Page 26 of Love Not Qualified

The second I stepped foot inside the building I was going to work in from now on, a wave of nausea coursed through me. My mouth was as dry as sand and my first instinct was to swallow, even though that made it ten times worse.

I dragged my sweaty palms down my jeans, hoping to get rid of any evidence of the nervousness knotting tight in my stomach.

Why am I like this?

Was it because I was working my way out of the rat hole I’d been living in for years, finally finding myself a high-paid job? Or because ofhim?

Just the thought of meeting the cold, unapproachable, and hot boss sent jolts all over my spine. When I told Chad I hoped I’d be placed farfaraway from his office, I wasn’t kidding.

Being close to Tristan Graves meant having him breathing loudly down my neck and following every move I made with those profound eyes of his.

“Miss Ross.” The bodyguard’s voice took me out of my thoughts.

I turned around, dragging a smile over my face. “Hi.”

“You are expected at the fiftieth floor,” he informed me, spine straight and eyes pointed ahead.

“Thank y?—”

“I’ll take care of her.” I felt a hand wrapping around my arm before my eyes landed on the source of the voice.

A woman a few years older than me dragged me away from the bodyguard, her heels clicking on the floor as she strode toward the elevator.

“I’m Sara Bennet, Mr. Graves’ assistant,” she explained in a sing-song voice, pushing a button before raising a hand to pat her stewardess-style bun.

Sara’s lips were colored a light shade of red, and heavy makeup rested on her face as tight and revealing clothes hugged her body. Her skirt was so short that all I needed to do to find out what was underneath was to take a few steps behind.

“I’m Haelyn, nice to meet you,” I said.

“Well, Haelyn, we’ll share the same office.” Sara pursed her lips, though her eyes brightened with enthusiasm.

I nodded my head and we both walked inside of the elevator. She engaged in a conversation with two of the girls who were already inside, pushing the button for the fiftieth floor without even looking at it.

My heart skipped a beat. I hoped the boss only wanted to see me, that our office was nowhere near his and that we belonged on the first floor.

When the small room cleared, Sara turned her attention back to me, her smile looking horribly forced. “You are going to love it here. Tristan treats his assistantsverywell.” She blinked at me.

I covered the roll of my eyes by acting like they were itchy, scratching them with the edge of my fingers.

The fact that she called him Tristan—and what she said—made me think there was much more between them than a simple boss-and-employee relationship.

So unprofessional of him.

“Does he want to see me or something?” I asked, playing with my cuticles.

Her head immediately snapped to me. “What? Why?”

I frowned, not understanding why she seemed so aggravated by the idea of him wanting to see me. “Um, we are going to the last floor and I thought the reason we are going there is because he wants to talk to me…?”

Sara’s features released any previous tension, her lips lifting into a smile once again. She patted my shoulder as the doors slid open in front of us with aping. “No, silly. This is where my office is.”

We walked out of the elevator together and she stopped for a second to look at me. “I’ll let you talk to Lo over there.” She pointed at the woman at the reception. “And then you walk past Tristan’s office and enter the office on the left.” Sara smiled brightly.

“Thank you.” My lips stretched.

She turned around and swayed her hips all the way to the place I assumed our office was, disappearing from my view. There’s something about this girl I didn’t like, but I hoped my instincts were wrong this time. I could really use a friend in here.

“Hello, Miss Ross,” the woman greeted me. “Here’s your temporary badge.” She handed me a white name tag with a yellow line above my name and offered me a smile.

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