The elevator ride was silent as she watched the number of floor go up. She tried everything she could to hold back the tears that were starting to form in her eyes. She felt a warm touch on her hand. Joe took her hand and kissed the back of it.
"I've got this, okay?" He said with a warm smile. He didn't look worried at all. Ann just replied with a nod and before they could say anything more, the elevator stopped.
Ann took a deep breath and let go of Joe's hand. They started to walk side by side until they reached Travis' office. She looked at Joe one more time and he gave her a reassuring nod. He knocked on the door and entered it first, his attitude changing in a second.
"Before you say anything, let me get this straight." He stormed in the room, his tone more serious than ever.
"Hey, Joe" said Travis calmly, standing up from his chair.
"We did nothing wrong. Ann did nothing wrong. Nothing happened between us." He continued, ignoring Travis.
"Sit down, Joe." Travis was still calm, unbothered by his words. Ann just stood by the door watching it happen.
"Sharing some looks and interacting doesn't mean we're together. I'm doing that with Jinjoo too, why aren't you firing her?" His voice was getting louder, as he was vividly mad at the situation.
"Joe." Travis said now louder, trying to get through him. "Please, sit down." Joe took a deep breath and sat in one of the chairs. "Ann." Travis looked at her and pointed at the other chair.
She felt weak on her knees as she approached the desk. Joe was furious, his leg jumping up and down. She sat slowly, her eyes glued to the floor.
"Remember what I said, Travis. I can fire you too." He frowned at Travis.
"First of all, Joe, don't threaten me. If you would have read the terms, you would know that ending our agreement will result in cancellation of all concerts." Ann's eyes grew wide. "And we wouldn't want that to happen, right?" Ann looked at Joe, who just chuckled and shook his head.
"And I'm the one threatening?"
"I'm just gonna get straight to the point." Said Travis and focused his attention on Ann. "Your actions at the concert only confirmed that something is going on between you guys. And don't try to deny it to me right now, cause I'm not stupid." He added as he saw Joe open his mouth. "The thing is... People loved it. You were trending on Twitter and the ticket sales have gone up like never before."
Ann frowned unsure of how to understand his words. She looked at Joe and he had the same expression as she did.
"So what?" Said Joe vividly confused.
"We want you to keep doing what you're doing." He said with a sigh. Ann blinked a few times, as if she misheard him.
"What?" Joe was as lost in all of this as Ann.
"It's good for the marketing. It brings attention and gets people talking."
Ann looked at Joe and search his face for some answers. He looked back at her and then back at Travis.
"Wait, so does that mean that the rules don't apply anymore?" He said with a hint of hope.
"That's the thing. They do." His eyes jumped from Ann's to Joe's. "You still are forbidden from developing any kind of relationship between each other. We just want you to keep teasing the people, hinting that something is going on. To keep them interested."
Ann couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her frustration started to grow and she felt like she was about to explode.
"You can't play with our feelings like that, Travis." She said, tears filling her eyes.
"I know how this looks. And I know it's fucked up. I'm not the one who made this decision."
"You keep defending yourself with your bosses, but you're as much on it as they are." Joe fixed himself in the chair and leaned against the desk on his elbows.
"That's not true, Joe. I love you guys both and only wish you the best."
"Bullshit." Said Ann with her eyes squinted. Joe looked at her shocked as she was always quiet in the back. "You don't mean that. If you would, you would try to negotiate the terms. I'm sure they'll be able to change them."
"I can try to speak with them again, but I can't promise anything."
"So we're just supposed to act like we're together but don't be? Act like we have feelings for each other but actually don't develop them?" Ann's frustration grew as she talked. Now Joe was the one silent. "I'm not going to play your game. That's fucked up. We're not some pawns in a game, we're humans. We have needs, we have feelings, we have desires. If I want to, I will kiss Joe. Hell, if I want to, I will even make love to him if we feel like it. Because it's real life and not some fucking chess. You can't use us and our feelings as a marketing trick. You can't just decide what we do and what we don't do. This is a free country and we are free people. You can't control our lives. I'm done." She got up from her chair, leaving them both speechless. "I advise you to figure it out or else I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to quit. I'm not going to be your prisoner."
She left the room and slammed the door behind her. She was breathing heavily. It took her a while to comprehend what she just did. She smiled and let out a little laugh. She was proud of herself. She meant what she said. Even though the job was a dream come true, it wasn't worth it. And it wasn't because of Joe. She didn't know if she would build any relationship with him. It was because of being trapped and threatened. She knew she was better than this. She decided to go downstairs and wait for Joe by the car, as she needed some fresh air.
She clicked the elevator button and stood by it. She heard doors closing behind her, she turned to see Joe walking in her direction in a fast pace. He was mad too. He stood by her and nervously brushed a hand through his hair.
"Are you okay?" She said concerned and he just shook his head.
"That motherfucker..." he said quietly.
Ann decided not to continue the topic, not wanting to make him more mad. The elevator opened and they entered it. As they closed, she suddenly felt her blood rush. They were both breathing heavily, filled with anger. She looked at Joe and he was already staring at her from under his eyelashes, with a look that made her weak.
He turned to her and started to walk towards her. Ann took a few steps back, uncertain of his actions, until she hit one of the elevator walls. He continued to walk up to her, until they were inches away, their breaths still heavy. He placed a hand over her head and the other on her waist pulling her closer to him.
