Chapter One: Everything Changes Eventually

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"Without you I feel broke, like I'm half of a whole. Without you I've got no hand to hold..."

My work place amazed me every single day on multiple accounts. Such a large, beautiful, place with such small minded people. Because I didn't dress like a whore and became shy when in large amounts of people, I was known as a pushover or prude in the building. I guess my two years of working as the assistant to the CEO didn't matter to anyone. I swear, they were all like middle schoolers.

My morning routine was pretty simple. Get up, brush/wash up, get dressed, make my tea, and leave for work at a reasonable time to make sure I get to work by 5:45 a.m.

Bursting through the door on time, I made a dramatic sigh.

"You know, I wouldn't care if you were a little late. If anything, I'd enjoy it," said my boss, Ethan Schneider. I giggled and set my stuff down on my personal desk.

"You should know me by now. I have no life, therefore work is my life." It really was true. I owned a small apartment with no roommate so I didn't spend much time there. Never really had any friends, so that doesn't really take up time. So all I really did was work, sleep, and repeat.

"Touché Miss Reeds, touché." We both laughed and did our respective jobs. And like normally, our hardworking ethic was gone in 20 minutes.

"I saw in the tabloids something about you being gay. How could you have not told me? And to think, I could've had a crush on you," I teased. Because of our business, which was creating and selling most women accessories, Mr. Schneider was always getting questioned about his sexuality. I always joked with him about it, though there was nothing wrong with being gay.

"Oh? I never knew the stubborn Katie would fall for the handsome Ethan." He winked at me and I pretended to act disgusted, then became curious.

"There's a handsome guy here? Where?" Mr. Schneider playfully glared at me before tickling the crap out of me.

"I give, I give!" I started to squeal. Man, if only people knew what happened between these walls.

"Fine, but don't expect to be off the hook." Mr. Schneider winked at me and we continued with our work.

I got a substantial amount of work done by lunch and took my break. Mr. Schneider decided he was going to take me out.

"Let's go, Katie. Food doesn't order itself." I grabbed my coat to cover myself from the cold December air and with that, we were on our way.

To be honest, I really do have a crush on Mr. Schneider. And I think he might like me, too. It's like we're dating, but not.

Once we got to our destination, which was a cute little café, we took ourselves to a little window booth and the waitress came. She was strawberry blonde and adorable.

"Hi guys, I'm Meghan, what can I get you?" She pointedly looked at me first.

"I'll have the ravioli dish to eat and a vanilla milkshake to drink." She scribbled my order down, then looked at my boss.

"I'll have the chicken marsala and a diet coke." Meghan smiled and took our menus.

"Great! I'll have your orders out in a few minutes." With that, she walked away.

"Mr. Schnei-"

"Ethan. Call me Ethan, we are not in the building," my boss cut me off. "How long have I been trying to get you to call me by name?"

"About a year and a half," I say bashfully, "but that's not my point. Ethan," his name felt good on my tongue, "wh-what are we? Because the way you act with me, I don't know if you did that to your other assistants or..." I trailed off.

The look on Ethan's face was unreadable. Then out of nowhere, he swiped my hand off the table and gave it a kiss.

"Katherine, can you come over tonight? It would be better to do this somewhere private." His expression was still unreadable, but I agreed.

Soon our food arrived and we ate with minor small talk. I can personally say that my food was delicious and that I've always loved that café.

After lunch, Ethan and I carried on with our daily activities until tine to head home, which for us was around nine when almost everyone else left at six. I was always happy to know that I get to leave later and come earlier than everyone so I don't have to suffer their comments.

I told my boss that I was going to head to my apartment first to get into something more comfortable and that I would meet him at his house in less than an hour. We temporarily split ways and headed to our respective homes.

Once at my house, I immediately let my chocolate brown curls fall from my tight bun down to the small of my back. I changed from my tight black pencil skirt into a pair of comfortable black jeans and threw on an oversized off-white sweater that went passed the palm of my hand. On my head rested a simple black beanie.

I redid my brown eye liner to make my light blue eyes pop a bit more and applied a nice layer of lip gloss. I then put on a pair of black and white Chuck Taylors and went out the door.

Ethan's house wasn't to far away, maybe about 15 minutes or so. The house was beautiful and I envied his wealth for a second, then didn't care anymore.

Slowly, I approached the door and gave it a little knock. As I expected, his head maid, Gertrude, answered the door with a warm smile. She was so sweet and motherly.

"Hi dear, do you and Ethan need to work on another project?" She asked. Normally when and if I came over, it would be because Ethan and I would have a work assignment that took too long and we wanted to be more comfortable.

"Not tonight, we just have to have a little chat. Do you know where he is?" Gertrude smiled and told me he was in his room. I went up the stairs and searched for the door he put his name on with little colored sticky notes. He's such a little kid.

I open his bedroom door and he's sitting on his bed, waiting.

"Took you long enough," he snorted.

"Heh, that's what she said," I shot back. Ethan glared, then smiled, and then laughed.

"Sit down." He pointed to a spot across from him on the bed. I gently sat down on the soft mattress and fluffy blankets.

"So you asked me to come here to talk privately. What is so private that we're doing?" I questioned. I felt my oversized sweater fall off my right shoulder and reveal my bra strap, which happened all the time so I didn't care. Just as long as the other one stays up, I'm fine.

"I wanted to talk about what we are. Though I've never asked you out or to be my girlfriend or anything, it feels like you are. It feels like I'm close enough to you that if I asked for your hand in marriage, you would probably say yes. And I'm not saying that to be cocky, I'm saying it because I know you feel it too." He was right, I did feel it.

"You're right about that," I started, "but where do we go from here? Wouldn't it be difficult for me to work with you without being a distraction? I don't want to lose my job, I already don't have much to begin with." I look up at Ethan with shining eyes.

"Hey," he comforted, "let's not think about tomorrow. In fact, we're gonna take the week off so we can figure it out. But for right now, let's focus on each other."

Ethan placed his right hand on my left cheek and pulled my into a soft kiss. Somewhere in there, the sleeve on my left shoulder fell, leaving my top open without my knowledge.

When we pulled away, I noticed that I felt really cold on my stomach, so I look down and see that my simple black bra and flat stomach are out there for the world to see. Well, more so Ethan, but that wasn't the point.

I squealed and went to fix it when Ethan's hands stopped mine. His honey brown eyes were darkened with love and lust as I went to lie down on my back. He wanted to do it, and frankly, so did I.

So we did.

I didn't regret anything and I'm pretty sure Ethan didn't either. In the morning, I woke up trapped in his strong arms. His brown hair tossled and no stubble, he probably shaved yesterday or something. Sometimes he would twitch and his dimples would show.

I liked how things were going at the time.

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