JONATHAN'S POVI hated Valentine’s Day. The day always sucked. Well, they didn’t always suck, at least not when I was with Tilly. But the day she left was the last year that I had a good Valentine’s Day. I typically avoided this day, spending my day busy with work or making my way to the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. This year, however, I couldn’t do that.Jake had invited all of us siblings to Chicago. He was planning on surprising Amalia with a marriage proposal. He wanted all of us there, along with Amalia’s mom and dad. Amalia’s sister was heavily pregnant and couldn’t travel, and dad was not feeling great, otherwise the night would be full of family. Jordan was even supposed to be joining us after dinner.I am doing this for Jake. I repeated to myself over and over again. I was happy for Jake. Hell, I had even been there when he picked out the ring, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to be here. Vale

I exited the elevator and stood not moving, holding my box of belongings.  The head of HR, Willow, was leaving Jonathan’s office and gave me a weak smile and a sympathetic nod.“I have made it clear to Mr. Langley that this is his last chance with an assistant. We won’t be subjecting anyone else to his behavior if he can’t act appropriately with you. Let Emma know immediately if anything is off. I haven’t been able to get anything out of the other assistants who left.” Willow whispered to me before turning to leave. I nodded at her and headed into my office. I placed my box down.Instead of unpacking my things and settling me in to my office, I decided to go check in with Jonathan. Maybe it was my own curiosity to see how Jonathan would respond or maybe it was just my desire to be close to him again. Whatever it was, I found myself walking to Jonathan’s office.“Mr. Langley?” I called to him from the doo

JONATHAN POVA sense of relief washed over me, and I wasn’t sure why.  There was something about Maddie that drew me to her. Because of this, I was sure that I was treating her better than I had any of my other assistants. But I spoke the truth when I told Maddie about the bad assistants I had. There was a string of several who were just not good and lacked basic skills to be even a decent assistant. The one decent one I had was more interested in getting in my pants. I nearly let her give me a blow job in my office before I came to my senses and stopped her. She went crying out of my office and I fired her immediately. If that made me an ass, then so be it.Maddie was different. She knew her stuff and was able to adapt to my moods and needs. Even when I got upset following the meeting regarding the project manager, she just rolled with it. She knew I wasn’t yelling at her and didn’t respond by getting upset, like one of the assistants did when I

I woke up early to ensure that I could get in and out of the bathroom before Jonathan got up. I started the coffee maker and checked the fridge, pleasantly surprised to see that it was well stocked. I remembered how much Jonathan liked French toast. The cinnamon raisin bread in the pantry would be perfect for it.I took all the ingredients out and got cooking. I turned on some music and started making breakfast. I was moving to the music, singing along, just enjoying the morning. The sausage was cooking, and the French toast was nearly done. One of my favorite songs came on and I sang long, getting lost in the music. I turned off the stove and went to get two plates. I turned back to the stove, putting sausages and a few pieces of French toast on each plate. I pulled the warmed syrup out of the microwave and added it to the table. I was still singing along to the music when the sound of a chair moving pulled my attention.“Holy shit, you scared the crap out of me

JONATHAN’S POVI watched as Tilly went to bed. I had been waiting for this day for so long and now that it was here, I had absolutely no idea what to think. I believed everything that she told me, I really did. I didn’t doubt that something significant had caused her to leave like she did back in college. And as much as I wanted to go into her bedroom and be with her again, my head was all over the place and I didn’t know what to think.“She told me some messed up shit, Jake. I believe what she told me but, damn, she has gone through more shit than I ever would have imagined.” I sighed, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees, my hands on my head.Jake sat on the chair across from me, Amalia taking up the spot on his lap. “It must be some bad shit if she was disguising herself. No one would do that for the hell of it.” Jake stated, running one of his hands through his hair.I nodded my head, taking a deep breat