"That was so fucking hot." He said with a raspy voice, referring to her monologue in the office.
Ann bit her lip and tried to look anywhere but him. But he was like a drug. She wanted more. She wanted him. She thought about the first time she met him and how she dreamed of this situation, just them in the elevator in an intimate situation like this. They were filled with adrenaline and frustration and they were eager for each other. Ann looked at the floor number, seeing that they were almost half way down. She looked back at him and she knew she won't be able to keep it up any longer. She needed him. Right there.
"Fuck it." She whispered and got closer to him, they mouths almost meeting. "Kiss me."
She could hear Joe caught his breath for a second. But he didn't hesitate, he pushed her more into the wall and kissed her with passion like she never felt before. Their hands explored every inch of their bodies. Ann's body trembled at the sensation and she felt weak. She placed her hands into his curls and pulled on them slightly, making Joe moan into her mouth and kiss her even harder. He left her mouth and started to place kissed down her neck. Ann took a look at the floor number, that showed they only have 5 more floors.
She brought her attention back to Joe and tried to enjoy the moment as it lasted. She didn't care if they got caught. She wanted it. And she wanted more. She reached down to his sweatpants and tried to slid them a bit, making Joe smirk, while still kissing her. He was about to take off her jumper, when the elevator stopped. This made them jump off of each other and fix their clothes.
The elevator doors opened and there were two men standing in front of it, lost in some conversation. They both looked at them and stopped talking, with a look of confusion. Even though they fixed their clothes, their hair was still a mess. They both had red cheeks and Ann's make up was a mess.
Ann looked down and tried to hold a laugh as they passed them. At the reception, there was still the same blond woman, who also gave them a look of confusion. They quickly went out of the building and started laughing out loud. They jumped in Joe's car and looked at each other with biggest smiles painted on their faces.
"Oh my god!" Ann hid her face in her hands and laughed. "I wonder what they were thinking."
"I don't care." He said, while backing up. "I'm more wondering what you were thinking. You can't say stuff like that to me."
"I don't know what happened to me. I guess the adrenaline took over me." She shook her head.
"Your confidence in the office made me so... excited. I was so scared of the elevator ride, so I'm glad you were the one to make the first move." He smirked, taking a quick glance at Ann, before returning his eyes on the road.
"Can we not talk about this?" She looked out of the window and bit her lip, feeling more embarrassed than ever.
"Oh, we will talk about this. But right now, we have to rush to the venue. We're already late for rehearsal."
Ann looked at her phone and saw that it was almost 1 pm already and rehearsal started at midday. She pulled down the sun visor and tried to fix her hair and wipe off the mascara that was under her eyes.
"I'm a mess." She said with a sigh.
"You're a hot mess." He smirked at her as she punched him in his arm.
They pulled into the venue. Today they were playing the last concert in LA, before going on the road. Ann couldn't wait to tour around the states and she just wished she was able to. She wished everything would get figured out.
They rushed inside and onto the stage, ignoring everyone's side eyes. Especially Nick's that felt as though he was going to kill them.
"Hey!" She patted Mark on his back and smiled like nothing happened.
"Oh girl..." she raised an eyebrow at her. "You in some trouble."
She ignored it and joined everyone as they were almost half into the rehearsal. When lunch break began, she sat next to Jinjoo and ignored the eye she was giving her. She looked across the room and she saw Joe and Nick in the corner of the room having a heated conversation. They were both gesturing around, which hinted they were having a fight about something. She just wished it wasn't about her.
"You made Boss Nick mad... I don't envy you." Said Jinjoo while slowly putting a French fry in her mouth.
"How do you know it's about me?" Ann frowned and Jinjoo just raised an eyebrow. She pointed in their direction and when Ann looked up she saw Nick coming in her direction with a dead serious face.
"Good luck." She said and got up from their table.
Ann's heart sunk as he sat across from her with his arms crossed on his chest. She swallowed hard and smiled at him politely.
"Hey." She said quietly, kind of scared of him in that moment.
"Hey." He said, not taking his eyes off of her. "Joe told me everything." Ann's eye grew bigger.
"Everything?" She said a little concerned.
"Yeah, about your meeting with Travis."
"Oh, okay." She sounded way too relieved.
"And what did you think he said?"
"Nothing. Just that." She put on a fake smile, but she knew Nick wasn't buying it.
"You know you have to do it, right?" Her smile dropped. "We can't have a missing back up vocalist at the begging of the tour. We don't have time to look for someone else. Besides, I want you in our band." He finally gave her a warm smile, which made Ann calm a bit.
"I know. It's just... It's fucked up."
"It kind of is. But that's show business. Nothing's real here. Besides, if there's really nothing between you guys, it shouldn't be that hard to pretend a little." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Am I right?"
He was right, if there was nothing, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But there wasn't nothing. There was something. And it was growing with every second they spent together.
"Yeah, you're right." She said looking down.
"Unless there is something, then I would like to know that."
She looked back at him and his eyes were drilling into her mind. She looked at her hands, feeling intimidated and scared.
"There's nothing." She said quietly.
"Good. Then I guess it's settled." He hit his hand lightly on the desk and left.
She sighed and looked around the room for Joe. He was leaning against the wall across from her and was looking at her. She thought she will find some comfort in his eyes, but he was as lost as she was. What's going to happen to them from now on?