TEN
Me: I bet you wouldn’t be able to noticed me if we ever crossed paths face to face
Kota: I could pick you out in any crowded room, no matter how many people were in it. I bet on it.
I locked my phone at the response and bit back a smile.
Sometimes he just seemed to know the right things to say. The idea he was saying them to other women—had learnt his flirting tricks from them—momentarily gave my heart a shock of ice. But it was soon gone. I reminded myself he was just someone who wanted me for sex, nothing more and nothing less.
I couldn’t catch feelings for him, I reminded myself harshly.
I wasn’t meant to be getting giddy over another man when I had Owen Greenwich. The talented, well loved and supposedly very rich Owen Greenwich.
The man I was sure Stefan was trying to marry me off to.
I picked up my cheese and mayonnaise sandwich, bitting into the triangle and chewing slowly. Once the food in my mouth was turned to mush, I then swallowed.
“Come on, you can’t just ghost this one like you do to all the rest because you’re too scared of your own feelings,” Stefan wagged his finger in my direction, to which I rolled my eyes.
He sat up straighter, his hands gripping the arm rests of his chair. “Oh, have off it Ashton. You know you ghost these men who are super into you, no matter what happens on the dates. You’re too scared to let someone love you for some reason.”
I picked up my water bottle and sipped from the straw, humming in response. I couldn’t find the words to defend myself, not that I felt like there was a defence. He was right. I was scared to let someone love me.
But I had my own reasons for that, reasons he didn’t need to know.
“You just shouldn’t push everyone away is all I’m saying. Give this man a chance, yeah?” He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t bother waiting for a response as he picked up his Sports Direct sized mug full of Coco Pops and milk.
“Fine,” Was the only word I replied with, but before Stefan could even register my words, the area manager for our company waltzed in through the door.
Casey Hawkins was a short woman, with greying hair despite only being in her mid-twenties. She looked stern, but her personality was far from the image she put on. Once she got to her desk on the far end of the room, she clapped her hands together as she called for everyone’s attention.
“Sorry to disrupt your lunch break guys, but I come baring news.”
“She’s going to sack us all,” Stefan whispered behind me, to which I rolled my eyes and shot him a pointed look, urging him to shut his fucking mouth. He smiled, not taking my warning seriously.
I turned back to Casey, my full attention on her. She placed her laptop bag on her desk as she walked around it, then she zipped the bag open. She reached inside and pulled out a small stack of papers, white from the underside but I could tell there was a letter written on the other side.
“Now I know you’ve all been told that the company founder is going to be taking a more proactive role in the company after the mess that was the launch of our latest branch up North,” Casey began, placing the stack of papers down.
“Mr King, as you all know, lives in Monaco. However as he now has dual citizenship, he is looking to buy a house here in the UK where he will travel between Monaco and here. He intended to retire there, but after the last year… He’s back to working, it seems.”
“The fuck has this got to do with us?” Stefan asked, his voice not as quiet as he intended.
“That, Stefan Moore, was what I was about to get to if you would shut your mouth for a few minutes,” Casey narrowed her eyes in on him, but her smile revealed she wasn’t taking the matter too serious.
“As you all know, we have been having a rise in complaints recently due to the quality of our furniture and the durability of them. Mr King is in the process of fixing the quality issue, however he wants to test the Customer Service and Design department to see if there are aspects of our department that could use some work.
“Mr King has asked that a handful of our staff come together to redesign the interior of the new house he is buying here in the UK. It’s an old countryside manor, previously supposed to be home to some lower ranked royal officials. Mr King wants to bring the influences of his home back in the French Rivera, while also using your own personal styles.
“This isn’t just a task for the department, though,” Casey stated as she walked back around her desk. She leant against the edge, crossing her arms over her chest. “Mr King is considering opening another new branch as it has been some years since the mess of the last one. Now that we have managed to do some damage control, Mr King thinks it’s best to rebrand ourselves with better quality and a new showroom.
“During this process, you may begin to see some new faces around here. Mr King has taken on a third party finance company to help him strictly manage the funds, and to help the company get a better grip on our spending so we can keep our prices low, but quality high. It’s going to start getting busy in here, so I recommend trying out for the new temporary task force. At least then you’ll get a chance to get out off this stuffy office.”
