There's No Way

Mr. President

[Camila's POV]

I typically find that I'm able to handle stress pretty well, but as I sat at my desk for the first time since taking medical leave for my surgery I felt like I could cry. It wasn't my coworkers fault, they tried their best to handle all of my duties while I was away. Still, they fell short and I felt as though my to-do list was endless. I quickly collected myself and stood up to go find some peace by talking to my husband for a bit, but when I glanced over at his desk I noticed it was empty. I walked over anyways and grabbed a sticky note, writing a few sweet words before sticking it to his computer screen. As I did so, I noticed an email he had open from the CEO. It was requesting him to meet him in his office. It didn't give any other details, but I assumed that was where he had gone. I reluctantly made my way back to my desk, taking a few deep breaths before returning to my flood of emails and to-do's.

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[Shawn's POV]

The CEO was rarely actually in the office. He lived in a beach house in the Hamptons - well, he had several different houses, but he mainly stayed at the beach house. Because of that, he typically worked remotely - but since our previous Vice President retired, he had been in the office more often to make sure the transition to the new guy went smoothly. I had only had a few brief conversations with him since I had started working there, so getting an email from him telling me to come to his office for a chat definitely caught me off guard. Still, I made my way to his luxurious office. I knocked lightly on the glass door and he motioned for me to come in.

"Shawn Mendes," he stated. "Please, have a seat."

I walked over to the leather chair in front of his desk and sat down, trying to mask how nervous I was for whatever this impromptu meeting was. 

"My apologies that this meeting was such short notice...hopefully I didn't interrupt anything important.

"Oh, no sir," I reassured him. "I mean, my coffee might be cold when I get back to my desk...but other than that - nothing too important." He laughed and I released the breath I had been holding. Thank god he could take a joke.

"A man with a sense of humor! I like it. Now, I'm sure you're probably wondering why I wanted to talk to you..." he said. I nodded. "When James retired as Vice President he told me that there were two people he would trust to take over his position - you and Elliott. As you know, you were his top choice but since you had declined the offer, the job went to Elliott..." I was beyond curious at this point to find out where this conversation was going. I listened intently as he spoke. "You see, I wanted to meet with you today to see if there was any chance you might change your mind. Elliott is a good worker, but I think he bit off more than he could chew with this change. We talked this morning and both agreed that it would be a good idea for him to step down and return to his previous position. So, Shawn, I'm putting the offer on the table again." He slid a piece of paper across his desk to me. It was a promotion agreement. I scanned over the list of duties and responsibilities, and nearly choked when I saw what my salary would be.

"Listen, I really appreciate this opportunity. You have no idea how much it means to me to see that you all have so much faith in me. But...the reason I declined the position the first time is because it meant that my wife would have been fired. I...I don't know that I could do that to her," I admitted. He sighed and thought things through for a moment before responding.

"Well, it would be unethical for you to be your wife's superior - but I don't think we necessarily need to fire her. Perhaps we could transfer her to another department within the company? At least that way she won't be reporting directly to you. I'll tell you what, why don't you take the agreement home with you tonight and you two can talk it over. All I'm asking is that you'd consider it."

"Alright," I said as I held the promotion agreement in my hand. "I can do that." I stood up and shook his hand before leaving his office. It was incredibly difficult to not tell Camila anything about the meeting I had just had, but I wanted to wait until we could talk through it together privately. So I kept my mouth shut and continued business as usual for the remainder of the day.

"I think I loss track of how many times I almost cried today," Camila said as she played with my hand on the drive home from work.

"That bad?" I asked. She stuck her bottom lip out in a pout and nodded. "I'm sorry, baby," I said as I brought her hand up to my lips to kiss.

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[Camila's POV]

At some point during the day I came to realize that the only thing I actually liked about my job was Shawn. We had discussed previously the idea of me quitting my job and becoming a full-time stay-at-home mom once we had kids, and now that we were actively pursuing starting a family of our own I wondered if he would be okay with me resigning early. It seemed a bit unrealistic at the moment, though. With all of my medical issues recently, we needed both of our incomes - so I didn't say anything else about just how miserable I was at work.

"So I had an interesting meeting today..." he said as we stepped in through the front door of our house.

"With the CEO?" I asked. Shawn shot me an inquisitive look. "I saw the meeting request when I went to write you that sticky note."

"Ah," he nodded. "Yes, that one. He, um...he offered me the Vice President job again. Apparently Elliott isn't working out." He pulled a paper out of his pocket and handed it over to me. I skimmed over it, noticing the salary was significantly more than what both of us were currently making combined.

"Holy shit, baby!" I jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck. "This is so incredible. I'm so happy for you, congratulations!"

"Slow down, cutie." He pulled away from the hug. "I haven't accepted it yet. You still wouldn't be allowed to work for me. Now, he did say that instead of letting you go he could transfer you to a different department so you wouldn't be reporting directly to me..."

"Shawn, take the job. I didn't say anything before because I knew we needed both of our incomes, but I'd really like to quit and be at home full-time. I know we had discussed me being a stay-at-home mom once we had kids, and now that we're trying to make that happen I think this is the perfect time. Work at this point does nothing but stress me out like crazy, and that's kind of the last thing my body needs right now." Shawn smiled and took my hands into his, squeezing them gently. 

"So...are we really doing this then?" he asked. I nodded and stood up on my tippy toes to kiss his lips.

"Yes, Mr. President, we're really doing this."

"Vice President, technically. But Mr. President works too..." he whispered against my lips, smirking slightly.