Illicit Affairs by Holly Dixon
Four
The followingdays had tested Ava to a hellish extent. The workload Mr. Brooks was dumping on her was highly unreasonable. Twice she had to cancel on Sam to work through her lunch and once she had to stay back past finishing time to make her deadline on preparing the documentation for the Forbes negotiation. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle the workload, it was the fact that her new boss was dropping it on her last minute while he still disappeared for his lunch every day at midday. Her father was always fair with her and they balanced the amount of work between them both. The American was all for making his life easier and Ava’s hell.
She felt like she was being punished.
By the time Thursday blinked into existence, Ava was both mentally and physically drained, her nails chipped from how ferociously she had been typing up draft motions and subpoenas, her patience thin with the intercom machine at the insane number of times Mr. Brooks would call her into his office to ask her a question he could quite easily have instant messaged her on her computer.
However, one thing that came out of this hellish week was that Ava had noticed a pattern with Mr. Brooks. The man was completely unapproachable until he had his morning coffee in front of him. This would have worked well in her favour if her job didn’t literally revolve around needing to assist him in every way she could other than wiping his own arse for him. Therefore, she found herself willingly going into work earlier and earlier, partly to cope with the increasing workload, and partly so she could make her life easier, starting with his morning cup of joe on his desk every morning for him.
However, this morning as Ava finished setting up her desk for the day, Mr. Brooks was already sat at his own. This put Ava in a foul mood before the day had even started, knowing that when she signed into her emails, there would be a list of demands from her boss jamming up her inbox.
Resiliently, she stuck to her routine and made her way to the coffee machine across from Mr. Brooks’s office but stopped short before she reached it.
“What the—?” Ava faltered, the coffee machine no longer in its rightful spot. “Hey, Addy, did someone move the coffee machine?” she asked one of the data clerks.
“New boss got rid of it,” Addy replied.
“He did what?!” Ava sputtered, looking at the blank spot where the perfectly good machine had sat for the several years she had worked here. “Why the hell would he get rid of our coffee machine?”
“Budget cuts?” Addy shrugged.
“Oh, this takes the bloody biscuit this does…” Ava grumbled under her breath before striding towards Mr. Brooks’s open door. She blew into his office like a whirlwind, not caring to knock as she demanded, “Would you care to explain why the coffee machine is no longer in this department?”
Nate’s head snapped up from behind his monitor, his eyes wide and his face a picture of surprise that Ava would have enjoyed if not for the fact her patience with this shitty week was already running on fumes.
It was rare that anyone caught Nate off guard but when they did it was rarely a good thing, and right now, it most certainly was not a good thing.
“Ms. Archer, now is not a good time,” Nate affirmed, his hand motioning towards the door and dismissing her.
“That coffee machine has been there the entire time I have worked here. You show up for three days and get rid of it? People use that machine! My father uses that machine!” Ava protested, stood in front of his desk with her hands flapping about.
Nate hit a button on his keyboard, his eyes turning glacial as he peered back up from his screen at the stubborn, flustered woman in front of him who was failing to realise that she didn’t call the shots in this department. He did.
“Ava,” he ground out her name through his teeth and reiterated, “now is not a good time.”
“Where else am I meant to get coffee? Do you honestly expect me to go out to do coffee runs? I have enough onmy—”
“Ms. Archer, do you even drink coffee?” Nate interrupted.
“What? No, I don’t usually dri—”
“Then it isn’t a problem,” he clipped out, his fingers drumming impatiently on his desk.
“Yes, it is! I’m not running around like a headless chicken to get you your caffeine fix every day!” Ava huffed, her hands on her hips before her eyes dropped to his desk, noticing too late the branded cup of coffee already sat there upon its coaster. “Ohh.”
“Nate, is everything okay?” came a woman’s voice from his computer, making Ava’s face pale when her boss slapped his keyboard with his finger again, unmuting himself.
“Yes, Mrs. Forbes, I apologise for the interruption,” Nate said in his utmost professional manner as he glanced to the several square boxes on his screen whereby a video conference was taking place. “As you were.” He smiled politely for the camera although his fisted hand thrust forward, his finger pointing towards the door.
Ava scuttled away to her desk and sat down. “Oh, fuck,” she said under her breath, her cold hand trying to tame the fiery blush across her cheeks. She couldn’t believe she’d just embarrassed herself like that, over coffee, to an entire counsel, the client, and Mr. Brooks.
A small tap at her side caught her attention as she peered up and saw Mr. Brooks chapping on his window. When they made eye contact his finger curled back and summoned her and she made her way into his office.
“I didn’t realise you were on a—”
“Ms. Archer, you may be my business partner’s daughter, thus preventing me from disciplining you as I would see fit, but make no mistake that if you were my own, you would be out the door of my office for such a lack of respect and boundaries. Do I make myself clear?” Nate’s voice boomed across the office space, his honey eyes like embers as he stood from his desk, his knuckles pressing to the wood as the veins upon his hands gave light of his obvious emotion. Never had he met someone so insubordinate, stubborn, and loud-mouthed as Ava. It awoke the side of him that demanded order, control, and, above all else, submission.
Ava had been yelled at by only one man—her father—a handful of times in all her twenty-seven years. As Mr. Brooks’s voice roared at her like a whip of thunder cracking across the sky, she gulped down the lump in her throat and simply stood there, sheepishly looking at him. Despite him having no power over her job, she felt entirely intimidated by this man with his dominating stare and commanding presence.
“I said, do I make myself clea—”
“Yes, sir. It won’t happen again,” Ava interrupted with her eyes on the floor, an empty expression on her face.
“Good. Now send me across all reviewed documentation for the Forbes case,” Nate said dismissively as he sat back down on his chair.
Ava’s eyes widened at his garish request; she was only halfway through reviewing the mammoth number of files relating to Mrs. Forbes’s trial.
“I haven’t gotten together all reviewed documents yet,” Ava said and nearly winced from the cold glare of his eyes slicing up into her as she quietly added, “sir.”
Nate’s expression softened ever so slightly upon Ms. Archer’s attempt of a respectful address. It was a start, at least. His broad shoulders and chest rose as he took a deep inhale through his nose and said, “Have it on my desk tomorrow, 10 a.m.”
As Ava walked out of his office, her chin lifted into the air defiantly, her expression like glass, avoiding the excited and amused faces of the department who had overheard the drama. She sat down at her desk with poise and the instant she did, a small pop-up appeared on her screen.
1 New Message, Samantha Eastley:
WTF?!
1 New Message, Ava Archer:
FML
1 New Message, Samantha Eastley:
Want a coffee?
1 New Message, Ava Archer:
Hah. Hah.
1 New Message, Samantha Eastley:
Wine??
1 New Message, Ava Archer:
Wine.