“Butty, we should join,” Stefan whisper-yelled into my ear, to which I had to resist the urge to turn around and either elbow him in the fucking face, or push his chair across the other side of the room. “Maybe then you can get that promotion!”
Casey, having seemingly heard Stefan and his not-so-quite whispering, turned to lock her eyes in on me. Her smile was gentle, and her eyes familiar and kind. It nerved me to no end. I preferred it when I was invisible, just getting on with whatever work I had.
“It would be a great opportunity for you to show your design skills, Ashton. They got you into this company, and ever since the design team got cut in half and joined us, you haven’t had much time to show off how you would decorate a space. I know Mr King would be trilled to have you on his team.”
I felt everyone’s eyes on me. The office, while not the biggest department in the company, consisted of around twenty-five people. Some people were full time staff, some part time, and others were based in other branches who only came up here when they were asked to do some training, or to cover for someone who was on the sick or annual leave.
“I’ll think about it,” I replied after several seconds. I hated the attention being on me, it felt as if my skin was itching from all the eyes.
“Don’t feel like you have to, but just know the offer is there and Mr King would be ecstatic to have you on his team. He was the final call for us to hire you. You were the last person in our department that he technically hand picked.”
Way to put the fucking pressure onto me, Casey. I wanted to curse her, tell her to fuck off and ask someone else. But I just forced a smile and nodded my head. I said nothing as I finished my sandwich, then turned to my computer to get back to my work.
I kept my eyes trained on the blinking cursor before me, debating the right wording to use in response to a customer complaint email.
“You can’t just ignore the question from earlier, by the way,” Stefan’s voice broke the silence I was trying to envelope myself in.
I let out a sigh and turned in my chair back to face him. “What question?” I asked, pretty sure I knew the answer but wanted him to repeat it just in case I spoke about something off topic which would only invite Stefan to ask even more questions.
“When are you going to see him again?”
I shrugged with one shoulder, then turned back to my computer. As I was about to continue staring at the blank response in my emails, I noticed a notification in the bottom right of the screen.
I clicked the incoming notification to have a new email window open up, revealing an email from the company. I sighed, half expecting it to be some news letter about the performance of the showrooms once again.
But when I clicked and opened the attachment up, I was instead met by a neat black and white letter.
Dear King Family Furniture team,
We are delighted to announce the arrival of Mr King, the founder of the company. He is going to be spending half of his time in his glorious home in Monaco, and splitting the rest of his year between our six branches.
Mr King is going to be in the South Hadley area, the founding branch, for the next month. To introduce Mr King to the hardworking members of staff in the South Hadley branch, the HR team are hosting a suit and tie event at Marefield Manor on July 27th.
We hope to see you all attend, however we know it is quite short notice. If you can please let your area managers know if you will or will not be attending, we can then make proper arrangements for refreshments.
Marefield Manor have given us a discount code should you wish to book a hotel room. Please see the code attached on a separate document to this email.
After our meal and drinks, there will be a live band for you to dance your heart away! So don’t eat too much, or you may end up making the dance floor look a little empty.
And to tie up this little announcement, we have a little note from Mr King himself:
Thank you for all your hard work over the last fifteen years. King Family Furniture has grown larger than I ever expected it would. Of course as you all know, we have hit some hurdles over the years, but we are on to brighter horizons. We have exciting news coming soon, so please keep up the hard work.
We hope to see you on July 27th with a free glass of Prosecco in our hands.
You may also notice some new faces around your departments touring with your department director. Do not worry, as our new visitors come at Mr King’s request. They are here to help us better the company, and will be invited to the Marefield Manor night also—so be sure to befriend them so they don’t stand out like sore thumbs!
Yours sincerely ,
Colin Butler
King Family Furniture HR Director
I turned to Stefan who was reading the letter over my shoulder. He was a slower reader than I, so it took him a little longer to finish. But once he was done with the letter, he cupped his hand and slapped the arm of my chair.
