The Best Friend's Contract

Aidan

"No!" Kenna's voice on the other line causes me to pull my phone away from my ear, closing my eyes in respond at the tone of her voice. The possibility of me going deaf is high if I have to deal with situations like this in the future, for the whole year. My eyes wander to Flynn-who seems to have heard her sudden tantrum while I loosen my shirt's sleeves and roll them up to my elbows.

"We talked about this and my answer will always be the same. I'm not going to Dallas. If you ever think about going... then, you can go without me." She continues to speak, leaving me turn around to look at the glass window; down the busy street in the city. "It's their anniversary, Kenna. What can I say?" I sound defeated, not really knowing how to reason with Kenna for being stubborn. "You're right, we're both very busy and committed to our careers but she's also right, family comes first. I can't say no to her and you know that," I add.

When I walked inside Empire, my employees were surprised to see me. They thought I'd be taking a week or probably even a month off to spend some quality time with my so-called-wife. Their eyes widen as they had expected otherwise but then again, I didn't say anything with the board about taking a time off.

Rumours began to spread around the building for the past couple of hours ever since my arrival-saying that I'm much of a workaholic for not spending time with my wife and care more about my career than anything else. Little do they know, it's not what they think. It had only been three days ever since the wedding. Kenna and I took a day off to unpack and help her settle in; that was basically it. We pay no attention to the media about our wedding or news about the 'bachelor' losing the title when I finally became someone's husband.

"My answer is still no but like I said, you can go without me." She replies before going silent. The only sound I can hear is someone calling out her name and stating for some kind of emergency, "Look, Aidan... I really got to go. Bye," Then, the line goes dead without even giving me a second to respond, making me look down at my phone as I sigh, deeply.

It's true that I can never understand how busy or how tiring it is to be a neurologist but she really needs to give time for herself. She works too hard as if she's trying her best to avoid her personal life for some unknown reason which concerns me about her own health while she's too busy caring for others, especially Albert's... an old man who she has grown fond of.

"I don't know what else to say to her," I look up at Flynn who is currently holding onto a couple of files as he looks at me.

Flynn clears his throat, "I'm afraid I'm not very fond with women and their ways of explaining things, Mr. Ashton. There's not much I can help you in that department," He replies, causing me to raise an eyebrow at his respond; he has always been quite nervous around me even though it has been years ever since he became my personal assistant.

My eyes wander to take a closer look at Flynn's appearance. The same dark floppy hair for the past years without a slight change except a little bit of trimming, thick-rimmed glasses and no sign of a five o'clock shadow. It takes me awhile to realise that even after years of knowing him and spending time with him as his boss, I've never come to notice how his appearance has always been.

"Don't you have a girlfriend?" I ask, leaning back on my seat without looking away from Flynn.

He seems surprised at my question, causing him to push his glasses back from sliding down on the bridge of his nose. "No... Mr. Ashton. Actually, I've never had a girlfriend." He stutters.

My lips curve up into a smile before growing wider and bursting out into laughters, trying my best not to attract further attention. As for Flynn, he starts to look down at his feet and try to find some sort of amusement like I did but according to his facial expression, it shows how much he didn't expect me to end up bursting into laughters.

As soon as I realise how serious he was, my laughter begin to disappear as I clear my throat; feeling a slight regret building in. "You weren't kidding, huh?" I breathe out.

"No, Mr. Ashton." He mutters, faking a smile.

"I'm sorry, Flynn. I didn't mean to offend you," I let out a sincere apology in which he accepts with a surprised expression-not expecting me to apologise. Then again, there's a lot to people that we can never expect, they're always full of surprises.

Years of knowing Flynn, our

conversations were only short, subtle and business. There's no such thing as me apologising over something I said or did because ve always thought it s unnecessary but right now, it feels as if O apologising was the right thing to do. It doesn't depend on certain titles or the amount of money, it's all about the heart.

Just as I'm about to say another word, the door to my office bursts open, revealing Alain who has a small smile plastered on his face as both of his hands are shoved into his slacks' pockets. His hair is neatly combed to the back, showing off an office appropriate look which screams respect, power and money.

"Excuse us, Flynn." I say, standing up and taking a few steps towards my brother. We're a few feet apart but it feels as if our gaze could burn a hole in our hearts-that's just how much amount of annoyance overflowing in our bodies whenever we see each other. "What brings you the pleasure to my office?" I ask, running a hand down my chin which causes him to roll his eyes, not liking my attitude. There's only Alain and I in my office, causing me to sit at the edge of my desk before looking directly at him.

"I've been calling but unfortunately,

you don't know how to pick up a phone which explains why I'm here. Why does Oliver keeps on asking me about the company's financial details? Is he the CFO? No, that's me. He starts to speak and there's a slight hint of anger in his voice but I pay no further attention, only letting him continue.

"I handle the financial details perfectly fine. Ever since the very beginning, I was the one who checks on every single detail, record them and graph them. Why would he interrupt my work? Who gave him permission?" He adds before sighing deeply and pinching the bridge of his nose, leaving me to chuckle, softly. "I gave him permission," I answer, crossing my arms.

"You had no right to do that. In fact, you have no right to nosily play your part in my work." He replies, taking a few steps closer as he points his index finger at me.

"Alain... incase you forgot, I'm the chief executive officer and I have every right to nosily play my part in your work. I didn't mean to disrespect you and your work but you gave me no other choice. You kept the financial details in Australia a secret and why is that?" I ask, silencing him as he clenches his jaw, looking away.

"I didn't keep it a secret, Aidan. You could've just fucking asked," He throws a file onto my desk before turning around and walks out of my office.

The thing is, that was what we did. Not specifically me asking him about the financial details because I asked Oliver to play his role and not slack around but how can Alain be quite emotional about that? It's a part of the job.

"Someone's on his period," I hear a familiar voice behind me which causes me to turn around and see Dimitri leaning against the doorframe, entering the office. "He bumped into me on the way out but by the looks of it, he was ready to kill. What's up?" He asks, taking a seat before crossing his legs.

I chuckle, "Nothing. Just the regular family argument,"

There's never a secret between Dimitri and I but when it comes to work, both of us never pay much attention. Even if I tell him about whatever happened earlier, he might just shrug it off and say that Alain will come around, like he usually does.

"Speaking of family argument... did Kenna agree yet?" He asks. If Kenna ever agrees to come with me to Dallas, that's probably because she got her head hit by a bus. She's not the one to easily change her mind, especially when it comes to her work. Sometimes, I don't understand why she's so ... sensitive about it.

"Don't ask. She's stubborn as hell," My respond came out as a groan, letting me look out through the glass window-thinking of ways for Kenna to come with me to Texas.

Dimitri seems to find this as his

source of enjoyment because it appears to be funny to him even though I'm fairly annoyed by Kenna's attitude. That's Kenna... Aidan, she cares for her work more than she cares about anything else. You've known her longer than me and it's quite a surprise that you can't seem to understand," He frowns, replying.

"Besides, it's just your parents' anniversary, right? You can just go for a day and celebrate then, come back to New York." He adds, trying to give me a plan.

There's nothing wrong with what Dimitri suggested but deep down, there's just something else bothering me for some reason, it feels as if I want to spend more time with Kenna without her worrying about her career. It seems to be forever ever since we had some quality time together.