9 times out of 10, I hated the sun waking me up in the mornings. I tried to keep my bed away from the windows as much as I could, trying to get as many hours of sleep in as possible. But when I woke up with the sun shining right in my eye, I knew something was wrong. Something was so terribly wrong, that I almost wanted to sink back into unconsciousness. No luck. Awareness woke up in me, reminding me that I was sleeping on a very uncomfortable couch, the thin blanket doing nothing to shield me from the cold sensation on my legs.

In fact, it wasn't doing anything to save me from the warmth of a person next to me either. If this was a 90's cartoon, my eyes would have opened and popped out three times at the realization that someone was sleeping next to me and there was only one person that could be.

Jesus, fuck.

How on earth had I managed to sleep with my boss? While it wasn't technically sleeping in that sense, in a much more literal sense, how had I managed to fall asleep with him next to me? Jesus. My shoulders were touching his body, and I didn't have the courage to turn around and see what parts of his body I was attached to. When had he fallen asleep?

The fairy lights were still on, practically useless against the glow of the sun from my windows, TV still on the "What to watch next?" screen. I didn't want to know my electricity bill for next month already. Even if I had money, I didn't like wasting it on stupid things.

I assessed my surroundings before squeezing my eyes shut, hoping my stupidity would make this bad dream go away. It had to be a bad dream. I had been stupid enough to derail myself by being friendly in the office that day and this was karma biting me in the ass. Serves you right for being so concerned about your fucking boss and future investor. At this moment, Aiden's proposal to not being involved in the business at all sounded like a fantastic idea. Sure, I would miss his smart brain and his forward-looking vision, but I'd rather take the L here than over there.

The jumbled thoughts made me shut my eyes again, sensing movement behind me. Was he awake? Shit. Aiden shuffled behind me in his sleep, his hand reaching forward to wrap around my abdomen. Jesus, when did my life become a cheesy romance movie? No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. I stayed still, keeping my eyes closed and trying to regulate my breathing. I didn't know how to react to this, and I wished Aiden would wake up before me and know the appropriate response.

If there was an appropriate response anyway.

Had I woken up just minutes before, I could have had time to process my emotions and slip off the couch. Now I was trapped in, anticipating the moment Mr Muscle Wall woke up and decided to move off me. I tucked my hand under my head, trying not to touch his arm across my midriff and accidentally signalling that I was awake. As if things weren't complicated enough, the doorbell rang, making me freeze up. I had to wake up now. I felt Aiden move beside me too and decided that avoidance was the best course of action. Rolling over, I fell on my butt on the floor, quickly getting up and rushing towards the door with lightning speed. Patting my hair down to avoid scaring anyone, I opened the door.

"Hi Thea, I'm so sorry for waking you up," Josie's sweet smile greeted me, "Mr Steele isn't home, I presume, I was hoping you could give me a clue?"

I sighed, not knowing how I could explain anything to Josie without implicating something. "We were working last night here," I explained to her, "He fell asleep."

Josie instantly had a mischievous glint in her eyes that I was quick to turn away with a glare, "Nothing that your imagination can cook up. I slept in my room."

"Alright," she raised her hands in defence, "Is he awake now?"

I dreaded peeking, but I had to take a look. I took two steps back in the hallway to lean and check his whereabouts. Aiden had simply rolled over, completely flattened against the couch, sleeping with his mouth open. "Still sleeping," I bit my lip, "Tell you what, you can do your work in my kitchen if you'd like. Whenever he wakes up, he can have his breakfast ready that way."

Josie nodded gratefully before heading into my kitchen, "What should I make for you?"

"Nothing, I'll have pizza from last night." I waved her off. She made disgruntled sounds telling me to eat healthier but I was just really fond of cold pizzas. They were my favourite food when I used to dabble in the occasional joint, and they were my favourite food now.

Seeing no point in standing there and hovering, I went into my room, seeing the Mallory case file resting on my perfectly made bed. God, when will I get over this? Seeing the file had reminded me that Aiden wanted to show me something last night when I had shut him down, and now my curiosity had been piqued. Taking the zipping file off, I looked through the contents of his latest notes, trying to find his breakthrough in our research.

