Feelings Sold Separately - Aemond Targaryen

Chapter Ten - The Talks

Aemond Targaryen

Aemond's chest was heaving, sharp breaths pulling in and pushing out of his lungs in an effort to calm down. Leading Maysie back into her apartment, his hand on her lower back, he closed the door. "Aemond?" She questioned, taking a step away from him, a look of trepidation on her face, a look he hated to see. "Thank you." She loudly whispered, keeping her distance.

"Next time," Aemond's eye met hers. "Next time, when something goes wrong, you call me."

Maysie shook her head, a frustrated smirk appearing on her lips. "Your money can't fix everything, Aemond." She spit out, clearly dissatisfied.

"I know that." Aemond stressed. "But, when my money doesn't work I have my status." Maysie rolled her eyes. "I have my connections to both above and below board organisations." He added, knowing she already knew about his less than law following friend, and if she looked him up, something he assumed she would have done by now, she would know his sister was the president of the campital. "And I have pretty capable hands, Maysie. I may look and act like I pay someone to do everything for me but, I probably could have fixed your fridge." He chuckled. "I could fix that loose light switch cover." He pointed towards the one sat beside her door. "I could even make your door squeak less." He sighed. "Maysie, I. Just. Need. You. To. Tell. Me. When. You. Need. Help." He tried his best to keep his act together.

"I'm not good at that." She looked away from him, her eyes roaming around her apartment. "I'm not good at asking for help, it's hard."

"I can understand that." Aemond said honestly, taking a tentative step towards her, cheering in his mind when she didn't take a step back again. Since when did he cheer? "I'm not good at asking for help either but, I need you to try."

"Well." She took in an uneven breath. "Now that my fridge is working, I need some food to put in it." She shrugged her shoulders, looking at her fridge, ignoring Aemond.

Aemond chuckled. "Then let's go."

✩ . ☽ . ☼ . ☾ . ✩

With Maysie's fridge full, and their first 'argument' behind them, Aemond felt lighter walking into work on Monday. She had already texted him that morning that she was off to work, and was thankful for their weekend. He felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, something no one really understood.

His family thought having a woman in this capacity would only weigh Aemond down, yet she satiated his need for control, and knowing that his overbearing and often annoying ways were helping someone made him feel needed. Not needed in the way his family needed him to do taxing things for them, but needed in the way his efforts were for the greater good of a person, not the greater good of their ego or reputation.

"Sir." His assistant bowed her head as he passed her desk. "You have a visitor." She added quietly, she was new, and most likely still terrified of him.

"Thank you." Aemond said, dreading seeing his grandfather and being assigned some new task that had nothing to do with being CFO of the company.

"Aemond!" A voice he wished he could forget rang through his office. "Funny meeting you here!" Her fake laugh he learned to hate followed him as he walked towards his desk, doing his best to seem unaffected.

"Alys." Aemond still hadn't looked at her, keeping his eyes on his desk, rearranging things as he watched her pace around out of the corner of his eye. "I didn't realise you made an appointment."

"An appointment? Okay, cut the bullshit, Aemond." She huffed, plopping herself down in one of his leather chairs. "Who is she?"

"Hmm?" Aemond did his best to not smile, happily aware that while Maysie was good for him, it was also bad for Alys's ploys of trying to get him back. A lucky coincidence.

"The fat poor girl." She practically spat at him.

Aemond stood up. "Out."

"What?" Alys stood, anger embedded into every one of her pores.

"I was willing to have an adult conversation." Aemond shook his head. "I should have known better, Alys. You never were one to act grown up." He added. "You're going to leave my office, and I'm going to have your name banned from the building."

"You're being ridiculous!" She added a tone of innocence, one Aemond vowed to not fall for again. "All because I called her fat and poor?" She laughed. "That's what she is, Aemond! Are you too ashamed to admit that!"

"No. I am too ashamed to admit I ever gave you the time of day though. But we all have to live with our mistakes." Aemond didn't care about the words she used, it was the way she said them. Like being fat and poor meant Maysie was worth less. If anything Maysie was worth more, her love for her neighbours - ones she talked about the entire car ride to the grocery store the other day - her vulnerability and her gentle nature was worth far more than the fake persona Alys seemed addicted to.

"You'll come running back." Alys said, tears dropping down her cheeks. He knew they weren't real, at the very least not genuine. She was crying at the loss of his money, not the loss of his company. "She can't handle you, you'll break her, Aemond." She stood straighter. "She'll shatter under your firm grasp and you'll come running to the one woman who wouldn't submit to you." She spoke through clenched teeth.

"It's time you left. I think you've shown your desperation to be tied to my wealth and social status enough for one day." Aemond said in a monotone voice, gesturing to his office door.

Alys left quietly, no doubt showing off her tears to those on his floor, too bad they already knew Aemond was a monster. Her little show would do nothing but continue to solidify the fearful identity those around him had thought up. Identities he was sure fit him like a glove.