Chapter 8
1339 Words
Iris
The surprise was evident on his face as he stared at me. “What am I doing here? I work here," he said, the last part with such a ridiculous expression; I would have smacked him on the head if not for his latter statement. “You work here?!”
“Yes.” I chuckled sarcastically, expecting him to join in because that just wasn’t possible but he didn’t join in. Instead, he just stared at me with a blank expression. “Wait, you’re serious?!”
He sighed and adjusted his stance, his eyes going to the watch on his wrist. "Who are you and what do you want? Do you work here?”
I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, who are you?” I scoffed. Was this really what he was going to do? Pretend like he didn’t know me just because he wanted nothing to do with me again. I adjusted my hips and folded my arms as he stared directly into my eyes, which made me immediately lose a bit of my resolve.
“What’s your name? Do you work here?”
"Wow," I muttered. “You know what? This was a bad idea.” It's definitely for the best that he was ignoring my existence. At least I know he wasn’t here for me and is not going to cause a scene. I don’t care. I don’t want him anymore anyway.
I straightened my really tight white shirt that felt annoying at that moment and turned to go. But I didn't make it two steps away from him before I was stumbling on God knows what and falling to the floor. THUD. I groaned in pain at the impact my body made with the restroom floor. Ugh!
I turned to see the motherfucker staring at me with a blank expression. Really? He couldn’t even have tried to catch me. We both turned to the door as a voice approached the restroom then.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Why would she do that?"
My asshole of a fling stepped over me as he headed to the door and he opened the door just as the elegant lady from earlier in the department reached out to open it herself. A man I couldn't recognize was right beside her. “What?” she said, flabbergasted, when she glanced behind him to see me on the floor. I stood up immediately with the little dignity I had left.
“Sir!” she said with all agitation. “I’m so sorry about this. I had no idea you had arrived.”
Sir?
He turned to point at me. “Who is she?”
“S-she’s the new intern. She came in today.”
He nodded and checked the watch on his wrist again. The motherfucker. Really?
"Well, you need to do a better job of putting her in line. Is the team ready?”
"Yes, sir.” I stood awkwardly in the restroom, trying to process everything that had just happened as she led him away. “Oh.” I hurried after them when the woman sent a glare in my direction.
Shit, I think I'm in trouble. But why was she addressing him so importantly? Was he like the boss or something? The VP?
Oh s**t. If that's the case, I'm pretty much cooked.
“Huh, what happened?” Emma asked as I walked back to the desk. It seemed like more people were noticing my presence now compared to when I first arrived and the rest were still in the frenzy of preparing for the campaign. “Uh… nothing.” I noticed the look Emma gave me, clearly saying she doesn’t believe me but I ignored it.
I dusted my hands and grabbed a wipe from the desk. I should have washed it back there but I don't think I could go back without dying from firsthand embarrassment.
“Come on.” I turned to Emma, who started grabbing the reports I had stacked earlier before the whole fiasco. “Huh?”
“We have the presentation, remember?” she handed me some of the reports. “Quick. We need to hand these out.”
“O-okay.” I followed her into a conference room where the other teams were also headed and my eyes immediately went to Jaxon at the head of the table when I stepped in. He was talking with the elegant lady and a man who were on either side of him.
I muttered a profanity under my breath and scoffed. Like, okay, I get it if you want nothing to do with me so we ignore each other politely and set boundaries; fine. But this, it was almost like we’d never met before and hated each other.
Well, I definitely hate him now. The asshole. I can’t believe I once thought he looked so good and… kind. Well, he might look good but he was definitely not kind.
“Hey!” I glanced up at Emma, who was now beside Jaxon and staring at me with the rest of the people at the table. “The reports.” Right. f**k. This was really messing up my first day.
I took the side of the table Emma hadn’t reached and shared the reports in my hand. After that, I stepped back, unsure what to do until Emma waved me over to an empty seat beside her.
Oh, we are to join the meeting?
I walked over to her and sat down, trying my best not to glance in Jaxon’s direction at all. I failed a few times.
“Shall we start?” I failed again, as he stated.
****
After the meeting, the woman from earlier called me into her office almost immediately and asked me what had happened earlier.
“I-i…” I had no idea what to say. I still couldn’t believe he actually worked here and was the boss or executive director, as Emma had said. I was still reeling from how rattled I'd felt when he asked me that question in the meeting.
“What do you have to say?”
Ugh, I'd been so speechless and looked incompetent, as well as felt stupid.
“I’d thought he was someone I knew."
“You thought Julian Ashford was someone you knew?”
“Ye–” Wait. “Julian Ashford?”
She scoffed. “Do you even realize what you did? Or how close you came to losing your job on your very first day? Accosting the boss?” So that’s what he told her, which was actually what I'd done, but still. Also, why was she addressing him as Julian? He's Jax-
Wait, did she just say Ashford, as in the Ashford that also owns the Ashford Group?
“You should be grateful he didn’t fire you on the spot.”
Okay, there was no way it was the same name. Maybe he just has the same last name as a coincidence. I mean, that has to be it, right?
“I would have given you a query for misconduct but you’re new, so I'll let you off the hook this time. Another blunder and you’re at risk. Got it?”
I nodded, my brain still trying to process what she’d said.
“Okay, now let's have proper introductions. You're…” she went through the papers on her desk and picked one up. “Iris Sinclair. Great. I'm Victoria Hale, the head of the department.”
“Oh... uhm, okay.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You'll be introduced to the rest of the department as time goes on. We're in the middle of preparing for our new release and campaign so everyone is busy. But you've met Emma; stick by her. She'll tell you what to do and what not to do.”
I nodded sheepishly, immediately understanding what she meant by that but there was no way Jaxon is part of Ashford, right?
That would be a what-the-f**k situation.
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