Page 4 of Secret Desire
With a sigh I pushed myself back up to standing. I was supposed to be a badass CEO. It was time I acted like it. Time to get back to work.
By the end of the day I was feeling frazzled and out of sorts. Every accidental sighting of Ashley made me feel like more of a creep. To make up for being distracted I worked late, then headed upstairs to my condo. Usually the familiar surroundings calmed me, but not tonight. After wandering around aimlessly I decided I needed to exercise to clear my head.
I put on my swimsuit and headed up to the indoor/outdoor pool on the top floor, swimming hard until I was exhausted. Then I soaked in the hot tub until the rest of my stress faded away.
I was feeling much better after some time in the water. This area was private to me and my best friends – well, and Sadie now – so I didn’t bother with a cover up, just drying myself and throwing my towel around my neck so I could go back to my place to shower.
I got onto the elevator. It went one floor down, then stopped on Ariel’s floor. I assumed it would be Ariel or Sadie, but to my surprise it was Ashley who was waiting to get on. I’d never even seen her in the building before although I was sure she musthave visited her sister from time to time. They were strangers, but not estranged.
“Oh. Hey Maeve,” Ashley said, clearly as surprised to see me as I was to see her. “I, uh, I had dinner with Ariel and Sadie.”
“That’s right,” I said, remembering Ariel’s earlier invitation.
Of course I managed to run into Ashley the one time she was up in here in the private residence area. It’s the way my life was going right now.
The doors started to close, so I stuck my hand out to stop them. “Hop on.”
Ashley walked onto the elevator, and the small space suddenly seemed super hot. When I glanced over, Ashley’s eyes were fixed on my body, eyes traveling from my breasts to my ankles, her gaze so warm I could almost feel it on my skin. Given that I was wearing a boring and functional one piece bathing suit that was suitable for swimming laps, I felt flattered by the attention.
So were my nipples. They were standing at attention, poking through my swimsuit. I cleared my throat to pull Ashley’s attention back to my face.
“Did you have a nice swim?” she asked. “Ariel showed me the pool the first time I visited her here. It looks lovely.”
“You’re always welcome to use the pool,” I said, immediately imagining her in a tiny bikini. “The hot tub too.”
A vision of the two of us making out in the bubbling water hit me so hard that I had to press my thighs together.
Keep your mind on work,I reminded myself sternly.
Suddenly the elevator stuttered, shaking the car and making Ashley gasp.
“It does that sometimes,” I assured her. “We have a maintenance inspection in a few weeks and they’re going to check it out.”
Ashley nodded, but I noticed that she had a white knuckle grip on the handrail now. Meanwhile I was deep into a ‘trapped in the elevator and making out’ fantasy, which was not helpful.
“How was your first day?” I asked, trying to distract her. And me.
Other than a brief meeting with the rest of the team, I hadn’t spoken with her since I dropped her off in her office this morning.
Ashley brightened. “It was good. Everyone was really nice, especially Theo.”
Theo was Ariel’s assistant, our project manager, and the only person who seemed to fully understand our IT system, making him invaluable. He was also the resident busybody.
“Filled you in on all the gossip, did he?” I asked.
Ashley laughed. “I’ll never tell.”
The elevator dinged as it stopped at my floor. For some reason, I had the strongest urge to invite Ashley to come in. I reigned in the impulse.
“Well this is my floor,” I said unnecessarily. “I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”
“Goodnight.”
I could feel her eyes on me as I walked away but resisted looking back. And I definitely didn’t think of her as I tried to sleep that night.
The next day I had a supervision meeting with Ashley. I needed to give her some assignments and check in about expectations. Routine stuff, but it felt weird doing that with a woman I’d known since she was in diapers – and now had a crush on. It was too bad we were both in the office, it would have been easier to have this meeting on Zoom.
“I’m going to have you shadow me for a while on the Clark Street project,” I told Ashley. “It’s what we generally do with new hires to ensure they learn the way we do things here at AGM. Then we can do a soft hand-off of the design team once you know all the partners on the project.”
