Chapter 14 Ella #2
“Yes?” I pull my mouth away from the phone. “Are you Jenkins?” I ask the older security guard with me. He nods. “Yes, Jenkins is with me.”
“I want you both up in my office, now.”
“I have to prepare for a meeting, Asher.”
Now the others in the elevator are really looking at me.
“That can wait.”
“Why do I need to come to your office?”
“I want to make sure you really are okay.”
“I’m fine, I promise. Nothing happened.”
“I don’t care. Get up here, now.” He hangs up without another word.
I groan. “We have to go to Asher’s office,” I tell Jenkins.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I want to call Asher back and tell him he’s being ridiculous. But since I have three Langford Holdings employees and Jenkins in here with me, I don’t. Instead, I fidget and shift as the elevator takes forever to reach its first stop halfway up the building.
“We’ll get out here and catch the other elevator back down,” Jenkins says when the doors finally open.
We file out after the two men, and as we wait for the next elevator, one of the men turns to me.
“You’re Ella, right? Ella Hale from PR and marketing? The one dating Mr. Langford?”
“Yes,” I say through a tight smile.
“So, you’re just, like, dating the big boss man.”
I nod.
Other people working on the floor have noticed the man staying to talk to me, and now they’ve noticed me. Whispers and curious eyes take in Jenkins and me as we stand there, awkwardly waiting to leave right after arriving.
“How did that happen?” the man presses.
“We met at a work function,” I say, reciting the story the team devised.
“That had to be some work function. Have you been dating since?”
Another nod. Now others start to make their way toward us.
“Is that her?” a woman asks, not even bothering to whisper.
“She’s dating Mr. Langford?” another woman asks.
“Talk about sleeping your way up,” yet another woman says, giggling to a coworker.
Finally, the elevator dings, and Jenkins and I hurry inside. Two women try to get on with us, but Jenkins stops them.
“You’ll have to catch the next one,” he tells them, firmly.
They both tut, mouths open, clearly offended and annoyed as the doors close in their faces.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I say. “We could have shared the elevator with them.”
“They weren’t getting in to actually use the elevator, Ms. Hale. They wanted the opportunity to corner you and ask questions.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve been in security for many years. And I heard their conversation. Those two were after gossip, not a destination.”
We make the trip back down to the west lobby, then walk across the building to the east lobby, and Jenkins swipes his card so that the elevator will travel to the top level.
I check my phone as we get there, anxious.
I’ve already lost ten minutes due to this little demand of Asher’s, and I really do have work to get to.
“Mr. Langford is expecting you,” the receptionist says. “Go right in.”
“Thank you.”
Asher hangs up a call just as I walk into his office. “There you are; that took a minute.”
“I was already almost to my floor on the other side of the building, so I had to stop and go all the way back down and then around. What is it that you wanted?”
“I just wanted to see you with my own eyes and make sure you’re okay.”
I can’t stop the sigh of annoyance that slips through my lips. “You really summoned me all the way here to see me with your own eyes when I told you I was fine? And I’m sure your security team reported to you the same thing I did. This is ridiculous.”
Asher is quiet for a moment. He turns and looks out the window, and I stand where I am, confused. What the hell is going on? Is our conversation over? Did he see me, verify my well-being, and now I can go?
I’m about to ask if I can leave when Asher speaks quietly, his back still turned.
“I told you I have some . . . strong issues with safety. And for good reason.” He turns back around. His jaw is tense, and his eyes are heavy.
“When I was young, something happened. It’s not something I talk about often, and I’m not going to talk about it now.
But just know that I . . . was part of, and also witnessed, something horrendous.
Being a person of public fascination is a very sharp and very real double-edged sword.
So, when I saw you swarmed like that, and all I could do was watch from over five-hundred feet above, it made me incredibly anxious.
We won’t be doing anything like that again.
So, if there are any other solo photo ops in your team’s strategy, get rid of them now. They aren’t happening.”
All the annoyance I felt at his summons deflates. He told me yesterday that he has issues, but knowing they cut much deeper than I suspected is sobering. He’s not controlling just to be controlling. This really is traumatic in its own way for him.
I close the space between us. I reach out for his hand, taking it in mine.
“I’m okay,” I reassure him. “Everything is going to be okay. And if that’s a line for you, we won’t cross it again.”
He lets out a relieved breath.
“You weren’t at breakfast this morning,” he says after a minute.
“I was getting ready.”
“That’s all it was?” he says skeptically, his face full of disbelief.
My phone vibrates.
“That reminds me.” He looks down at the phone in my hand.
“Your new phone just got here. Matthew is setting it up as we speak. He’ll come collect your phone and have one of the interns transfer your contacts since we can’t sync it to your old account.
But you need to be selective with who you transfer to the new phone.
You can keep your old one, but it will serve as a secondary phone only.
And we’ll need to screen any calls and texts that come in. ”
“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea. My phone has not stopped ringing or getting texts. All night and morning. It’s like anyone I’ve ever known in my life wants to suddenly get a hold of me.” I look down at the phone. “But this is Emily.”
I answer before the final ring. “Hey, Emily.”
“Where are you? Matthew said the photo stop went well, but that was fifteen minutes ago. Remember we’re having a team meeting before the actual meeting with Mr. Langford?”
“I know, sorry. Asher needed something, I’m up in his office right now.”
“Oh. Well, get here when you can, then. But we really do need to go over a few things as soon as possible.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“I need to go,” I say to Asher, hanging up the call. “Are you good?”
“For now. We still need to talk about last night. I know that’s the real reason you weren’t at breakfast.”
I’m silent for a moment. “What is there to say?”
“I don’t want to fight like that.” His eyes are softer than normal, but his jaw is still tense as he looks down at me.
“I fight all day, every day. I fight for deals, I fight for an edge, I fight for this company, for my family, for my employees. All I do is fight. So, the last thing I want to do when I get home is fight some more.”
“I’m sorry that that is your reality, Asher. I really am. And I want to be there for you, however I can. But I’m not just going to go with what you want because you don’t want to fight. That’s not the way relationships work.”
“I know that. But I also need you to understand there are certain things I can’t and won’t bend on.”
I speak quietly since we’re at the office and not his penthouse, even though my temper is rising again.
“And there are things I also won’t bend on.
So, per our argument last night, if you’re expecting me to be okay with a call girl visiting you in your penthouse while I’m upstairs, you can think again.
And if you think I’m going to fuck some call boy while you’re downstairs, you can think again.
That’s so weird and awkward to me. You’re not the only one who gets to have a strong belief and get your way with it. ”
“That’s not how the arrangement would work.”
“I don’t have time to discuss the specifics of ‘how it would work’ with you right now.
I’m missing a meeting to argue about this asinine idea of yours.
So, I’ll leave it at this: fuck whoever you want to fuck, and I’ll do the same.
But it can’t happen at the penthouse. I know this is an insane official-but-not-official relationship, but that line is too messy for me.
And don’t you dare get caught! We’re in this situation because you got caught sticking your dick where it didn’t belong.
” His eyes flash with anger at that. “And the last thing I want to be is the poor cheated on girlfriend in the media.”
I turn and barrel out of his office.
“Ella,” he growls from behind. “Get back here.”
“I have a meeting to get to!” I snap without turning back to look at him.
Jenkins is immediately on my heels but says nothing as I press the elevator button with too much force.
Asher Fucking Langford, I seethe, seeing red. How is it that I want to comfort him one minute and strangle him the next? The man is an enigma. But I can handle this. I just have to keep my head. I take a long, deep breath, and work to collect my thoughts.
Play the game, do it well, and get it over with, I remind myself for the second time this morning.