five

Just six weeks after touching down at JFK, we were back at the airport, this time to pick up a very special delivery. Mason's plane was due to land in a little under thirty minutes, and the moment couldn't come fast enough.

The last twenty-four hours for me had been hell, to say the least. It hadn't all been bad, but it had ended in a way that caused me to forget the good.

It had all started after the success of our meeting with Mr Russo. Not even five minutes after I'd saved his butt in his consultation with the bigwig investor, Mr Gray had called me into his office and completely discredited all that I had just done for him.

"If I had needed your help, I would have asked for it myself," he'd snapped.

"It's not like I was jumping at the opportunity, Mr Gray. The man asked me a question. I simply answered it."

"Ha," he'd laughed, as though he had found humour in my words. "You call what you did 'answering a question'? I would suggest 'desperately flirting' as a better description."

"How dare you accuse me of doing such a thing!" I'd been fuming by that point. "If it wasn't for my responses, who knows if the deal would have even been signed. Just be thankful, for once in your life, that someone has your back, and stop trying to boost that little ego of yours. It's clearly big enough already."

"The deal would have been signed irrespective of your presence in the room,"  he'd snarled, conveniently changing the topic. "You can't take the credit for that."

"I'm in no way claiming to have persuaded our guest on my own. You'd probably be able to see that if it weren't for your filthy pride."

It was at that point that I'd left the conversation, as well as my boss's office, and had headed home for the day. Despite it being only three o'clock in the afternoon, a considerable two hours short of my scheduled clock-off, there was no way that I could have stayed in that imbecile's presence any longer.

It was now nearing midnight, and as the new day dawned, I was determined not to let my mood carry over and ruin this one too. I wouldn't let Mr Gray have that power.

"Which gate was it again?" Becca asked, studying the overhead signs.

"Gate three I think," I checked my phone to make sure. Mason had texted all of his flight details to me, knowing full well that the two of us would get madly lost without having them on hand. "Yep, gate three."

We headed towards the international arrival terminal and located the third gate, taking a seat in the waiting area. There were quite a crowd of people waiting there for their loved ones, obstructing our vision of main entrance.

As expected, the aircraft carrying my beloved boyfriend touched down roughly half an hour later. After a few minutes of very little action, the passenger boarding bridge was finally extended out and connected to the side of the plane, enabling the passengers to exit. Sure enough, a steady stream of people began to emerge through the automatic glass doors, being greeted passionately by their waiting friends and family.

"Mason," I all but whispered to myself as I spotted him in the group, his eyes actively searching the room. I ran towards him, lunging myself at his large frame.

"Omph," he grunted from the impact as I wrapped my arms around him tightly, as if I'd never let him go. "Oh baby I missed you so much."

He dropped his bags and wrapped his large hands around my face, attaching his lips to mine as if his life depended on it.

"Mmmm," I moaned, savouring the feeling of his touch. "Not as much as I've missed you."

It was true. I'd ended up missing him more than I had ever imagined I would. The long-distance relationship had been more difficult than either of us had expected, and had definitely caused some cracks in our previously rock-solid relationship. However, all of that stuff seemed a distant memory as I held onto him in this moment.

Once we'd found Becca, and Mason had cleared the remaining customs checks, the three of us made our way over to the taxi bay, waiting in line for the next driver to arrive.

"Where to, ma'am?" I recognised the man's voice from somewhere. "Wait a second, you're the girls from Down Under!"

"I knew your voice sounded familiar," I smiled widely, happy to see our trusty cab driver again. It was hard to see anything in the shadow of the night, but the glow from surrounding lights and neon signs illuminated his features and allowed me to confirm his identity.

"What are the chances!" Becca's smile lit up her face in amazement as she slid into the passenger seat beside him.

"You guys have met?" Mason was understandably confused.

"I had the pleasure of delivering these lovely ladies to their apartment block when they first came to the city," our driver, who's name we now knew to be Rico, replied. "A bit over a month ago, was it?"

"Yeah," I nodded my head. "Time sure does fly."

The drive was even more enjoyable than the first, the fact that we were a lot more familiar with the place definitely playing a big role in that. It was also thrilling to see the city at night, the stunning streets lit up in all their neon glory. We first dropped Becca off at the apartment, before heading to a nearby hotel where I would be staying with Mason while he was in the city. We'd agreed that this particular arrangement was best for a number of reasons; it would give Becca some space to herself, Mason and I some time to ourselves, and would be a much more sensible use of space. Cramming two people into the studio rental was tight enough.

