Chapter 1

(Just as a forward: my amazing cover was made by @LeeRoss here on Prose. His work is amazing so definitely check him out after you enjoy this chapter!)

Today was the day. It was the start of the new team. Diana’s old supervisor, Destiney, had finally retired, after years of trying to avoid it. Though Diana loves Destiney, it was definitely time for a fresh start.

Diana has wanted to change up things at her job. It was becoming boring. The day in and day out where the only thing that changed were the clients and very occasionally staff was enough to drive her mad. She needed change and wanted to be in the upper management. It was about time. She had been with the company for years!

She did her best to use hairspray to keep down the fly away hairs that were slipping from her bun that was on the top of her head. That was the fight every morning in her car since her hairs wasn’t the perfect length to fully stay in the bun.

That was her most recent impulse thing to do. She had cut her long, black-brown curls into a bob and now, it was growing back and getting into her face while she worked.

After almost ten minutes, she gave up with a huff, and quickly grabbed what she needed from the passenger seat of her car. Her hair shouldn’t be her biggest worry. It should be making a good first impression with the new boss.

She got into the office building with no hiccups, even making sure that she was still looking good on any reflected surface she could. The bun was looking fine and so was she in her navy blue button up and black pencil skirt with conservative pumps. Diana was conservative at work, but she could be more fashion forward when not there, making her seem like a bore. Her heels were clicking against the tile in the halls and lobby, echoing throughout.

She was almost to her office’s section of the building when she pulled out her phone. Last minute messages of good lucks and I love yous filled the screen as her dark brown eyes scanned it all over. Quickly, she closed out some of those with the swift movement of her thumb before looking up to see what was going on around her.

At the same time she looked up, a nicely dressed man looked up at her at the same time. He had light brown eyes behind his black rimmed glasses and had slightly long hair that was in a tiny ponytail and resting at the nape of his neck. He was in a nice suit, almost perfectly tailored to his body, making Diana immediately look back up to his face when she noticed.

This quick moment of looking was ruined by them running into each other, the mug that was in his hand and full of coffee ending up on her chest, soaking through her shirt. A loud wince was released from Diana at taking the blow, trying to hide her discomfort from her face.

“I’m so sorry!” the man quickly said, trying to move his hand as fast as he was talking. “Shit. Do you need me to find you another shirt?”

Diana held back her smart mouth comment that was about to escape, remembering her goals to eventually move up, and nodded. “I’m not sure how you could, but yes, please.”

“Which client are you under? Let me go tell them you’re going to be late.”

“I’m at Marriden.”

His eyes went wide for a moment before his eyes darted towards the door she was heading from. “Me too. Just started.”

“Welcome to the team.” She gave him a small smirk. “I’m going to go check my car while you can see if you can scrape something up from around here.”

She quickly spun on her heels to head out before hearing him shout. “Wait! What’s your name?!”

“Diana! Diana Capaletti!” She was not going to turn back too much to see him as she was fuming slightly. She couldn’t let the entire office see how mad she was so her face quickly changed as if her chest wasn’t soaked.

As she neared the door, Diana’s coworker, and sort of friend, Eleanor, came in. Her face turned to a mix of pain and sadness. “Rough morning?” the blonde asked, her Southern drawl coming out while she spoke.

Diana held back an annoyed sigh and just shook her head. “It was fine until someone ran into me with their mug of hot coffee.”

"I think I have a spare shirt in the car from the cleaners." Eleanor rummaged through the purse she had in her hand as best as she could. She then handed over the keys to her blue Kia.

"You're a queen!" She quickly gave an air cheek kiss before heading towards the lot.

Diana wasn't the type to pray, but she was internally praying to whoever would listen that Elanor didn't park super far from the building. Eleanor was the type to park as far away as possible to get her "steps" in.

A sigh of relief is let out from her lips as she saw her savior chariot. She unlocked the doors and began sacavaging, looking to see where Eleanor possibly had a clean shirt.

Come on! Come on! Come on!

She got towards the backseat and saw on the seat, laid out, a black top that was covered in yellow, white, and green flowers, in a dry cleaning garment bag. The top was totally not her style at all for work, as she could see the sleeves were capped and frilly. There was even fabric frill right in the middle of the chest. She had no other chance though!

She carefully grabbed the top and slipped it out of the bag, putting down her purse in Eleanor's car before getting it on. Diana held back her comments on how she looked and got her dirty shirt in the bag before getting her purse, locking Eleanor's car, and headed towards her own car to put her soaked shirt away.

The parking lot was full of cars, a few people struggling to find a spot because they were late, and the air felt cool on her arms and legs. Now that she wasn't worrying about possible burns in her chest, her mind suddenly was on the man who spilled his drink on her.

Though the look was short, he was pretty handsome. She wasn't the type to take notice of things like that as she wouldn't date anyone at work. It interfered too much with her goals of being a manager one day. There also was no one that really had ever caught her eye either, but this guy was different. He was really good looking and she couldn't stop thinking about that suit. No one else usually wore suits except managers and big wigs so it was a nice change of pace.

