"Not everyone you love
will stay.
Not everyone you trust
will be loyal.
Some people only exist as examples of
what to avoid."
"Get. Here. Now."
Scarlett flinched as Ace sharply hung up his phone. Staring around her apartment, she wasn't even properly dressed, but she had to leave. Stuffing his precious notebook into her bag, she threw on the first button down dress that she put her hands on and hurried out the door, not even stopping to look in the mirror.
It was twenty whole minutes before the driver pulled up outside Woods Towers and Scarlett hurried up to the fortieth floor.
Ace stood outside his office, tapping his foot impatiently, checking his branded watch. When his eyes fixed on Scarlett, he gave her a savage glare. "You live so far away. I need that notebook," he said, snatching the notebook she held in her outstretched hand.
"I told you to take it yesterday, but what did you tell me?" Scarlett prompted, "That's right. That you don't need it."
Ace glared at her. He leafed through the book, running his index finger down each page. He tapped a spot on one page and slammed it shut. "This," he waved the book at Scarlett, "Always comes home with me. Got it?"
Scarlett sighed. "Got it."
"You need to move closer to the office," Ace said.
"I like where I live, thank you."
He shook his head. "Go get some breakfast, protein bar."
Ace turned and took the two steps to his office door. He turned the knob, but then angled his head and looked at Scarlett with the signature smirk of his crossing his face.
"Oh, and Ambrose? You missed a button."
Scarlett glanced down as Ace's door closed before him to see that she had indeed missed a button, halfway down her chest. Growling internally, she set her bag on the floor. Without even thinking of moving, she faced the closed door and undid all the buttons from the one she missed, all the way to the top and began to button it again.
Ace's door opened again and he stepped out. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at Scarlett's fingers on her buttons. "I don't think this is the most appropriate place for a show," he said, with a crooked smile, clearly amused.
Scarlett left the two top buttons undone and picked up her bag. She took two steps towards him, wearing a smirk of her own. "Anywhere is appropriate for a show." Her blue eyes trailed up from Ace's torso, to his lips and finally to his eyes.
He gazed at Scarlett, his smirk morphing into the slightest frown. "You're a real paradox, Ambrose. Have some breakfast and get to work." He locked his office door, slipped the key into his pocket and walked away.
Scarlett pursed her lips in annoyance, looking at the locked door. Looking around and seeing no one, she walked over to Gretchen's unoccupied desk and opened some drawers and looked under files to see if there was a spare key to Ace's office, but she found nothing. She looked around, trying to find another way into his office, but the arrival of more employees meant that she couldn't go undetected, so she trudged, dejectedly back to her office.
She had just set her bag down on her desk, when a knock at her door made her turn. "You want some breakfast, sugar?"
"No!" Scarlett practically shouted, making Gretchen jump.
The older lady stared at Scarlett's fearful expression.
Scarlett exhaled through her mouth a couple of times before shaking her head. "Sorry, Gretchen. I was just surprised, I guess. Yeah, I do need breakfast, actually."
"Ace told me you might," Gretchen nodded, coming closer to Scarlett, "You sure you're alright, baby?"
Scarlett gave her a tight smile. "Mmhmm."
"Alright, well you can come over to my desk and have some of mine, alright?"
Relaxing her shoulders, Scarlett squeezed Gretchen's hand. "Thank you, Gretchen. I'll be right there."
As Gretchen left, Scarlett shook herself, trying to get the eerie feeling out of her system. She took Ace's personal phone and her work phone out of her bag and walked out, over to Gretchen's desk.
"I have some egg salad sandwiches. Do you eat that?" Gretchen asked.
Scarlett smiled at her, sweetly. "I love egg salad sandwiches, Gretchen. Thank you."
They sat down to eat. "So, Scarlett, have you got a fella?"
Scarlett laughed. "I'm not quite the catch that you are, Gretchen."
The older lady shook her curls. "I'm sure my husband married me for my fried chicken."
"And that's kept him for how long?" Scarlett asked.
Gretchen thought. "Thirty-three years and counting," she raised her eyebrows.
"I'd call that a win," Scarlett giggled.
"He's no prize," Gretchen said, "But he did help me raise four great kids. Always made sure that I had the support to work."
"You're great at your job," Scarlett said, truthfully, "I don't think anyone else could keep up with Ace and his strange ways."