Living together with Becca had been great so far, which definitely surprised me to some degree. We were both known to be very opinionated on the most trivial of topics, which I'd expected to have caused us to butt heads more than it actually had. Recently, our main disagreements had all been fuelled by stress, mostly relating to Becca's lack of employment. She'd managed to find one client so far, who had required her services for a week. Although this was the known nature of her job, it didn't make it any harder to cope with mentally. Becca was struggling, and my main problem was that I really had no idea how to best support her. Hopefully letting her have some room to breathe would act as a sort of remedy for her.

The hotel where Mason and I were staying was further north in Upper Manhattan, a considerably longer distance from my work. But it wasn't like I could really tell him that without exposing too many details about my job. Mason had to be in this general area to give him easier access to some of the businesses he would be visiting during his stay. He wasn't only here to visit me, although that was definitely a major bonus. He had a number of work commitments, which would occupy him during the day and leave ample time for us to spend with each other during the night. He had planned everything out to fit into my schedule, which I was definitely grateful for. And as for my transport predicament, I guess the taxi service would have to do for the week.

"This place is nice," I scanned the room. It wasn't anything terribly special, but the heavenly looking king bed, with those pristine white covers, was more than enough to get me excited. That was one thing that our apartment was lacking - a comfortable bed.

"It will certainly serve it's purpose for the week," Mason agreed. "Now, Miss Carson, shall we make use of the bed?"

"Oh Mr Stanford," I replied huskily. "I thought you would never ask."

———

"My goodness that man infuriates me sometimes," Nikki whisper-yelled, cautious of our surroundings in the company cafeteria. We generally ate here a couple of times a week, as it was much more convenient than walking to nearby eateries.

"Sometimes?" I laughed sarcastically. "I would struggle to find a moment when I'm not absolutely exasperated by him."

I had just told Nikki and Conner about my most recent argument with Gray, in which he had complained about my notes being sent in a slightly different font to the standard company documentation. It had to be up there with the pettiest of our quarrels, which were becoming increasingly common between my boss and I.

"I'd probably feel the same way, if it weren't for the fact that he's a freaking sex god."

I laughed at Conner's typical input, knowing that he also made a valid point. But I tried my best to never dwell on that thought for too long.

'DING', my phone rang loudly, drawing our attention to where it sat on the table. I quickly switched it to silent before checking the message.

My Baby: i'm booking a place for tonight. when do you get off

I smiled to myself, typing a quick reply.

"Your boyfriend I presume?" Nikki wiggled her eyebrows playfully. "Or girlfriend, I don't judge."

"My boyfriend, yeah," I laughed at her antics. "Are you psychic or something?"

"Nope," she chuckled, "at least not that I'm aware of. I just know the face of a woman in love."

"So who's the lucky guy?" Conner inquired, listening intently for my answer.

"His name's Mason," I began. "He lives back home in Australia, but is actually here at the moment on business. It's the first time we've been together since I moved."

The man in question was doing business as we spoke, visiting a company which had also been high on Mr Gray's list of formidable rivals. I at least knew that there was no way that my secret would get out during this correspondence, as business deals were never made between our companies, nor were they likely to be aware of newer employees such as myself. There were, however, some other business deals that Mason was to be making during his stay which I considered to be more risky. All I could do was pray that these companies didn't reveal anything to my boyfriend, either deliberately or by accident.

"Oh damn, long distance sucks."

"Legit, it's the worst," I nodded in agreement with Conner, who seemed to have some sort of personal experience in similar situations to mine. "It's almost broken us a couple of times, but luckily we love each other enough to hold on."

"Cute," Nikki smiled in adoration. "I wanna meet him before he leaves."

"Yeah same," Conner agreed. "I need to meet this guy that has our Ally all loved up."

I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, but told them that I would try to sort something out.

My Baby: i found a few different options. can i call you real quick?

"I'm gonna head back to my office," I informed my friends, standing up to put my rubbish into the bin. "I have a call that I've gotta take."

As I pressed the button for the lift, my phone rang, 'My Baby' flashing across the screen. I hesitantly picked it up, since I was the only one boarding the elevator.

