When Ashley woke up, her bed was empty and her windows were open which let the sun rays flood her room with golden light. She yawned and stretched before looking at her clock which read 7:41 a.m, "Oh my God!" She yelled before jumping out of bed, she quickly changed into a fitting pair of black work pants that she paired with a dark blue button up top. Ashley wobbled as she tried to put on her heels while brushing her teeth, once she finished she brushed her hair and grabbed her bag before hurrying out of her apartment.
She was glad she always kept a bit of makeup in her car because her dark circles were a sight for sore eyes. Ashley got in, covered the bags under her eyes and checked her phone and saw that it was now 7:50. How was she already running late for the second time?
She sped off and tried to dodge as much traffic as she could. Her phone rang a few times but Ashley didn't answer it since she was more concerned about getting to work than being on the phone. She finally arrived without a moment to spare as she entered the building.
Ashley sat in her chair and exhaled deeply, relieved to see that she wasn't too late. She checked her phone and saw four missed calls from John and worry started to grow in the pit of her stomach. Deciding she had a few more minutes to spare because she was here, she decided to text him.
John
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"Hey, sorry that I missed your calls I was rushing to work."
Sent at 8:05 a.m
"Next time, answer your phone. What if it was important Ashley?"
Replied at 8:08 a.m
She frowned a little before responding.
"I'm sorry, I will next time. Have a good day at work."
Sent at 8:10 a.m
With that, she put her phone back in her bag before shuffling it under the desk to keep away the distracting messages from John that were blowing up her phone.
Sighing lightly as she see's Tommy coming into the nook they work in, and in hand were two cups of warm coffee and snack bread. Ashley perks up at the sound of her stomach rumbling with hunger rather loudly. Tommy's bright yet old eyes widen as she takes a seat next to Ashley, shaking her head as she sets the coffee and bread between them.
"Eat. You can't go hungry now dear."
"T-Thanks Tommy."
"You were almost late, can't have that either. Now set up the systems and check what clients we have today....and eat girl!" Ashley can only laugh and bite her cheek as she turns on her computer swiftly, taking small parts of her newfound breakfast off of the plate and popping them into her mouth to make the old lady next to her happy.
As soon as Ashley reads through when the doms have meetings and who is all coming in for the day, the bell on the front door rings bringing Ashley's attention forward and above the desk, two well looking people walk through the doors, neither talking to each other. Both head to the doors for the hallway down to the breakroom, until they both do a double check to make sure they weren't seeing two people at reception.
The tall, rather large man looks at the thin, dainty looking girl before she punches his arm and they make their way over the desk. Both were dressed in rather nice clothing, button up tops and black bottoms, heels for the girl although she was already tall. The man's tattoos that covered his arms and neck spoke out to Ashley along with his long beard, his eyes pierced her soul as he stared harshly at her.
"Summer, Billy. Thank you both for being late." Tommy glares at them with her thin arms crossed with an angry, child like expression etched onto her face. Her moods change faster than I change clothes... Ashley thought silently watching the exchange.
"Yeah Yeah, is this the new girl?" The tall blonde asked, distastefully.
"Yes, Summer this is Ashley. She will be taking over for me." Tommy says with pride over Summers' bitter tone and expressions. The girl glares daggers into Ashley as she stands there, waiting for something.
"Well, I am sure she'll just be great!" The sarcasm rolls off of her words and onto Ashley's skin as soon as they come out. "Can't wait to work with you, I'm sure you'll be great at getting my coffee." And with that Summer walks into the hallway and leaves, her rude and sarcastic manner sticking to Ashley like a fly in honey. Ashley looks down and bites her cheek out of a nervous habit, staring at the suddenly interesting desk.
"I'm sorry about her, she thinks she's entitled to everything. She's a bitch if you haven't picked that up. I'm Billy Tompson." the overly deep voice pulls Ashley's head up again with a nod.
"Ashley," She introduced herself quietly. "And I don't think she's a bitch."
"That's a first." Tommy mutters to herself but Ashley turns and looks at her with a small, almost sad look.
"How can I call her a bitch if I don't even know her?" Looking back at Billy and then to Tommy again, who has a very questionable look on her face, "I've only known you a day, that doesn't mean I'm gonna call you a player like everyone else." Billy nods and waves as he moves to the hallway, closing the door unlike Summer as he leaves the two girls alone in the nook.
Ashley pops more food into her mouth to avoid saying anything to Tommy after Summer's words. If Ashley wasn't able to pick up the heavy sarcasm in her voice she would have been confused, asking her what she meant.
