40. All The Ways You’re Wrong
ALL THE WAYS YOU’RE WRONG
TARA
After several failed attempts to catch up, Tuesday morning rolls around and I’m sitting beside Aiden on the couch with my laptop open on the coffee table in front of us while we talk to Kylie and Seth.
“So, what are your intentions with my sister-wife?” Kylie asks, her expression full of mischief.
“Kylie,” I say with a sigh.
We’ve been talking for about half an hour, and she has been on her best behaviour until now.
“Why does everyone say my name like that?” she asks, pretending to pout.
“Because you’re a loveable pain in the ass,” a voice says from behind the screen.
“Lincoln?! Get your butt where I can see you!” I demand, leaning forward with a smile when Seth’s best friend and the fourth member of our European tour group appears behind them.
“Hey Miss Tara. Tara’s boyfriend,” he adds with a nod in Aiden’s direction .
“His name is Aiden,” I say with a stern look on my face.
“It’s okay, I’m good with being known as Tara’s boyfriend,” Aiden says, squeezing my knee.
“Smooth. I like him,” Lincoln says, nodding.
“Yeah, he’s alright.” I shoot a cheeky grin at Aiden, who just rolls his eyes before pulling me into his side to kiss my temple.
“Ugh, you guys are so fucking cute,” Kylie says, pretending to gag.
“Excuse me, but did I not just walk in on you two doing unspeakable things to each other about twenty minutes ago? You are not allowed to make gagging faces over temple kisses.” Lincoln wags his finger at the pair of them.
Seth’s face turns a very cute shade of red, while Kylie just shrugs.
“Whatever, you guys have been gone for five days. Not my fault you didn’t knock.”
“Not my fault that the two of you couldn’t manage to make it any further than the hall,” Lincoln grumbles.
“You loved it.” She reaches over to ruffle his hair, and he bats her hand away.
“While I admit that it warms my heart to see how sickly in love the pair of you are, I could have done without seeing Seth’s naked ass anymore than I already have to in the locker room, thank you very much.”
“You know the solution to all of this is to just knock, right?” Seth joins the conversation finally.
“I did knock!”
“Yeah, and then opened the door with your key. One would normally wait to hear the words ‘come in’ before just sauntering on in,” Kylie shoots back.
They continue to bicker while Seth sighs, and Aiden and I start laughing at the absurdity of it all. Who needs TV when you’ve got the Kylie and Lincoln show right in front of you.
“Children, perhaps we should let Tara and Aiden head off to work?” Seth says, ending all talk about voyeurism (Kylie) and having sex in public spaces (Lincoln).
It must be exhausting for the poor man to deal with the pair of them on a daily basis.
“Sadly, yes, we should probably go,” I reply, patting Aiden’s knee.
“Fine. Have fun at work! And Aiden, I expect a full essay on how you’ll be treating my girl like the queen she is,” Kylie says, pointing her finger at the screen.
“I can do that. I could write you a novel, if you’d prefer?” Aiden replies.
“Seriously, Tara, I like this guy,” Lincoln adds, nodding towards Aiden. “You’re allowed to date her.”
I roll my eyes. “Goodbye family.”
We hang up to a chorus of goodbyes and I sigh.
“You handled that all very well,” I tell Aiden as we get up and start gathering our things together.
He grins at me as he opens the door for me. “Are you kidding? That was hilarious. Who’s Lincoln?”
“Seth’s best friend. He plays on the same team as Seth and from what I can tell, pretty much lives at their house.”
“You’re friends are great, Love. I’m glad you have so many people who love you.”
I slide my arm around his back while we wait for the elevator. “Yeah… They are pretty awesome. Sometimes I forget just how lucky I am.”
“I think they are just as lucky to have you.” He turns me around to brush his lips against mine as the elevator arrives, and it takes all my resolve not to keep him there in that hallway, remaining in our little bubble together.
But sadly, we have to head into the office.
After buying our drinks, he heads up first while I linger near the busy cafe.
Although it’s been two months now, neither of us are interested in dealing with the office gossip circle, so we’ve been avoiding being seen together much outside of the office.
Something I thought we’d been doing fairly well.
Until now.
“So, what’s going on with you and Aiden?” Felicity appears out of nowhere, startling me while I’m scrolling through my phone.
Fumbling to keep from dropping the device, it takes me a moment to register what she’d said.
Straightening up, I look over to see her smirking, not a single hair out of place on her perfect blonde head.
