#forbidden?

It was, however, delivered by his youngest brother, Finn, whom you were non-exclusively seeing. He had been the one who had bagged the job for you and pushed Tommy to take you on. Finn knew how much Tommy liked to ‘give back’ to his community, helping out those who needed it the most.

It was a windy day and so you had wrapped a wool coat around yourself and pulled on a matching hat to hold your hair in place whilst also managing to fight off the cold from biting away at the tips of your ears. When you had received the letter, you had gone out and bought some clothes that looked more professional and matched a bit better than some of the things you already owned — which was hard considering this was going to set you back a few more pounds that what you actually had yet, making you grateful for the opportunity to make the money back as soon as you would. Finn had paid for your clothes and you felt so guilty spending money that you didn’t actually have yet, but he had insisted that for your new job you got some new clothes since you had been moaning about how worn and old the ones you currently owned were.

Thinking through every possible scenario that could be a bad start for you, you walked in your low heels to the doors of the building, not having noticed that you’d made it there already. Finn had mentioned something about Tommy’s assistant being Lizzie, to which you were mildly shocked, after hearing all of the stories Finn had told you about his family beforehand. You push the door open to reveal a large room, sparsely decorated with minimal furniture, there was a tall woman who you assumed to be Thomas’ assistant from what he had described in his letter.

She looked up from her desk and smiled widely at you, “Oh, you must be Michael’s new assistant,” she looked up to the clock on the wall above the archway you were standing underneath, “and you’re early, we like that here.”

She gets up from her seat and walks over to you, offering you her hand, “Lizzie Stark, love.”

You sigh, thankful that you’ve managed to get some bonus points in already whilst also being pleased that you’d been greeted by Lizzie first since you had no idea who you would be an assistant to.

After shaking your hand, she pulls you closer to her by placing an arm on your back, guiding you towards where you needed to go, “Up those stairs, you’ll see a similar layout to the one down here, you make yourself at home at the desk, move things about however you need them and Michael will make himself known in a few; he’s due here any moment now.”

Hands folded in front of yourself, clutching tightly onto the purse that held a few of the things you thought you would use while here, or to decorate with a few things to remind you of home to help make you more comfortable, you nodded your head and thanked Lizzie and headed up the stairs.

Sure enough, it was exactly as she had described, the desk was pushed into the corner a bit more but you assumed this was so that it was out of the way whilst no one was using it and decided to move it once you’d hung up your hat and coat.

Taking in your surroundings, you slowly began to underestimate the reach of the Shelby Company — whilst the walls were barely decorated, there were a few certificates hanging on the walls, almost blending in with their surroundings, so much that you almost didn’t even notice them.

You placed your purse on the desk and slipped your coat off while you were viewing all of the certificates. You were trying to figure out what the company was whilst also mentally noting some of the things you might have to ask for to help with filing and keeping everything organised. You were determined to impress whomever you had to and to keep your job for as long as possible — not that you were planning on losing it any time soon either.

Pulling off your hat, you turn to see if there was a cloak hanger for you to put your coat and hat on, only to be met with the observant gaze of a young man dressed in a three-piece suit and a tan coat to keep him warm.

You gasped, quickly placing your  hand over your heart, “You must be Michael.”

He stood, seemingly waiting for something to happen before he could make any further movements.

Whilst he stayed observing you, you suddenly realised that you hadn’t introduced yourself, you internally cringe and offer your hand, “How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself; I’m —”

“You needn’t bother; I already know who you are.”

“Oh,” you simply say, retracting your hand and clutching onto your coat. You look around the room, waiting for him to say something to you as he seemed to know what he wanted.

Deciding that he most likely was waiting for you to say something, you open your mouth but close it again, not knowing what to say to him and frown at the floor.

His piercing eyes follow your head, watching your every move. He knew that he couldn’t show too much emotion as that’s how they get attached, right?

Michael blinks and holds his arm out, “I’ll hang your coat and hat up in my office with mine… I’ll also get Lizzie to send one up for you for tomorrow.”

Offering a small smile and backing away slightly, you say, “You don’t have to, it’s not a problem.” 

“I insist,” he stares right into your eyes, to which point you give in and pass over your things to him.

“Thank you,” you say.

He walks off into his office and you decide to try and make yourself useful by going over to your desk and perching on the chair provided.

