11/28 by uliaj06

eight

In front of me was none other than Tate Woods himself. What is he even doing here?

Him and Lynn heard me open the door so they're both looking at me. Tate stood in front of her desk.

He was wearing a white dress shirt with black, suit pants. Very work professional.

"Hi." I say awkwardly, looking back and forth between them confused.

He stood there with a smug grin. "Hey."

God, I want to punch him.

"Rowan, this is Tate Woods." She explains to me.

Yeah, I already fucking know.

"Lynn, what is he doing here?" I question.

"He said he wanted to talk to you."

I stare at him. "Why do you want to talk to me?" I asked him confused.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Because." He said he answered shortly.

"Do you two know each other?" I hear Lynn ask.

She's staring back and forth between us. I can tell she's confused too.

"No, I don't." I shake my head no.

"Yes, we do." He says after me.

"No, I have never seen this guy in my life before." I try to sound as convincing as possible.

"You saw me-"

"I think he should go." I interrupt. "It's kind of creepy that he claims to know me yet, I have never seen him before."

"Creepy?" He says with an amused smile.

I nod at him.

"Umm.. Rowan, I think you should hear what he has to say. I mean, he's a known investor and he owns parts of many, many brands." She tells me. "Good brands." She reminds me with a tight smile.

I gave her an "are you kidding me?!" look. She slightly raises her eyebrows and widens her eyes, nodding yes.

"Fine, whatever." I sigh and walk out of her office.

I walk over to the "kitchen" wanting a bagel, not caring if he's following me or not. It's basically where we keep all the food. The coffee machine is there, an assortment of tea, sometimes donuts, a fridge, bagels, and other food we have.

As I grab a paper plate, I can sense his presence already behind me.

"Welcome to our kitchen. You want coffee?" I offer him in a dull voice, turning my back to him. I look up at the ceiling, convincing myself not to jump off the building right now. I hate my life.

"No, thank you, I already had one." He replies.

I nod in response.

I usually have another cup of coffee even though Aelin gives me one every morning, but someone's here today that's making me lose my appetite.

I still want a bagel though.

I take a few steps to the cabinets where the bagels usually are but when I opened the cabinets, they weren't there.

Just when I needed bagels the most, they aren't there!

I look at the other cabinets, hoping there would be some left but there wasn't.

"What are you looking for?" He asks me, noticing me searching every cabinet.

"Bagels." I sighed. "But I guess we ran out."

"Bagels?" He questions.

"Yeah. I really wanted bagels this morning." My lips have a slight frown. I stress eat and bagels are my comfort food. It made sense to need them right now.

Also I was looking forward to them all morning.

"There's donuts." He suggests, subtlety hinting towards them with his eyes.

"I can see." They aren't the same, dumbass. I try to keep my voice to sound as disinterested as possible.

"There's a cafe right across from here, there's bagels. We can go if you want." I didn't like his voice, no , I didn't like his tone. His voice was smooth and deep, it's a decent voice I'm not going to lie, he just says everything flatly. Like he's bored and he has zero interest in whatever the conversation is.

Not that I care—I don't—I'm just saying people would feel like a business meeting he just needed to check off his list.

"I don't want to go anywhere with you." I respond, turning back to grab a donut and a water bottle from the fridge.

I walk over to the tables and sit down, setting my water bottle and paper plate with my donut on the small, round table, not wanting to show him where my desk is.

He sits down across from me.

"So, why are you here?" I ask, then taking a bite from my glazed donut.

"Well, I needed to somehow tell you that the editor, the one you needed, is coming to the show and I didn't have your number." He explains.

"So, you came to my work place just to tell me that?" I confirm.

"Yeah, I mean, what if he said no and he doesn't come to the show and you wouldn't even know anything about it. So, I just wanted to let you know, he said yes." He clarifies.

"Thank you." I nod, covering my mouth as I chew.

I watch him look around, examining the place.

"How did you find this place. I mean, how did know I worked here?" I question when I swallowed the donut in my mouth.

"I looked you up." He says casually.

"You looked me up?" I say dumbfounded.

"Yeah." He said simply.

"I'm on the internet?" I didn't even know I'd show up there.

"Surprisingly. You're a fashion assistant." He states, but his eyes were thoughtful, needing confirmation.

"Mhm." I take a drink from my water.

"It showed me your manager was Ashlynn or Lynn, as you call her, and it showed me she worked here."

"You really did that?" I ask skeptically.

I know he's smart but he's more book smart, not stalking smart. He's actually kind of stupid. But that was four years ago.

