Keeping it Professional

Chapter 24

"What the hell?" Killian shouted angrily from the doorway.

Liam abruptly pulled away from Emma and wiped his mouth. He turned to Killian with a look of panic on his face. "Brother, I can explain. She kissed me! I came in here for some reports and she grabbed me and kissed me. I tried to get out of her grasp, but she kept me pinned to her."

"No! That's a lie! I didn't- I would never do that to you, Killian!" Emma protested. "He was waiting for me when I came in this morning and he kissed me first!"

Killian looked so hurt. There were tears in his eyes that he was trying not to let fall. He came into the room and glared at Emma as he pushed the tears back.

"And to think that I actually pined over you ever since you started working here. I wasted all that time on you. Was I not enough? Why did you have to make a move on another man? My brother no less? You were right, Liam. I didn't believe you at first, but now I do." He turned around and walked out of the office.

Liam turned to Emma with a smirk on his face. "That was so much more easy than I anticipated." He said aloud. "I'll see you later, Emma." He winked and left the office, shutting the door with a slam.

As soon as the door closed, Emma burst into tears. She fell to the ground against her desk and brought her knees to her chest, crying in them. 'How could Liam do this? Why would he want to ruin his brother's life so much?' She asked herself. She just couldn't wrap it around her head. She knew that Liam didn't like her. And she knew the reasons, but, why would he want to hurt his brother?

She picked herself up off the floor and wiped her eyes. She grabbed her compact mirror and fixed her makeup and sat down behind her desk. She grabbed her glasses from the drawer and slipped them on her face, and buried herself in paperwork for the rest of the day.

Emma worked straight through lunch so she could leave early and not have a chance of running into Killian or Liam on the way out of the building. She wanted to go to Killian's office and explain to him exactly what happened, but she knew that doing that would only make things worse. But, if she saw Liam, she knew he would be getting a fist to the face.

Once 3:00 rolled around, Emma was completely finished with all her paperwork for the day. Whatever would come in later would be done some other time, so she wasn't too worried. She packed up a file and hesitated before walking into Killian's office to give it to him. But, work was still work. They weren't supposed to bring their problems into the workplace in the first place, so with that thought, she knocked on the door.

"Come in." He grumbled from inside.

Emma swallowed hard and opened the door. Liam immediately stood up and clenched his fists. "Don't you think you've caused enough trouble for one day?" Liam asked rudely.

Emma held up the file of paperwork. "This is everything that was supposed to be handed in." She told Killian, ignoring Liam. "Can we talk? Please?"

Killian snatched the file from her and stood up. "I think you should go."

"Killian-"

"It's Mr. Jones to you. Killian is too causal. The only thing you need to know is that I won't be firing you or demoting you. Work and pleasure are two completely different things, and I won't make your life a living hell here. You are just one of my employees now."

"I always was though." She snapped at him, finally allowing some of the anger out that she had stored up. "Just some stupid little blonde that you could fool around with and pretend you had feelings for. Then, once your god of a brother shows up, then I get pushed to the side. You choose to believe him. I didn't kiss him! He kissed me! He wants to break us up, and this is the only way to get you to believe him."

"That's enough." Liam hissed, but Emma ignored him.

"I knew that I would be causing a problem between you two, but I never expected this."

Liam raised his hand up to push her out of Killian's office, but Emma quickly smacked his arm away, only for Liam to smack her right back. Without thinking, he shoved her to the floor and Emma collided into the filing cabinet.

"Liam!" Killian scolded from behind the desk. He ran to Emma's side. "Are you okay?" He held his hand out for her to take to help her up. Emma looked up to see concern on his face, but she ignored him and got up from the floor herself.

"I'm fine." She didn't make eye contact with either of the Jones brothers as she left the office.

Once the door was closed, she grabbed her things from her office and went down to her car. She sat in the parking lot, trying not to cry her eyes out. She winced in pain as she reached her purse on the passengers seat and dialed Milah's phone number. She knew the woman was still inside, but didn't even care.

"Hello? Emma?" Milah asked when she picked up.

"Milah, hi. I uh, really need to talk to you. Not over the phone, but perhaps we can get coffee once you get out of work? I left a little early, but I don't mind waiting. I just have a few questions about Killian." Emma said, chewing on her nail nervously.

"Oh, sure. Could we meet at the same Starbucks from a couple weeks ago? Around 7:30?"

"That's fine." Emma nodded, even though she knew the woman couldn't see her. "I'll see you then." She hung up the phone and drove away without a second glance to the Jones' building.