One Night Stand Gone Wrong

**One month later**

Arielle woke up late. She had slept past 3 am after completing the report she wanted to discuss with Thomas that day.

It was Friday, and she wanted to get some things out of the way before she could relax for the weekend.

Arielle had the unhealthy habit of being too engrossed in her work and forgetting about her health and everything else.

The more work there was, the more she would work off on adrenaline, making herself extremely tired by the end of each grueling project.

She shut her eyes as she leaned in the elevator and yawned behind her palm.

She was aware of the people looking at her wide-eyed as if she were an alien.

Arielle could feel a few unfriendly gazes on her, but she ignored them. She had almost two decades of experience in ignoring hostile looks.

However, what prompted her to open her eyes a crack was a feeling of someone stealing peeks at her as if she was a precious treasure, and they were afraid of disturbing her.

She ignored that as well.

Thomas was also in the elevator. He would occasionally take shared elevators to mingle with the crowd. He had been surprised to enter the elevator and see Arielle leaning against a corner, yawning with her eyes closed.

Her ignoring all gazes on her did not surprise him at all. They had spent enough time together for him to know that she couldn’t care less about what others thought of her.

The other people in the elevator shot her unfriendly looks and even tried to poke her, but she patted their hands away without opening her eyes.

Everyone kept stealing glances between them, but he ignored them just like her.

Finally, they arrived on the 49th floor, which had both of their offices, and she opened her eyes as if she could tell she had reached her destination.

Arielle opened her eyes, and she looked straight into Thomas’s eyes.

She had a hunch that he was also on the elevator as she could smell his faint perfume even amidst eight other people, and she could only think of him who would look at her without animosity.

Arielle suddenly felt shy as she met his gaze.

They had gotten along exceedingly well. Both were in perfect sync at work as well.

Arielle had never met a person with whom she had more in common. Not to mention her impression of him was elevating each day.

“After you, Miss Ward!” Thomas gestured exaggeratedly.

“Thank you, Mr. Payne! Let me get you a cup of coffee as an apology. Besides, I have plenty of tiring things to discuss with you, and espresso would be the way to go about it.”

Arielle replied half-jokingly.

The people eavesdropping couldn’t see anything intimate or unusual between them. They looked like co-workers who got along well.

Thomas only nodded at her before he went to his cabin.

Arielle went to her cabin and kept her stuff before making her way to the pantry.

She made two espressos and grabbed her MacBook before making her way to Thomas’s cabin just in time for their scheduled catch-up.

Arielle knocked on the door and went inside after hearing ‘come in’ from the inside.

Arielle smiled at him as she closed the door and kept the coffee on the table between the couch.

Thomas took the cue and sat opposite her on the couch as well.

It was the time for her first detailed assessment after one month of analysis.

Thomas has cleared his schedule for the day for her. Their meeting would expectedly be a long one.

They had dived right to work without exchanging any pleasantries and only stopped talking when they were out of coffee.

Thomas took the chance to call his secretary and ordered two espressos and some light snacks.

They took a 10 minutes break as they waited for their snacks. After spending another 10 minutes clearing the snacks, they both dived back into work.

They, once again, took another break for lunch. Thomas took her to a high-end restaurant for a sumptuous lunch.

The news had spread like wildfire in the company that the Analyst had spent the entire day in the President’s cabin, and they even had lunch together.

But they were disappointed to find from the secretariat office that they only seemed to be talking about work.

As per the onlookers, they were both looking at a screen and taking notes while sitting on opposite couches.

Unwilling to admit defeat, some staff members took turns running into the 49th floor for trivial matters.

But they were all exasperated as their findings corroborated what the secretariat office had said earlier.

Disturbed by the continuous flow of people showing outside the glass doors, Thomas took a break and scolded everyone. He threatened to fire anyone who dared to disturb his work.

His outburst further confirmed their guess that they were indeed just working.

As such, they were not bothered that Thomas had closed the blinds making them unable to see inside his office.

After all, there was nothing to see. Everyone knew that Thomas would close the blinds to focus on work.

Inside the office, Arielle chuckled as soon as all the blinds were closed and the door locked.

“Your staff is too gossipy.” She shook her head, “whoever managed this company before you did a terrible job. You have been cleaning up their mess for the last five years. While you have done a stunning job, it’s rotten from the inside and won’t last long.”Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

“Let’s start dating!” Thomas said.

“What?” Thomas’s words took Arielle by surprise.

“I mean it. I like you. In every way. Let’s get back together.” He added.

“First of all, we were never together. And second, I don’t date my employer or co-worker.” She said without any hesitation.

“We can have a fling!” He proposed.

“Never thought about that!” Arielle pondered for a while.

“You mean just a fling, no emotions, no entanglement, no future complication, and we end it whenever one of us wants to end it, no making fuss!” She added.

“Yeah!” Thomas agreed. That was not what he had meant.

He thought they could upgrade their relationship to a serious one after their contract ended. For now, he wanted to be together and was not bothered by the status.

“Alright!” She agreed. Arielle had missed their time during their vacation as well. It did not hurt to give it a shot.

“I will be discreet and won’t let anyone know. I know how much this bothers you.” He added.

“Thanks! Let’s get back to work for now.” Arielle agreed.