With an opportunity of a lifetime to make her entrepreneurial dreams come true, Thea finds it getting increasingly harder to hide her attraction to her boss, Aiden Steele - not knowing that the man under all the cold layers has a secret worth millio...
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I wasn't expecting life to be so freakishly annoying, really. I mean, just who the hell was Dylan to tell me I couldn't quit my job just yet? Sure, store managers are a thing and they have their policies and stuff, but seriously. This wasn't an opportunity I wanted to be horsing around. Fuck notice periods. How had I not factored in this stupid concept when I agreed with Aiden's proposal?
"There's no way to get out of this?" I asked for the last time, staring at the ceiling instead. Dylan's shabby office was hardly a sight to take pleasure in anyways. Brian would have found a way. Brian would have known how to make it all go away.
"Well unless you have $10,000 lying around, nope."
"Ten grand!" My voice cracked, "You think you guys pay me enough to have ten fucking grand lying around?"
"I know you don't. That's why notice periods are a thing. So the company doesn't lose-"
"I've had a year at B-school, Dylan." I interrupted him, "I know why. That doesn't mean I'm happy about it. Especially for a freaking Sales Associate. You can find college girls willing to take this role in minutes. I don't see why you're making this so hard for me."
"You're making it hard for yourself sweetheart," God, I hated when he called me endearing terms, "It's a contract, you signed it and now you have to honour it."
An idea struck me, "Fire me then."
"What? On what grounds? You were the employee of the month three times in a row!"
"Well, I slept in the stock room for two hours yesterday. Everyone thought I was checking inventory." Dylan did not look convinced, "One time I took a sweater back from a customer without a receipt just so she could leave me the fuck alone."
Dylan's face was impassive, and I knew I would have to dig my head deeper into the rabbit hole of shame to actually get any damage done.
"Last month a lady pissed me off for two whole hours straight so I kept accidentally giving her clothes a size smaller than she needed and I felt very happy when she had a breakdown in the changing rooms."
Nothing. Seriously? I'd felt disgusting about myself for a whole week and Dylan had nothing to say?
"I stole one of the new perfume sample sticks last year around Christmas."
"Darling, I'm not paid enough to care about these things." He brushed me off, "Now get back to work, it doesn't look like a busy day but the clothes from the basket need to be put back on display."
Groaning, I walked out of the stuffy cabin, hands immediately busy sending a text to Aiden to update him about the situation.
Seeing the message was delivered, I put my phone in my pocket, trudging down the trial room to pick up the clothes people had discarded. I hated this job more than anything, and I even had a ticket out, but I was freaking trapped and I hated it. I had tears welling up in my eyes that I brushed away before walking onto the floor, racks of clothing waiting to be filled.