Before Gretchen could say what was on her mind, someone clearing their throat from down the hallway, made the women turn.
Ace was approaching them, a darkened expression on his face, his eyes fixated on Scarlett. There was another man that Scarlett hadn't seen before with him.
With the slightest motion of his fingers, he gestured for Scarlett to leave. The grim expression on his face made Scarlett understand that he wasn't in any mood to joke.
Immediately, she shot a look at Gretchen, got up and retreated into her office.
Gretchen also raised herself to her feet.
"Make sure I'm not disturbed, Gretchen," Ace said, as he led his guest into his office. "Sit." He gestured to a seat at his desk. He walked to his desk and looked at the man in front of him.
Brad Windom didn't seem to embody any of the hostility that was being directed towards him. He stood in front of Ace's desk, one hand in his pocket, an idiotic smile on his face, the picture of ease.
"Is that Dan's secretary?" he asked, pointing to the door with his thumb, "Did you poach her? You dog."
Ace sighed, tiredly. Brad was an even bigger arrogant jerk than he was, and Ace knew it. If he had allowed Brad to have even a moment Scarlett, he was sure that Brad would have set up permanent camp in his office. "She's my PA, Brad. Can we get down to business?"
Brad pulled out a chair and sat down. "Oh, I'll get down to business. Are you sleeping with her?"
Ace exhaled, exasperatedly. "I don't sleep with my employees, Brad. I have principles."
"Yeah, but how do you get any work done with that walking around?" Brad asked, turning to the door, as if he could see Scarlett there. Suddenly, he turned to face Ace, with an absolutely amused expression on his face. "Is that why you were so adamant that we meet at my office? You looked like you were practically going to strangle me when I turned up. Is this one of those 'if I can't have her, no one can' kind of things?"
"Brad, I need you to stop being exasperating and start talking business."
"What's her name?" Brad asked, leaning forward, like he hadn't heard a single thing that Ace had said.
Ace shook his head. "I can't have you harassing my employees."
Brad smirked. "Come on, Ace. I don't want to harass her. I just want to show her a good time."
"The same way you've shown a good time to practically every woman in the city?" Ace made a face.
"Don't be a hypocrite, Ace. You sleep with all the women you want to, too."
Ace shook an index finger at Brad. "There's difference between sleeping with them and leading them on and "dating" multiple of them at the same time. What I have is an agreement. What you have is a brothel. And now, I would like to stop talking about the women and start talking business. Can you please focus?"
"Fine," Brad relented, "But let me tell you one thing: They don't make them like that unless they're trouble."
Ace rolled his eyes. "Brad, if you lay a slimy finger on any one of my employees, I will make sure that you never sell anything in this city again. Got that? You know I can do it."
Brad held his arms up in defense. Ace's eyes drifted over to the wall he shared with Scarlett before turning back to Brad.
On the other side of the wall, Scarlett sat at her desk, scrolling through pages of gift ideas for me, when Ace's phone rang.
She looked at the screen which lit up with an unknown number.
"Hello. How may I help you?" she asked, turning her eyes back to her laptop screen.
There was a pause. "Ace?" said a woman's voice.
"I'm sorry, he's not here," Scarlett said.
"Who are you?" the voice on the other end of the phone asked, almost disgustedly.
"Who are you?" Scarlett asked, confused as to why someone would be disgusted at the voice of a stranger.
"Can I just talk to Ace?"
"I'm sorry, but he's not here."
"Look, I don't really care for your attitude. Who the hell are you?" the girl demanded.
"I'm his PA, and again, I'm sorry, but he's not available."
Scarlett heard a grunt of annoyance. "God, you're such a bitch."
The dial tone greeted a confused Scarlett, who couldn't fathom for the life of her what had just happened. She was about to go back to her work, when the phone rang again. It was a different unknown number.
"Hi, how may I help you?"
The perkiest voice she had ever heard greeted Scarlett. "Can I speak to Ace, please?"
Scarlett screamed internally and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, he's not available."
"Oh," said the voice, considerably less perky than before, "Are you sure? It won't take more than a minute."
"I'm sure," Scarlett said, "I'm sorry, but he's not here."
"Do you know when he'll be back?" the girl asked, slightly hopefully.
Scarlett shook her head. "Sorry, I can't really help you there."
The girl on the other end of the phone sighed. "Alright, well, thanks."
