So much for a small break, I thought.

Walking to the main lobby, where the front desk is located, as I hold my cup of coffee as I reach her, my heels clicking loudly out of annoyance from what had happened a few minutes ago.

Ruby is currently on the phone as she spots me walking towards me, before I can stand there and wait for her to tell me who's here, she signals her head towards the waiting area centered behind the desk, the row of chairs almost empty except for a couple of them, occupied by Daphne and Akako.

A smile naturally appears on my face as I spot them, it feels like it's been years since I last saw them, and that was before Chopard was working here, so I would say probably weeks.

Tuning out Ruby as she continues to talk on the phone, I go over to them as they both look up and spot me, smiling at me as well. They get up from their seats, meeting me in the middle as we briefly hug, carefully not to spill my coffee all over the place.

Parting, Akako stated, "We just thought to stop by and check up on you, I mean–" dragging it on, letting Daphne speak.

"Well, you haven't been answering and we just want to make sure you're okay" Daphne reassured, smiling softly.

I scoff playfully as I look around and realize this is not the place to be having a conversation with your friends, especially since everyone has eyes and ears, and they would want to talk about everything.

Learning that just now in the break room.

"We probably should talk in my office" I suggested, slightly turning my body towards the direction of the elevator.

They nodded as I turned fully and led the way towards the top floor. In the elevator, we don't talk or look at each other, I guess we are that type of friend group to be engulfed in the silence and we don't think it's awkward or weird.

We reached my office as I held the door open for them, letting them go inside first as they are treated as guests in a house.

Offering them seats to sit down in, opposite of my desk, the three of us sat down as Daphne and Akako made themselves comfortable, no doubt that they've been in here before, even if I don't recall it.

Setting my coffee down onto my desk, my mind having no doubt that I'm not going to drink it, considering what I witness whilst wanting to get it.

A waste, I thought, just like those rats.

Daphne sits as she crosses her legs, her hands resting in my lap as compared to Akako, who is also crossing her legs but crossing her arms. Their resting positions.

I start to say, "My apologies for the lack of responses, I just been...um", I left off, struggling to get out the words for some reason.

Daphne chimes in, saving me from my supposed brain freeze, "We only want to make sure you're not dead Hailey" She states as she laughs.

Akako laughs briefly as she covers her mouth, whilst I snicker shortly under my breath, a recurring joke in the group.

I know it's a weird joke between friends but I guess we developed it somehow and ran with it, after all these years. A little joke to make sure each of us are doing well because unlike our social life, our work life loves to take up as much time away from us and sometimes we can't respond to each other.

We've all done it one to many times so this is the standard, which I can't complain about, being an adult compared to a teenager is certainly a major difference in time.

I settled down my snickering as I explain the lack of responses, clearing my throat, "I had to take a sudden trip for a business meeting in New York"

Akako raised her eyebrows as she nodded her head in impressed, "Wow" she said.

Daphne stares at me in awe as she asks, "And how did it go?", knowing that I traveled there a lot, she still asks how it went, in case something new happened that she should know about.

And if nothing did happened, then I would give her the old fashioned answer of, 'Just like the other, business ventures'

But no, something did happen on the trip and I don't even know how to answer this. If I lie, then they are going to get suspicion because whether I like it or not, I can't lie to them. Not good enough at least.

But if I do tell them, then the hundreds of questions are going to come afterwards, forcing me to relive the moment of what had happened between me and Chopard, and it's bad enough I have to bottle it up and make sure it's never going to happen again.

However, explaining–yeah no.

Deciding to lie, I hesitated to answer as my brain tried to convince me that I can say it casually, but before I could get a word or even a sound out, I got cut off abruptly.

No one saw it coming, Daphne, Akako or even me.

My door, my office door, gets pushed inside loudly, creating a big commotion throughout the room, and the perpetrator was, of course, Liam Chopard.

He uses the side of his shoulder to push the door open, carrying a huge stack of papers and binders, no doubt that he's trying not to drop them all, balancing them in his arms.

The three of us shockley turned towards the loud sound, watching everything unfold. Some people outside the office poke their heads in, being nosy about the loud commotion coming from the CEO's office.

He's breathing heavily as he just ran a mathom around the entire building, he blindly continues towards my desk before stopping short as he sees our shocked faces.

Chopard looked to Daphne, then slowly towards Akako, swallowing slowly as he faced me, my face now disgusted at first but then mortified into annoyance.

Seeing the change in my expression, he opens his mouth disrespectfully, "Ms. Cantrell, I'm–"

Standing up rapidly, Akako and Daphne turn towards me again as my chairs slide back against the floor.

Me and Chopard don't say anything as I try and think about what I need to say next, in my vision, I see my two friends looking back and forwards, switching between looking up at me or Chopard.

Expressions of curiosity and awkwardness on their faces.

"Is there a brain up there, Chopard?" I question, tapping my forehead with my index finger, "Or do you not just have manners in this office, do you seriously think this is acceptable here?"

He looks down at the floor, licking his lips as he fails to say anything, not that he should say something at all or even to begin with.

"No wonder he's miserable" echoes in my head as I think back to the three men talking about Chopard in the break room. Well, I guess I'm about to make his day even more miserable.

