Blossom in their hearts

CHAPTER 4

Before I start telling you about my new day, new week, new everything, let me tell you a bit about myself so you get a full picture. I consider myself to be a goody-two-shoes kind of girl. I always liked to play by the rules. I love them. It makes me feel protected somehow. I never had too much to drink, never smoked anything, always did what I was asked to do. But, let me tell you, I have a temper as well. I don’t let people push me around. I have worked my ass off to get where I am now, and it was not because someone did me a favour. 

I am the Head of PR for an advertising company. I’ve spent my last 6 years working for “A&D Creative”. Together with management and human resources, we tried to build a family type of community, because as I always say “Happy employees are the best advertisement we could have” not only for our company but also for their clients. Since I started working here, the company has 50% more clients than before. They are more creative, and produce better ads, because of that. Jeremy and Derek (respectively Adler and Devon), are the co-founders of this agency. They hired me when I just came out of school, trusting me with everything in my department. We have a very friendly relationship together. Six years of working together will do that. They are so respectful and professional that at the beginning I thought that they were both gay and in a relationship together. I was expecting them to try something with me but never happened. With time I saw that they were not when I met several of their girlfriends, one every couple of months if I may add. This made me respect them even more as if they had a rule in their life that they would never break: Work is work, and play is play. And the played a looooot. 

I was in a relationship for 2 years so they saw me with the same guy. And before that, I was alone, because I wanted to dedicate myself to my career. Even throughout my relationship with Justin I spent a lot of time at work, in meetings and working out new strategies. Well, now that I think about it maybe he got bored waiting for me at home. But that doesn’t excuse his betrayal. He could have said something. We could have worked it through.

Enough of Justin, Jasmin! You should forget about him already. There’s no going back.

Anyway, I woke up today full of energy. Maybe the weekend, maybe the fact that I got a lot done, made me have this new rush of energy and positivity. I put my favourite dress on, which is a baby pink lace dress with a narrow v-neck that didn’t show my breast. There was a leather belt attached to the dress and a leather line at the end of it, just on top of my knees. It showed my innocence in so many ways, but it also screamed my kick-ass nature. I put on my 5-inch sandals that matched the dress and with my baby pink crossbody bag with black lines on the sides of it. I left my curls free this morning, with only a Louis Vuitton hairpin holding the top half away from my face. I was very happy with my look this morning. 

I went out of my apartment and in about 15 minutes drive I was at work. I was a bit early so I decided to go make a coffee for myself. When I was there I made a full pot thinking that people will come and it would be nice to find the much needed morning coffee ready waiting for you. 

I got my mug full of coffee and went to my office. I put some music on, in a very low voice so that only I could hear it. While Two Feet- Love is a b***h was playing, I was checking my emails for the day and organizing my agenda. My mind was floating around transported by soft music, and I don’t know how I found myself thinking about Friday night. It was just a flash because I stopped my mind as soon as I caught it. I didn’t want to think about Friday. I didn’t want to think about him.  I needed it. He probably needed it. We had fun. That’s it!

Suddenly, I heard a ping on my laptop. It was an email from Jeremy telling me that there was a meeting with them and HR at 9:00 am. I got curious but didn't think much about it. It was normal that the 4 of us met on a regular basis. 

I went on with my work for the next half an hour and decided to go meet Jeremy before the meeting to discuss with him some work-related issues.

 When I knocked on his door, I didn't wait for him to respond, because being friends, we entered each other's offices freely. 

"Can we talk about…" the words cut in my throat. Those eyes. Forest green. Wild. Turning darker with the realization. Those lips, going from straight to a faint smile, and that was stopped suddenly. 

Silence. Green eyes staring at blue ones. What is he doing here? Is he following me?

"What..?" I started but stopped. I didn't know how to finish the sentence. It didn't make sense to me. 

"How are you, Blossom?" He said. A smile creeping in his eyes, but not his mouth like he was trying to keep a straight face.

"Told you not to call me that, Knight" I spat but I regretted my reaction immediately. I shouldn't be rude.

" I see you like to call me your Knight." He replied. "But, I can't stop calling you that. Look at you Love. Beautiful." 

"Stop it," I said. My cheeks blushing really hard. What's happening to me? I am never this shy. "I was never complimented this much." My mind says. 

"Oh, Blossom. You look even better like this." A big smile spread through his face. For a second, I smiled back and then I regained my posture. 

