A knock on the door made me jump and both of us pulled apart from each other and I could have sworn I heard Mr. Rhodes groan.

"Isabelle, I believe you invited Mr. Turner here," Elizabeth entered the room with our family doctor trailing behind.

"Um yeah of course please come inside," I replied, flustered and still trying to get my head around things and sane thoughts.

"Hello Isabelle, it's nice to see you again," Harold, the doctor just smiled and nodded, too flushed to even make a sentence.

"I'll be outside," I excused myself after a moment as Harold sat down on the chair I was previously sitting on.

As I stepped out of the room, I closed the door and stood against it, trying to catch my breath back.

I didn't know what just happened and let's just say that I didn't even want to know at the moment.

****************

Later on that day I packed my stuff before making sure that Mr. Rhodes took all his medicines and took off.

It had been three days since that little 'moment' took place and Mr. Rhodes and I both were just trying to avoid what happened and I think he was just as confused as I was.

But I could swear, that day if Elizabeth wouldn't have come, he would've kissed me and it obviously would have been disastrous.

I guess I'll never know.

Mr. Rhodes was back at the office not a day later and I didn't ask any questions about why on earth was he back so early when he was clearly dying the day before. I just asked about his health and when he told me that he was doing good, I let it go, and voila we were back to being our professional selfs again!

I, though still got flustered and confused whenever I had to face him but Mr. Rhodes was nonchalant, calm and collected that it made me doubt if that moment even happened for real or not.

"Hey, what's good Jellybelly?" Alex entered my cabin with a bag of chips in his hand.

"What kind of awful nickname is that, Alex?" I rolled my eyes as he plopped down on the chair in front of me.

"So.....any thoughts on why Ace here wouldn't talk about you anymore?" he asked while munching on whatever was in that bag and completely ignoring my question

"Anymore?" I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"You get what I mean."

"I don't know, ask him. I don't get why would you guys even talk about me in the first place," I casually shrugged and avoided the weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Don't mind me asking...but did something happen that day when you were at his place?"

"What? No. Of course not," I lied.

Or at least half lied. I mean nothing particularly happened between us, we were just caught up in a moment, or that's what I told myself. Maybe there wasn't anything at all and I was hallucinating weird stuff because of stress.

That's gotta be it.

Oh who was I kidding?

"Gosh you and Ace both, such terrible liars," Alex shook his head in disappointment and I rolled my eyes.

"I'm not lying."

"Look how you're turning red as a tomato and Ace, well he wouldn't even look at me so my detective ass tells me something is definitely fishy here," Alex rubbed his hands together with a devilish smirk on his face and I leaned back on the chair, wondering what was wrong with him.

Or us.

Or everyone I ever came across with.

**************

Later that day I had to spend some time alone with Mr. Rhodes to give him the statistics of a project and I wasn't surprised to see him acting like an ass towards me.

Whenever something out of ordinary happened between us, the very next day Mr. Rhodes always started acting like a total douche like all of his problems were my fault.

I was so curious to know the reasons behind all that act he pulled in front of everyone. He never dated, unlike most of the billionaires, he wasn't a womanizer either, he respected woman, well of course everyone except me.

Never heard that Ace Rhodes was throwing a party or enjoying himself. And from what I had gathered all these months, he didn't let himself open up to anyone.

What was this guy's deal?

As I stepped out of the elevator, I saw that almost everyone had already left and I was the only one working my ass off with Mr. Rhodes. Whenever we had to discuss something, I always had to stay with him late.

I made my way towards the exit when I heard some noise from behind me. I turned around and saw Mr. Rhodes making his way towards me.

Or towards the exit.

Whatever.

"Still here?" he cocked an eyebrow as he approached me.

Thanks to you, asshole.

"I was just leaving," I gave him a tight lipped smile, hoping for him to get the sarcasm behind it.

As it was his fault that I had to stay late today, I expected him to offer me a ride or at least thank me, oh hell a friendly smile would've done it but he walked right past me, like I was just a piece of shit in his way.

I watched as the valet brought his car right in front of him and gave him the keys and he climbed inside and drove off, not even bothering to spare me a second glance.

Just like I said before, an A-class asshole.

**************

"What happened, sweetie?" papa caressed my cheek and I gave him a faint smile.

I didn't know why, but seeing Mr. Rhodes acting all rude and nonchalant with me made me upset. I mean I knew my place and I knew that I could never be anything more than just a secretary and honestly, I was okay with it. But he didn't have to rub it in my face that he couldn't care less about me.

I stayed with him all day when he was sick, I made him soup and called him a doctor, hell I even made sure he took proper rest, and what does he do in return? He treats me like a piece of garbage.

I wasn't expecting much when he came back the next day but a thank you or a smile would have been enough to let me know that he was grateful.

I signed up for being his secretary and taking care of his sick ass wasn't my job but I still did all I could only for him to be more rude and harsh than he already was.

"Isabelle?"

"Hm yeah?" I came out of the trance.

"You zoned out. Is everything okay? Your old man knows when you're sad," papa said and I rested my head on his shoulder and smiled as he lightly ran his fingers through my hair.

Papa wasn't getting discharged anytime soon. And seeing him like this broke my heart. He had bags underneath his eyes and he looked tired and worn out everytime I came to check up on him.

I tried to be strong in front of him and made him believe that I didn't notice how weak he looked and how he had to stop once in a while to take a deep breath while talking.

"I'm not sad. I'm just tired, papa. My boss is such an ass," I mumbled and snuggled further in his chest as his body vibrated in a deep chuckle.

"I can't believe my girl is all grown up now. Working and taking all the responsibilities," he kissed the crown of my head and I blinked the tears away.

I wanted him home. I wanted him to tell me bedtime stories like he did and I wanted him to make silly jokes on how Zach would make a better wife than I would.

I closed my eyes and let the darkness of a deep slumber consume me. I knew I had to go office tomorrow and I needed to get home early and get proper sleep but sleeping in papa's arms was better than going back home where nobody was waiting for me.

*************

❤