Do I Wanna Know? || Ashton Irwin

21

Confidence. I had a whole lot of it at the moment as I marched into work the very next day after landing back home. The confidence could be from the new wardrobe I was sporting or the fact that I mustered the guts to put Ashton in his place or from Sofia giving me too much appraisal for doing that. I didn't know, but I liked it.

Jet stopped me once I was on the correct floor. A blonde, a very nervous blonde girl, stood beside Jet, clutching her pile of black notebooks and darting her eyes around the room. Her vibe was utterly nervous and it almost rubbed off.

"Talia, we have an assistant now." Jet pushed the girl forward. "This is Zoe Borden. She'll update you on what you missed and give you an overview of your day."

I held out my hand, "It's nice to meet you Zoe, I'm Talia."

"It's nice to meet you as well, I've heard great things about you." Her palms were dripping sweat. Poor thing. I'd be the same if I was in her position.

"I can only imagine what Jet and Noelle have told you." I sarcastically scoffed in Jet's direction, getting an eye roll from her before she walked off.

"I p-promise they did not say anything bad." She stuttered, squeezing her eyes shut for a second as she appeared upset with herself.

"I'll take your word for it." I said, trying to lighten up the mood with Zoe. "What did I miss?" We started walking down the hallway to my office. Work was always busy, even in the early morning hours. It was nice to have a chaotic work scene to keep me from getting tired or upset with my personal life. Something was always happening and I loved it. People were always running around, trying to do the next big thing.

Zoe fumbled with her stack of notebooks until she finally had a little agenda on top, "The higher up bosses requested that you and the girls start sketching out new designs to sell in the store."

"How many?" I rolled up the sleeves of my blouse, pushing them past my elbows.

"You each do five." For once she used a bit of poise in her voice.

"When are they due?"

"Thursday at 2 o'clock is when I turn them in."

"Great." I smiled, flipping my hair over my shoulder. "I'll have them to you ten minutes before then. Thank you."

By the looks of Zoe's worried expression, I could tell she did not believe I could pull that off. But it was a known fact that I get my best work done at the last minute around here.

"And what does my day look like?"

"In 30 minutes Richard will be here to see you, at 11:30 you will have lunch with Jet and Noelle for an hour. At 1:15 Allan Wright is going to meet with the three of you, after the meeting with Mr. Wright you're off for the day." She smiled, slamming her little agenda shut.

"Cancel with Allan, who knows what trouble he'll cause next." This was the first time I'd cancel on a client, so it wasn't that bad. Jet and Noelle would probably be upset, but I'd explain how I did not want my personal life colliding with my professional life.

"Right, I will get to that." She nodded.

I turned the knob of my office door, slightly opening it, "I'll be the least hard on you, I promise. Noelle will always ask you to make copies because she can't work the machine for shit and Jet will ask you to bring her a coffee every morning with specific instructions of three sugars and however many cremes tickle her tits that day." I watched as she jotted a note down about Jet's coffee. "Good luck, Zoe."

The feeling and smell of unfamiliarity hit me as I took a seat in my room. The feeling and smell that told you, you hadn't been to a specific spot for awhile and you realized it'd take you awhile to readjust to your surroundings.

My emails were boring and pointless as Noelle and Jet probably responded back to the important ones since I hadn't been here.

Paperwork kept me from getting bored until a new email rang on my computer.

-Potential work offer - Allan Wright

I practically groaned at the sight of the name.

To: jvanderleeden@vkw.org, nwells@vkw.org, tkozma@vkw.org
Cc: zborden@vkw.org

VKW,

My clients, whom you've previously worked with, will be going on tour at the end of this month, March. They and myself are still very pleased with the work you accomplished last month and would like to ask for your outstanding work to hit the road with us and style Calum, Michael, Ashton, and Luke for their tour. The tour will last through June and will require you to travel to Europe, Australia, and The United States.

I've worked out a paycheck plan with my boss, paying you every five shows for your work. All plane, hotel, and food expenses will be paid for by us. Backstage passes will be granted to you for easy access backstage and the grounds of the venue.

If this offer is not good enough, we will be happy to negotiate today over our meeting at Bistro Milano.

Allan Wright

I wanted to respond with a simple "no," to hell with formal business email formats! No one had time for those when they were offered to work with their ex again. Absolutely no one.

I clicked and unclicked my pen numerous times as I reread the email. Ashton decided to stay modest when talking about the tour, referring to it as a "small tour" but Europe, Australia, and the US didn't seem that small to me.

From: jvanderleeden@vkw.org

To: allan.wright@gmail.com, nwells@vkw.org, tkozma@vkw.org

Mr. Wright,

We do not like to make big decisions that would have us travel via email. We are very busy individuals outside of VKW Inc. with important commitments. Talia is currently engaged and is a legal guardian of three children that she cannot leave. Noelle cares for her grandmother. And my mother is currently in the hospital.

We will gladly discuss the possibility of working with you again over our meeting.

Until then,

Jet

That was one way, a better way, to tackle it.

"Richard is here to see you." Trixy peeked in.

"Bring him in please."

My heart didn't flutter, my breath didn't hitch, nor did I feel like I was shaking with I saw Dick. His brown hair was overly gelled back as if he'd used a whole bottle of gel for it, his green eyes stood out nicely in contrast to his disgusting beige sweater he refused to donate to a thrift shop and his black trench coat was fading of color, but he didn't want to get a new one. The trench coat was definitely over doing it because there was only a slight chill in the air now.

"Hey, babe." Babe, it didn't vibrate through my ears the same way it does when Ashton said it. Actually, no, screw Ashton.

"Hey." I stood up and as he met me on the other side of my desk he kissed my lips.

"I missed you."

"I could not tell by the billions of texts you sent me." I playfully rolled my eyes.

He chuckled, "Don't be mean now."

"What did you want to talk about?" I leaned against my desk.

"Right," Dick nodded, removing his coat and placing it on the desk. "The wedding. We didn't make any official cancellations to anything," He gulped, pulling something from his pocket.. "I just wanted to know if you'd do me the honor of marrying me on March 23rd." I stared down at him as he was on one knee. Something was irking me to say no, but I was stupid and whatever was telling me to say no should know that.

"We have a lot to work on, a lot to fix, but we can do this together." He thumbed the ring. "We can be pain the asses, but there's no one else I'd rather have be a pain in my ass. I love you, T."