"Pardon me for being forward but, what are you doing here?" I asked being my professional self again. "Are you waiting for Jeremy? We have a meeting in about.." 

“Oh, here you are Aidan,” Jeremy said. Then he turned to me. “ Jasmin, you’re here as well. I see you two met each other already.” I was silent. I didn’t know what to think anymore. So it was not a mistake or coincidence that he was here. And his name is Aidan. Nice. It suits him. Oh, s**t. I just remembered. I had s*x with someone of whom I don’t even know the name. I felt my face heat up and I definitely know that I am blushing. I see him looking at me and a smirk coming up in his face. That jerk.

“Yeah, sort of. Jeremy do you have a moment before the meeting?” I asked trying to change the subject so at least he doesn’t notice my red face. “Can it wait?”  Jeremy said,” We’re about to start and Aidan is already here.” Oh, so he will be attending the meeting. What does he have to do with the meeting? 

The door opens and Derek comes in with Julian from HR. When he sees that we are in the room he smiles and says: “Great, everyone is already here, so we can start.” 

“Today we wanted this meeting to inform you about some changes around the company and I am very excited to tell you this.” his smile was very broad and sincere. “ Jeremy and I have been thinking about this for a long time and I think it was time that we took the big step. All this would not have been possible without you Jasmine and your great work with PR and you Julian with all the great work with our employees,” he said. I couldn’t wait anymore so I jumped ”Derek what is it? What’s the big change? You are worrying me?” my curiosity was killing me. Knight, or should I call him Aidan now, smiled. It was not a smirk. It was a happy sincere one. He was pleased for some reason. 

Jeremy started ”Since our company is at the peak right now, and with the very great publicity that we’re getting lately, we decided to expand. We’ll be going to hopefully have a new office in New York  by the end of this year.” Wow. This IS a surprise. And, it is great news. 

“I and Derek will move to New York next week and will live there, at least the first period,” Jeremy said. “So soon?” I asked. “What’s the rush? What about here? Who’s going to run the place here?” I had many questions in my mind but I think that was enough blurting for now. 

“Well, Jasmine..” Derek started “Let me introduce you to Aidan Knight, our new partner.” He finished with e grin on his face. “Partner? But, how..?” I was so confused.

“ Since we’re friends I am explaining you the whole thing. We will be equal partners of the A & D Creative which will become A&D Creative and Co because Aidan will be a silent partner and CEO of the New York branch when everything is in place. He will be working with us all in order to get to know our philosophy of work. Jasmine, I need your help with this.” s**t, s**t, s**t. I can’t be working with him. I just can’t. But, how do I say no? “Umm, sure.” Ughhh... 

“Julian, you will be coming with us to sort the new staff,” Derek said and Julian nodded. Great. Just what I needed. Being alone with Knight to run this place. 

____________________________________________

After sorting every detail about the move and responsibilities the meeting ended and I decided to go to my office to gather my peace, but it wasn’t that easy. 

“Ms Peterson, can I speak to you for a minute?” that voice. Let me tell you, it sends some weird message down there. Like it’s the owner of little me. Every time...

“Yes, Mr..” I pretended not to know him. Actually, I was not sure what to call him. Was Knight his last name? Or just some made-up nickname he wanted me to call him during our teasing sessions. They called him Knight so it might be his last name after all. 

“Aidan,” He said “Aidan Knight, but you can call me Aidan since we are going to work a lot together from now on” he finished in a very polite way since both  Jeremy and Derek were still in the room even though not paying attention to us. “Right, Aidan” I decided not to be formal “tell me”.

“Well, I would like to see your philosophy of work. Both boys were very enthusiastic to show me, but I think that who better than you can show that to me and explain everything the right way.” I nodded. And in reality, I understood. Then he added something that caught me by surprise “What do you think that we all go out for a drink after work tonight?” directing it to everyone instead of just me.

“Well, Aidan we can’t go,” said Derek. “We are flying to New York in a couple of hours. But, don’t let that stop you. It will be a great way to get to know each other under a different light as well as the professional one”.He suggested and I facepalmed myself. I had no idea how to escape that situation. I really didn’t know how to react. “That would be a great idea! ” said Aidan “What do you think then?” I just nodded because I was so confused at the moment. I just couldn’t deal with everything that was being thrown to me at the time.”Alright. At 7:00 it is, then” like we agreed for the time already. I decided to let it go and greeted everyone and left to go hide in my office. It was going to be a very long day, and it had only started.