"No. My sister did." He says.

Knew it.

"So, your sister found me?" I ensure.

"Yeah."

"Oh, I have something I really want to show you." I say, as I get up and walk to the trash can to throw away my plate and water.

"What is it?" He asks from behind me.

"Follow me." I fake smile at him.

I walk over to the elevators and click the down button. He stands next to me, waiting for the doors to open.

Once the elevator doors open, I motion for him to get in. When he gets in, I stand between the elevator doors so it won't close. I press the lobby button for him.

"I wish I could say it was nice talking to you, but it really wasn't." I say, then step back so the doors close on him. "Bye." I say before the doors completely close.

I roll my eyes and sigh, relieved that he's gone. I walk over to my desk, on the other side of the room, and look down at the papers in front of me.

Tuesday

I was so busy yesterday filling out paperwork for a product launch that was happening this week, that I didn't get to update Lynn about the event. I made sure to tell her everything as soon as I remembered to.

"That's great!" She turns her attention towards me. "I knew you could do it. Good job." She smiles brightly at me. "Did you finish signing everything?"

"Almost. I think I'll be done either today or tomorrow."

"Ok good." She smiles at me. "Oh, could you get me a bagel?" She asks as I almost reach the door.

"We're out."

"Oh, a donut then."

"Ok." I say, walking out.

"Tell John to buy more bagels." She calls out.

Walk to the kitchen, get a strawberry glazed donut, go back to her office, hand it to her, then to my desk I go.

I slow down as I spot him leaning on my desk, with my cup of different writing supplies in his hand. He's looking down at it, taking a pencil out, looking at it, then putting it back in and grabbing a pen and doing the same.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in annoyance and confusion when I make it to my desk, making him look up from my container of pens and pencils.

"I brought you something." He mutters as I sit down in my desk chair.

He reaches behind him to give me a brown bag folded at the top.

It's a bag that food is usually placed in. If it's food, I'm not going to not take it. So I look inside.

"A bagel?" I look up at him.

He only nods.

"Why'd you get me a bagel?"

"You said you wanted one." He claims in a tone like it's the most obvious thing.

"Yesterday. I wanted one yesterday." I restate.

"I mean, you said you really wanted a bagel and I checked in the cabinets, they still don't have some." He states.

Why the hell would he get me a bagel? Why would he remember I wanted a bagel?

To take the time to double check if we were out of bagels and coming here instead of working means effort. Effort into me. What is happening?

I look back in the bag and see a cream cheese container.

"I don't like cream cheese." I lie. I really just want him to go away.

"I didn't know if you did so I got you other spreads. It's under the napkin." He comments.

I take some of the napkins out from under the bagel and set it on my desk to make a plate for the bagel. I set the bagel on the layer of napkins I made and looked back in the bag.

He got me four.

Four.

There was chive and onion, honey walnut, strawberry, and a mixed berry one.

Effort...

"How'd you know this was my desk?" I ask, not knowing what else to say about the cream cheese he bought me.

"Oh, that guy-" He points over to Mason, talking to one of the designers. "-over there told me.

Mason is one of my closer friends there. His desk is right across from mine and I'd say I talked to him the most. He's Hispanic and has tan, olive, skin with curly hair and brown eyes.

"Thanks for the bagel. And the spreads." I add. "I think you should go, you really didn't have to waste your time getting me a bagel. I'm sure you have a meeting or... other business things to do."

His stare lingers on me. I can see it from the corner of my vision and it wasn't like he was trying to hide it.

I look down at the bagel, never fully looking at him. I don't want to remember what he looks like since he's temporary. As in, I'd give it a day or two before he leaves me alone again.

He finally stands, my view being his black pants. A reminder he's tall. I hate it.

I couldn't help watch him as he walked away, noting how broad his shoulders were and the length of his legs. He has good posture.

As he waits for the doors to open, he turns and looks at me. I couldn't look away fast enough.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He calls out before the elevator doors open and he gets in.

Tomorrow?

I see Mason walking up to his desk across from mine.

"Hey, Mason?" I call out to him.

"Yeah?" He responds as he walks over to me.

"Have you ever had strawberry flavored cream cheese?" I look up at him as he has both hands on my desk, looking at the bagel and the five flavors of cream cheese.

"No. Honey walnut?" He questions with a smile and his eyebrows raised.

I shrugged. "Do you want to try them with me?" I beam, actually excited to try them.

"Obviously." He grins and heads over to his desk to grab his chair. I take the bagel apart as he rolls his chair to sit next to me. I give him the bottom half of the bagel and he starts opening the spreads.

