I'm starting a new story! I am taking a different approach to this one and it will be more of a slow burn than a short little one piece. Please be patient.
Summary: Josh has resented his boss's prudish daughter Anna ever since she started working at his company. But when the two get stranded in her family's cabin, he realizes that the only thing more frustrating than being trapped with a girl you hate the sight of, is being trapped with a girl you can't stop staring at but aren't allowed to touch...
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You wouldn't think accounting is a competitive industry, but the truth is that depends completely on which company you work for. Some accounting firms are small mom and pop shops filled with a handful of so day to day number pushers that go home to their wives and children at 5 pm after an honest days work without a care in the world. Some firms are gigantic behemoths where dozens of young go-getters work crazy hours climbing that corporate ladder, putting in their dues to inch their way up towards the promise land.
Lewis and Co. is neither of those. Founded by Sam Lewis' father in the 1950s, Lewis and Co. is a small operation β twenty three of us in total. But don't let its size fool you, Lewis and Co. is one of the most profitable accounting firms in the city. We do personal accounting for the upper echelons of society. Because of our exacting clientele, there is no room for laziness or error at Lewis and Co. There are no nine to fivers here - we are on call almost around the clock for our clients. There are also no fresh new grads β every single employee here was intentionally recruited (some say stolen or bribed) from another firm after Mr. Lewis learned about and was impressed by his or her work.
Because Mr. Lewis only accepts the best of the best, almost every single one of my colleagues is well seasoned, with years of experience behind them. They are all approaching middle aged, but few have families due to the strenuous nature of the work. Nobody seems to mind.
I was the youngest employee in Lewis and Co.'s history when I was recruited, five years ago at the age of twenty six. It was a shocking hire at the time, since the second youngest employee after me was more than a decade older. But when Mr. Lewis sees potential in someone, he is never wrong. For the last five years, I've worked like a dog. I have a sharpness and attention to detail that makes me stand out even amongst my extraordinary colleagues. In fact, I am Mr. Lewis' star employee. He has taken me under his wing almost like a son. He shares more and more of his caseload with me with each passing month. With no son of his own to pass on the company to, I believed he was grooming me to take over eventually when he retired .
Ten months ago, however, a wrench was thrown into my fond imaginings for my future. Annabella, Mr. Lewis' daughter, had been just finishing high school when I last saw her at our annual summer retreat a few years back. She was a rather scrawny thing then, shy and slightly awkward despite being on the brink of adulthood. She didn't make much of an impression, and in the last 4 years while she's been away at university I can honestly say I hadn't thought about her once. In fact, I had almost forgotten that Mr. Lewis had a daughter since she was never there when I went to visit him for after dinner aperitifs or our monthly rounds of golf.
But last summer that all changed when Mr. Lewis strode out of the elevator into our 42nd floor office space with a petite brunette clicking behind him in sensible Mary-Jane heels.
"Everyone," Despite being in his fifties, he was a powerful man and still commanded a room easily. We all quieted and gathered quickly around him and the young woman upon whose shoulder his hand was resting fondly. "This is my daughter Annabella. Anna for short. As most of you know, Anna has been away in Boston getting her degree. Now that she's graduated, she is ready to get her feet wet. I hope I can count on you all to teach her the ropes." Mr. Lewis grinned proudly around at the crowd, gaze resting confidently on me for a second longer than the others. I knew he wanted me to take young Anna under my wing.
It made perfect sense. I was closest to the woman in age. I was the one whom Mr. Lewis trusted the most. I was the one most likely to click with her.
It made perfect sense, but it didn't happen. From day one, I hated Anna. I resented her with a deep burning passion that I knew on all levels was extremely petty and quite beneath me. But I had gotten used to being the young prodigy around the firm. I had gotten used to Mr. Lewis' fond attentions, and the admiration of my coworkers. Only now, I had to share the limelight. Anna, I discovered, had changed a lot from the shy, retiring girl I remembered. Despite her age, she had a confident, no-nonsense air that caused even individuals much older than her to stop and listen. She was also surprisingly sharp and seemed to keep even longer hours than I did, her office light staying on past midnight as she tireless plowed through files. Furthermore, it was obvious that she was the apple of Mr. Lewis' eye. My mentor and erstwhile father figure remained just as kind and attentive towards me, but he clearly doted on Anna. He even confided in me his plans to pass his legacy onto her when she was old enough, and asked me to help ensure she learned enough to be able to handle it.
Now that was too much. A little bossy mouse, clicking around in her sensible heels and her hair always severely knotted back into that prim little bun, casually sailing into the office and taking over my dream! Try as I might, I could not find it within myself to be kind to Anna. Although she sought me out in her first few months (her father probably having urged her to, after telling her all sorts of wonderful things about his protegee), my frostiness and almost-but-not-quite-rudeness eventually repulsed her until she obviously loathed me as much as I did her. We settled into a kind of terse back and forth, each stubborn and high handed, in perpetual competition for all the biggest clients.
Mr. Lewis watched our developing animosity with no small amount of dismay. He desperately wanted us to get along. It was my believe that he secretly hoped for a love match between the two of us. Alas, this was the one thing I had to disappoint him on. Although I had to acknowledge that Anna was stunning to look at, with lovely delicate features and a well developed body, I preferred my lovers to be far more easygoing and sexually free than the boss's little daughter. In what little time I did take off from work, I screwed my way through a string of beautiful one night stands with wild abandon. With my crazy schedule, I didn't have time for commitment. And even if I did, I certainly wouldn't seek it in tightly strung Anna, who probably cummed so primly that no hair ever escaped that sleek little bun.
I would never suspect Mr. Lewis of something so tacky as matchmaking, but it was odd that he specifically instructed me and Anna to take a whole day off work and drive up to make sure his cabin was ready for our annual summer retreat. He had never asked me to do this chore before, but this year he absolutely forbade me to fob the task off on anyone else.
It was a five hour drive up to the cabin, which Anna and I spent alternating between our usual heated discussions about work which was always laced with almost-but-not-quite-snarky quips at one another, and awkward dead silence punctuated with occasional remarks about the dreariness of the landscape as seen through the pouring rain outside.
It was late July so the air was warm and heavy. After a nine day heat wave, the weather was breaking at last into almost floodgate levels of rain. As we drove further into the wilderness, the sky darkened ominously and small jags of lightning began to shoot in the distance.
Finally, we reached the turnoff towards the cabin. I peered through the almost frantically gesticulating wipers on the windshield, trying to make out the path through the impending gloom.
Anna let out a huff of dismay. "The path's flooded. How are we ever going to get through?" She turned and raised on sardonic eyebrow in that accusing manner she seemed to reserve for me. "I told you we should have come up last week."