Was he not paying attention to where he was going because he was staring at her?

Diana was beautiful in her own mind, but dates were few and far between as of late. She was work focused as of late...but coffee guy wasn't going to change her mind about at work dating. No way.

After getting her stained shirt into the car, she tried to think of what to say to explain to her boss about her tardiness. There’s no way the guy, on his first day, was going to cover for her in her mind. What would he have to gain by doing this? She may have had the manager look, but she definitely wasn’t one yet.

Maybe Eleanor would cover for her? That sounds more logical to her...well, if she remembers. Ellie wasn’t the stereotypical blonde, but in her mind did always have a million things on it at any given time. It might be short of a miracle if she remembered to even let new boss know who Diana was.

She did her best to not run through the hallways of the office building, discreetly looking at her phone to see how late she was about to be. A sigh left her lips before she stuffed her phone in her purse again. She was five minutes early still. Maybe her luck was turning around this morning.

She walked briskly to her desk near the back by the window, not bothering to stop by the break room for coffee like she normally did. Diana had had more than enough spilled on her that morning.

Being careful not to hit Eleanor’s chair, she got into hers and put her purse in the small cabinet next to it. She made sure it was all locked up before doing her best to get logged and clocked in.

Her desk was a bit less decorated than most in the office, only having some framed pictures, magazine clippings, and old memos that should have been thrown out months ago. The picture frames were silver, matching, and has memories of her, her siblings, her mother, and her aunt. Inspirational quotes were shown beneath clippings of clothes she saw in magazines and old comic strips from the newspaper in a cork board behind her computer. One of them was super yellow and clearly shown to be folded over and over a few times.

Diana was pulling up her email and checking in when Eleanor came to her desk, sporting her signature “My favorite people call me “Mama” ” mug, and taking a small sip from it. She let out a small noise towards swallowing her sip.

“I’m glad I still had that top for you. It looks real good on ya!” She gushed a little before setting down her mug and moving to the wall of the cubicle and gently doing two knocks against it.

A petite redhead bounced up after the two knocks and let out a small squeal and a perky “Morning Ellie and Di!” Her hair was tied back in a ponytail with a teal bow securing it.

Diana opened up her hot pink planner before mumbling a quick “Morning”. Hopefully, if she could focus on the day’s work, the morning and the mysterious handsome man would disappear from her mind.

“What’s her damage?” the redhead whispered, probably louder than she meant to.

“Well,” Ellie started, her eyes darting to see who else might be around to hear. “Di is sourpuss supreme because someone spilled coffee on her.”

Diana gave a glare up at the two of them before looking to the planner in her hand. “He almost made me late!”

“Wah wah!” The red haired woman pretended to wipe invisible tears from her eyes. “You are literally never late so you wouldn’t have gotten into that big of trouble!”

Diana held back an annoyed look. She knew that Andrea never understood what Diana’s goals were. She was content with where she was in the job, she didn’t want to go any further or strive higher than where she was currently. Andrea was always happy just where she was and as long as she didn’t get fired.

“I’ve never been late. It’ll look bad if I was once especially when the new boss is coming in today.” Di was half focused in the conversation, jotting down important information in her planner from new emails that were in her box.

“The only thing I’m worried about is whether or not he’s a he and if he’s cute.” Andrea said bluntly, looking over her long, lavender nails.

“Are you joking-“ Di started before being interrupted by a squeal from Eleanor.

“That’s totally what I’m hoping for too! God above, there is not much eye candy here, and we deserve a little piece, don't we, Annie?”

Annie nodded as she looked up. “I doubt it though. This company always looks for the oldest, crustiest-“

Her rant was interrupted by the man who had run into Diana earlier, his black hair already dropping out of the ponytail, and he was pushing his glasses up to his face when he stopped at Diana’s desk.

“Oh thank goodness! You found a shirt.” He let out a sigh and a small, nervous laugh as he continued to speak. “No one here had a replacement shirt from who I asked.”

Diana gave him a small smile, feeling small hairs starting to tickle near the back of her ears. “I appreciate you searching it for me.”

“I’m not sure if I apologized before I do-“

“That’s my blouse. That Di’s wearing. Mine.” Eleanor sputtered out, clearly excited to see the attractive man near their desk.

The man broke his gaze from Diana for a moment to look up at the blonde, the small smile that was on his lips quickly disappearing.

“Oh.” His voice was slightly monotone, much different than how he was speaking with Diana just moments ago. “I appreciate your...preparedness for situations like this.”

Eleanor clearly didn’t hear the change in tone as she had a huge, smitten grin on her face. Diana lifted one of her brows while waiting for the blonde to respond.