Wednesday

The whole day yesterday, I thought about what he meant by tomorrow. He'll see me tomorrow. What?

I questioned the reasons why he'd need to come here again, what his next excuse is.

I hate him. I hate him because he most likely did that on purpose to get into my head. I hate him because the first thing my eyes look for when the elevator opens is him. I hate him because I'd expected him the whole day.

I started doing the last of the paperwork I needed to do for the product release. It was a huge stack of papers I needed to sign and numbers I had to call. I spent the first two hours looking around once in a while, but he never showed. It's good though, because now I'm relieved and glad I don't have to put up with him.

I finally got to the last page. As I was filling it out, I see a pair of black suit pants in front of my desk.

Damn it.

I already know who's in front of me and I don't want to look up.

I continue writing, ignoring him in hopes that he'll go away. Then I see a cup of coffee he placed in front of me, making me look up at him.

"I got you coffee." He tells me, looking down at the coffee then back at me. Today he was wearing his usual black pants and a black, long sleeve, button up shirt.

I sigh. "I don't drink hot coffee." I lied. "I like it iced."

"Ok. What's your coffee order." He asks me.

"I'm not going to tell you that." I tell him, going back to finishing the last page.

"And why is that?" He challenges, touching my supply of writing utensils and taking a pen out.

"So you won't buy me another coffee and come back here again." I murmur, still filling out the paperwork in front of me.

"I won't come back here only, if you'll have lunch with me."

"Why do you want to eat lunch with me?" I ask confused.

"I want to get to know you again." He tells me as he leans on my desk.

"Well I don't." I respond lowly.

I see him pick up the little toy cow I have on my desk. I stole it from Cay, not that he'll mind or even notice since he has hundreds of them. I don't know why he's so obsessed with them, but I love them too.

I look up, seeing that he's looking at the cow curiously.

"What's this for." He questions, still looking at the tiny cow. I notice his hands, he wears rings now.

He has three on his right hand, two on his left.

"Decoration ." I answer absently.

"Where did you get these from?" He takes the pig off my desk and holds it between his thumb and index finger.

"I took them from my friend."

"Your friend?" He mumbled.

"Cay. Cayden has a thing for knick-knacks and has a weird collection of them. He has all sorts of things like little flowers or mushrooms and animals. He has hundreds of these animals just laying around in his apartment, so I take one sometimes." I respond automatically.

"How many of these do you have?" He examines.

I shouldn't be talking to him. "Whenever I come over to his apartment, they're everywhere."

I overshare a lot. I can't help it.

I don't know what he's thinking, or what he's doing. He's silent the whole time until I finished the packet. I don't bother to look up though.

When I finally finish, I look up to see what he was doing and he's just staring around the room, looking out the big window. We have this huge window showing us the whole city, it's one of my favorite parts of this place. I see his eyes wandering around at the desks and the people walking around, doing different things, the different offices and meeting rooms, just everything in this room.

"What are you looking at?" I interrupt his thoughts.

He turns his attention back to me, still having the little toy cow and pig in his hand.

"I just never thought you'd end up here." He responds lowly.

"Where did you think I'd end up?" I ask him curiously.

"I don't know, something in the medical field, something in psychology. I remember you telling me about that. I never expected for you to end up in the fashion industry." He tells me.

"Yeah, I didn't either. I just wanted to get out of Wisconsin." I mutter. "Away from my parents." I added.

"What made you g-"

"Do you mind giving this to Lynn on your way out?" I interrupt him, pointing to the stacks of paper in front of me. I really didn't feel like sharing anything more with him, or talking to him. This was starting to feel a little too personal and... friendly. And we aren't friends anymore.

"Sure." He stands up straight and places the two animals back on my desk.

"Thanks." I pick up the papers and hand them to him.

His hands brush against mine as he takes the stack of papers from me. Giving me one last look, he turns around and heads for Lynn's office.

I sigh and take a drink of the coffee he got me. It's actually pretty good.

I stand up to go find Mason to see if he needs help with anything, bringing the coffee with me.

Thursday

As I walk towards the elevators and press the up button to go to my floor, my mind can't help but wander to him.

I hate thinking about him.

The elevator doors open to my floor, already expecting him to be here, I walk to my desk, looking around to see if he is.

I hate that I expect him.

I thought he wasn't here until I saw his face talking to a production manager. I didn't even recognize him since he wasn't wearing his usual attire. Today he was wearing blue, light washed jeans, and a black jacket with a black shirt underneath.

He spots me looking at him and starts to walk over.

