When There Is Nothing Left But Love

A request for promotion lay among the stack of promotion documents. I opened it and read Stella’s name written boldly on it. Stella wrote in a sincere, flowing manner, carefully detailing her experience at the Fuller Corporation as well as the expectations that had been placed on her. I noticed that Stella had occupied her position for barely more than a year. However, in all her time at Fuller Corporation, she had not produced any particularly outstanding work. After careful consideration, I set Stella’s request aside.

After a while, Ashton turned to me once he’d completed all his tasks on hand. He glanced at the pile of promotion letters with interest, then picked up Stella’s cast aside one and gave it a casual once-over. Ashton then commented, “There’s no need to take this so seriously. We’ve had no lack of remarkable employees. It’s not even in the criteria for promotion anymore.’

I nodded, then looked at him curiously. “Have you been very busy lately?”

Ashton arched an eyebrow and declared, “Yes!”

I sighed, “These matters used to be managed by the respective heads of department. Everything’s on you now, so it’ll be a miracle if you weren’t busy. You should be supervising the work and contributions of a few directors at most, not the entire company.”

“There’s a name list that’s already been vetted. You can take a look,” Ashton advised. I flipped through the stack accordingly and located the document. Scanning through the list, nearly all of its names had been nominated by the respective directors and senior management.

Was my meticulous analysis of each individual completely unnecessary then? I felt slightly ridiculous and laughed sheepishly. “If I told you that I didn’t see it, would you believe me?”

then pulled me up. “Sure. Leave it. I’ll come back to

sneaking suspicion that Ashton had been delaying me

the elevator, Ashton pressed me against the wall. In a low, hoarse whisper, he demanded, “Aren’t you going to reward

“What kind of

Ashton frowned. His handsome face looked almost petulant at the moment. He flung my hand aside and retreated to another

pettiness, however, and leaned towards him flirtatiously. Tiptoeing, I planted a kiss on his lips, then teased, “If

easily won over. The man warmed to my

at him. Just then, I recalled the matter with Sally and inquired curiously, “Ashton, Mom said that she ran into Aunt Sally at the

his head. “I’ve been busy lately and haven’t been to see her. She’s getting on in years, and it must be lonely for

troubled by Marcus. All these years, Sally had never had the chance to do anything for herself. If Sally had indeed managed to find someone to enjoy the rest of her days with, that

of employees getting off work flowed ceaselessly through the

was clutching a bouquet to his chest. With one knee on the ground,