I had asked why Ridgely, being the CFO wasn't doing all this, but Aiden had, as usual, silenced me with a glare. Guess we'd never know. I never knew the important details and I never knew the man behind the plan. The fact that he'd let me work on this case had been a surprise too, and I wondered if there was a devil in the details I'd been missing out on. With Aiden, there always is.

Aiden's note was basically scribbled up rubbish numbers, and I would have to wait for him to wake up and explain what it meant. Till then, the least I could do is take a bath and get ready for work. Keeping things conservative, I picked a pink blouse with ruffles on the collar and dark pants. I figured a little heel wouldn't hurt since most of the HR work was behind a computer screen anyway.

Penny even gave me the freedom to take my shoes off and sit with my legs crossed on most days. She wasn't important enough to have meetings all the time and never required me to follow a particular code. Penny didn't care about much except for the work to be completed, which I did much faster than she ever could. Not having the patience to style my hair, I tied them up in a bun, trying to keep the front of it polished and presentable. That's all that really mattered anyway.

I didn't realize how much I was procrastinating till I ran out of things to do in the room and had to make my way out. I took a deep breath in, counting to five before walking out of the safe space. To my surprise, Aiden was sitting at the dining table, eating a slice of pizza straight from the box. His hair was sticking in every direction still and the pinkness of his face indicated his wakeful state hadn't been for long.

Looks like we're acknowledging this little sleepover.

I dropped my laptop bag and the Mallory file in the corner, making Aiden take notice of me, "Morning."

"Morning," he said lowly, his morning voice sending jolts of electricity through me. It was ridiculously unfair that I could be so affected by someone's morning voice, but it has been a weakness of mine since puberty showed me the marvels of sexual attraction. In fact, Aiden was the literal embodiment of all my fantasies in one man, but here we were in life, eating cold pizza and scrolling through our phones to avoid conversation.

"Where's Josie?" I asked finally, unable to keep my awkwardness reined in.

"Making lunch for me. Should she pack anything for you?"

I shook my head, "I have plans."

"Does it involve fast food?"

My silence was enough confirmation. Jade and I had plans to hit the new Chipotle station inside Steele Park, glad that no one wanted to be seen deepthroating a burrito. The whole place had been empty since the first day, and Jade was more than happy to give me company.

"You need to eat healthier," He noted. I raised a brow at the third slice of cold pizza in his hand, "You're one to talk."

"An occasional indulgence versus a lifestyle." He commented, leaving the crust of his slice on the cardboard.

"May I?" I pointed at the collection of crusts. He waved a hand dismissively, as if to say, do what you will. I grabbed the herb dip I had made last week from the fridge and dipped the crust in it, taking a bite and enjoying the burst of flavour.

With a second crust, I dipped the bread in the jar, offering it to Aiden. He stared at me and the ingredients of the dip, seemingly not sure if he should eat it.

"Does it have any dill in it?"

I shook my head. I didn't like dill. Sue me. Satisfied, he broke off the piece with the dip from my hand, chewing on it slowly. In my head, I noted Aiden was allergic to the strangest things, like cilantro and dill.

Or maybe he just didn't like the taste.

The jury was out on that. It made me wonder just how many green things he was allergic to, and if weed was one of those things.

The snapping of Aiden's fingers right in front of me made jerked me back to the present, "You can work on the Mallory case with Ridgely today. I've prepared you the best I can. He's obviously got more to teach you than I have, but-"

"Wait, what?" I interrupted him, despite being told off for it several times, "All this work I've been doing isn't even the whole thing? Just preparation for it?"

Aiden had a wry smile on his face, "It's comparatively easier to work in marketing, I will only say that because Jason isn't here. But I have no doubt you'd excel in it anyway. You need... a guiding hand in finance." A nice way to say that I suck tremendously, "and I'm no expert at financial matters either, only the kinds of things I need to know. I was supposed to hand you over to Ridgely on Thursday but you weren't ready for it. Penny asked you something about short term solvencies and you seemed to have no clue."

I remembered. Penny had been working, for a change, when an email notification had sounded on her device. She seemed very confused by what was written, looking up at me and asking what short term solvency ratios are. I had typed out the term and read out the definition from Investopedia before getting back to work. Penny thanked me and moved on to reply to that email, and I had promptly forgotten to care for it later on. Penny wasn't the brightest tool in the shed.