I turn around and cover my face with my hands. I can hear him walking until he gets in front of my desk. His footsteps stop, indicating that he's in front of me.

I groan loudly. "Why are you here again?!" Emphasizing the last word, my hands still covering my face.

When I didn't hear him say anything, I slowly look up at him. When he sees me looking at him, he brings up another cup of coffee and places it in front of me.

"Iced." He says. He always talks in a calm tone.

Tate is one of those people who don't like to speak much; at least back then he didn't. He's actually shy most of the time, he just has an intimidating face so people mistake his calm and quietness to be terrifying.

He walks around like he doesn't give a fuck about anything, like he doesn't need to try. If I didn't know him, I'd honestly be scared of him, but I did. I do know him, very well.

Did.

I did know him.

"I got you iced coffee." He repeats when I didn't respond.

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"Because you said you liked ice coffee." He answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

Giving in, I take the coffee actually going to taste it, wanting an excuse to spit it at him. He probably got the order wrong I mean, how could he possibly know my coffee order.

I hit the straw against my desk to break the paper wrapped around the straw. I take the straw and stab it in the cup of coffee, ready to say it taste horrible. I take a sip of the coffee, expecting it to taste disgusting.

What the fuck?

"How did you know my coffee order?" I widen my eyes.

"Lynn told me." He said calmly.

"What do you mean, Lynn told you." I repeat.

"When you asked me to give her the papers yesterday." He answers. He looks back and takes a random chair from someone's desk and pulls it over to him so he could sit in front of me.

"You asked her what my coffee order was?" I am stunned.

What is his deal?

He hums in confirmation, reaching over and taking the toy pig and cow again. I furrowed my brows, looking at him confused. "She seems to like me a lot." He looks up at me. "We might actually start to become friends." He grinned.

"Really?" He is fucking unbelievable.

He nods. "Which means..." He leans forward. "I might come here more often." He gives me a sadistic smile.

He makes my blood boil.

"Come here again and I will quit." I warn him. I know the only reason he's here is because of me.

"Go for it. I'm not going to come here for you, I'm coming to see my friend, Lynn."

I stare at him. Actually looking into his eyes this time because I am that aggravated. "What's your deal?" I finally ask the million dollar question.

He holds eye contact. "Lunch."

I hate his green eyes. I hate his hair. I hate his voice. I hate everything about him. "No, you come to my job, bring me coffee, and bagels?" I list. "What are you trying to do?"

I watch his eyes move around my face as he chooses not to answer. The anticipation is killing me.

His eyes draw back to mine and somehow his expression grew more distant, if that's even possible. "Boredom." His deep voice reveals.

I get up and start walking to her office.

"You aren't serious." His doubt was confident.

I stop walking and turn around to look at him. "I'm not your toy." I say almost emotionless.

He wants attention. My attention which is the most annoying part. Now that I realized it later than I probably should've, I want him to see how unaffected I am by him.

He starts walking towards me and before I knew it, he was right in front of me. He remains silent. "You aren't going to quit." He challenges, disregarding what I said last.

I do nothing but look up at him and wait until he's done.

"Look at you, look at this place. You love what you do, you love your friends here, your manager, and whatever it is you do. You won't quit."

He's right. I do love my job and I won't quit.

But I was never going to actually quit in the first place. I've done this to some of my ex's and to annoying people so they won't bother me anymore. They've done the same things he's done, came here all the time and ask to eat lunch with me or something. Or just bothers me. Lynn understands and she goes along with it.

I look up at him for a few more seconds until I walk over to Lynn's office and walk inside. She was on her phone, probably on Instagram.

"Hey!" She exclaims when she notices me walk through her door, then looks back down at her phone.

"Lynn, I'm quitting again." I tell her.

"Who is it this time?" She mumbles, still on her phone.

"The guy who's been coming here since Monday." I roll my eyes.

"Tate?" She assumes.

"Mhm."

"Oh, I think he's pretty nice. I thi-"

"Yeah, I'll text you when I'll be back." I interrupt her. I don't want to hear about how nice he is and all that crap.

"Ok darling, good luck." She calls out.

"Bye. Thanks."

I walk out, and head towards my desk but find him sitting in my desk chair on his phone.

I'm going to burn that chair.

I get to my desk and grab my purse, starting to put the random crap on my desk into it. He was in disbelief, still not believing that I'm actually doing this. After I take all the stuff that might look important and put it in my bag, I fake a smile. "Bye, Tate."

I head towards the elevator and push the button to go down the lobby. The doors close and I hope this will be the last time I'll see him.

