I pull my head back out into the hallway and close my eyes.
Five weeks.
Every time I make a decision that affects her coworkers, they haven’t hesitated in making her feel their wrath. They think that just because she’s fucking me, she’s somehow deserving of this abuse, that she’s somehow responsible for my actions.
She’s not, of course. I came in here to turn this magazine around, not make friends with the staff. They may hate me for my decisions, but I knew that’d happen. I knew that from the beginning. I expect it; I almost welcome it. If I’m not royally pissing anyone off, I’m not changing enough to save a company.
But Ashley cares. It’s her coworkers and even if she wasn’t best friends with them all, it’s still fucking hard.
I head back to my office, not wanting to spy on Ashley any longer. The elevator ride up, the walk past my secretary’s desk…I’m not really there. I’m thinking about the time that Ashley convinced me to see an off-off-Broadway play, where the main lead sat on a chair and said nothing the entire first half of the play. Or the time that she talked me into leaving work early and going rollerblading with her. I hadn’t fallen on my ass that many times since I’d first learned how to walk.
And I’d never laughed that much.
Ashley makes me laugh. Other women made me feel good, other women fuck me in any position I want, other women agree to be my eye candy on my arm for the evening.
But only Ashley makes me laugh.
And now I've made her cry. In just five weeks, I’ve helped tear her apart.
I walk across my office and over to my windows to stare out, down the packed city streets. Millions of people on the streets, but none of them are like Ashley.
She’s one in a million, and I can’t lose her now.
118
Ashley
Okay, so I’m a sap. I know it, you know it, the Chinese delivery man knows it.
But here I am, at my desk, eating my overpriced Chinese food and contemplating a surprise for Apollo. He’s been working so damn hard lately, and I want him to know that even though this whole thing has been so hard, I…
Well, I’m falling in love with him. I haven’t told him that yet; what kind of angsty teenager do you take me to be? But I can’t help myself in feeling it. He’s just so damn sexy and thoughtful and commanding and loving…
Anyone would fall in love with him. Even Janice in Acco
unting, who I swear doesn’t even have a heart…she’d love him. If she knew him.
I push away from my desk and my overpriced Chinese food. I have the perfect surprise for Apollo. I’m gonna wait for him to leave his office, crawl under his desk, and then when he comes back, give him a surprise blowjob. Like every other male on the planet, Apollo adores blowjobs, and I adore giving them to him; his huge 12-inch cock in my mouth? How could I not love it? So I figure this is just about the most perfect way to tell him thank you.
To thank him for just being him, and for making me fall in love with him.
I ride up to the fourth floor and sneak past Mrs. Sanders who is busy guarding the photocopy machine from unwanted interlopers, putting my ear to his door for a moment before pushing it open. Coast is clear.
Hell yeah. I grin as I walk around behind his desk. He’s going to love it when I start to pull his zipper down and…
Hold on. What is that?
I crane my head to the side to read closer without touching the papers. Apollo has this spidey sense about people touching his shit, so I don’t dare move a thing. But…
"Divesting from Blush, Inc" is emblazoned across the top of the papers. It quickly delves into legalese that I swear even the lawyers don’t understand, but it's damn clear that Apollo is selling Blush.
He promised me he wouldn’t do that. He promised he’d return it to profitability and make sure it was stable before entertaining any offers to sell. He’d told me it would be at least a year.
He told me all of this last week.
He had to have been lying to me. Oh my god, he was lying to me. He couldn’t just decide to sell yesterday and do it today. Even I know that isn’t how it works. You have to find buyers and negotiate and find lawyers and draw up papers and…
Oh my god.