That One Ride

15. Coffee

The next morning she wakes up grumpy, dragging herself from bed, giving Stormfly a nice scratch on the way. She eats something quick with Jay and Aaron, their parents already out of the house for some reason, the three of them getting into the car as Aaron starts to drive. They drop off Jay first, and when she sees him saying hi to boys and girls his age, she realizes how little time she's spent with him over the years. That depressing thought occupies her until she reaches the firm, Aaron giving her a quick kiss goodbye, saying that he might not be able to pick her up tonight because of class. She gives him a smile and gets out of the car, thinking she might as well start another day in hell.

The ground floor is always freezing to her when she comes in during the summer, and she thinks that one day her kidneys are going to fail from the extreme change of temperature. When she exist the elevator, she's greeted with the same sight that she has been forced to see for the past year. The day starts of slow, going through documents and files and deals, and everything starts to blur to her. As she prints out a document for one of their clients, she realizes that she needs to get John's signature and stamp. She groans and stands up, walking to his office that was conveniently next to hers. She knocks, but doesn't wait for an answer, and barges straight in just in time to see him put down his phone. She walks over to him, placing the file down on his desk, and briefly sees him close a shipment file that was probably concluded just now.

"Need you to sign this and put the stamp. I got to send this by the end of the day." She said as he picked up a pen.

"Good morning to you too Ashley." He said with a smile that only made her nerves stand on edge. He signed it, but took his time to examine the file, which she knew he was only doing to keep her around longer. This guy was flirting on a middle school level, and she wonders how he ever kept a girl around. After an eternity, he puts the company stamp and hands it over to her, intentionally brushing his fingers against hers, which only made her scowl. His skin was soft, too soft for her liking, and she could practically imagine him spending half an hour every morning before work, moisturizing every part of his body like he was a turkey ready to be baked for Thanksgiving.

"Are you packed at the moment?" he asks as she heads for the door. She thinks it over, and decides to give him half the truth.

"It could be better." She did have a lot of paper work left, with assessing the products and the profit of this month's sail, but she wasn't exactly swamped like she was other days. John smiled and got up, picking up his phone and shutting his computer down.

"Good, because you're coming with me." He approached her.

"I am?" One of her eyebrows rose, her arms crossing over her chest.

"Yep. Going to buy you a cup of coffee. I think we both need it." She sighed, looking him dead in the eye.

"Sorry, no can do, still got work to finish." He protested as she opened the door.

"But you see Ashley, now I have something that I usually don't when asking you." That smile was driving her nuts.

"Really? And what might that be?" she set the file down, looking for an envelope so she could send it.

That smile of his turned downright smug as he said, "Authority."

She laughed, not believing how childish he was being. "Are you actually going to use the 'I'm your boss' tactic? If so, then sorry boss, it's not going to work."

"Well then I'm sorry, employee, but as your manager, I do have to worry about my employee's health. And right now, the stress level you're at is quite lethal, so as your boss, I'm ordering you to come and get some coffee with me so we could reduce the life-threatening amount of stress." He had a victorious smirk, and nothing would have made her happier than punching the daylights out of him, but she had to give him credit for the sneaky way he was able to get her to not have any other option than to go out with him. She sighed, grabbing her things and walking past him, her frown plain on her face. She might as well get it over with, right?