“Butty, we have to go! Do you think they’ll let us take a plus one? I know my missus would love to go to a fancy dress event like that,” He seemed distracted from our previous conversation, to which I was thankful.
But of course the distraction was only temporary. He turned to me slowly, a little devilish smirk on his lips. “Butty, will your boyfriend be going?”
I sighed out loud and sat up straighter. “Butty,” I spat, a little harsher than intended. “He’s not my boyfriend. And who said I would be going anyway?”
Stefan’s smile fell. “But you can’t expect me to go alone. The team leader has to be there herself to show off to the big man boss of the company, right?”
I shrugged, turning away from him again. “I know Casey would want me to go, but I have better things to do.”
“Like?” Stefan asked, and I could feel his tense gaze on me. He was judging me, I could feel it with how all my hairs stood to attention.
“Like…” I began, trying to find a reasonable excuse. “Like babysitting Novie,” I spat the first reasonable excuse.
“Oh fuck off butty. I know Pey would give her to Will to babysit instead. You only ever have her when it’s the both of you nowadays,” Damn Stefan and his nosy nature. He had to know what everyone was doing at all times.
“Okay, fine. I’m not busy. But I don’t like crowded spaces and being around people I don’t know. It sounds like absolute fucking torture. Plus I don’t own a single nice dress to wear to such an event.”
“Look, just go with me. I won’t invite a plus one and we can go together and be each other’s rock for the night. We can drink some free champagne and dance our little hearts away until the day breaks, then we can pass out in our hotel rooms. In the morning, we can go for breakfast and I’ll even book us another night there so we can have a spa day. Deal?”
The determined, begging look on Stefan’s face reminded me of a kicked puppy. I began to tap my right knee, debating what to do. I wanted to say no, tell him to fuck off and do all that with his partner. But I then let out a huff of air, my mouth deciding ahead of my brain.
“Fine.”
Casey, with her impeccable timing, spoke up. “I see you have all just seen the email sent out by HR. I want all of us to try our best to attend, I want to show everyone the Customer Services and Design Team are one to be envious of.
“But to follow on from my last comments about a task force being created for the Mr King contract we shall call it… Whoever wishes to put their name down for it is welcome to do so, however we are going to be assessing your overall performance in the team from the date of your recruitment. Only those who we believe are best fit for the job will join the task force.
“If you get onto the task force successfully, not only do you get the honour of showing off your design skills to Mr King and Mrs King personally, but you also get an all expenses paid work trip to Mr King’s Monaco residence. Mr King had some of the former Customer Design team members work on his Monaco home and he loves how it was designed, so he wants you to take inspiration from his abroad home and merge that with your own ideas for his new home.”
Stefan gasped into my ear again, and I fucking swore that if he did that again, I would be turning around to fucking punch him in the stupid throat. It made me jump every time he did it.
“Butty, Casey is begging you to join the task force and not even that will sell it to you?” He asked, to which I shrugged.
By the huff of air he let out through pursed lips, I could tell I was starting to get on Stefan’s nerves. Good, he was getting on mine too.
“I said I’ll think about it, will you quit bugging me about it? All you’ve done today is nag at me. About Owen, about the task force, about the event. Leave me a-fucking-lone for five fucking minutes,” I snapped, my eyes on my computer as my fingers finally glided along the keyboard keys, forming a response to the customer who was assigned to me.
There was silence from Stefan for several long seconds, and I felt my stomach drop. I was a little too mean, I realised. I went to turn to him to apologise, to see if he was upset or mad at me for snapping at him.
But instead he silently reached for my mug and turned to the canteen where after some minutes, he came back with two fresh brews for us. A milky tea for himself, and a dark sugary coffee for me.
“Thank you,” I mumbled as I picked it up, bringing the mug to my lips. That was when I dared a glance sideways at him.
Instead of the angry look I expected of him, Stefan was just smiling at me. “I’ll quit bugging you… For today. I can’t promise about tomorrow. Tomorrow is a new day,” He smiled, to which I let out a small laugh in response.
“Deal,” I stated, holding my right hand out to him in a closed fist.
“Deal,” He copied, his own closed fist bumping against mine.