Landing in New York felt like a release, and truly I had been spoiled rotten by the first-class seats because sitting in Economy felt like a jail sentence. I had been hungover, in dire need of sleep and I happened to be sitting next to a woman with a fussy baby. I loved children; I really did. But they really needed to have more silent forms of expressing their discomfort. Howling like a fucking siren in my ear isn't going to fix your bowel problems, stupid fuck.

The city was bustling even in the middle of the night, and I took a cab back home, falling asleep the instant my head hit the pillows. I had spent the entire flight simmering in my anger towards Aiden, but I was too tired to think about it now. Plus, I had vowed to myself that I could pretend that night had never happened. The stupid scarring on my neck would fade away soon, and I could forget all of it. I'd fake it so hard that eventually, it'll go away like a dream.

I made my way to Jason's office feeling chipper the next morning, happy to be learning from someone a lot more fun and genuinely kind. Unlike someone. Jade was the one to assign me a desk and gave me access to some preliminary research that had been done by other interns, mailing me the pieces of information Jason wanted to be extracted from there.

How? Who knew?

I spent most of the morning learning how to use the complicated software and tried to make sense of the data that was presented, forgetting all about lunchtime till Jade reminded me of it. I had made cheese sandwiches, much to my luck and I ate at my desk while I tried to figure out how to change the variables and isolate the causative factor. The people around me could have been dancing, but I wouldn't have noticed. This was intense and required more of my brain cells than I imagined, only getting interrupted by a message from Jason calling me to his office.

Jason had a similar theme going on with Aiden's office, the same layout, the same colours, etc. But his office was made livelier by paintings, some prints of the ad campaigns he had designed and a lot of knick-knacks. Behind his chair, he had put a display of all the awards he'd won in the field of his work, and the fact that some sections were carrying two trophies instead of one just showed how much of a freaking genius he was. Jason looked vexed, staring at the screen with a hand over his mouth when I came in, motioning me to take a seat.

"Are you done with the work I assigned to you?"

"I'm making progress," I said, not seeing the point in lying. He had access to all my sheets and data, and if he was asking, he probably already knew.

"That's not good enough, Thea." He reprimanded, and I nodded, knowing that I was slacking and knowing that the reason behind it was stupid. "Look I know it's hard to reorient yourself after a trip like that," he put his elbows on the desk, hands folded in front, "But this is urgent business. If we don't wrap up those files by tomorrow morning, Steele Insurance loses profits worth 19 million dollars. And that's a conservative estimate. Now I don't suppose you'd have 19 million dollars lying around to donate, which is why I'd suggest you get your head in the game and finish all of it before leaving tonight."

Intimidated and very gutted down, I went back to my chair, trying to get more work done. For as long as I had remembered, I had wanted to get into this field. If it wasn't for my dream project, marketing was it for me. I had been fairly good at HR and Finance, performing averagely in both places on my first day, instilling confidence in me that I could do these things. But marketing, which was supposed to be the one thing I thought I was good at... failing hit me harder than I thought. Then it might be because of a particular absence in my life, or my exhausted and fried brain, I wasn't able to do anything right. Twenty minutes of desperate attempts later, I found myself tearing up, and before anyone could see it, I rushed to the ladies room. The office floor was extremely busy, which meant the stalls were empty and I locked myself up in one of them, trying to keep myself in check.

I tried every trick in the books I knew, but they worked only for a moment before the sadness washed over again, and I had to let some tears flow to stop myself from choking. In the back of my mind, I knew this sadness was from when I should have cried in France instead of getting drunk, and only a fraction of all of this is because of a failed spreadsheet. I could understand spreadsheets, I had worked on them a million times before. Today was just a bad day to start on something new.

It didn't help that Jason had been so cold towards me too, even though all our previous encounters never gave me any hints to his behaviour as a boss. As a friend and as a boss his attitudes were allowed to suit the need of the hour, but I had stupidly, again, expected and counted on him to work some magic on my moods. I had to remind myself that my happiness and my sadness were no one's concern but my own and that no one else was responsible for it. If Jason was acting as a boss should, I had no reason to cry over it.

