(no subject)
Annika’s plan for Thursday was as follows: Alex would stay in his office, reviewing financial and business plans until he left for the day and she would answer the phone when it rang, finish typing up letters and review resumes for her job. But that wasn’t the case. The deal with Tibro had hit a roadblock and Greg and Rashid were trying to work around it and she was busy doing research on that along with Mary and Alison for those two. Plus she was trying to look at applicants without Alex finding out. So when Rashid pops up at her desk with a folder for Alex, she jumps and looks flustered. Rashid, being the astute man that he is, calls her on it and Annika makes up a flimsy excuse. Gathering up the folder with the information with Alex along a folder with another applicant and some random papers, she walks into Alex’s office slightly distracted.
Alex looks up from his paperwork, his eyes softening around the edges and crinkling up into a smile. "Yes, Annika?"
Looking up from her fourth applicant's resume (this one looks promising), she shoves the folder underneath some papers and hands a blue folder over to him. "Here's the information on Tibro."
Thanks, I..." Alex's smile crooks a finger invitingly as he flips open the folder, absently. His voice trails off then, and he stares at the headshot of the smiling blonde girl. "What is this?"
Annika's on her way out of the office when he speaks. Shuffling through her mass of papers quickly, she realizes that she gave him the wrong folder. A choice swear word pops out softly before she slowly turns around. "I would say it's not what it looks like but it's exactly what it looks like."
“Annika, what is this?" He half-rises from his desk, his voice sharpening.
Closing the door, she grabs the handle a moment for support before walking to the front of his desk and sitting down in the chair placed in front. "It's a resume for your new assistant." He wasn't supposed to find out, not like this. She sighs, stacking the rest of the papers in her arms on top of a pile already on his desk.
Alex feels a moment of blankness, then ice freezing up his veins. "You're quitting?"
Annika looks away, she can't look at him while telling him this again. The first time was too painful, too raw yet. "Yes." There, just get out in the open. "I can't do this."
“Why? What--" Alex's voice cracks a bit, in the middle, "--what did I do?"
She's had enough of feeling like this in his office but yet it's coming over her again. "You don't get the comments, the snide remarks"-she swallows trying to gain control, continuing-"the gossip mongers asking you why? I can't deal with that anymore. I can't be your assistant and be your…whatever we are."
He looks like he's been slapped in the face. "I..."
This is the reason why she didn't want to tell him here. Reaching for a tissue, she dabs at her eyes in an effort for her not to look like a raccoon. "I was going to tell you."
"When? When you left?" Alex runs a hand through his hair, pulls hard, staring at anything but Annika.
"As soon as I found a suitable applicant." Annika replies. "Just like-" there she breaks off. They’ve started to slowly discuss the reasons why she left but his office, the place where everything started and ended is not the place to talk about those reasons. "You haven't had been called a whore, you haven't been asked if the reason why you've stayed so long is because you've been sleeping with the boss and the reason why you left for a month is because of a lover’s spat.” Here her voice builds in intensity but not in volume. “You haven't had to deal with the 'holier-than-thou' looks from basically everybody in the building! I'm sorry but as much I want to be working for you, I want to be able to date you more!"
Another blow, but this time lower down, deep in the gut. "Why didn't you tell me any of this?" Alex can't stop fidgeting; he gets up and paces now, his hands working. "I could've dealt with this--Annika, I'm not being biased, you're the best assistant I've ever had--"
"I didn't know how...I couldn't," Annika admits after a moment. "It's just that it seemed to be aimed directly at me, that I'm the one who took advantage of you with sex, that it was my fault. I just wanted to keep you out of it as much as I could."
He rubs his hand over his face, leaning back in his chair for a long while. "I don't," he says finally, then stops, then, "I don't want to lose this. What we have. Right now. I can't."
A shaky sigh escapes her. "Neither do I which is the reason-" here she motions to the folder, the rest of her sentence is understood.
Alex stares at the folder, almost as if willing it to disappear. It lies open on the desk before him, the blonde grinning inanely with her string of pearls and heavy eyeshadow, and he looks back up at her. "Are you certain about this?" he says, very quietly.
She's been thinking about since the week after she got back, started reading resumes three weeks ago and the folder in front of them was one of the finalists. She has five applicants scheduled for appointments out of the twenty that applied. Yes she's sure. But how much of that to tell Alex. "It's the best," she says softly.
The tension seems to drain out of him, and he nods. "Okay. Well... I--" he can't think of how to finish, he's still reeling, and ends up blurting out, "--do you want me to pick up Italian for dinner?"
It’s not the right way to end the conversation, not that the way the conversation started was the right way but this is the two of them. They’ll deal with it later or just ignore it like the last few days before she quit.
“Italian sounds good.” The question of where they’re going to eat the takeout doesn’t need to be asked. She knows he’s going to say his apartment because the last time they were at her apartment, they woke up the neighbors and Alex received a standing ovation from the other next neighbors when he left the next morning. It didn’t help matters that she had a couple married fifty years on one side and a couple of frat boys on the other side.
Alex catches sight of the look on her face, and slumps into a rueful smile before sighing. "Can we... can we not talk about this tonight?" he asks honestly, his voice a little rough. "Tonight I just want to have dinner and maybe watch a movie and have sex and fall asleep with you."
“Alex!” Annika hisses out. “You know what I said about saying that word at-here!” They’ve (rather Annika) been trying to keep their personal relationship hidden from the workers at Howell-Lennox but considering Steve, Jenna and now Mary know (Mary interrupted a rather passionate make-out session in the bathroom on the first floor), it hasn’t been rather successful.
Alex blinks, is on the point of saying, "What, 'dinner'?" when he reviews what he said and colours in spite of himself. "Annika, really, nobody can hear us through the shut door--"
“It’s the point of the matter!” she hisses. “We all know that closed doors doesn’t necessarily mean that people can’t hear us!”
Alex sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. "Fine. I'm sorry. My place at six?"
She knows that she’s starting to irritate him and now would probably be a good time to exit and get back to her desk. “All right,” she states simply, grabs the pile of stuff she placed on his desk, and turns to leave.
"Annika..." Alex opens his mouth, still sitting behind his desk, buried in paperwork and stiff inside his suit.
Here she turns around and offers him a small, cautious smile. “I’m sorry too.”
Alex shuts his mouth and gives her a small, crooked smile, and then bends his head down over the folder. The blonde girl smiles inanely, all shiny lipstick, and he deeply needs a stiff drink.
“I restocked your whiskey.” Annika lets out as she exits the office, rummaging through her pile.
Alex's head snaps up just as the door shuts, and the muffed noise he makes isn't quite inaudible.
Suppressing a grin, Annika sits down at her desk and resists the urge to turn around and see his expression. She had heard the noise.