Romance: The Billionaire's Assistant (4 page)

Chapter 9

Running on a combination of coffee, adrenalin and confusion, I made it through the day.

But now I just feel numb.

During the meeting that beautiful bastard didn’t even give me a second glance!

He looked at me the way that anyone looks at their help.

Does he honestly not remember me?

I don’t think that he does.

Granted, today I’m not dressed like a woman of the night and my heels aren’t high enough to break an ankle, but I would like to think that I still look similar to myself.

Ugh… sitting at my kitchen table and eating strawberry cheesecake ice cream is so damned cliché but I don’t care!

Ice cream is one of the only things that can make me feel better right now, nothing like getting a big chunk of the swirl, that’s my favorite part.

The only thing that can trump the deliciousness that’s going on in my mouth right now is if Angela would come home.

I hate that she’s staying out late tonight.

I need my friend.

I need to tell her that the man she made me hook up with is now treating me like I don’t exist.

I feel small.

A beautiful experience has just been diminished to something terrible. I look at my phone and twirl it around.

Maybe I should call Jason?

No, that will only make me feel worse.

What he did to me on Friday is unforgivable, and I can’t keep going back to old habits.

He’s out of my life.

Inviting him back in would be a major mistake.

Jason is a complete asshole, but he was mine. Now I’m single again and I don’t know how to navigate this world anymore.

Had Christopher had so many one-night stands that he no longer bothered to remember faces or names?

He probably left my house and went to sleep with someone else. I sigh as I dive back into the pint of ice cream. I make sure to get a huge spoon of it and I hope that my salty tears won’t fall onto it.

I’m missing home.

I’m not from New York, my parents moved us here during my senior year of high school and I stayed here for college as well. I’m from Ford City, Arkansas but my Dad scored a job at NYU.

Everything is so fast paced here, not just when it comes to work but when it comes to relationships. I’m from the south, where relationships mean something. People take their time out there.

At least three of my childhood friends are married with children already. I’m behind. That sounds so stupid because I’m young and it’s okay not to have babies and husband at my age but I can’t help thinking that I’m focusing on the wrong things.

That’s why I stuck with Jason for long - I kept hoping that he would change.

Waiting for a man to change has never been proven to work but still, I did it anyway.

But I know better now and when I told my mother what happened, she did her best not to say I told you so. It was burning her alive, I could feel her disdain through the phone.

Maybe that’s what I need to do.

I should spend the next weekend with my mother. She can baby me, make me her delicious chicken tortilla soup and we can watch movies all weekend.

That’s more than likely what I would do. No one can throw a pity party quite like my mother can. She’ll probably buy black balloons and streamers because inside she’s secretly celebrating my freedom from Jason.

It’s hard to be mad at her for being happy about him being gone. The more time that I spend without him, the dumber I feel for staying with him for so long.

That’s two years of my life that I can never get back.

It hasn’t even been a full week since my breakup and what am I doing? I’m sitting here stuffing my face with ice cream over a different asshole.

It’s not even this asshole’s fault that I’m so upset.

I can’t expect him to remember me - we had a one-night stand.

An amazingly hot one night stand.

But my days of casual sex are over!

Karma came back and bit me on the ass far too quickly. What are the odds that I would end up sleeping with my boss?

I shake my head and the tears start to flow again.

I put the rest of my ice cream into the fridge and make my way to the bedroom. A cry fest is about to happen and my stomach hurts.

Eating sugary dairy isn’t a good idea on an empty stomach. I should have had dinner first. It doesn’t matter, my stomach feels how the rest of me feels.

My life is a mess.

I’m an idiot.

Everything was finally supposed to be perfect at this new job and now it’s a nightmare. I plop down face first on my bed and release all of the frustration and hurt that I’ve felt for the day.

He didn’t notice me.

I apparently didn’t make as big of an impression on him as he made on me.

How do I always manage to get myself in shitty situations?

Tomorrow I will have to face him again.

Life just isn’t fair sometimes.

