Hooked Up With My Boyfriend's Best Friend

The intense, long night rendered Stephenie exhausted, causing her to wake up late and arrive late for work.

She had just graduated from Woodlake University with a master's degree in architecture last year and had just joined a famous local architecture firm named Margin.

Since Stephenie didn't graduate from a well-known architectural school, she was not qualified enough to be an official architectural designer. She was only hired as a junior assistant architect, whose daily work was doing clerical tasks and outlining the craft design.

When Stephenie arrived at the office, the routine Monday morning meeting had already ended, and she could only participate in the group A meeting of the design department, where she belonged.

After the group meeting, Monica Robles, her supervisor, summoned her to the office.

Thinking it was about her being late, Stephenie quickly apologized as soon as she stepped into the office. "Sorry, Miss Monica. I overslept. Last night's weather made me snuggle in my bed more."

However, that was not the reason for calling her. Monica had only wanted to inform Stephenie of something. "No, that's not why I called you. I just wanted to let you know that Vanloon Property's residential project has a new project manager. So, pause your work in the meantime as you'll be attending the meeting with the new project leader in the afternoon, but you can resume it after discussing the necessary modifications."

Stephenie was not bothered by pausing her work but with the new project manager instead. In that case, the modification would be that simple because she was certain that the entire design scheme would be revamped and they would begin from scratch.

That said, Stephenie only replied, "I see." Feeling helpless and stressed, she excused herself and was about to leave when Monica suddenly spoke up.

"Do you want to cover your nape?" the latter asked, prompting Stephenie to turn around and face her.

Having a slight idea of what her supervisor was referring to, she dashed to the bathroom to confirm her suspicion. When she looked in the mirror and turned her head sideways, she discovered a salacious pink hickey on her nape that Edward had left yesterday.

Well, she had a coat on when she arrived, but because the weather was sultry, she took it off. However, she forgot about her hickey and was wearing a round-neck blouse today, so her entire neck and her hickey were exposed!

To hide it, Stephenie applied powder to lighten its color before covering it with a band-aid so no one else could see it.

Afterward, she returned to her cubicle to start some of her tasks even though her supervisor had told her she could pause them. She was in her seat when Rita Ruschel, a colleague next to her cubicle, slid over to her and teased her, "Quite an intense battle last night, huh?"

Stephenie's hand automatically flew to her nape, and she whispered, "You saw it, too?"

Waving her index finger, Rita answered with a playful smile, "Nope, everyone in the group actually, and now almost the entire institute knows why you're late."

To extreme shame, Stephenie wished the earth would just swallow her whole right at that moment.

The construction employees were busy, but the designers, to whom she belonged, were even busier. So, it was challenging to find time to develop a serious relationship in this industry, leaving many people in that industry single. As such, if one found his/her love who worked in the same industry as him/her, he/she would try his/her best to work that relationship out for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity not to slip away.

But in Stephenie's case, it was not rare to come as she resembled a goddess. In fact, when she entered the firm, she had already won the hearts of several co-workers even after she had posted a selfie with John on her social media on her first day of work. The latter even always came to pick her up from work, but the number of her admirers didn't cut down a bit.

They were probably under the impression that Stephenie and John were still dating and had not yet married. Furthermore, even married couples got divorced from time to time, so they thought they still had a chance.

Today, her hickey was a bombshell in the entire firm, so Rita couldn't help but be intrigued and asked her privately, "I didn't know that you two are such a lovely couple. So, when do you plan to get married? Haven't you both survived the seven-year itch smoothly and are now entering your eighth year?"

While the latter was speaking, Stephenie's gaze was drawn to the picture resting next to the pen holder. The photo was taken at her graduation ceremony last July, where she was wearing a degree suit and holding a huge bunch of red roses that John had given her in one arm and John's arm in the other. In the photo, she was grinning from ear to ear as if she were the luckiest person in the whole wide world.

"So? Do you want to see me step into the grave of love?" Stephenie jested, then took the framed picture and stuffed it into her table drawer.

The meeting Monica had mentioned earlier had finally arrived, and Stephenie and her supervisor arrived at Vanloon Property at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. However, because the new project manager was not yet present, they waited in the conference room for about ten minutes.

Afterward, a few people finally entered the room, and the secretary introduced the new project manager, "Hello, everyone! I'd like you to meet Mr. Smith Junior of Vanloon Property. He will be responsible for managing this project."

"Hello, Miss Robles. Nice to meet you," Edward greeted after stepping forward, reaching out his hand, and politely shaking hands with Monica.

Meanwhile, Stephenie, who was standing behind her supervisor, felt her feet root on the ground in great surprise.