Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele

[Cordelia]

"Knock Knock," two familiar faces pop their faces into my office, their bodies hidden by the wall. I squeal at the sight of my two best friends in the world right now as they enter my new office and we collapse into a group hug.

"Nice, a comer office, Tilly remarks, looking around and playing with a random paperweight that must have belonged to the last lead designer. "This view is way nicer than mine." She whistles as she walks to the windows and peers out. "I won't lie to you, Cordy. I'm a little bit jealous."

"But you own your own building." I point out. "I'm only renting this office and the employees working for me. This is temporary."

"It doesn't have to be," Clark points out, saying what I've been thinking all morning. "You could just ask Atlas if you can stay. He wouldn't even charge you for the facilities. You're family."

"Not anymore," I disagree. "Having this baby doesn't change my situation. I'm still Atlas' ex-wife,

"None of that matters," Clark insists. "You're the mother of a future Steele. You're stuck with us," he flashes a devilish grin, not at all sorry about the shocked look of indignation on my face "Just because I have a little Steele inside of me..."

"Well you did have a little Steele inside of you," Tilly snorts

I turn to glare at her, "Tilly!"

"What?" she smirks, "It's true. Unless it was a big Steele..."

I turn my face away so that she doesn't see the sudden rush of blood to my cheeks. I might not remember very much about that night, but I do remember how I felt the next day and I'm pretty sure it wasn't...a tiny Steele.

Clark coughs "Can we please stop talking about my brother's anatomy?" He covers his eyes as if Atlas was in front of us and he needs to shield his sight.

Tilly's laugh fills the room. She has one of those deep, loud, jackal laughs that turn heads not with its pleasantness but because it sounds absolutely diabolical. I love my friend but I've seen her chuckle and make a baby cry. "S000000....* Tilly purrs, "Clark and I want to take you out for a celebratory lunch to toast the completion of your first day at work."

"Don't you think that is a bit premature," I ask, looking between the two of them. "I still have another half day of work.

"Nonsense," Tilly dismisses that idea. "You are the department head. That means you get to make your own hours. You are expected to come and go as you please. If you stick to normal work hours your employees will not respect you." She nods her head sagely, "Trust me."

"Besides, Tilly and I want to take you out," he pulls me by the arm. "Grab your purse, we have no intention of coming back today. After we're done with you, you'll be too exhausted to work.

13

I let the two of them lead me out. A few of the designers looked over and swooned when they saw Tilly walking out with me arm-in-arm, "Is that Mathilda Madison?"

"No way!" someone shakes their head. "She must be a look-alike. There's no way SHE is friends with Mathilda Madison."

Pretending not to care about their gossip, I wave and smile at a few indifferent faces as we pass. As soon as we are in the elevator, however, I burst into tears. "Cordy, what's wrong," Clark looks confused and genuinely worried. "Does something hurt? Are you okay?"

"Fashion people are mean," I whine. "And I'm pregnant. I cry some more hating how the pregnancy hormones make me more emotionally sensitive. Sometimes I worry that I might be going slowly insane with how easily I cry these days. The other day, I cried for 15 minutes when Tilly ate the last spicy pickle even though we had more pickles in the pantry. I didn't want to open a new jar.

"There there," Tilly hugs me. "It'll be okay."

On the way down the elevator, and out of the building. I tell the two of them about all the awful things people were saying about my back. "Nobody believes I deserve to be there. Everyone is making all of these terrible assumptions." I sob. "And then Theo tells me that they all applied for this job but Atlas didn't give any of them a chance and so that is why they are mad at me."

"Oh Cordelia," Tilly shakes her head as we turn onto the main road. She is sitting next to me in the back seat while Clark drives us to our mystery destination. "You do realize it wouldn't matter who you are, or what your qualifications are, they'd hate you, right? You're the new guy. You haven't gone through any trials together. You'll need to prove you have their best interests at heart and that you care about their success, not just yours."

'Or you need to scare them," Clark suggests as he pulls onto the freeway. "Go all evil fashion bitch on them, like in that devil in Prada movie." He shrugs as he adds, "I know that isn't your style, but maybe if they can't love you, the best option is to make them fear you." "Don't listen to him," she hits him playfully on the arm and I smile when I see him look over at her tenderly. "He's got no idea what he is talking about. He works in tech,"

I snort. She's right. The fashion industry is different than any other industry. If you know you know. If you don't, you can only imagine how it must be.

We've been driving for so long, that I expect we are going somewhere fancy only to find ourselves outside of a brightly colored ice cream shop "Ice cream?" I look back and forth between the two. "How is this lunch?"This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.

"It's protein," Tilly insists. "And it is the best ice cream on the West Coast. Clark and I found this place when..."

He turns and pokes her hard. She looks at him, shuts her mouth, and then corrects herself. "I mean, we read about it in a magazine." Tilly is a terrible liar,

My two best friends have a secret...and I t