“Fucking hell,” you whisper, head in your hands, resting on the desk, “what am I going to do with him staring at me like that all the time?”

Michael steps out of his office and leans up against the door frame, now in his suit minus the coat. You hadn’t yet noticed him but he was watching you as you were freaking out and whispering to yourself, what an impression, eh?

He clears his throat, you instantly lift your head, your face hot, and he begins to talk, “There’s a few things I need to get sorted, I’ve been away for a little while now but until then, you can set up your desk however you want and organise whatever files I give to you later on.

“I’ll also have some office equipment ordered in so that we have enough storage space; for now the one over there,” he points at a file organiser, “is the one you’ll be using. It’ll probably fill up quickly considering that I’ve been away. Anything you can think of that would benefit your workspace, let me know and I’ll get Lizzie to order some until I can get you fully supplied with everything you’ll need to assist me properly.”

“Alright,” you breathe out, “uh, how long have you been away?”

“Does it make a difference?”

Your eyes go wide, “It might help me guess how much work I’ll be getting until it regulates out later on… assuming that there are things that need filing from that time period.”

Michael grits his jaw and sighs, knowing that he can’t argue with that logic before replying, “Two years, give or take.”

“Thank you,” you reply as he pushes himself off of the wall. As he does so, you notice a glint from his left hand; you spy a golden band on his wedding finger.

You smile to his back, knowing that he most likely missed it completely but continued anyway. You had to uphold a positive image of yourself, no matter whatever came at you.

Michael pushes his door up but doesn’t close it completely, you sigh, knowing that he’ll be able to hear everything that you do if he wants to and stand from your seat. You perch on the edge of the desk and grip the edge with your hands. Biting your lip and crossing your legs at the ankle you take in the empty room. It was cold when it was empty, the light sconces warmed the room up but not enough, you wrap your arms around yourself and walk over to the sconces to see if you could light some more or somehow turn on some heating.

You’d worn a long-sleeve dress as Finn had told you that floor hadn’t been heated since it hadn’t been used for a while.

As you were inspecting the sconces and trying to figure out the heating or if it even worked on this floor, Finn bounded up the stairs, greeting you with a grin, “How’s it going?”

You smile and watch as he pulls off his glinting peaked cap and ruffles his hair slightly, “It’s good. Cold a little, but I’m managing.”

Finn chuckles, “Michael or the heating system on this floor?”

You shake your head and say with a smile on your face, “Heating, Finn.”

He steps closer to you and wraps his arms around you, resting his chin on your head as you snuggled closer to his neck.

“Do you need anything bringing?” He whispered, brushing a strand of hair out of your face with the back of his finger.

“No, this is just fine,” and you hold him tighter.

The two of you stand for a moment, enjoying the other's presence until you look over Finn’s shoulder and notice Michael’s looming figure, watching from behind his frosted glass in his office. Startled, you cough and pull away from Finn, “Hey, do you think you could help me move this desk so it’s more centred? I think it’ll benefit in the future if I can reach everything within a few steps.”

“Sure,” Finn replies, “I’ll go get Isaiah so that we can move it for you,” he kisses your hair and says, “I’ll be back soon.”

After Finn’s footsteps reach the final step, Michael comes out of his office and you turn to face him. He has an eyebrow raised and his hands in his trouser pockets, waiting for you to say something to him.

Instead you stand, uncomfortable with the fact that Michael managed to see you with Finn and irk you the way he did, just watching.

“You and Finn, eh?”

“Yeah,” you say, brushing your arm up and down, feeling awkward like this in front of Michael and you let your hair fall in front of your face again, quickly thanking yourself for keeping it down this morning.

“That’s a shame.”

Eyes widening, you drop your arm to your side and whip your head to catch his eyes, “What do you mean?”

Michael takes a few steps forward, he brings his left hand out of his pocket and when he is inches away from you, “Because,” he says, breath fanning your face, “you deserve more,” he pushes your hair behind your ears, similar to how Finn had done moments ago, only Michael’s action sent thrilling chills down your spine when his hand brushed against your skin.

“But,” you whisper, unable to pull yourself from the spot you were frozen to, “you’re married.”

Without missing beat, Michael breathes out, “That’s a fixable mistake.”