“Oh! Thanks… I’m Eleanor Belanger, but you can call me Ellie.” Her voice was very flirtatious and it was making Diana cringe internally. Obviously, Di thought he was attractive too, but she wasn’t going to be so blunt about it.

“Well, Eleanor, I’m glad you were able to help a fellow coworker, and I’m glad you were able to get in and changed and still be on time, Diana.” The last part had him looking back to Di, making her heart skip a beat.

Why was she acting like this? He was just a coworker, a good looking one, and nothing was going to come from this. She needed to take a break or a breather.

“I will see you all around. Have a good morning.” He was clearly talking more towards Di, but tried to have it be towards all the women in that small cubicle area.

As soon as he was out of hearing distance, Diana got a punch to the arm from Eleanor, making her practically yelp in pain.

“What the fuck was that for?” Diana whispered the fuck as softly as she could.

“For you failing to tell us that it was a major hottie who spilled coffee on you!” Ellie gave her a harsh glare.

“That...that literally wasn’t important when I had scalding coffee burning at my chest.”

“Uh...yeah, it did! You literally heard Annie and I gush about how there was no one cute in the office and you were hiding out about him!”

Di’s moves immediately to face away from them, trying to resist the urge to put her hands on her face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Oh you totally do! You’re probably looking like a tomato!” A squeal was followed with Annie joining in.

“Ellie totally has been though!” Annie piped up, gripping Eleanor’s arm. “She was so suave and quick to flirt! I’m sure Mr. Ponytail will be asking for your number in no time!”

Ellie and Annie had started to continue their conversation, but Diana had already tuned them out. She had two important clients that desperately needed her attention or they were going to drop business with them.

Okay...maybe she was being a bit dramatic about that last part. Every client was an important one to her and these two had been super chatty and she could barely pull away to go home yesterday.

Either way, focusing on the clients was way smarter than on “Mr. Ponytail”. Especially not the way he has dimples when he even remotely smiled or how cute it was that his eyes squinted when he smiled as well.

Though she definitely was only work focused, her mind was drifting to thoughts of jealousy. Obviously, he wasn’t interested in Ellie...right? Not that it mattered, but still. He didn’t call her Ellie when said to call her that so he didn’t like her! Right?

Diana gave her head a proverbial shake. Why was she so focused on this man? Her mother and auntie always told her that men were a dime a dozen so she never should be focused or hung up on one. Why was this different? She probably just was touch starved or something Annie could “read” on her.

She was brought back to reality when she could hear Annie and Ellie bicker right next to her ear. Di couldn’t even tell what the useless fight was even about.

“Do you two ever work?” Di said it loudly and frustrated. “Not everyone is so worried about being with a man. We got a job to do!”

Ellie and Annie immediately got silent before one of them scoffed. They never understood why she was like that and they didn’t want to be talked down on more so the two got to their desks and finally seemed to get to work.

Di worked diligently from that point on, really only looking up to attempt to stop eye strain. After a few hours, there was an email that popped into her box from the secretaries at the front desk.

“To Everyone on Destiney’s Old Town,

Your new supervisor is waiting for you guys in the sky blue meeting room. Please be prompt as they wanted to keep introductions brief.

Best,

Mary”

Diana let out a soft breath to attempt to calm down as she got up to head to the meeting room. She noticed that Ellie and Annie didn’t get up. Half of her wanted them to have to stay there, knowing they were going to be blabbermouths along the way, but she needed to be a team player.

“Did you guys...get Mary’s email?” Her speech pattern was broken a bit while waiting to see their responses.

“Oh! No, I didn’t.” Ellie looked to her email before getting up and locking her screen. “Annie? Did you read your email?”

“Just did at hearing Di ask!” Annie’s head popped up at hearing Ellie’s voice. “Are we all walking together?”

“Yeah, sure!” Ellie said, heading out of the tiny cubicle and had Di follow right behind her.

They met up with the redhead near her desk and just as Di had thought, the two of them began to chat up a storm, going on and on about Mr. Ponytail, and how so perfect he was for Ellie.

Diana tried really hard not to let the whole thing bother her, even tuning them out as they took seats in the conference room.

Slowly, Diana’s teammates started to fill in, their chatter filling the room, and making Di lose focus again. Their former team assistant came in after a few moments after their entire team was in.

The lanky man put his hands up to get the room to simmer down without luck. His face quickly turned to one of annoyance before speaking up. “Hey! Let’s get quiet now, children.” The children comment was said in a condescending way.

Everyone began to settle down, glares and scoffs arising while they were. The lanky, curly haired man had a small smirk arise as people finally got quiet. “Now, as we know, Destiney retired, but we aren’t left leaderless!” He motioned someone to come in through the door while he spoke. “He’s been in management for four years with our company and just moved to support our team.”

“Please help me welcome...Richard De La Cruz!” He clapped slightly after saying it, making everyone follow suit.

Diana’s eyes went wide when seeing who walked on in, but “Mr. Ponytail” himself.