32. Nicholas Girlfriend

As Nicholas stepped in the hallway, his eyes fell towards Alyssa's office. She was busy answering his calls, scheduling him down for a meeting with HR on Thursday. He was impressed by her quick response.




“Good morning” She brightly smiled, greeting him after she hung up the phone.




“Morning. You are in a good mood.”




She shrugged. The Alpha then proceeded to ask her his schedule for the day before reminding her to call around for a caterer that will be needed for a future meeting. With that, he walked back to his office to start his day.
***
It's around noon, almost time for lunch when Nicholas decided to go check up on Alyssa. After all, they had lunch together—most of the days.




“Oh my god...I'm sorry, I...” That's the first thing he heard as he opened the door to Alyssa's office and walked in.





His brows raised in her direction as she looked flustered and a mess, holding on to the telephone wire as her life belonged on it.




“Why do you look like you have seen a ghost?” Nicholas joked loudly.




Usually, Alyssa would greet him a laugh, but he noticed her face paling. The omega panicked and hung up the phone, flailing to sit back on her chair. The Alpha simply laughed at that to which she glared at him. What was going on with her?





“I just hung up on your girlfriend because I panicked” His assistant blurted out.




He blinked at her, confused at first, hoping for her to burst out in laughter. Instead, she stared at him with a blank look on her face.




The Alpha opened and closed his mouth. “My what?”




“Girlfriend”



“Is this some kind of joke?” He frowned, unable to believe any of it. Who’s his girlfriend now? Nicholas doesn’t even remember the last time he went on a date with someone. Who could have called and dared to call themselves his girlfriend?



Alyssa shook her head. “I’m serious. She said her name is Rachel and you both dated for a while.”




His eyes widened at the mention of his ex-girlfriend. Why was she calling his assistant? Just then, his phone buzzed in his pocket. “Shit give me a second”




He held up his pointer finger to let her know to be quiet, as he stared at the number calling him. Rachel’s number flashed on the screen. His mouth twisted at that. He hung up the phone and stared at all the other notifications. There were a few more missed calls from her. No wonder she called his office number.




“I'm sorry, Nicholas. If I had known...” Alyssa weakly started, her cheeks red.




The Alpha waved it off almost as if it's a normal occurrence. Well with Rachel it was.



“It’s not your fault. Rachel is not my girlfriend. We broke up a while ago” He assured.




Alyssa's brows shot up at that. “Huh?”




Nicholas let out a deep sigh, gripping his phone tightly. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you someday.”




She still seemed a bit uncertain but nodded her head.
***

The rest of the week was spent similarly. Adrian was still at that conference, so she was all his for that time being. Most of their lunches were spent ranting and venting about annoying coworkers but also with unexpectedly deep conversations about life and careers and the movies, among other things. There's also a fair bit of bickering but the kind that involved mutual understanding and banter.



Alyssa was funny; he realised that very quickly. Funny and smart and pretty. Needless to say, it didn’t take long for Nicholas to want to date her. To began developing that strong urge.



It's not like he had been blind to her beauty before or their similar humour, or the fact that she smelled like his favourite scent. But those had all been easy to ignore when the extent of their interaction was limited to group hangouts, with Paris, Adrian and ton of other people. Mostly they all talked, so he wasn’t able to focus on her and her alone.





It's all too easy to spend every last minute of his free time with her. He was so happy whenever he's with Alyssa. Whether they're arguing playfully or whining to each other or just sitting in silence during a presentation, he felt so content. They've only been friends for a few days now, and Nicholas knows her for like one and a half month, but he couldn’t remember what it was like not to have her taking up so much space in his mind and heart.



The only problem was that Alyssa was pretty hung up on making up to Adrian. He had no idea if she even felt the same way about him only if there’s a way to find that out.
***

On one such evening, Nicholas dropped her off at her apartment.



As he turned to walk away, the omega impulsively grabbed his arm, fingers twitching against his linen shirt.



He stiffened, staring at her soft, delicate fingers wrapped around him with an unreadable expression.




As if she realised that she’s still holding his arm, Alyssa winced, retracting it slowly. “Sorry, um, you can come inside if you want?”




“Are you sure?” Nicholas questioned, staring at his watch. It’s still eight in the evening.




“Yeah, of course,” Alyssa said hastily, stepping aside so he could walk inside.




The Alpha followed her into the living room where his assistant sat down stiffly, sleeved-covered hands clasped in her lap. He took a seat in one of the armchairs, feeling concerned and a bit worried by her silence.




Alyssa wasn’t- she's never quiet, not around people she felt comfortable with. Well, the omega was shy, but even when she's shy, she's loud in so many other ways. She’s loud when she fidgets and wrinkles her nose and raises her arched eyebrows, always vibrating and moving in some way.




But right now she's just... still.



“What are you thinking about?” Nicholas asked gently.



“Rachel”



Nicholas spluttered at the response. Why was his assistant thinking about his ex-girlfriend? It took him a few seconds to adjust, narrowing his eyes at her. At her response, Alyssa flustered, squirming in her seat before meeting his eyes.




“I mean...about your relationship” She quickly corrected, licking her lips. “You told me about Eric and his ex, but you never talked about yours. So what happened?”




Nicholas felt her curious gaze on him as she angled her body towards him. Oh. So she wanted to know about his failed relationship. The Alpha took a sharp breath, complimenting whether he should tell her or not. It’s not like a huge secret, but he’s embarrassed of that relationship and how much he gave himself in hopes of thinking she’s the one. What did he get in the end? Nothing.





“Well it’s not as interesting as Erics break up story for starters” Nicholas tried to joke, but it fell flat.




Alyssa made a sound. “It doesn’t matter. I want to know either way.”



Okay. He can do that.



“I started dating Rachel a few months after she joined BEFORE. She’s one of the people who joined while we were still setting up.” Nicholas licked his lips as he remembered those days, a frown quickly taking over his features. He fell so easily for her innocent act.




“Rachel was amazing, always helpful and supportive. She never complained about staying late and always finished the work. Turned out it was all an act to impress me. Like a fool I bought it. We went on a date, and I thought she’s the one for me.”




Alyssa’s face fell at that.



He shook his head. “She’s not. I found that out the hard way. While we were dating, I got to know the real one. Rachel was exactly the opposite of how she pretended to be. She used to take advantage of her position as my girlfriend, and put leaves, get out early and whatnot. It went on for a year before she asked me to mate her”



Alyssa's eyes widened. “What did you say?”



“No. I needed some time, but she didn’t like the answer and broke up with me.”



“Wow”



The Alpha winced. “Yeah”



“And now she wants to get back together?” The assistant completed.



He nodded his head, his eyes on the ground. She wouldn’t take no for an answer and always found an opportunity to talk to him. It was getting frustrating.




“Hey, I'm sorry,” Alyssa murmured belatedly, shaking her head. “Do you want tea or something?”





Nicholas nodded eagerly. “Please.”




The Alpha followed her to the kitchen and took a seat on the stool, resting his elbows on the island in front of him. His eyes followed her every moment as she took the tea bags and made two cups. He could get used to it—someone caring for him.




She took the stool next to him. They sipped the tea in silence for a bit, no awkwardness settling between them, just understanding.
***

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