“Rebecca?” I hear Angela call through the house.

I look at the clock and notice that she’s home early. I’m overjoyed that she’s back, now I have someone to cry on.

“In my room,” I sniffle.

“Oh no, what’s wrong?” she quickly rushes to the bed and hugs me.

Chapter 10

Today feels like a repeat of yesterday, except I know the horror that’s coming my way.

I feel so stupid for being embarrassed about Christopher not recognizing me.

I mean, he doesn’t notice me so that should make my life easier, right?

Wrong!

It’s humiliating.

Now I have to take him his morning croissant and coffee, ugh - stuff my life.

“Rebecca,” Miranda snaps.

“Yes?”

“Move your ass. You were supposed to have his breakfast to him 2 minutes ago. You’re lucky that he’s not in the office yet. Hurry and maybe you can still make it. After that, finish tidying up the dictation that you took yesterday, I made some notes on them. In an hour, you will be dictating another meeting.”

“Yes Miranda.”

I shakily carry his breakfast in a bag to his personal office.

On my way, I find it amusing that Miranda’s name is Miranda.

She doesn’t wear Prada but sometimes she sure feels like a devil. I ended up calling her a bitch to Angela this morning. Some people take their jobs way too seriously and she’s one of them.

She doesn’t have to keep snapping at me as if I’m some child. When I first walked in the door this morning, she accused me of being late.

But I was five minutes early!

She claimed that was late because I still had to put my things away. This whole personal assistant thing kind of sucks ass.

If I have to walk around like I have a stick up my ass all the time, maybe it isn’t for me.

Who the heck am I kidding?

All of my reservations are going to go out of the window from the moment that my first check is deposited.

They pay me the big bucks because they need a high level of work. So either I’m going to rise to the challenge or I’m going to wither.

I straighten my spine and walk towards his office. Sitting at a desk directly outside of it is a beautiful and striking blonde.

She looks at me with sharp eyes, “Are you delivering?”

“Umm, I guess.”

“Okay, you can take it back that way,” she says point back to where I just came from, “His personal assistant will tip you as well.”

“But I am his personal assistant,” I explain, “I’m new, my name is Rebecca.”

“Oh,” she says slowly as she gives me a once over.

She’s sizing me up - I just know it.

This is exactly why I don’t have that many women friends.

Why do we have to treat one another this way?

She’s gorgeous with beautiful green eyes and I don’t feel like I’m a threat at all.

“Go inside and set it up. He’s on his way up so you’ll want to hurry, Becky.”

I cringe. Did she just call me Becky?

I hate it when people call me that!

Furthermore, we are in a professional setting, when did it become okay to call others by a nickname?

“My name is Rebecca,” I say with a bite, “I didn’t catch your name.”

“I’m Sasha,” she smiles. Her smile doesn’t reach her eyes.

“Of course it is,” I reply, “It’s nice to meet you. I’m sure that we’ll see a lot more of one another.”

“If you make it,” she laughs, “Good luck. Personal assistants don’t last long around here.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

Of course, her name is Sasha!

She looks like she could be on the cover of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazine. No one’s hair is supposed to look that messy and perfect at the same time.

Judging from her rudeness, I have the suspicion that she knew I was the new personal assistant the entire time.

Ugh, women.

When I step inside his office, I’m immediately impressed.

It’s not over the top or juvenile the way that I expect it to be. 

He’s young and the CEO of a billion dollar company, I don’t know what I expected. I don’t know, a part of me thought there would be an enormous flat screen TV covering an entire wall with an X-Box One connected.

Isn’t that what most young CEO’s did?

Hell, I don’t know. I’m middle-class America.

I put all of his food on his glass desk and do my best to arrange it in an appealing way. My heart stops when the door opens.

He walks through and gives me a casual once-over.

“Good morning,” he says as he places his items down on his desk.

“Good morning.” I blush. “I’m so sorry, I should have done this sooner. It won’t happen again.”

