I AM NOT IN THE MOOD

ATLAS’S POV

I had been in a foul mood since the minute that Salem looked me in the eye and said that whatever was going on between us was not real.

Sure, our marriage was only one day old, and we married under, well… special circumstances, but that did not mean that she should just dismiss it all just like that.

Not only that, she wanted to keep us a secret.

There was a knock on my office door. “Come in.”

It was Michael, my personal assistant and also my best friend. “The documents that you asked for, Mr. Knight.”

I rolled my eyes. “How many times have I told you to drop the stupid titles, Michael?” I said.

“Well, in that case…”

He dropped the papers on my table and took a seat on the couch in the office, placing his shoe-clad legs on the coffee table.

I did my best to force my eyes away from his feet.

“What’s up with you?” he asked.

“Does it look like anything is the matter?” I asked.

“Well, for one, your face is all scrunched up like someone took a shit in your coffee,” he said.

“Maybe it has everything to do with you placing your dirty feet on that coffee table. Seriously, Mike, you are not a caveman.”

He rolled his eyes. “Cut the bullshit and spit it out.”

I shrugged. “Take a good look at me, Michael,” I said suddenly. “I mean, take a really good look at me.”

He looked at me like I was losing a few marbles. “I am looking at you, Atlas, and I don’t see the point that you are trying to make here, bro.”

I heaved a sigh. “Well, do I look like someone that a woman would be embarrassed to call her husband?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you talking about?” He dropped his legs to look me dead in the eye. “What did you do?”

I cleared my throat and avoided his gaze. “This is just a hypothetical question, Michael.”

“Atlas…”

I hissed. “Are you going to answer my question or not?”

He relaxed again and propped his legs back on the table. “Well, you are a pretty great guy. I mean, you are rich and handsome, so apart from the obvious, I don’t see why anyone would be ashamed of you.”

“Thank you…” I glared at him. “What the fuck do you mean, apart from the obvious?”

He started counting on his hand. “You know, you are annoying, obnoxious, you snore when you sleep, and you have a horrible fashion sense…”

“Okay, okay, you have made your point,” I said, and he burst out laughing.

“Thanks for nothing.”

“Don’t be like that—”

We were interrupted by my office door being pushed open, and I already knew who it was by the loud, obnoxious sound of pencil-thin heels.

And just like that, the entire room was dominated by the strong scent of her Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium perfume… Not that it did not smell nice, but when it was like she took a literal shower in it, the choking scent was already giving me a migraine.

“Atlassssss!”

“What do you want, Marilyn?” I asked without looking in her direction.

Michael stood up and walked over to Marilyn. “Hey there, May-May.”

She glared at him like he was the scum of the earth, and she pointed at him. “First, don’t call me that, Michael. We are not friends. And second, get out of my sight.”

Michael raised his hands in mock surrender. “Alright, tiger.”

She just rolled her eyes. “Fucking idiot.”

I don’t even know why the two of them were always at each other’s throats. And usually, I always ignored them, but I was not in the mood right now.

“If you both don’t have work to do, you can leave my office!” I snapped.

Marilyn was still glaring at Michael. “You heard him. Get out.”

Michael stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked between the two of us. “I see that you both have a lot to talk about, so I will just see myself out,” he said.

“Later, man,” I replied.

The weirdo just blew me a kiss. “Don’t miss me too much,” he said before walking out.

Once we were alone in the office, I focused my eyes right on my computer screen and ignored the look Marilyn was giving me.

“Seriously, Atlas, you’re not even going to look at me?”

“When we are at the office, call me Mr. Knight, Marilyn… don’t be unprofessional.”

Her face heated up instantly, and she cleared her throat. “Umm… my bad, Mr. Knight.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I am here to complain about one of the employees under my wing, Salem Grant. She came late to the office today, and as a result of her tardiness…”

I cut her off, not even wanting to hear it. “All I am getting right now, Miss Smith, is that you are incapable of handling your own division.”

“No… that’s not—”

“Then stop bothering me about such irrelevant things. I have more important work to do today.”

It was like clockwork—her eyes got teary immediately. “W-why are you being like this, Atlas?”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Please, Marilyn, not now.”

She walked closer to me until she was standing directly in front of me. “Our parents are literally planning our marriage… Why don’t you ever take me into consideration?”

“Did I ever tell you that I wanted to get married to you?”

“…”

Marilyn and I had been close friends for as long as I could remember, and to me, she was just like a sister. This marriage that our families think is brewing between us was all bullshit and was never going to happen.

I had told her this multiple times, but the problem with Marilyn was that she had a hard time taking a hint, and that often led to situations such as this one.

“Atlas, we have to get married, there is literally—”

I stood up and pointed to the door. “Please leave.”

“Atlas, you can’t be serious.”

“I have a lot of things on my plate today, and quite frankly, I am not in the mood.”

She tried to touch me. “But, Atlas, we can talk…”

“Now, Miss Smith.”

The look on her face when I said that almost made me feel guilty—keyword being almost.

On a normal day, I would have ignored her excesses; it never hurt me anyway, so there was no big deal.

But I was a married man now, even if she did not know that.

My wife did not even want to be seen in public with me, and Marilyn was here clinging to me even when I was not interested.

So forgive me if my tolerance level was lower than usual.

She stared at me for a good five minutes, waiting for me to take back my statement, but when I didn’t, she laughed humorlessly and shook her head.

“Fucking unbelievable,” she muttered under her breath and stormed out of the office, banging the door behind her.

And somehow, I just knew that this was going to be a really long day.