all of them were men, and it was just really hard to pick a certain one out without meeting with them all. I was going to relay that to Nolan when I saw Lily shooting me a look I couldn't understand.

However she started to mouth out words silently and I knew exactly what she wanted. "Mr. Abernathy," I said, "I think I found the perfect candidate for you."

-

I GOT OFF THE ELEVATOR ALL ALONE.

Lily had gotten off with Nolan to discuss the job and talk specifics, but she told me she would meet us there at Carrie's depending on how it went.

Honestly, I was excited for her and didn't care about whether or not she would eat with us or not, but she insisted so I couldn't exactly deny her.

Elijah was waiting with Dana and Eric, and when I found them all together, we took Eric's car up to Carrie's just like the last time. It was a semi-pleasant drive, mainly because if there was one thing about me that was interesting, then it was my relationship with Ashton. Especially since I moved past supposed sexual tension into the territory of actual sex.

Maybe that was the only thing people saw in Ashton as well and that I wasn't so one-sided. They saw him as some sexual Adonis who was always down and didn't see past his ego and looks where his hard work and ambition was. Or his flawed relationships with his family. He kept everyone blind to those things on purpose, so of course the first thing they would get from him is his libido and machismo, but he was a lot more than that.

When we finally got to the restaurant, we got a booth as far away from the bar counter as possible in an attempt to avoid temptation as well as a good angle to check out the hot guys. That was all up to them, though, because I had enough of hot guys for a lifetime since I was busy trying to wrap my mind around which one I should choose. Sure, Luke was leaving, but that just meant I had only so much time to seal the deal with him before he was gone. He was just someone I could not let go of and what we had - if even for such a short time - felt incredible.

"So," Dana said, raising a suggestive eyebrow that told me everything she was going to ask before the words even left her mouth. "How was it? You know...what you and Ashton did." When I continued to purposely give her a blank stare, she added "y'know, the banging."

I rolled my eyes and scoffed before covering up my face with my hands. "If you must know, it was pretty good. Although that should be the least of your concerns."

"Well, if it was bad, I was going to tell you to catch Luke before he left," she said.

"Wait," Elijah said, "she could've slept with Luke just as easily as she did with Ashton."

I dropped my hands from my face to glare at him. "Did you just call me easy?"

Of course, my protests didn't deter him from finishing his argument. "Like they made out in the rain and he literally slept over at her house. He definitely wanted to bone too, but she didn't put out. However, with Ashton, she didn't even hesitate. That says something, doesn't it?"

So that's what Elijah was talking to Luke about.

"Yeah, it really does," Eric said. "No offense, Fiona. But no guy is going to know that you did that and still think there's a chance. Not even Luke, who I'm sure is a great guy whose main concern isn't the sex. I think you should just let him go, especially if he actually wants to leave."

Maybe they were right. I should let Luke go because he actually wanted to leave. But there was just something about him that made it so hard. No wonder I was so skeptical about Ashton after we slept together.

"Excuse me," a waitress said as she stopped in front of our booth, "a gentleman over by the bar bought one of you guys a drink." Elijah and Dana both reached for the martini on her tray, when she said, "for someone named Fiona."

I frowned, wondering who exactly was buying me a drink right now. Whoever it was, their presence probably wouldn't help me with my Ashton and Luke problem anyway.

"Thank you," I said, accepting the drink anyway. "Who paid for this so I can go and thank them?"

The waitress stepped aside and then I saw him.

My ex-boyfriend, Kane.