But she isn't stupid. It's obvious Summer isn't a very nice person from the start, though she did understand why when they didn't even know each other. Ashley may put up with a lot in life, and most people would become judgemental; but if there was ever something Ashley wasn't, it was a judgemental person. She would never dare to judge and make a final decision on someone after only saying a few words to them.
So though it may seem like Summer was a bitch to Ashley, she wouldn't call her that. She shouldn't, others can but she couldn't bring herself to do that since she doesn't know anything about the girl. "You're an optimist aren't you?" Tommy asks her.
Ashley thinks for a moment before responding, "Sort of, I just don't like to be harsh towards people I just met."
"Even if they act that way towards you?" The old woman inquired.
Ashley nodded, returning her attention to one of the newer emails she had gotten. For the most part, the next few hours of work passed by rather smoothly. Between setting up meetings and reading emails to getting clients checked in for the first time and handling the phone to set up appointments with some, it was going great as she casually bantered with Tommy. Danny also popped in for a few minutes, "And then she sucked-"
"Tommy," Danny interrupted, acting serious though he had a smile on his face. "Not in front of the kids." He said as he gestured to the younger secretary.
Ashley pouted, "I am not a kid." She objected.
"You're as innocent as one." Tommy chimed.
"Am not-"
"I don't think I pay you guys to talk about innocence." Said a voice from behind Danny, it was deep and filled Ashley's ears. Danny quickly moved out of the way to reveal a tall man wearing a fitted black button up dress shirt with black pants and shoes, the first few buttons were undone. "Don't make me consider not paying you at all."
Danny cleared his throat and looked at his watchless wrist, "Well would you look at that, I gotta go do something. Bye Ash, bye Geezer." He waved at them before slipping past the man.
"Say that again and I'll chop off your ass!" Tommy yelled at him, huffing before remembering who was standing in the room. "Hmph." The man was tall, dark italian like features with his tan skin. He wasn't bad looking, hell, he was handsom and sexy and anyone could see that and even Ashley was speechless for a second before realizing she should be working.
The man rolled his eyes at her, turning his attention to the dark, short haired woman who was trying desperately to make it look like she was working but failing. "You're new, don't mess this up. And as for you, Tommy, you only have a few days left. I could kick you out before then so don't test your luck." He stated before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.
Ashley let out a breath and closed her eyes. "Who's that?"
"Our boss, Gabriel. Don't call him that though, he'll fire you on the spot." Tommy warned.
"Is he, always like that?" pausing before she finished her question, thinking if she should even be asking about this guy named Gabriel, Ashley decides that if he Is her boss, she should know something about him. SHe should really know a lot about him considering he 'hired' her.
"No, well, yes and no. It really depends on who you are." Tommy says, spinning in her chair like a child would as she speaks in a calm but warning voice.
"How so?"
"Well, he is a very....heavy man. You'll see that the more you work with him dear. He's just very busy and very into his work. He runs, what I belive is at least twenty other sanctuaries around the country. He's very busy and doesn't like when his workers lollygag." Tommy explains to Ashley, carefully choosing her words about her boss. In all reality not many people knew him well, Tommy was someone that did know him inside and out though.
"He's very respected and you'll see that too. Gabriel is just a hard man to read and it's best to keep your distance unless necessary dear. He will hardly intervene with your work and your will hardly intervene with him."
"Well, okay then. I guess that's one easy thing I could do here."
"Yes it is." Tommy laughs out whole heartedly at Ashley, a smile pulling up her wrinkles with genuine happiness around Ashley. As soon as a client walks into the building Ashley smiles at her as she gives Ashley her name.
"Thank you, Danny will be out here shortly for you ma'am." quickly buzzing Danny's office and then turning to add a piece of paper to a file somewhere in the back of the nook. Though it was only her second day here, Ashley learned quickly where things go and what she needs to do, which wasn't a lot. She had yet to meet the last worker here, Marco.
She hasn't even seen him at all today, even though he's had clients come in and out all day, he just doesn' come out but clients go in. It makes Ashley curious about him, considering she's now had encounters with everyone at least a few times now today.
Ashely suddenly jumps when Tommy puts her phone Ashleys hands, looking down at it as it buzzes constantly with phone calls from John once again. Her face widdens at the old lady as she waits patiently for Ashley to answer the phone, though Ashley is on the edge about talking to John for the time being.
"Excuse me Tommy, I promise this won't take long." Ashley reasurs Tommy as she stands and walks to the door way where there is no door, and heads to the bathroom with her phone in hand.
"It's alright you cutie. Sho Sho!" Ashely smiled at the little granny who spins like a kid in a chair, seeing as there is nothing to do again now that she just taught Ashley everything she needs to know.
