Page 69 of Company Ink

"Dating," I fill in the blanks.

Adrian clears his throat. "Exactly. If you wish to spend the night withhim, then that's your prerogative."

I scoff. "You seem rather upset despite saying you're not."

"Not upset," he clarifies. "I'm disappointed."

"That I'm going with Mr. Pearson or that I'm not going with you?" There's a difference and he knows it. Silence stretches between us as we stare at each other.

"Are you aware that he has feelings for you?" Adrian finally asks, his tone low, almost callous.

I close my eyes, irritation festering in my veins. Always deflecting. "Are you being serious right now?"

"I see the way he looks at you, Cassie. It's the same way he looked at Amelia." Adrian shrugs. "He likes you."

This is ridiculous but I'm curious as to what he's getting at. "Does that bother you?" I probe, trying to elicit some sort of reaction out of him. Anything.

"Of course not," he says flatly. I almost laugh. Who is he trying to convince?

"I don't believe you anymore." I take a step away from him, afraid that he'll pull me into his devilish vortex. "But I'm also not going to keep asking you to tell me how you really feel. You're a big boy, Adrian. Instead of sulking,dosomething about it."

Adrian tenses, the muscles in his hands contracting as if he's fighting against his own body. "It is not that simple, Cariño, I've told you so many times. You and I, we can't—"

I roll my eyes. "Save it, Adrian. Itissimple. What do you want? Just ask yourself that." I turn on my heel and head for the door. "But don't take too long. I'm getting tired of waiting."

"Cassie—" he calls out, a hint of desperation in his voice, but I close the door before he can finish his sentence.

My blood is boiling when I get back to my desk.We can't, Cassie. It's complicated, Cassie. What the hell? He's like a radio station that plays the same shitty song on repeat, day in and day out. It's infuriating. It's aggravating. It's—draining. His words don't reflect his actions, I'm not oblivious to that fact. Why is he putting us both through suchstressif he doesn't have an endgame? Why doesn't he just stop? Put us out of our misery? Nowthatwould be simple.

And what the fuck is this Blake thing now? First Kitty and now Adrian. Are they seeing something I'm not? Every time I'm around Blake our conversations are mildly flirty, but does that mean something? Do Iwantit to mean something? Oh my God. My head.

The day drags on, scanning, filing, and trying to keep my mind off of the fuckery that was this morning. A little bit past 4:30 pm, I head to Blake's office to drop off some documentation that was couriered from Wagner Corp.

"Cassie," Blake smiles as I enter his office. He looks tired, dark bags under his eyes, and a fresh coffee on his desk. "Sorry I haven't come to see you yet, today has been chaos."

"It's fine," I reply, handing him the files. "These came for you."

"Thank you, you can put it on top of all those other documents," he says wearily, nodding towards the giant stack on his desk.

"That seems like a lot of paperwork," I note, running my fingers across the two-inch pile. "Do you need help with anything? I've finalized everything for Client Appreciation Night so I'm free."

Blake checks his watch. "It's almost time to go home. This will take a few hours." He forces a smile. "I'll deal with it, it's fine."

I tilt my head. "You know it's okay to ask for help, right?"

"Do Ilooklike I need help?" he asks, reclining in his chair.Men.

I roll my eyes and take a seat in front of him, pulling my phone out of my pocket. "Chinese or Indian?" I ask, opening up the UberEats app.

Blake's eyebrows furrow when I look at him. "What?"

I sigh. "You clearly have a shit ton of work to do, it's almost dinner time,Ireally don't want to go home to an empty apartment,so...we're going to order some take-out and get this pile off your desk. Okay?"

Blake lets out an amused laugh. "I thoughtIwas the boss here."

"Not today," I reply lightly.

Maybe spending time alone with Blake isn't the best decision after what Adrian told me but if I go home, I'll lose my mind overthinking everything. Monique is at Matt's place like ninety percent of the time these days. It almost feels like she's trying to wean me off.

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