One Night Stand Gone Wrong

Arielle stood on the balcony of the ballroom. Payne Group (PGI) had hosted a Welcome dinner for her, which was more like an unofficial banquet given the number of people who had attended.

It had been a week since she had joined PGI and settled in her new apartment. Things were looking great so far.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Arielle had been worried Thomas might leak out something about their private lives, but he had been nothing but strictly professional, which had helped her relax and ease into her role effortlessly.

This so-called gathering, however, was not something she fancied.

She had always kept a low profile and let her work do the talking. Being bad at office politics and not normal enough to make easy friends nor having enough time to socialize, she kept everyone at a distance with a cold face.

But PGI had organized this gathering to let their employees know that she was a specially recruited person with high status. It was Thomas’s way of showing his favor.

She could not fault Thomas for this as this had been one of his conditions when they had signed the contract a few months back.

Arielle was busy enjoying the cold breeze and lost in her musings when she was interrupted by Thomas.

Arielle mused that he constantly interrupted her ever since their first meeting.

“Miss Ward, it’s time for a dance,” Thomas said.

“Is all of this necessary, Mr. Payne?” Arielle asked in the same tone.

“Yes! Unfortunately, you will soon find that I have invited you inside a wolf den, and this is my attempt to show that you have my unconditional support. That you are someone I value immensely.”

Thomas explained with seriousness as he leaned against the railing and looked at her intently.

“I am aware that this could cause a ripple effect. You could get targeted by incompetent employees and enemies alike. Nonetheless, I had to show my support openly as your work requires you to butt heads with many people. I can already imagine the upcoming conflict.”

Arielle intently listened as he explained his opinions on the matter.

A week had been enough for Arielle to see that the seemingly uprising PGI had some gaping holes. Things were not evident yet, and PGI was still a leading company, but without proper clean-up, it would collapse from within slowly but surely.

Arielle had to credit Thomas for his flawless strategy.

Thomas spent years cleaning up the most concerning mess. He brought the company to an unprecedented height as he established himself as the top gun.

But he was very much aware of the underlying issues which would constrict its further growth, so he picked an opportune time to have a 3rd party who came with an impeccable reputation do his dirty work for him.

PGI, at that point, was neither stagnant nor rushing into anything, merely perfecting and stabilizing itself in its current state. The next six months were for her to clean it up inside out and help Thomas plan for its further growth.

That way, the removed resources won’t have anything to threaten the company with, nor would they have access to sensitive information about their upcoming plans.

But at the same time, Arielle was keenly aware that she had to fight many small and large battles in the next six months before she and Thomas could win the war and bring PGI to its potential.

This party was Thomas’s protection for those battles.

“In that case, after you, President. Please do take care of me,” Arielle said with a curt bow.

Thomas could not resist his smile. He was pleasantly surprised at how they just clicked in the work matters.

Thomas led Arielle inside the ballroom just in time for the first dance.

“Please assist me in welcoming the star of the evening, Miss Ward,” Thomas said.

He knelt beside Arielle and said, “May I have the pleasure of this dance, Miss Ward?”

“The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Payne,” Arielle accepted his invitation with a standard bow, “Please lead the way!” She spoke.

All the female employees were jealous.

Thomas was taciturn and had not shown any interest in women all these years.

But not only did he onboarded Arielle Ward, the so-called financial analyst, in a high-profile manner, but he also hosted a banquet to welcome her.

Even Thomas, the CEO, was not welcomed with such a flair. It was clear as a day how highly Thomas valued Arielle Ward.

They could only grit their teeth as they waited to see just how great this Analyst was who had their President wrapped around her fingers.

Arielle and Thomas had danced together before, so their chemistry was off-the-charts, especially since the onlookers were unaware that they were acquainted.

They ended the dance formally, but Thomas led her away to the buffet.

They started talking about work as they dined together.

Many of the employees had passed by them, but they were disappointed that they could not get any gossip.

Thomas was explaining the origin of the company. They were strictly talking about work.

As jealous as the female employees were, they could not fault Arielle for anything just yet.

The same was the case for the board of directors and the executive staff.

A bunch of them were waiting for Thomas to make a mistake so they could drag him down and appoint someone else from the Payne family as CEO, preferably someone they could manipulate to their benefit.

They had been unsuccessful so far.

When Arielle was onboarded with a whopping pay and in a high-profile manner, they had assumed she might be his weakness, but they were disappointed to see that they only talked about work and were highly professional.

It could only mean one thing – either they had nothing going on between them, or they were incredible actors.

Unfortunately for them, the truth was Thomas and Arielle were both extremely professional. They were both good at acting, and they did not have anything going on between them at that moment.