Scarlett chucked the phone on to the table and frowned, wondering what was going on. She stared at it, challenging it to ring again. When it didn't, she picked her laptop up and walked over to the cabinet to work while she stood.
Just as her fingers were poised to type, the phone rang again. groaning outwardly, Scarlett stomped over to the phone and picked it.
"Hello?" she said, rather viciously.
"Who the hell are you? I want to talk to Ace," said a shrill voice from the other end of the phone.
Willing herself to be patient, Scarlett spoke. "I'm sorry, but he's not available."
"You're lying. Just give him the phone."
Scarlett frowned, bewildered. "Maybe you should find a hobby instead of calling men who clearly don't want to talk to you."
She hung up and rubbed her temples, wondering what Ace had done to make all of these women so obsessed to keep calling, even though he clearly didn't answer this phone.
By the time the next call came in, Scarlett had abandoned all hope of being nice and polite. Instead, she decided to have fun with it.
Sliding her finger across the screen to answer the call, she pressed the phone to her ear. "City Cemetery Crematorium. You kill 'em, we grill 'em. How may I help you?"
There was a pause and the person hung up immediately.
Thirty minutes later when the next call came in, she answered it again. "I hope to God you hid the body before making this call."
She immediately heard a click.
"What are you doing, Ambrose?" Ace wandered into her office with a look of utter confusion on his face.
"Women have been calling you and asking for you incessantly." Scarlett waved the phone at him. "I have been verbally assaulted many a time today, just for telling them that you're unavailable, so I decided to have some fun. It's obvious that you don't really care whether they call or not."
Ace approached the cabinet she was standing at, amused. "I guess that explains it."
"Why don't you just get rid of this phone and if you really need one for your sister, just give her the new number?" Scarlett suggested, tossing the phone on to the counter.
Ace cleared his throat and averted his gaze. "I have my reasons."
When he offered no further explanations, Scarlett gasped. "Is it your birthday? Is that why people keep calling?"
Ace's eyebrows raised. "That's actually a very intelligent guess. It's not actually my birthday, but it's the birthday that I've told to these women."
"Why did you give them a fake birthday?" Scarlett crinkled her nose.
Ace shrugged. "I don't want any of them trying to celebrate my actual birthday, or trying to search for me on databases."
"Why do you keep giving these women your number, if you don't even want them to call?" Scarlett asked, crossing her hands over her chest.
Ace chuckled. "I was young and inexperienced. I know better now. Speaking of not knowing better, did you see the man I just met?"
Scarlett raised her eyes to Ace's and nodded.
"His name is Brad Windom. I need you to stay away from him."
Scarlett raised an eyebrow, artfully. "Why?"
"He's an absolute douchebag." Seeing Scarlett open her mouth, Ace interrupted her. "Yes, yes, I know. I'm a douchebag, too, but Brad is really just bad news. Do not engage with him. Do you understand?"
Scarlett pouted, making a babying face. "Are you worried about me?" she mused.
Ace rolled his eyes. "I don't want Brad sniffing around my employees. You must stay away from him."
"You know," Scarlett coaxed, mellowing her voice, as she took a step towards Ace, "I can take care of myself."
Ace leaned in. "Sure, you can, Ambrose. Undone buttons and all."
He laughed as Scarlett's jaw dropped. "You keep yourself away from him. Here." He gave her a receipt. "This is from a florist near your house. I need you to pick it up and bring it to my penthouse tomorrow morning. Understood?"
Scarlett looked down at the paper as he walked away. "Fine, but promise you'll be fully clothed."
Ace turned. "Oh, I know that's the opposite of what you want, Ambrose."
Walking back towards his office, Ace pulled out his phone, which had been vibrating like crazy. There were numerous missed calls, messages and emails.
He opened the one at the top, which was from Connor Matthews.
Did you really have to show that girl off to Brad? Now he won't stop asking me to find out about her. He's such a dip-shit.
Ace exhaled deeply, trying to calm himself so that he didn't make a trip over to Brad's office, just to punch him in the face.
He opened the next message from one of Brad's friends.
So, you poached that hot brunette from Dan? Sly move. Is she working for you or is she working for you? Can I get in on the action?
Growling, internally, he popped his head back into Scarlett's office.
"Ambrose, the next time I have someone over in the office, you'd better wear a paper bag over your head."
Everyone is so into Scarlett. Is Ace jealous or what?
Let me know what you think so far!