Page 91 of Twisted Truth

One part of my mind wants to give him a smart-ass retort, that I do in fact have a lot of work to do, but the other part of my mind is still spinning from receiving this incredibly personal, beautiful gift.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Asher, it’s that he doesn’t do anything by halves. He’s either out or he’s all in. Which makes me wonder how our arrangement will make it through the next weeks and months since we’re trying to exist in this strange in-between of a real-but-not-real relationship. It already feels like a dangerous precipice because I have the feeling that Asher Langford could either make me the happiest woman in the world if this was real or he could shatter me into nothing when it’s all over.

I just hope that whatever happens, my heart and mind survive it.

27

ELLA

“Do you have the price point for the watch again, Ella?” Jerome asks, looking down at his notes. I’m meeting with my old marketing team during my morning break from the PR team, and I’m helping them finalize details before their launch of Vericom’s smartwatch next Friday. Vericom is a subsidiary of Langford Holdings, and as Langford Holdings does all of their marketing in-house, we are in charge of their launch. But Vericom is panicking at the moment because our marketing team was supposed to have final approval on the ad structure, photos, and release, but have had some hiccups with all of the firings and reshuffling of teams. One of the fired employees, Aaron, destroyed a lot of the information for the launch when he was let go, and the team has been scrambling for over a week to put it all back together. I wasn’t overly involved in the project before, but since they’re in a pinch, I’m helping them out.

“Yes, the price point is six ninety-nine.”

He slots in the price in the mock-up for the ad on his computer.

“And I know the company wanted the graphics behind itbrighter, more reds and oranges before fading down into the pinks and purples.”

I give him my last notes of what I can remember of the previous visual ad and some of its talking points. Madelyn was on the project as well, and she’s been the rock star of the new team since she put the whole thing back together from memory. However, she wasn’t familiar with the visual ad because that was Aaron’s job, and I only know the specs of the ad because Aaron asked my opinion on it several times, seeking a female perspective.

Finally, we’re satisfied we have it mostly put back together, and the marketing team heads to the conference room to call Vericom and present the redone ad.

“Good luck!” I call as they head over.

A man carrying a large and exquisitely beautiful flower arrangement walks down the aisle between cubicles.

“Ella Hale?” he asks.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“These are for you.”

I shrink a little and lead him to my desk. Then I move to grab my purse for a tip.

“No need,” the delivery man says. “It’s already been taken care of.”

“Okay, thank you.”

He turns to leave, and a few female coworkers flit over to my desk, gushing over the flowers.

“Are they from Mr. Langford?” one of them asks.

I lift the card from the arrangement and read it.

Asher’s apology is short but sweet, and I tuck the card away before anyone can see it.

“Yes.”

“You’re so lucky. I can’t believe you’re dating Mr. Langford,” Cami says. I don’t know Cami well, I only sort of know her in passing, and I don’t know the other three women standingaround my desk. With the department switch around there’s a few new faces I’m not familiar with, and somehow all the women I don’t know are the ones around my desk asking me questions about Asher, commenting on my flowers, and telling me how lucky I am.

“Yes, well. I am . . . lucky,” I stumble over my words. I really need to learn how to speak coherently when it comes to Asher. “He’s amazing.”When he’s being nice.

The women gush again.

“Wait,” one of them says, grasping at my hand. She looks down at Asher’s ring. “This has Mr. Langford’s initials on it. Did he give it to you?”

“Yes, it was his ring as a boy.”

“I know that ring! I’ve seen it on him in photos when he was younger,” Cami squeals. “The Langford’s are an old family with long traditions. I’m obsessed with stuff like that. I love keeping tabs on all the high society in New York and the UK. That’s why I work here; I wanted to work for the Langfords. Maybe snag me a Langford man. You’re a lucky bitch, you know that?”