"Have you lost your mind, do you think that you can storm in here like you own the place? Well I'm going to show up who owns the place" I said, walking around the desk, Akako and Daphne eyes on me, watching me walk up towards Chopard.

I stop just in front of him as he still looks down towards the ground, tightly holding the papers in hands. He slightly looked down at me through his long eyelashes, waiting for me to say anything else.

The moment he looked at me, I ordered, "Go get three cups of coffee since you like running around here like you can do anything you want" I turned around, just to turn towards him again, "And make it quick, I don't like waiting" I snapped my finger loudly.

Not saying anything, he nodded as he carefully put the stack of papers down on a nearby side table as he slowly walked out of the office, tail between his legs as he closed the door. I watched as long as I no longer heard his footsteps in the hallway.

Turning in the direction of Daphne and Akako who had the misfortune of watching the whole thing, I was about to apologize for what had occurred, instead I was cut off.

"Who was that?" Daphne asked, with such eagerness on her face, her mouth open as if she just saw an angel grace my very office.

Rounding my desk, their eyes watchful of me, I sat down as I said nonchalantly, "That is my assistant"

"Wait–" Akako paused, collecting her thoughts, "Is this the assistant you were talking about at brunch?" She asked, clarifying as she continued to look at the door as if he's going to come back in five seconds tops.

"Yes, it was, why?" I asked, looking between my friends shocked faces, noticing a shift in their expressions.

Did I miss something? I began to wonder.

That's when the gushing began, I couldn't even get a word in as they went on and on about his 'perfect looks'. They both spoke to me as if I had two sets of ears.

"Oh my god, he has the perfect look of a model, he could be on the cover of Vogue if he wanted too–" Daphne said, unable to contain her excitement.

"There is no way that he's hundred percent natural, he must have gotten those looks from his mother if he is. Damn, I should get a blood sample and see his DNA, study his genes in my lab"

"There is no way he would let you do that" Daphne stated, "He would like it more if he did modeling or runways. Or maybe, a prop, with his proportions, he'll be perfect–"

Not catching what Akako said in retaliation to Daphne, I jumped in, interrupting them both, "Guys, he's my assistant, he works for me"

"There's no way, he has to be like a fill in or something, until like the real assistant comes, right?" Daphne asks, looking between me and Akako, looking for answers on each of our faces.

"Are you sure he's on your payroll, because I heard stories of people sneaking into companies, and pretending that they worked, then turns out to be revealed and they mess with companies data and all that complicated stuff" Akako carefully adds in, waving her hand.

"Trust me" I answered, "If he was a random person that I didn't know, I would have him kicked out, but he's not. Chopard is my assistant"

They both hummed out of acceptance, Akako saying his name like she's trying to remender it and Daphne looking back to see if he's going to return, maybe to try and get another look at him or something, I'm really not sure.

Akako is the first to say something after everything was cleared up, "What was the whole commotion about him running away, I mean–" She clairfly, "He look like he ran for the whole day around this big ass building"

Daphne jumped in, "Yeah, and before you came to see us, I saw him running as well. He look really stressed out and was probably going to flip out of stress"

"Well" I said, kicking my feet up on my desk, carefully not to spill the cup of cold coffee already on my desk, not wanting to see it anymore, "I'm testing him and even though he has been hired for a while, I have been slacking in making sure he's the right fit in the beginning, so this is catch up, I guess" Shrugging my shoulders.

"But why?" Daphne asked, "From what I can see, he seems a little stress out by the workload of being an assistant"

Me and Akako both answered–

"It's for the best" I said.

"He is the one who signed up for the job, didn't he?" Akako questioned.

Even though I was certain of what I was doing, in the back of my mind. The reason for the workload onto Chopard has now become...blurry. In the beginning, it was clear and it made sense, test him to see if he can perform to the perfect standard, then I stopped and now, I'm entirely not sure of the continuation of this process.

Maybe I'm mad at him for what had occurred in New York, but even that reason is not good enough for me anymore. I knew what I was doing before going on that trip and now, I'm sitting at my desk, contemplating what I'm doing.

"Did he go to New York with you, I mean–obviously, as an assistant? '' Daphne curiously asked, "Maybe something happened and this 'catch up' is intended for him" Suggesting.

She read me too well.

Akako looks at me, wondering the same thing, if something happened in New York that they should know about.

Part of me wonders what their reactions would be if I were to tell them, 'Yes, I almost kissed my assistant and imagined him in dirty scenarios, and now I can't seem to get it out of my head. And now I'm punishing him for what happened because I think it's all in a evil plan to take me and my company down'

Obviously, I can't say that–no way, I could never. It's so unbelievable and inaccurate to my character and my choices they are used to.

I hesitated before answering, "Well–umm, nothing, I just want to make sure that he's the right fit for me and the company, that's all" Waving in the air, wanting them to leave it alone.

And so they did. They didn't push it, they didn't need to. But giving the look they gave at each other tells me that they don't fully believe me but they didn't comment on it.

And I don't blame them because right now, I don't believe me too.

Hailey feeling conflicted once again...how will she stay afloat?

-Summer Roe