Mr. Hollingsworth.

Ch. 35 If You Like It You Should Put A Ring On It.

Drake officially hated me, or at least that's what I thought. Him and Mindy were a thing, and I fired her. But when he saw me leaning against the wall, holding back tears, and staring at the ceiling, wishing for the earth to open up and swallow me whole, he walked over. "You alright?" he asked carefully. I shook my head, biting on my bottom lip. "What's wrong?" He asked, I just shook my head. "Don't worry about crying, I won't tell anybody. What happened?" Drake asked, rubbing my shoulder comfortingly.

I rubbed my face in my hands, "I'm a fucking idiot." I sank down, and just squatted, holding my face in my hands. Drake knelt down next to me. "Why?" He asked, "I don't know. Somehow I made Mindy hate me, to the point where I had to fire her, so I feel like shit, and I potentially ruined a business deal in Japan." I answered, wiping away the tears. Alexander trusted me with securing business deals, because I was charming. He rubbed my back, as I shook. "It's going to be alright Alice, I'm sure what you did wasn't that bad." He said, "Yeah." I whispered shakily, looking at him. Drake stared at me, and I could feel our friendship rekindling.

"You can't focus on the past, only use it to your advantage in the future Alice." I nodded, wiping away the tears and standing up, composing myself. "Thanks Drake, sorry." I apologized, "For what?" He asked, I shrugged. "I don't know, it seems like ever since I became your manager you hate me, thought I'd apologize." I answered, Drake grinned a little. "Oh, and don't tell anyone about this." I added. He nodded, and we parted ways.

Some friends go, but I had a feeling Drake was going to stick around.

That small encounter made me in a mild mood for the rest of the day. Mindy's replacement was good, and she liked me. She respected me. I sighed, at least someone fucking did.

At the end of the day, when I saw Alexander, my jaw dropped. He had a glimmering limousine.

"What the...?" I trailed off, he closed my mouth for me. "I realized we've never been on a date before, and I want to give you a pick me up for all that shit you're going through." He explained, I stared, wide eyed. "That's a limousine." I stated stupidly, I'd only seen them in pictures. Alexander nodded. Thoughts were taking a few seconds to process. "That is a limousine, right?" He nodded, obviously entertained by my surprise. Before I could repeat myself stupidly for the third time, he covered my mouth. "Just roll with it Ms. Jones."

He helped me in, and I was completely quiet, until we reached a small quiet house.

"This is where I go when I want some peace and quiet." He explained, it was a small one story, still nicer than my two story child hood house. I nodded, and he smiled. "Sorry for the surprise," He added, I smiled at him. "It's a nice surprise, really. I just never thought I'd see a limousine with my own eyes." I admitted, Alexander pulled me in.

"Well for the rest of the day, it's just going to be me and you. So what's up with work?" We both enjoyed talking about work. I didn't realize how much I liked being a businesswoman till I did it. "Well, the deal with Germany is running along quite smoothly. They really want us to sell their merchandise at our stores," I started talking business as he handed me some coffee. I took a sip, and saw his amused smiled, and twinkling eyes.

"What?"

"I do absolutely love it when you talk business Ms. Jones."

I knew he was listening to what I said, he just liked flirting. Leaning forward with a smirk, I whispered seductively, "Our export contract with Korea is really increasing the stability of the work flow."

"Oh stop, you make me want to jump over this table and take you right here." He dodged as I threw my fork at him, and shouted, "ALEXANDER!" He laughed wildly. "I can't help myself Ms. Jones, you're so easy to tease." He basically purred the last word, leaning in, my heart was in my throat. I knew now that we were dating, I could kiss him, but it was still a scary thought to me. He kept leaning in, "Cat got your tongue Ms. Jones?" He was so close, "Or was it just me." He taunted, and like that I did it. Instead of sitting there, flustered, and trying not to let my heart commit suicide, I grabbed his tie and yanked him towards me. He stumbled catching himself on the table, but before he could gather his bearings, I pressed my lips against his.