Chapter 163

Aria’s POV

The very last thing I wanted to do was go crying to Liam every time I had a work problem. Even being called a bitch, in the grand scheme of things, wasn’t such a terrible offense. After all, I was pretty sure the drivers said far worse about me behind my back, particularly when I made them work extra hard.

It was just the nature of things.

But Anthony wasn’t someone under my direct influence. He had no reason to need to blow off steam where I was concerned. The only thing I’d ever done to him was share this office at the direction of upper management.

It wasn’t like I had chosen to make his particular life difficult.

He was so wrapped up in his own feelings too, that he couldn’t see how the difficulty of sharing an office might have been mutual.

If I was going to resolve this situation. I needed to make peace with Anthony, or I’d risk an all-out war for the rest of our time together. I couldn’t stand that. I already had too many people looking to stab me in the back for my own office roommate to be one of them.

So, after hearing him utter the word bitch, I swiveled on my heel and walked right back to his desk.

“We don’t have to like each other,” I said. “But we do have to be able to work together. I don’t want a miserable office every day until who knows how long it takes them to build the annex, do you?”

Anthony glared at me a moment, but he eventually admitted, “No.”

“Then we should sort out whatever this is,” I said, gesturing between us.

His body language opened somewhat as he turned to me. I found confidence in that. This was likely to be a difficult conversation, but at least he might have been open to it.

“Did I personally offend you, or do you just hate the idea of sharing an office with someone?” I asked.

“Both,” he said curtly.

Great. Maybe this wasn’t going to go anywhere, after all, if he was going to be stubborn and difficult.

“What would it take for us to have peace between us?” I asked.

“For you to leave,” Anthony said.

I bit back a retort. If he was going to act like a child, I needed to be the adult in this situation. Else nothing would ever be solved.

“You know that even Liam is sharing his office out of necessity,” I said. “There’s no one in this building right now who has a private office.”

“That’s great for him. I’m glad that he chose to do that,” Anthony replied. “But some of us work best when we are not constantly disturbed by the presence of others.”

“What do I do to disturb you?” I asked. “If I know, I might be able to –”

“You being here disturbs me,” Anthony snapped, cutting me off. “I worked hard in college, earning top grades. I take a well-paying job here, thinking that with that money, I might earn some respect. But no. Instead, they put some geriatric trainee in my office. It’s blatant disrespect.”

Geriatric trainee?

To someone just out of college, maybe I did seem old, though I wasn’t really. But kids had no sense of such things, when the world remained their oyster.

The words were offensive, but I was willing to overlook them for the other issue here.

Anthony thought he was better than me.

Even if I had been a trainee, I would deserve better than his blatant disrespect, but the fact of the matter was, I was not a trainee.

“What makes you think I’m new?” I asked.

Anthony scoffed. “You are an assistant trainer. I’m surprised you’d even be on the list for an office.”

“Perhaps you’d like to see my master’s degree,” I told him. “Or maybe you’d like to look at my CV, and see that my combined work experience outranks anything you’ve done.”

Anthony blinked, startled. “…What?”

I always had a copy of my resume handy, just in case. It was no effort now to go to my desk, grab it, and take it back to Anthony. I threw it down on his desk.

“You want to talk about blatant disrespect?” I said, scolding him. “The way you’ve talked to me is beyond the pale. I have earned my place, but what have you done to earn yours?”

Reading my resume, Anthony paled somewhat. “I had no idea…”

“You shouldn’t have to see my resume to know that I’m worthy of respect.” I pointed at my papers on his desk. “You can keep that, in case you forget.”

Turning my back to him, I walked to my own desk, stopping to pick up my discarded pencil along the way.

I could feel his eyes on me, watching me.

“I trust we will have no more issues?” I said.

“No, ma’am,” he said.

“Good.”

Liam’s POV

When Joanna finally left the office for a while to have a meeting with some shareholders, I finally allowed myself to relax. With her in the room, I felt like I had to constantly be on guard, always alert for anything she might try to get me to agree to. I had to read everything I signed extra carefully, to be certain she hadn’t slipped some kind of contract through.

It was exhausting.

I had called the foreman twice today to ask about the annex building. I could tell he was getting frustrated with me.

Honestly, I didn’t know how much more close quarters with Joanna I could take.

With her gone, I took a moment to breathe.

The peace lasted only five minutes at the most before the phone started to ring.

Sighing, I reached and answered it. At least this was one phone conversation I could have privately, without her eavesdropping all the time.

“Hello? This is Liam.”

“Liam,” Markus said.

Immediately all of my good mood vanished and I was on high alert again. “Markus. What do you want?”

“Always so hostile to your father. Even when he’s dying.”

“You’ve earned this attitude from me,” I said. “Just tell me what you want before I hang up again. Or are you warning me to keep my accountants on overtime again?”

“Ah, liked that last little trick, did you? You have good accountants on staff, I’ll give you that. They don’t overlook the things that most others would. Whatever you are paying them, it’s not enough.”

That was the first right thing I’d heard him say in a good long while. I scribbled a note on my desk, to remind my future self to consider giving the entire accounting staff a raise.

“I’m hanging up,” I threatened. Enough was enough, and I wasn’t going to listen to him drag out this mockery. He was likely only calling to taunt me. He did this sometimes, as if testing the waters of where I was mentally.

He probably wanted to see how close I was to giving in.

I wasn’t playing these games today.

“Goodbye, Markus.”

“Wait!” he said quickly. “I have a legitimate question for you this time.”

Against my better judgement, I didn’t hang up the phone. “What is it?” I asked.

He hummed. “When exactly is Aria planning on moving out?”