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Team

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Chapter 15: Team (Jules's POV)

"Yes, Natalie, I'm leaving for work right now," I exhaled while running into the elevator. I was a bit late for work today because I couldn't get enough sleep last night and ended up missing my alarm the first two times. Despite Natalie knowing that she was asking for a cup of fucking coffee. 

"No, I can't stop by and buy you coffee," I said, resisting a scoff and merely rolling my eyes instead as the elevator reached downstairs. "I'll be late and Christian will kill me. You wouldn't want that now, would you?" I dusted off my black blazer dress that stopped right above my mid-thigh and had a gold chain belt going around my waist that matched the gold buttons. 

The doors slid open and I picked up my pace as I neared the exit, tucking my phone between my ear and shoulder. 

Natalie was persistently asking questions about progress on the building search even though I kept her updated after every single visit. 

"No, Natalie. The last one we saw yesterday with the library was the best one so far." I walked out and my footsteps slowed down automatically when I saw the familiar car parked right at the entrance. 

"Jules, answer me," Natalie demanded in my ear. 

"I'll call you later when we visit the next building, I really have to go," I mumbled, staring at the car as I hung up and clutched my phone a little tighter, walking forward and stopping at the passenger side and taking a quick look around, sighing. The window was rolled down and I ducked down, resting my elbow on the frame and meeting his gaze. 

"Morning, Red," he greeted with a chirpy smirk. 

"What are you doing here?" I questioned. 

"I'm here to pick up my fiancé, of course," he said nonchalantly. 

"Christian," I huffed, shooting him a blank look. "How long have you been here?" 

He paused and pulled his sunglasses down his nose, meeting my gaze. "Not long enough apparently." 

Groaning softly, I resisted the urge to argue with him, first thing in the morning. "Why are you here?" 

He pushed his sunglasses up to his head this time. "Didn't I just tell you?" 

"No, I mean why are you suddenly picking me up for work?" My eyes narrowed down to slits. "Last night doesn't change anything." 

"I thought we could discuss that on the way to work instead of in the office where my employees would likely eavesdrop. Am I wrong?" Christian lifted a brow at me sharply. "Everybody already knows you." 

"We have nothing to discuss unless you now know what you want from me in exchange. Do you?" 

"Perhaps," he replied, not tearing his gaze away from me. 

"Goddamn you," I exhaled, stepping back and pulling the door open, getting into the car, and closing the door a little harder than I intended to. 

"It's always a pleasure, Milaya," he said sarcastically before starting the car and driving out of my neighborhood, heading to the office. 

"What do you want?" I questioned bluntly, watching him, quickly scanning his clothes, taking in the charcoal gray suit he wore that hugged his shoulders, arms, and chest tightly while the crisp tie and button-up were also showing. What stayed hidden was that chain around his neck I saw the first time we met again a few days ago. 

"You," he answered almost immediately. 

My head snapped over as I looked at him, stunned and confused. "What?" 

"To be my assistant again." 

I laughed in disbelief, "What? I already am for the time being." 

"Not just for the time being," he explained bluntly. 

Helplessly, I couldn't turn away from him. "What do you mean?" I questioned, my voice coming out much softer than I intended it to. 

"Until we find Natalie her ideal location, you can keep working for her. But once my business with The Bookmark is done, you will quit and come back to Lukov Empires and Estates." 

"Will I now?" 

"If you want me to be your fiancé again, you most certainly will, darling," he said, glancing at me sharply. 

"You're going to force me to work for you again just because I'm asking you to be my fiancé for a short while?" 

"No. I'm asking you to work for me again until I find a suitable assistant for myself." 

Blinking in confusion, I frowned at him. "You haven't got an assistant since I left?" 

"No," he exhaled. 

I hesitated in asking further but couldn't resist. "Well... why not?" 

"The truth? Because nobody works the way you do. I haven't found any employee who matches me on that level. They either fail to handle the workload or fail to handle, well–" 

"You," I finished for him. "Am I right or am I right?" 

He nodded just once. "Absolutely right." 

"I will be the fiancé I once was and the perfect future son-in-law to your parents whether that be for one small dinner or an entire wedding in Greece. What I ask for in return is that you work for me until I find someone else to take your place in my office. At least someone who comes in a close second." 

I folded my arms across my chest, thinking it through. "For all I know, you may not genuinely look for the right assistant. How do I know you're tricking me?" 

