The Boss & The Assistant - Rewritten Edition of "The Boss"

Chapter 22 - Lafayette

 After sleeping with Marcus on Saturday night, I stayed at his place Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. It wasn't the best time. He was still snobby like he had always been, but a little less immature. He was genuinely interested in modeling for the company. He told me about how he actually wanted to start his own modeling agency since he thought thirty was basically geriatric. He would be good at it. Despite being arrogant, he knew the modeling business well.

On Wednesday, Emerson was on the phone when I entered. I nodded at him and went into the office. Something was up with him. Was he shutting me out? He seemed indifferent. Yesterday he left early, which he had every right to do, but it was so out of character for him. I guess it didn't help that Marcus had been kind of condescending to him. Truth be told, I didn't know what to do. I had to keep a professional distance. Maybe that's what he was doing too, but that didn't mean I hated it any less. I just wanted Emerson to sit on my couch and talk to me. He didn't even have to work. I wanted him to live at my house again. I wanted to cook for him. I wanted to hold him tight again. But I couldn't, and that's why I had Marcus with me.

"When was the last time you held a camera?" Marcus asked as we stood on the twenty-third floor. This was the floor where we did our photoshoots.

"It's been a while," I said. I used to take a lot of photos back in the day, when models were auditioning. Marion styled them, judged their runway walk, and then sent them to me to go through a photoshoot. This is what I was doing with Marcus. "Go ahead and sit on the windowsill."

Marcus was wearing our spring collection that was going to launch in March. He was wearing a pair of linen pants with a belt and a button up top left unbuttoned. It was a subtle look, just something to gauge how well he would do. He posed against the window in a few different ways. Hands in pocket, hands against the window sill, sitting on the window sill with his legs open, shirt held over his shoulder, shirt off.

"Do you still have those naked photos of me?" he asked, sitting in a chair now.

"As I recall, you took all of them back," I said, smirking. "I think one may have even been sold to a gay porn magazine, right?"

"Did you buy the issue?" he asked, smirking back.

"Put your leg over the arm," I instructed.

"If you want, I can let you take some for your private collection," he said.

I didn't say anything. Sometimes desire got the better of me. When I stood up, he stood up too, walking over to me. He put his lips on mine. I kissed him back, at first. It was very tempting to fuck him again, but things were getting out of hand. I knew Marcus well enough to know where this was going. He was going to want me to himself. I just wanted him for a distraction. I should've known better than to get involved with him again.

I pulled away. "You're hired," I said. "You can go to HR and fill out the paperwork. You will directly report to Marion."

He smiled, grabbing my belt. "HR can wait, can't they?"

I turned my head when he tried to kiss me again. "If you're going to work for me, any form of a physical or romantic relationship will cease to exist," I said.

His smile dropped. "So, you just fucked me as part of the interview?" he asked.

"No, Marcus, you know that's not the case," I said. "When I went to you, I told you I just wanted to have sex. You were the one adamant on interviewing with Marion. I mean come on, what is this? You want me back? Is that it?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, of course not," he said. "At least, not deep down, but at first, I thought maybe you were actually interested. I just moved back to the city and half of the people I thought I was friends with don't actually care that I'm back here. So I've been kind of lonely and then you texted me. I knew you were just looking to hook up, but then you stayed, and it was actually bearable for once. You've kind of softened up since you've gotten old."