Chapter 1
Chapter One
Paige
It’s a typical boring Thursday morning, just reading the same novel over and over again until my brain goes numb.
Gotta love the life of an editor. But if I want this promotion, I need to keep my mind strictly on work. No boys, no friends, just me and this fucking story about an influencer who’s taking the world by storm — as if this hasn’t been done by literally everyone ever.
But alas, I do love my job. My boss is the best, I have a little cubicle, a great group of work friends…the only thing that would make this job even better is if Cole Donovan just quit.
He’s handsome, strong, confident, and full of himself in every single way.
He gets what he wants when he wants it. Every girl wants to be with him, and every guy wants to be him.
To my luck; he’s the one person who applied for the same promotion as me.
And I’ll be damned if he gets it because he’s “perfect”.
He’s not to put it lightly – everyone thinks so, but Paige Foster hates his guts.
“Paige. Can you come in here for a second?” My boss, Alex Sinclair, pulls me out of my daze from his office.
I stand up, straighten out my skirt and blouse before walking into his office.
I stop abruptly when I see none other than Cole Donovan sitting in the chair across our boss’ desk.
His light brown hair is styled flawless upwards with mousse, his suit is tailored to fit him just right, and that smug little grin on his face makes my pussy go crazy.
Yes, my arch enemy is hot. No, I don’t need that chaos in my life. I’m content being tucked away in my cubicle thinking of new ways I can outshine Cole to get the promotion.
I take a seat in the chair beside Cole, not giving him the light of day. Alex takes a seat behind his desk with a gracious smile.
“As you both know; there is a promotion up for grabs, and you two are my best candidates.”
“Thank you sir.” Cole and I say in unison. I give him a quick glare, before turning my attention back to Alex.
“Don’t thank me quite yet. I can’t possibly choose who to promote based on your performance in the office. You are neck and neck.”
“So, what are you saying?” I ask, more confused than before I got in here.
“What I’m saying is…you will both need to work for it more than you are right now. There will be presentations you will need to create and board meetings to attend. We want to see how you thrive teaching people, and being under a ton of pressure.”
“And where is this taking place?” Cole spits out with annoyance before our boss can finish. I would say that’s a bad move on his part but knowing Cole, it will help him win.
“Vancouver. You fly out tomorrow morning, bright and early. All the details will be sent to your emails.” Alex states as he motions us to leave his office.
Cole and I walk out of his office – me in shock, him with his cocky attitude.
“Ready for a fun little trip? Just you and me.” Cole smirks, leaning up against the wall.
“Not really. It’ll be fun when you aren’t around.” I reply, rolling my eyes as I strut back to my cubicle.
☆☆☆
The work day goes by slowly, and all I can focus on is my weekend ahead.
Cole is the last person I want to take any type of trip with.
I would have rather gone with Tom from accounting – he’s weird, but overall a nice guy.
And maybe I wouldn’t be so worried about keeping my legs closed.
Being this close to Cole all weekend, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to control myself.
I pack up my work bag, turn off my computer, and tuck in my chair.
Call me odd but I love coming in every morning to a tidy cubicle.
Getting on the elevator, I press the main button to go down three floors.
The doors are just about closed when a hand sneaks in at last second.
The doors reopen, and Cole stands there with his laptop bag in one hand, and his backpack around his shoulder.
It looks stupid with his thousand dollar suit, but who am I to judge?
“Hey Paige.” Cole says nonchalantly.
“Hi.” I reply with an eye roll. Fuck he gets my gears going.
“So…this work conference. Let’s call it a truce.” He states, holding out his hand for me to shake. I give him a one over, raising my eyebrow slightly. “At least until the conference is over.” He continues, still holding his hand out.
“Fine.” I mutter, shaking on our deal. There’s no way in hell I believe he will actually be on his best behaviour. I’ve worked with Cole for seven years now, there’s not a nice bone in his body.
As the elevator doors open, I scurry out of there as fast I can. Cole yells behind me, but I’m too far gone so all I catch is “see you tomorrow.”
I arrive home, and immediately march toward my roommate Maisy’ bedroom, who happens to also be my best friend. I barge in to her blasting music and curling her long luscious red hair.
“Hey girl, how was work?” She asks, genuinely interested, which is more than I can say for my other “friends”.
“Oh, let me tell you about it.” I huff, plopping on her bed. Maisy stops what she’s doing and turns too give me her full attention.
“Please! Tell me all the tea! What did Cole do this time?”
“Well, first off…you have the house to yourself this weekend. I’m off to Vancouver for a work conference with Cole fucking Donovan to fight for this promotion.”
“WHAT!” Maisy screams so loud it pierces my ears.
“I KNOW!” I yell back at the same volume. “And then when I was leaving work, he called a truce…for the weekend anyway.”
“A truce? Like as if he's going to be nice? I don’t buy it.”
“Me either. I think he’s up to something, but I’ll find out sooner or later.”
“That’s just nuts…you will have to keep me updated all weekend!
“I will for sure! Which brings me to another thing…I need help packing!”
We head to my room, and Maisy helps me pack for the weekend. Throwing in work clothes, a few pairs of shoes, underwear and socks, a bathing suit for the hotel hot tub. And of course, Maisy being Maisy, she slipped in some lingerie for the ‘just in case’.
I pack up all the toiletries I need, and zip up my suitcase. Moving it by the front door, I take a seat on the couch and turn on Maisy and I’s favourite show, ‘Survivor’. We watch it almost every night together, it’s becoming a small ritual for us.
After three or four episodes we decided to call it a night. My flight leaves at six in the morning, so I need to be at the airport by five. Maisy said she would drive me like the bestest friend she is.
“Goodnight Maisy! See you early in the morning!” I say, before shutting my door and turning off my light.
Crawling into bed, I set my alarms for 3am, 3:15am, and 3:30am so I can actually wake up. After scrolling through my phone for a few minutes, darkness depletes me.