As for the other boss....

I gathered my wits and stood up, hoping that washing my face would be a good wake up call and help me sail through the day. I hadn't heard any noise in the room, which is why when Mary saw me emerge from the stalls, I almost had the urge to lock myself in again.

Instead, I walked to the sinks, sniffling my nose and wiped the tear stains under my eyes. Splashing water on my face, I wiped away all the signs of my tears. I had been lucky that I had not put on a lot of make-up this morning. Ignoring Mary was easy, and I could count that as a possible victory in my otherwise shitty day.

"Are you working with Mr Emerson now?" She broke the silence first. I nodded, not looking at her but focusing on washing my face.

"Look Thea, I know we got off on the wrong foot because of several reasons, but I'd hate to see you cry like this." Mary approached me tentatively, "You always walk in with the biggest smile in the world and you save so many of us from Mr Steele's anger all the time, it's kind of hard to hate you sometimes. Consider this an olive branch."

When she offered her arms for a hug, I didn't think twice about jumping in, taking whatever shreds of love I could find in her. Mary brushed my hair and soothed me, helping me find ways in which I won't consider myself an absolute failure and how I could achieve progress in my work.

"Aw, you little lamb," she cooed, making me snicker.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Nothing, you're Mary." I laughed, "and you just called me your little lamb."

She rolled her eyes even though the corners of her lips turned up, and that was a better reaction than I could ever hope for.

"You could ask Kieran to help you a bit if you're okay with that." Kieran was technically Mr Langley's PA, but he basically was everyone's go-to guy for anything we found too complicated. Lydia used to rely on him all the time, and while I never found the need to involve him in my tasks, this seemed like a good time. I took her advice and went back to my desk with a lighter heart, placing an order for some flowers to Mary's desk tomorrow morning. Whether I existed in this company tomorrow or not, at least one person deserved that happiness.

Kieran came over to my desk a little later, with curly ginger hair and freckles all over his face making him look like a mini-doll. His short frame made him look harmless, but he was a genius with sheets, and he was able to find the breakthroughs that I had been struggling with. Promising him doughnuts before lunch tomorrow I got a crack on my work again, watching people filter out slowly as the day was drawing to a close.

Jason called me to his office again to check my progress. I had completed about 70% of the work assigned, and the remaining 30 would have been completed if I hadn't experienced a breakdown in the morning. I didn't say that, though. "You'll be staying here and completing it, yes?" He raised a brow, and it wasn't a question at all.

"Yeah." I agreed. Overtime won't kill me.

"Great. I expect the completed files printed and sorted on my desk tomorrow at 9 am. Not a minute late."

Fuck. Completing the work would take me another hour or two, easily. And then I'd have to print out approximately three hundred-odd pages and file them. I might as well start bringing my nightdresses to work. I nodded yet again and got on to work again. Mary dropped a message on the office communication asking me if I was feeling better, and I replied with enthusiasm. At least one broken bridge could be fixed.

Between bites of the Thai food, I'd ordered in, printed off the last of the pages, exhaustion really taking over me. I was so ready to fall asleep that I did not trust myself in the subway, especially during this hour. Hailing a cab, I reached home and drowned myself in ice cream and vodka, till I could no longer see what was on the TV screen and my eyes were exhausted.

Sure, it wasn't a healthy coping mechanism, but when had I ever been about a healthy life anyway?

I picked up a dozen doughnuts for Kieran from the coffee shop the next morning, and when I entered the office, I could see Mary admiring the flowers sent her way. I'd kept it anonymous, and seeing the bright smile on her face had made it all worth it. Dropping Kieran's doughnuts off at his desk, I circled back to my new seat, firing up my system and ready to crack on the day. What work had been assigned today was not very different from yesterday' and before lunchtime rolled around, I had pretty much finished it all. Jason wasted no time in assigning me more work, and this time the workload was enough to make me work overtime again. I had even skipped lunch in an attempt to get things done before the clock struck six, but no such luck. Over time it is.