No matter how nice my clothes are, I will never be able to come close to the perfectly put together look that she has.
But I don’t particularly care, because as far as I’m concerned, her ugly personality takes away the shine of her appearance.
“What do you mean, what’s going on with me and Aiden?” I ask, stalling.
She tsks and rolls her eyes. “Don’t play dumb. I’ve seen you guys arrive together every morning for weeks. And last night, when I was at the gym across the street, I saw you both leaving the building, and you were holding hands.”
“I didn’t realise you were so interested in my life, Felicity. What business is it of yours, anyway?” I ask, figuring denying it isn’t worth it.
“I just find it really interesting that the boss’s hot son shows up, and you suddenly start dressing better and actually giving a shit about your appearance. Then you get taken to Singapore even though no other assistant has ever been to any of those conferences before.”
The comments on my appearance hit me hard, and I struggle not to let it show on my face, pulling my features into a glare instead.
“Wow… I don’t even know where to start with all the ways you’re wrong there.
But I don’t need to justify anything to you, so you can just keep on wondering what’s going on.
” I surprise myself with how nonchalant I seem, given that my insides feel like I’ve just been on a rollercoaster .
Felicity gives me a disdainful look. “Whatever. I’m on to you, Tara. You knew you would never get any further in your career, so decided to jump into bed with Aiden and sleep your way to the top instead.”
I don’t bother replying to her, continuing to watch her with a stony glare and wait for her to disappear back to the cave she slithered from. When she fails to get any information out of me, she spins on her heel and marches off towards Amber, who has just entered the lobby.
Once they are both out of sight, I open my phone again, noticing for the first time that my hand is shaking.
Tara
Just got cornered by Felicity. She’s seen us holding hands and basically accused me of sleeping with you to get further in my career.
Aiden
Serious?! She actually said that to you?
It’s good to know he doesn’t believe anything like that about me.
Aiden
If anyone is furthering their career by sleeping their way to the top, it’s me. It was my secret plan all along - get you to fall in love with me so that you’d take pity on me.
I laugh, despite myself, imagining him grinning while he typed that, trying to defuse the situation for me.
Tara
I can’t believe I fell for it so easily. It’s those dimples, they’ll get you out of anything.
Aiden
True, that’s what Mum always told me, too .
My heart hurts a little at the mention of his Mum, and I send a silent thank you to her, wherever she is now, for raising such an amazing guy.
I reply with a kiss emoji before dropping my phone back into my handbag.
Figuring it’s been enough time for the piranhas to have made their way upstairs, I sigh and head towards the elevators, reluctantly making my way up to the office.
Celeste greets me when I walk through reception, but there’s something off about her expression.
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I realise Felicity has already started spreading the news about Aiden and me.
I consider turning around and walking back out of the office, but know that would just add fuel to the fire, so I hold my head high and march towards my desk.
Damien steps out of Aiden’s office a few moments later, followed by the man himself, who gives me a smile while nodding along to whatever Damien is saying.
“Hey Tara. Thanks for your help yesterday. Any chance I can get your expert eye to look over a few more for me today?” Damien gives me what I’m sure he thinks is his most charming grin.
I laugh a little. “Sure. Send through the details and I can check them out.”
He pats my shoulder and heads off towards his desk, leaving Aiden and I standing together next to my desk.
“So the cat is well and truly out of the bag now. I just saw Celeste, and it was obvious Felicity had already told her about us.”
Aiden winces. “I’m sorry. Do you want me to say something to her?”
I shake my head and sigh. “No. That would probably just make it worse. But it’s definitely going to make keeping off their radar a whole lot harder.”
“I guess all we can do is hope that some other drama comes up and they lose interest in us.”
“I’m just going to ignore them and hope when they see that my career isn’t suddenly skyrocketing that there’s no perks coming my way,” I say, dumping my bag on the desk with more force than I intended, knocking my desk phone out of its cradle with a clatter.
A few heads lift to see the source of the noise, and I cringe. All these years doing my best to keep to myself, and in the space of ten minutes, it’s all coming undone.
Aiden moves to touch my arm, but stops himself when I shake my head slightly. “It’s fine. Let’s just get to work, shall we.”
He hesitates for a moment, before nodding.
Once he heads back into his office, I sit down and turn my laptop on, silently cursing nosey-gossips and wishing I cared less about what everyone was no doubt saying about me.