Crimson coloured my cheeks.

"It's alright. If it's any consolation, I hated dealing with numbers for the longest time. But when it becomes such an indispensable part of your life, you've kind of have to make your peace with it."

"I used to cheat my way out of Corporate Finance classes," I admitted. If there was any shame in me, it had left me the night I had fallen asleep on my boss' chest. At least we weren't mentioning it and making things worse. "I only took classes for one semester and within the first class, I was lost. I had no idea what he was talking about and absolutely no inclination to learn more. It was just bad. So, I copied answers off someone in class during tests and I made someone do the final assignment for me in exchange for a date."

"Was it any good? The date?"

"I wouldn't know," I shrugged, "I delayed it till final results were out and then called the deal off."

"Oof," he put a hand on his chest, as if he was the jilted lover, "That was brutal."

I shrugged, "He promised me an A and he got a C-. In all honesty, I should have led him on and then stood him up. That would teach him not to fuck with me."

"Maybe that was the best he could do?"

"He scored a 100." I rolled my eyes. "What an ass. Idiot."

"Clearly smart enough to get into Kellogg in the first place."

"You know most people in business schools are absolute morons? It's either daddy's money or sports scholarships or the ones who love books too much. There's barely any space for those who are actually interested. They really need to filter people better, honestly."

"My experience was drastically different from yours," Aiden had the tinges of a smile on his face, and I wanted to know more, but his phone rang, making both of us jump.

"Change your ringtone, fuck." I put a hand over my heart, scared at the beginnings of a heavy rock song.

"It's my sister," his smile got wider, "she's set a custom ringtone so I won't ignore her calls." Getting off the table, Aiden jogged over to the couch to grab his phone and answer it. I gave him privacy to talk while I cleaned up the place and tidied up my kitchen. I saw Josie had made some rice dish, still hot on the stove.

I emptied it into a larger container, letting it air so I could seal it soon. Oh damn, she'd used the prawns too. I noted it down in my shopping list, I would have to pick it up tonight so Kylie won't have time to complain if her mouth was filled with food.

After a lot of back and forth, we'd managed to find a night when she wasn't scheduled for a double at GAP, and she'd invited herself to my house for dinner. I wanted to treat her to all this luxury as well, so I had decided to go all out and cook up a feast for her. I was in the mind to cook enough to feed a family, accidentally, so she could take some home for her brothers too.

When I came out of the kitchen, Aiden was folding the blankets that were messed up on the couch, and doing it horribly wrong. He really had no clue, did he? It was adorable though, and I watched with interest seeing him scratch his head as he struggled to get it right.

"Need a hand?" I asked when I'd had enough fun, reaching to take two ends of the blanket from him and letting it stretch between us, "When I was a kid, my father used to dance with my mom every morning like this while folding bedsheets. It was my favourite thing to watch." I walked towards him, making the ends meet. Skimming my fingers across the edge, I reached the fold in the centre, stepping as far back as the material would allow me. With a finger, I motioned Aiden to walk forward, remembering how my parents would walk towards each other, a little step and a skip in the middle ever so often. With his two folds neatly pressed in my fingers, he straightened out the sheet again, and I walked over to him. The last fold was enough to make the sheets compact, so I took the load off his hands, folding it over my arm once and setting it aside. I picked up the second blanket that we had ended up throwing on the ground, folding it on my own.

If Aiden had anything to say, he didn't open his mouth. The indecisive face was back on, and while I was heading to put the blankets back, he called, "I'm going home. Be there in the parking in 20."

I could manage 20 minutes.

While the house was completely ready for Kylie's arrival in the evening, I managed to make a jar of cream dip for her, added water to the ice tray and finished grating a block of cheese before shutting it all in the fridge and heading out.

Being domestic in the house had been nice, but this was my boss, regardless of anything, and I really didn't need him to be pissed at me today. 

I was squealing the whole time writing this chapter which is hella unusual considering it took me like... 5 hours? But I hope you guys like this, and I'd love you hear what you think about this right now :)

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