Falling for My Old High School Bully (Complete)

Chapter 17 - Talk with Mr. Tipton

She walked back to her office and tried to do anything she could to distract herself from freaking out over the fact that Axel was in Mr. Tipton's office right now talking about who knows what.

She got back to work on the marketing expense sheets until Tyler Richardson came by to show her one of the new design ads he had created for the Cavanaugh Beverages campaign using the sketch and notes she gave him.

She gasped and covered her mouth. "Tyler!" she said smacking his arm. "This is so frickin' perfect! This is exactly what I wanted it to look like. Damn you're good!" she smiled.

"Thank you!" he said proudly. "I'm really glad you like it."

"I don't like it. I love it. Thank you. Keep this up and we may just have to steal you away from Cavanaugh," she laughed.

He laughed too and then his smile faded and he said, "Hey" looking down for a couple seconds, looking like he was conflicted about something. "I just wanted to tell you not to let Victoria run you off."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

He looked around and then walked over and closed her office door before saying, "Victoria. She, ummm, any time a woman gets too close to Axel she tries to intimidate her and scare her away."

"Really?" she asked. She wondered why he thought her and Axel were getting close but she didn't ask. 

 "Yeah. Don't tell anybody I said anything. I just wanted to let you know not to believe anything she says because she'll do or say anything to keep you from liking him. When she hears Axel's engaged she's gonna have a heart attack." 

She nodded and said, "Thank you for the warning." She couldn't believe how fast gossip spread around this office. Every one had probably already heard about their fake engagement by now.

"I about had a heart attack too when I heard," Tyler laughed. "I never thought I'd see the day that Axel would be engaged. He's always said he'd never tie himself down to one woman for the rest of his life. My man's got major commitment issues. Hell he doesn't even like giving women the girlfriend label. You must be really special." 

"Yeah," she said, giving him a half-hearted smile. Then she looked at him and asked, "What do you think of Axel? I mean, you work with him. Do you think he's a good guy?" 

Tyler smiled and said, "Yeah. He's one of the best guys I know."  He started to head towards the door but turned and said, "And I'm not just saying that because he's my boss. I mean it. You're a lucky woman." 

Then he headed out the door and she couldn't help but smile. Maybe Axel really had changed since high school and was a different man than he was back then. Tyler left her office door open behind him and she looked up to see Mr. Tipton standing there.

"Hey," she said with a smile.

"Hey Emma. I'd like to have a word with you in my office to discuss what we talked about earlier and to talk about your new guy," he said, turning around and waving for her to follow. 

She couldn't tell by his expression if that was a good or a bad thing. His voice seemed pretty even toned but he hardly ever called people upstairs to his office to talk.  

"Of course sir," she said, dropping what she was doing and following after him. She wondered what kind of crazy things Axel might have said to him.

They rode the elevator up to his office on the top floor in silence and she was spinning her black Apple Watch on her wrist nervously. She didn't get nervous very often any more but talking to Mr. Tipton about becoming a partner in the company was the most nervous she had ever been. This talk could change her life forever. If she was made a partner she would become wealthy beyond her wildest dreams and be able to do anything she wanted.