The third day I had worked overtime, it was practically impossible to ignore the shooting pain in my temples and I stopped by a pharmacy to get some painkillers for myself. I needed to stop treating my body so poorly, but when I couldn't direct my anger to the rightful owner, I had to direct it somewhere, even if it was my own self.

Day four is when Aiden came back to work from Ireland, and I was thankful for the distraction of working so I didn't have to see him or be around him. I heard from Jade that he had even met Jason in his office. We had been on the same floor and he hadn't checked in with me even once. Is that how people behave after making out with someone?

Fuck you, Aiden Steele.

Around 5.30, Aiden sent me a message through internal communications asking me to see him in his office. I saw the message through the notifications before continuing to work, hoping to get in a few more minutes of quietness before I lost my mind again. Taking the elevator upstairs I counted down from fifty, which was hard, considering I'd never tried such activities to stop my gears from ticking. Monica had plenty to gush about Irish beer and I stalled for as long as I could before knocking on his door.

His response was muffled but I pushed through anyway, finding him seated at his desk, staring out of the window.

"You wanted something?"

He looked taken aback by the acidity of my tone, taking a look at my face. How fucking unfair that his side profile was making me weak in the knees and I was using all my strength just to not burst in tears, while he could sit there and look like nothing had even happened?

"Not really, just wanted to see your progress." He said after a second's thought.

"I'm terrible but learning. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to rack up the fourth day of overtime to finish my work and I would really like to go home and eat a warm meal at a decent hour." I rolled my eyes, turning around to walk away, stopped by him calling my name again.

"I've mailed you samples from some of the other architects my team has found. They should be up to your taste. Let me know what works for you."

I nodded, "I'll look at it tonight and mail my response."

He looked like he had something to say, but he was biting his tongue. It wasn't my job to pull it out for him, but the lack of communication was frustrating so I marched over to his table and took a seat, "Why won't you just admit it?"

"Admit what?" He asked, making a fire rise in me like never before.

"What? Is that your fucking question?" I screamed, like a dam being broken and my emotions were all out on display, flooding the town and destroying everything in its path. "I cannot fucking believe you. I really thought you had some spine in you, but I wasn't fucking wrong when I said you have the emotional range of a lime. You're so fucking annoying I can't ever get a read on you, and you shouldn't have acknowledged that first night you slept with me if you wanted to lead me on and then suddenly disappear just when I started believing that I wasn't cooking it up in my head."

"Thea, I only-"

"Spare me the heartache, Aiden."

I walked out of his office and dashed straight to the ladies room, cursing my heart and going through Mary's mental checklist to look put together at work. As a safety measure, I did my own thing too with my eyes, nose and cheeks, taking shaky breaths and returning to my desk. Being around Aiden had wasted forty minutes of my time, and I really just wanted to get the hell out of this office and sleep like the dead. Popping the last pill of the packet of painkillers, I resumed working, typing and taking notes of things I needed to learn and understand before coming back tomorrow morning. I left the premises a little after 10, collapsing into my apartment close to 11, not even having the energy to take off my clothes from work.

I could peel them off tomorrow morning. 

To everyone who wished me a happy birthday on the previous update, thank you! I've spent all day getting pampered, partying hard and eating my weight in pasta so I'd day it's a good way to turn 23!

Things are getting a little, no, very exciting for Thea and Aiden here, so hold on tight!

As for the update schedule, I managed to work some shit out, and I can continue to schedule updates 3 times a week once again from here on out :)

There are technically very few updates left, so in the next two weeks or so, you should have the end of this book with you!

Following this, we'll move to a second book in the series, which I've been working on in all of August. I'm really excited to share their story with you, so I'll be looking forward at the end of September to introduce the wonderful world of Fine Print to you.

More updates to follow when I'm ready to share them with you. Have a great weekend ❤️