While Ashley closes and locks the bathroom door with a shaking hand, she answers John's tenth call. Leaning against the wall as she waits for his voice to come through, her foot tapping nervously as she stares at her reflection in the mirror.
"What the fuck Ashley!" His voice boomed through the phone which made her wince and hold it away from her ear. "Were you just gonna ignore all my calls?!"
"I-I'm at work Hon, you know that-"
"When I call, you answer! I don't care if you're at work, you're a fucking secretary Ashley you aren't doing anything important." John stated. Those words stung a bit but she disregarded it as she listened to him speak harshly into the phone again. "What if it was something serious? Huh? Then what?! You would just watch your goddamn phone ring?!"
"N-N-No! That's not-"
"Shut the fuck up!" He yelled, once again cutting her off. "You've been acting up all because of this dumb ass job you're so attached to. What's so fucking good about it? Is sending emails thrilling to you? Does setting up meetings send tingles down your spine? Or are you flirting with one of your fucking coworkers?" John questions, though she didn't have a chance to answer as there was a knock on the bathroom door.
"Ash? Are you alright? I saw you rush off and I just wanted to check and make sure you're okay." Called Danny from the other side."
"Who the fuck is that?!" John screamed. "You know what, have fun Ashley. Don't call me, don't text me. I don't want to hear from you." He said before the line went dead.
A tear slips down her cheek but she quickly wipes it away. "Ashley?"
"I-I'm fine, just give me a second." She tells Danny, quickly turning on the faucet so it could hide the sound of her sniffling. What John said hurt her more than she'd like to admit, she knew she should've answered his call but she didn't want to get in trouble on her second day of work. Maybe she was prioritizing it too much, he never lashed out like this, so he must've been upset.
Once it looked like she hadn't been crying, she left the bathroom and looked a very concerned Danny in the eyes. His concern made her want to cry all over again but she held back, instead she smiled. "You were just going to wait out here? What if I was still using the toilet? Hm?" She asked him jokingly, though her heart was still hurting.
Before she can walk away from Danny, he lighty grabs her wrist, his face filled with concern for his friend. He wasn't stupid either and knew Ashley too well to know that she wasn't using the bathroom and something happned in there.
"Ash, was it him again?" He asked quietly.
"What? Don't be ridiculous Danny."
"Ashley Nicholus, you stop lying to me right now. Was it John?" Danny's voice raises a bit as he reasks his original question.
"So what if it was Danny? It's j-just John being John. I'm fine." Ashley lied out to him again with the words ' I'm fine.' Biting the insides of her cheek once again as she gets nervous, even around her best friend.
His brows furrow,"Ashley, you should not come out of the bathroom crying because of your boyfriend! What the hell happened?"
"Danny, if it was important don't you think I would tell you? Come on, you know me. Now, let me get back to work, you have a client that I know is still waiting for you." Ashley changes the subject quickly, hoping that Danny would drop it and just let her get on with her day instead of being the caring friend she needs.
Leaving Danny outside of the bathroom to go back to her desk with her child-like partner, Tommy stops whatever she is doing and looks at Ashley with concern for her too.
"Tommy, I am fine. Please, just don't ask. I shouldn't have taken that call until later." Ashley mumbles, inside her head, she's thinking if she would have waited until her day ended that she could have calmed John down, made him less upset, got him 'happy' again.
While she worked, she couldn't help but feel a hanging sadness over her. He told her he didn't want her to text or call him, he didn't even want to see her face. Was he breaking up with her? Or was he just upset? How long would he distance himself from her? What if while he's gone he decided to call it quits when he came back? Ashley couldn't let this happen but what else could she do? It wouldn't help if she just turned up at his door and begged for his forgiveness, promising she'd put him above her work.
She spent hours constantly thinking about it, barely talking to her coworkers and hardly paying enough attention to the work she had to do which also didn't help her overbearing thoughts. If she kept this up, she'd surely be fired and that was another thing she couldn't allow to happen. Finally, it was time for her to go home. She said a meek goodbye to Tommy and Danny, also saying bye to Billy as he walked past her. He gave her a weird look but otherwise said nothing.
Ashley drove home, went into her apartment, showered, ate, then went to her room and laid on her bed. She felt a bitter hollowness inside of her that was flooding over with sadness and guilt. While she drifted in and out of consciousness, she began to think..."Is this job even worth losing him?"
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Leaving it here, I really hope y'all don't get to attached at the idea of happiness here, cause that won't be coming for a while....
Anyways, have fun Loves!
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