"You're more than welcome to find an assistant for me. Every person you choose, I will give them a fair chance, you have my word. But until then, you work for me and nobody else. Not Natalie, not Pierce Davidson..." He turned to look at me as the car came to a stop at a red light. "You're all mine until further notice." 

If I dwelled over this right in front of him, he would read me like a book, he could probably even see the gears turning in my mind. "I don't trust you," I shook my head. "What if you turn your back on me?" 

"What if you turn your back on me, Jules? These doubts go both ways," he countered. 

I looked away and stared out the window, not ready to confront this conversation. 

"But," he sighed, "for the sake of it, I will draw up a contract." 

My brows twitched up. "A real contract?" 

"Yes, Milaya, a real contract. One that binds us to the conditions that we agree to fulfill." 

I paused. "And what if one of us breaks the contract?" 

"Every deal has a cancellation fee. A penalty. That we have yet to decide." 

"If you do anything wrong or back out, it will be your responsibility to explain to my parents what really happened and why we ended things," I said immediately. 

"You really don't want to be the one to tell them?" he questioned. 

"I'm not the reason things went south so why should I have to tell them? It was your mistake, own up to it." 

With his patience clearly wearing thin from that one remark, he released a breath and stared back at me. "We both know that relationships aren't perfect and don't always work without forgiveness, Jules." 

"And we both also know that if the roles were reversed and I did what you did you would never have forgiven me, Christian," I said. Before he could add anything, I continued, "But that's not why we're having this conversation. Whatever penalty you think is suitable, I'll take it." 

"Is that a promise, Red?" 

"It sure is, Lukov. What are you going to do about it?" I muttered, staring out the window for the rest of the drive until we reached the office. 

As we got out of the car and entered the building together, I could feel every employee's eyes on us and I couldn't miss the way Holly stopped her conversation to look over. This was worse than my first time meeting Christian's parents. Their judgemental stares had me squirming in place at the dinner table and they most certainly did not like me. 

As we stepped onto the elevator and the doors closed, trapping us inside together, Christian turned to me and I could feel the heat of his gaze even if I refused to look at him but ground out. "What?" 

"We're together now, Milaya. A team. We have to hold each other's hands, stand by each other's side, and look the part of a couple madly in love. You can't let people's stares affect you." 

"We haven't signed the contract yet, don't sound so excited, Christian." I glanced at him. "And we're not a team." 

"When people work together or simply are together, they're a team, Jules." 

"Well, I happen to think we don't work well together." 

"I happen to think we do," he argued. 

I turned to glance at him just as the elevator doors opened. 

Before Christian, I always thought that people who were opposites or too different... didn't mix well together. Then I met Christian and I realized that sometimes you can meet someone that's everything you're not or everything you hate, but despite that, you can share the best similarities with them. 

You can fall in love with the same things and more importantly, with each other and that's what mattered. Christian and I were too different with the same insecurities inside of us and we wanted similar things. But because of how different we were, we couldn't find those things in each other. 

"Yet you ruined it," I said, facing forward as we reached our floor. 

"No, Jules. We ruined it," he responded before walking ahead. 

I trailed behind him silently, replaying his words in my mind. 

Maybe. Maybe I acted too impulsively when Christian reluctantly told me the truth because he had no other choice, I had already figured it all out. Maybe I didn't fight hard enough. Maybe I didn't give forgiveness when I should have and was too stubborn. I didn't realize at the time that what I was doing would push our relationship so far to the point of ruins and destruction. I didn't realize that Christian would eventually give up on me too. 

But everything I did, I did to protect myself, to protect my own heart. And if we went back in time, I would do it again. 

We may have been a team and we might have to be one again but everything had changed between us. Things would never be the same again because I could never trust Christian the way I did. It was just too late for us. But Christian was right. We ruined it.

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Chapter 15

I just had an idea for the perfect summer romance book and I'm kind of wishing I came up with that first so I could write it in the summer too BUT I'm also determined to finish this book so that idea has to wait till the next one lol

hint: childhood best friends to enemies/rivals to lovers <3

that's superior. It would also be a smalltown summer romance but I should stop thinking about it unless I wanna put this book on hold which I ABSOLUTELY don't want to cuz I really like this idea too

but that will be the next one

also, let's bring back the desi girls for the next book lol

anyway, I'll tell you guys more about that when this book is close to ending

next ch: family