"Hey Mase," I spoke into my phone.

"Hey baby," he replied smoothly. "So I have a few options for tonight."

He went on to present his findings; three different restaurants, none of which I had ever heard of, which all served Italian food and seemed to have good reviews.

"They all sound nice, Mason," I informed him, not making his decision any easier. "I'll be happy with whichever one you choose."

As I said that, the elevator stopped at a random floor in the middle of the building. Mason was still talking to me on the other end as the door opened in front of me, making way for none other than Mr Gray to join me in the extremely confined space. When he saw that it was me who was in the elevator, and that I was on the phone, a slight smirk tugged at his lips.

"I've gotta go," I spoke quietly into my phone, although there was absolutely no way that Mr gray wouldn't hear me loud and clear.

"No worries," Mason replied, seemingly unaware of my change in volume. "I'll see you tonight. I love you, baby."

"Love you too," I replied, quickly returning my phone to my pocket as I heard him hang up.

"The boyfriend, I presume?" Mr Gray spoke from where he stood on the other side of the elevator. The smirk on his face had now grown considerably.

"I didn't realise you knew the meaning of the word," I decided to take a chance, knowing that he could either have a good laugh or damn me to hell. There was no in between with this man.

"Miss Carson," he feigned shock. "I'll have you know that I've been in my fair share of relationships."

He was obviously choosing to see the humour, which is the only reason I continued my assault.

"Mr Gray," I bit my lip to hold back a laugh. "With all due respect, you actually need to see the same girl twice in order to consider it a relationship."

"I'm offended," he put his hand to his heart, his eyes sparkling with an unknown emotion.

"Then my job here is done," I spoke rather tantalizingly, fully aware that I was now playing with fire. The familiar ding of the elevator came right on time, notifying us of our arrival on the seventy-fifth. I stepped out onto our floor, sending the wide-eyed Mr Gray a devilish smile as I headed to my office

I noticed a number of eyes were now on me, following the scene intently. It definitely wasn't the first time that girls had stared at me in that way; bitter, spiteful, jealous even. There had definitely been rumours spread around the office of a theoretical 'involvement' between Mr Gray and myself. It was only expected for someone working so closely to the beast of a man to be sucked into his trap. Luckily, the hopelessly fabricated rumours had never really reached beyond the office's four walls, most likely due to the widespread fear of my best mate Nikki. No one in their right mind would circulate a lie about one of her friends, out of fear for their own wellbeing. I was the real beneficiary of her notoriety, and was endlessly grateful for that.

As I sat down behind my desk, my mind went back to the interaction I'd just had with Mr Gray. The playful banter was definitely a welcome change from the constant bickering, and could almost be considered enjoyable even. But I wasn't foolish enough to believe that this was a permanent development. Capricious as he was, the monster was guaranteed to return eventually.

———

"How was work?" I stood to greet Mason as he walked through the door. I had already started getting ready for our dinner, but hadn't gotten very far due to my lack of knowledge on the dress code.

As he walked through the door he seemed tired, his expression almost vacant as he made his way silently over to the attached bathroom.

"Interesting, to say the least," he finally spoke, his gaze focused on the mirror.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, with no response. I sat down on the bed, positioning myself so that I had a clear view into the ensuite. "Tell me all about it, Mase."

"It just opened my eyes to how blatantly deceptive some business men and women can be," he gripped onto the vanity top, still staring firmly at his reflection.

I wasn't sure if he was going to elaborate further, but stayed silent to at least give him that option.

"I visited Parker & Reid today, as you already know," he continued, "and the CEO was telling me all about the widespread restructuring sweeping through a number of his company's biggest rivals, including a certain Gray's Consulting. You remember me mentioning them to you I presume?"

"Uh yes," my nerves were now rapidly rising. "I think I do recall that conversation."

"Well when we were discussing some of the changes that they had implemented in recent months, I was surprised to learn that Mr Gray had employed a new Personal Assistant for himself, one who had a few convenient contacts?"

His piercing eyes met mine for the first time, knocking the breath out of my lungs.

"Mason I can explain," I softly spoke, my eyes likely revealing fear, pain, and most importantly, regret.

And by the look of the deadly glare that he was sending me, I knew that I had a lot of explaining to do.