Heartthrob ✓

twenty one

T W E N T Y - O N E

THERE WERE DOWNSIDES TO THIS "HAPPY ENDING" THAT WERE WORTH NOTING.

One was the fact that no, I did not end up with Ashton Baldwin or Luke Johnson. In fact, Luke had ruled out the possibility of us even becoming a thing, or at least that's what it felt like when he basically called me out for still harboring my feelings for Ashton and unintentionally using him as a placeholder. It was a bridge burned peacefully, but that wasn't to say there was no subtle damage done. We were pretty good friends now, so it wasn't all that bad, but that didn't mean that guilt wasn't eating away at me every time I thought about him.

Another issue was that my friends - who were actively rooting for my romantic life - were disappointed by the fact that after all that drama, I still came home empty handed in their words and not mine. I couldn't deny that I felt that way myself, but I could only guess it was payback for how I had strung along Luke so there was no point in trying to fight against it.

The biggest issue was more about the company than myself. Baldwin Industries was, thanks to Nolan Abernathy's paternity situation, looking for a new CFO to take care of things around here while he left to take care of his child. Of course, with him being a working man at heart, he was still here until said replacement was found and now his job was even busier than Ashton's by one hundred percent. So much scheduling to be done and so many callers to be forwarded that Ashton even insisted that I worked under him part time. It was double the salary and benefits, but also double the work and double the attractive bosses.

Thankfully, Nolan was seriously taken or else I would've found myself in quite the conundrum.

Because of Nolan, I was on the computer now trying to balance mailing benefactors of the press release event thank you notes while slotting in interviews for the next CFO based on various credentials I had to go over time and time again just to make sure that the ones closest to the top of the list were exactly the ones most preferred by he hiring board. It was strenuous work and I could even feel an aching in my back from being hunched over a computer for so long.

"Hey," Dana said, standing above my desk with a bag of takeout from the fast food joint around the corner. "Got you this. Some crazy new burger they came up with called the El Loco, or something like that. You should try it."

The bag looked greasy so I could tell that what was inside was not only fattening but delicious as well. It was a tempting offer and it was nice of Dana to think about me like that, but I was terribly busy and I knew that taking five or ten minutes out of my time to eat a burger that would go straight to my hips would only leave me with more work to do after hours.

"Thanks, Dana," I said, "can you put it in the fridge for me?"

She nodded, taking a permanent marker and writing my name on the bag before walking off in the direction of the recreation room where the all of the lunches were kept. Now I just had to worry about someone stealing it from me before I got the chance to even taste it.

Pushing the thought of that from my mind, I got back to work. Some of these applicants went to the college I graduated from which was a relief to see among the pool of Ivy League scholars and I was able to bump them up if I wanted to, but I knew Nolan would be upset if he found out that I did such a thing.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. It was exhausting just to balance two jobs at once. Multitasking was definitely not one of my skills, especially not balancing two love interests. It had been a week since the release event, so it was a week since I had chosen Ashton over Luke and I was still feeling the effects of pining over two people at the same time. Mixing getting over Luke as well as doing work for Ashton and Nolan was on a whole other level.