Tuesday

It's been four days since I've been at work.

I've been texting Mason to update me about Tate, to tell me if he's seen him those days. He came Friday, as expected, and Mason wasn't in the building on Monday to update me.

I'm really bored, and I can't stay in my apartment any longer. Aelin is in London right now working on this movie. She got hired to help take promo pictures and just pictures in general of the movie, and Cay has been staying over at his new boyfriends for the past few days so I'm bored and all alone.

I miss working and going out, so I decided I was going to work today. My plan is to stay at the café right across from the building of my workplace and wait till Mason texts me that Tate left.

I'm a regular at this café and I go here all the time. Since Aelin isn't here to make me breakfast, I'm eating breakfast here.

I order some mac & cheese—it isn't really a breakfast food, but I don't care—an americano, and a side of apple slices.

I sat down at my usual spot in the corner and placed my food down. I plugged my air pods in and started watching Greys Anatomy. I've been currently binge watching that show. It's so addicting.

I sit at the end of the booth in the corner and relax, watching my show and waiting for Mason to text me, telling me he isn't there.

.

I already finished an episode of Greys and of course I'm crying. Mason still hasn't texted me yet, so I decided to text him to distract me from the episode I just watched.

I put my head down again and started crying because I couldn't stop thinking about the episode. A dog died!

As I was wiping my tears, a guy sits right across from me.

"What a coincidence." He cocked his head to the side.

Oh my god, I'm going to run myself over.

"Hi, Tate." I sniffle.

"You alright?" He asks me.

I ignore him and start gathering my finished food to throw them away.

"Ro." He repeated when I didn't respond.

"Hmm?"

"You good?" He questions again, his face looking concerned which confuses me.

I put my stuff in my purse and get up, taking my trash and heading towards the trash bin. He stands up with me and follows me.

"It's really none of your business." I mutter, looking up at him with swollen eyes. I head towards the door, not wanting to talk to him any longer.

As I walk out, I see the usual busy streets of New York. I stop, knowing that he's behind me and he won't leave me alone. "What do you want?" I question, walking to the side where he is, so I'm not in the way of people.

"For you to tell me why the hell you were crying." He responds lowly, almost like he cares but I'm not stupid.

I'm just so exhausted of his presence, just him being here. Every time I see him, my heart just hurts. My stomach feels heavy, and I have this strong urge to cry. I hate him. I hate him so much...

"We aren't friends." I snap. There it is the burning sensation. My eyes start to water, and my heart feels heavy. I don't think I actually accepted that he's right in front of me. That this is the same person who said those things. Who broke me.

"Rowa-"

"I think you're forgetting that we aren't friends anymore. I think you're forgetting what you did to me and what you said to me." I cut him off "God, the things you said hurt, and I'm not just going to forget about it."

Please don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

"I'm sorry."

"Can we move somewhere else?" I was going to break down and I can't let him see that. I walk over to an empty ally, knowing he's following so we're not in the way of people. I just need a moment to put myself together so I don't cry.

"I really am sorry." He tells me.

"Why do you keep showing up?" I'm practically begging him. "Why can't you just leave me alone? I thought you said you didn't want me in your life, right? You told me to leave you alone and I'm am. I am so why won't you."

Tate's gaze deepened and his jaw clenches. "I didn't mean those things..." He looks at me with something that resembles pity.

This is exactly why I hate talking about how I really feel, because then they give me that look that makes me wish I'd just kept everything to myself.

"Then why did you say them? 8 years. Gone. Don't expect it to magically be ok again just because it's been years and we're in the same place again. We aren't friends." I say desperately.

"Ro please-"

"Don't call me Ro. Stop. Please. Stop coming to my job. Stop trying to talk to me. Stop trying to get my attention. Just- stop, ok? You don't get to do that anymore. It's not your place."

"Please let me explain." Why does every guy say that?

"I don't want you to. I've moved on or- at least I'm trying too but you're making it really fucking difficult. I don't want you to be around me. I don't want you to talk to me. I don't want you to give me stuff and ask me if I'm ok. I just want you to leave me alone." I state.

"What if I want to fix things? I want to explain—can we just go out to lunch? Dinner?"

"You're hurting me Tate.. With you, everything just hurts. When I look at you, I just get a reminder of what you did." I say, my voice cracking. Tears pour out. I can't help it.

"I'm sorry about-"

"No, I'm sorry. I can't do this right now." I interrupt him and start walking away. I walk to the building of my job and head towards the bathroom of the lobby.

I can't believe he just saw me cry. I hate when people see me cry.