Runaway - Ashton Irwin *completed*

sixteen

"Are you serious?" I sighed as I wrote the times in my planner for the week.

"Yes, I'm sorry Ms. Parks but there's a lot of things going on with the company right now," Mr. Styles' deep voice said in the receiver of my phone and I tried not to get irritated. I knew he just wanted what was best for his company; he didn't really have much control over all the meetings that needed to take place over the course of a week.

"It's okay, I understand," I said, setting my pen down and closing my planner.

"Hey, just between us, there's another publishing agency that makes loads of money that wants to merge with us," he told me, sounding excited. "It looks as though some people might be getting a raise with all the extra money we'll be making."

"Really? That's fantastic!" I said, pushing aside my ill feelings towards all the meetings I'd have to attend in the next week.

"Yes, but you have to keep this just between us," my boss said. "I'm not absolutely sure that it will work out, it's just a high possibility."

"Okay, no problem. My lips are sealed Mr. Styles," I said.

"Good." I could see his bright smile even though he was in his own office right now and I was in mine. "Have a wonderful day Ms. Parks."

"You too." I hung up and flipped open to the revisions I was making in a new story I'd just gotten today.

It was weird having such seemingly casual conversation with my boss--especially considering he had just told me something he probably wasn't allowed to tell any employees in the editing branch--but he was really close with the boss I'd had at my internship, who I'd been on a first name basis with. His wife was also one of my best friends, which only added to the closeness of our work family. I miss them, I thought. I should probably give them a call and see how they're doing sometime soon. Maybe make a trip to Albany to visit them again.

No, absolutely not. I had too many problems back in Albany I couldn't go back to, even if I thought I could handle it. It wasn't safe for me to go back, and Sophia would kill me if she found out I'd been even considering coming back just for a visit.

I pushed my thoughts aside and focused on my revisions. There weren't many conventional errors in this one. It was mostly a lot of run on sentences.

I joined Michael and Niall again for lunch. Niall was telling Michael about how the story he was editing was so sexual it was probably worse than 50 Shades of Grey, although I imagined he enjoyed reading all of it. Michael was telling us about how he and Julie went whale watching over the weekend and she freaked out over how cute the orcas were. I watched Michael's eyes light up as he talked about his girlfriend and it made me smile.

"How was your weekend, Taylor?" Michael asked me.

"Oh it was fine," I shrugged. "I went out with a few friends Friday night."

"You have friends?" Niall teased, laughing when I rolled my eyes at him.

"Yes and it was quite a night," I said. "Luke got puked on by some girl at the club who 'couldn't be any older than 18.'"

"Are you sure it wasn't Luke puking on himself?" Michael laughed. He was definitely never going to live that house party down.

"You know, it might have been," I said, all of us sharing a laugh.

"Well I should be getting back to my office," Niall said. "I have a lot of things to take care of today."

"Me too," I said, standing from the table and packing up the items from my lunch. "I'll see you guys around."