“It’s okay, you’re new. Also, I don’t mind seeing my personal assistants or any of my employees for that matter. So many people expect me to be the same man that my father is, we’re nothing alike. I only match him in ambition and business savvy. I’m not an asshole, no matter what everyone else says.”

He looks just as delicious as the night that I saw him.

Today he is wearing a blue three-piece suit. Once again, it’s tailored to perfection. His face looks young, but there is nothing young about his demeanor.

“Thank you, I appreciate the charm. I’m going to be better,” I promise.

“I have no doubt that you will. Miranda wouldn’t have hired you if you weren’t excellent, she saw something in you and I trust her judgment.”

“That means a lot.”

I stare at him blatantly, willing him to remember me.

The spark of recognition never flares in his eyes.

Not once.

Feeling defeated, I prepare to slink away so that I can lick my wounds privately in the bathroom.

“Enjoy your breakfast, I’ll see you in an hour.”

“Thanks, I’m guessing that you’ll be dictating most of my meetings from now on. I know Miranda says to sit in the corner alone, but you can sit across from Herbert. Tell her that I said so. You need to hear everything that’s going on, so sitting in an obscure corner doesn’t help you do your job.”

I smile nervously. “Thank you, I guess I’ll let her know.”

“Don’t be afraid. She pretends to be a hard ass, but she’s actually very sweet.”

I nod. “See you soon.”

“Oh, make sure that you speak to Sasha. I want to take you to lunch.”

I raise an eyebrow.

Was he coming on to me?

My heart beat faster, yes!

Maybe he didn’t remember me but he was still attracted to me.

“Lunch?” I question.

“Yes, I take all of my personal assistants out at least once. You should get to know the man that you’re working for. It will make it easier for us to work together. You can take that time to ask me any questions that come to mind. It will help you do your job more efficiently and have confidence in making decisions on my behalf.”

“Oh,” I say, deflated again, “I’ll make the appointment today.”

“Great.”

He sits down and tears into his breakfast without looking at me again.

I take it as my cue to leave.

Like a schoolgirl, I’ve been dismissed.

I walk out of his office and head back to Sasha’s desk. I don’t want to talk to her again, but the quicker I get it done, the better.

“Hi Sasha, Mr. Walsh asked me to make an appointment with him for lunch. Can you pencil me in?”

She rolls her eyes, “Sure, I’ll look at his calendar at my earliest convenience and let you know.”

“You’re unable to do it now?”

“Did you hear what I said?”

“Fine, just let me know.”

“That’s the plan.”

I want to call her a bitch to her face, but I also want to keep my job.

So I walk away without saying another word. I can’t let some catty woman get to me.

Maybe she’s sleeping with Christopher and that’s why she’s super territorial?

If she’s sleeping with him, then I can’t blame her for wanting him all to herself.

He’s an amazing lover, my body still tingles in all of the places he touched me.

It’s a night that I’ll never forget and now I’ll be reminded of it every day that I see him.

An hour later, I’m sitting across from Herbert.

Christopher is sitting at the head of the huge oval table, controlling the meeting with his dominant presence.

Sitting closer to him was a great idea in theory but now my body is doing the most embarrassing things. I want to remain focused. I want to think about this job.

But I can’t.

My heartbeat picks up every time he speaks.

Now that we’ve had a pleasant conversation with one another, he looks at me and smiles every so often.

Oh…

My heart skips a beat.

His smile is so gorgeous.

It takes all of my self-control not to swoon like a middle school girl.

At the end of the day, I don’t know what to do with myself. Taking the packed train him, I try to hold back the tears again.

The last two days have been torture, but I refuse to be the overly emotional girl that cries in public. I won’t be the girl sobbing on the train.

I’m so torn.

Seeing him hurts so much.

It hurts in places that Jason couldn’t even touch me. It hurts deep within me.

Damn.

Why did this have to happen?

Just when everything was turning around.

I can’t do it.

I can’t go through this everyday.

I can’t…

As I sit on the train, I hide my tears behind my book…