Love for Love

"Can't I just get through one fucking day without having some bizarre relationship problem?" I swore to myself. I rested my chin on both of my hands, now, facing towards Tom and totally unimpressed about how he presented himself. "You may talk now, Mr Hiddleston, and now would be preferable. I don't have all day."

He gave me a look of surprise, shocked at how shortly I was treating him. I could see him putting all that aside as he approached my desk and was about to walk around it to kneel down beside me but I halted him right there.

WIth my finger raised in between us, I motioned for him to sit on the seat on the other side of the desk. I wanted to look at him straight on and study him face to face. I didn't want his musk or intimacy to distract me from what he was about to talk to me about.

Again, he gave me a surprised look as he walked around the table and took the seat opposite me. I could see Audrey pocking her head out from behind her desk, trying to get a glimpse of what was going on. I glared her back behind her desk.

I then focused my attentions back on the man that had shown me so much love over the past week I had began to doubt it. He had said he had loved me within the first few days and I had broken all my rules because of him.

There was a reason why I had them in place and to be broken by the sweetness of Tom was practically uncalled for, despite the fact I was mean to be a "new woman" and all.

He took his time before he spoke, saying, "What was Benedict doing in here?"

"Is that really what you wanted to talk to me about?" I replied, raising an eyebrow.

"No," he said, deflated. "I saw him leaving the building as I was coming in."

"Right," I said. "Is there any other observations that you would like to make?"

Tom's lips thinned as he looked at my from across the table. He said, "I wanted to tell you something before Criss did."

"Well, I am glad to inform you that you have a hand up on her in the department," I said. "Because she and I will not have any more contact, as far as I am concerned."

"And I totally agree with you not wanting to have anymore contact," he said. "After what she did to us both."

"I know I shouldn't have been so weak to involve you, also, in her beating," I said, sighing. "So, what did you want to say to me since Criss is unable to."

I could see that Tom was becoming more and more nervous as the conversation progressed. There as something he was hiding that I had been sensing ever since Benedict had brought it up.

Ahh, there was his name again, popping up in my thoughts. I hated the fact that he was continually doing that I don't think surrounding myself with Tom even more was a good idea as the presence of Tom made me think of Benedict more. Which was ever so annoying.

From how he had acted towards me on the airplane and I how I had been so overcome with desire that I didn't really see what was happening. I was hoping that Tom was about to reveal that to me know because all these sneaking suspicions were getting more and more frustrating.

"It was a set up," Tom said, looking like he had let go of such a weight. "Everything. It was all a set up."

That was unexpected, I thought to myself. I suddenly became interested in what else he had to say as millions of questions started to pour into my mind.

"What do you mean it was a set up?" I said, picking the most obvious to ask first. "And whom where you setting up."

There was another momentary silence as Tom said, "Benedict. He's setting you up."

"That doesn't even make sense," I replied, even more confused then I was before. "Don't try to lie to me, Tom. We have been through much this last week and the last thing I could bare was lies from a man I'm pretty sure I love."

"You shouldn't love me," he said firmly. "After what we have done to you this last week…I don't deserve it."

"We?"

"Criss and I," Tom said, causing a mixture of surprise and anger to course through me. I heard Audrey falling off her chair in the other room. "We've been close for months. She made a bet that I couldn't seduce you in a week, that you would break all your rules and finally pop your cherry. How was I supposed to know that you would have become so attached?"

I felt my fingers dig into my the palm of my hands in attempts to try and quell my anger. Everything inside of me seemed to be catching on fire to fuel that rage that was forming in the depths of my belly.

I wanted to pick anything and everything up around me and use it as a missile against Tom. I hate him for what he and Criss did, which even lead to Criss beating him up to make it believable.

As the anger raged inside of me, everything started to make sense -- how Criss managed to invite Tom to the MTV after party that I was organising; how she managed to set me up for organising his party; how she was "late" to the meeting we had with Missy and how she had gotten herself fired; and that gleam in her eye when I first saw him back in New York.

It was all some elaborate set up that I had been totally unaware of and I wouldn't be surprised if Missy was in on it as well. I couldn't blame myself for not noticing these things as I was usually totally oblivious to the world around me.

All I wanted to do was enjoy my life without the pressures of relationships or sneaking plots. I wanted to do well at my job and enjoy myself as much as I could while I was there.

No wonder Criss had been so eager to hook me up with all those guys. She thought she was doing me a favour by attaching me to someone because it might make me happier but what she did with Tom was uncalled for.

I was using all the curse words that I knew existed in my mind before I tried to push down the insurmountable feelings that I battled within me. I closed my eyes a moment and took a deep, long breath, before I opened them again and focused on Tom.

He was gripping the edge of his seat, his knuckles white, as he waited for a response. I said, eventually, "I could have expected something like that from Criss, but from you, Thomas? From what I have heard about you, I would have expected better. You disgust me. You both disgust me. How could you even think of doing something like that to me? Some innocent girl that was happy living her life without a man."

"I needed a break from Criss," Tom said, which only gained a grunt of disgust in return.

"And I was your break?" I spat back, seeing Damon appearing at the door to my office. I willed him to stay there silently for a moment longer. "How pathetic."

"I also did it because I love her," he said earnestly but I didn't believe him for one second.

"And you would do anything for her, right," I replied, standing from my seat and making my way around to Tom. I leaned in close so that we were inches apart. "You listen to me, and you listen to me good Thomas William Hiddleston. You are to keep away from me, at all costs. I do not wish to ever hear from you or see you ever again. Do you understand?"

During this time, I had motioned Damon to enter the room. He placed himself behind Tom, who didn't reply to my threat. I grasped the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards me. A flash of fear spread through his eyes.

"Do you understand?" I screamed at him.

He nodded, saying, "I understand."

"Good," I said, throwing him back onto the chair and looking up to Damon. "Make sure he never enters this building ever again." Damon nodded as he picked up Tom by the shoulders and dragged him out of the room. "I'm lifting the ban on Mr. Cumberbatch, also."

"Like that was ever in place anyway," Damon said, dragging Tom past Audrey's desk and pausing for a moment and pulled out a hundred pounds in which he gave to Audrey. "Spend it wisely, my friend."