CHAPTER 20

She had gotten a call.
"Hello, this...," Shana never finished what she was going to say.
"Is this Asher's office?," a so French accent had asked in a sophisticated voice.
Shana did not like the tone, like she and Asher were the best buddies and don't forget, she had used his first name.
"Yes. How may I help you?" She managed to get that out calmly.
"Can you direct my call to him? I can't seem to be able to get a hold of him," she said breezily. "Tell him it's Nicolette."
Nice French name to go with nice accent. She could bet she had a nice figure and face to go with it. She did not want to put the call through to Asher, thanks to the green monster rearing it's head but she did. That was her job after all.
She buzzed him. "Mr Anderson, there's a Nicolette who wants to speak with you. Should I direct her call to you?," she asked frigidly.
"Oh, yes please." He replied with a little too much enthusiasm and that pissed the hell out of her.
Was that the guy who just asked her to a candlelight dinner?
He seemed happy to bounce off to the next available woman and it left her bristling.
Then she had to remind herself.
"Shana, you are here not to fall in love, not to even like Asher Anderson but to ruin him. You have an assignment to do and if you don't, you'll lose it all," she told herself but it did nothing.
It did not stop her from trying to listen in on his conversation if she could hear anything. Anything at all to tell her the situation of things between him and "Nicolette" and it did not stop her from imagining the worse scenarios possible.
She was definitely losing it.
If only she had taken the dinner invitation, she would have been one step closer to fulfilling Adam's wish.
"Shana, you've no claim whatsoever on Asher," she told herself and tried to dosome work to take her mind off Asher chatting with a woman with a nice French accent.
She had buried her thought in her work and had been so distracted she did not know she was not alone in her office till the other occupant tapped her desk.
She looked up to see a beautiful, well sculpted face glaring down at her. Peaches and cream skin with beautiful feline eyes and a cute, well sculpted nose with the sexy pouty lips curved disdainfully at her. The expression marred the perfection that would have been her mouth.
"Is Asher in?," she asked in a smooth, French accent, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand stiff.
It was the voice on the phone. The sexy French accent and like had guessed, she had the sexy figure and beautiful face to go with it.
And newsflash, Asher had been happy to speak with her so he definitely must have made the appointment with her. She had his schedule and there was no meeting with a gorgeous woman on it. On some level, she felt hurt and kind of cheated.
"Cat got your tongue little mouse?," Nicolette asked with an unladylike snort that did not go well with her sophisticated look when Shana continued to stare at her stupidly.
"He's in," she replied stiffly, wanting to pull out the woman's well manicured nail and force them down her throat.
Such violent thoughts, all because of her jealousy. She needed to get a grip on herself.
"I've a date with him right about...now," she said looking down at her wrist and Shana was sure the cold watch would cost her salary four years and over. "Just do your job and tell him Nicolette is here," she stated, giving her a derisive look.
"Or better still, I could just walk right in. See you later Kitty," she said with a little wave of her hand as she sashayed into Asher's office.
Kitty? Had she just used the nickname Asher used for her? Had Asher spoken to Nicolette about her? About how he was messing around with her while she's the only one obsessed over him?
She knew she was making assumptions, wild ones at that but she told herself there was a possibility there. She was hurting but she reminded herself she was using Asher too, in the worst possible way with the most wicked intent in mind bit that did not relieve the feeling of her heart being crushed in her chest.
Asher had definitely spoken about her with the woman.
Some minutes later, they both walked out of his office.
"Shana? Could you clear my schedule for the next couple of hours?," he said with a blank look on his face. He was looking at her like his tongue had not been down her throat just that morning.
"Sure," she said shakily, trying hide the hurt in her eyes.
"Good."
"I get to have you all to myself longer than I expected," Nicolette drawled as she ran her hand down his left arm, her eyes smoky with desire.
"Just what you wanted," Asher replied with his rakish grin.
"You got that right. It is just what I want and I'm going to be having my wicked ways with you Asher." Shana decided then and there she hated Nicolette.
Watching them flirt in front of her was too much for Shana to handle.
"After you my lady," Asher said as he motioned for Nicolette to precede him and then they were gone.
He left without even sparing a glance in her direction.
But it was good. It was good they had taken their flirting away from her presence before she piked right on her desk in front of them.
Still, her heart felt heavy.
And she was left to wallow in her anger and self pity.
If only she was born with a little less curves, a bit more of a ruddy complexion, a lighter shade of hair and maybe a less wide lips, she might have stood a chance with Asher.
Here she was, the plain, ugly secretary he kissed and touched in secret while he went out with the beautiful woman.
She reminded herself he had invited her to dinner and it meant he must have really desired her in that moment if not for longer than she expected, but she just could not allow herself not to wallow.
"The only reason I allow him to take liberties with me is all because it's part of my plan. I have nothing for him, absolutely nothing," she chided herself but the little pep talk did nothing.
"What must my grandmother think of me right now?," she asked no one in particular and scoffed.
"She probably thinks you're a pathetic, love starved idiot who can't differentiate between plain wild desires of a man and him truly wanting you," she answered herself as she clicked away at the keyboard furiously, typing nothing in particular.
"Or she thinks you are destroying your life by ignoring what you are truly here for. She must be disappointed in you. You are not making her proud as a Crier. She's probably rolling over in her grave," she said to herself and rolled her eyes at that thought.
The talks did not stop her from checking her watch about a hundred time before the lunch break was over. And she kept on checking and rechecking long after it was over, hoping he was going to waltz right into her office spilling over with apologies and sweeping her into his arms, declaring his love for her but it never happened.
Still was not happening when it was time for her to close for the day but she was not giving up hope, hoping he probably just got caught up with work and was not with Nicolette.
But as she made her way home, she accepted the reality.
She had declined a dinner invitation and miraculously, someone better had shown up and that better someone had been ready to the tit to accept his invitation.
So Asher was at that moment, having time of his life while he was busy mooning over him.
Shana had never felt more hurt in her entirely life, not even when she had watched her grandmother die.
She never believed she could feel so much....so much pain, like she was being betrayed.
Asher had made no commitments or promises with her, he had said nothing that insinuated he wanted something....long term with her. He had definitely fed her no lies about both of them but she had assumed he wanted what she wanted. For the first time in never, she had even allowed herself to hope that maybe, just maybe, there might be something for them, in spite of her assignment and everything that was going to happen, she had hoped.
and look where she found herself with that.
Instead of taking the elevator, she took the stairs. When she got to the fiftieth floor, she went down on her haunches and allowed herself to shed all the tears she was holding in. She knew she was pathetic and anyone who saw her that way would think the same but she just needed an outlet. What she felt with Asher, it was new for her and she was not equipped with dealing with an heartbreak.
Truth be told, she was the bad guy, plotting him without his knowledge but she felt wronged despite it all.