by Dawn Doyle
What did she say?
Nick.
She said no. But, he approached her again and she said, and I quote… ‘Get to fuck you hulk wanna be’.
I’m not sure how one can ‘get to fuck’ but the way she said it, it can’t be pleasant.
Di.
Nick felt relieved and he blew out a breath.
Great, Thanks for letting me know. I’ll have a word with him when I get back. I don’t want him harassing my employees.
Nick.
I don’t think that’ll be necessary, honey. I’ve never seen him look so surprised before. I think Emily scared him.
Di.
Ok good. Thanks Di.
Nick.
That big fucking asshole!
Nick wan’t happy with Mike at all. He had to make sure that nobody had any thought of asking Emily out again.
What. The. Fuck?!
He wondered if, when he showed up for work on Monday and Emily tore him a new one, that the crazy fog in his brain would clear up and he could go at least a couple of hours without thinking about her.
Her blue eyes.
Her light brown hair.
The shape of her body under her clothes…
Hurry up Monday!
Chapter 4
Emily had been working for a week and she was enjoying being at the office.
Apart from seeing Mike every morning.
When he’d asked her out, she’d told him, politely, that she wasn’t interested. He’d not liked her answer and made out like she was crazy for turning him down. His words were… “What? You’re not interested in me? Come on, you know you are. What’s your address? I’ll pick you up at seven.” Emily wanted to punch him right there and then. His face had dropped when she told him to “Get to fuck” and called him a “Hulk wanna be.” Diane’s and Julie’s mouths had popped open in shock.
He’d not made eye contact with her for the rest of the week but Joe, however, looked like he was hiding a laugh whenever he saw Mike look away from her.
Emily swiped her card and walked through the doors to the lifts. Pressing the button, she waited longer than usual for the lift to arrive. It had come from the fifteenth floor. Her floor.
Diane must have just gotten in.
Emily checked her watch. She still had ten minutes before she was supposed to be there and she’d even gotten there before Diane the past couple of days.
Every day, Emily had gotten increasingly nervous. Her boss, Mr. Lake, was due back and she was meeting him for the first time. They hadn’t exchanged any emails since her first day. She hadn’t needed to contact him for anything and she thought she may look too eager if she’d reported in with him everyday. Diane had done that anyway so no need for her to do it too.
When Emily had gotten off on her floor, she greeted Diane.
“Hiya Di. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, thank you Emily. How are you?”
Diane had gotten used to Emily’s greetings. She’d even picked up a few things through the week. She’d especially liked how Emily had called Mike a ‘cock’ed’.
“I’m good, ta. Is he in yet?” Emily asked with butterflies in her stomach. She wanted to get their first meeting over and done with so she could get to work.
“Not yet, Honey. I’m sure he won’t be much longer though. He sent me an email last night saying that he was back in town. Don’t worry honey, I’m sure you’ll get along just fine. A word of warning though, don’t let his good looks charm you. He gets away with murder with those eyes of his.” Diane said as she beamed at her.
Diane had already told her that Mr. Lake was a handsome young man. She’d mentioned that he was able to make most women swoon in less than a minute. Julie had agreed.
Emily had even heard that Mr. Lake dated a lot of women and was given the nickname Mr. Serial because he never went on more than a few dates with the same woman, before moving along to the next. Well, she wouldn’t be one of them.
Not a chance in hell of that happening.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to resist.” Emily replied with a wink before walking to her desk and booting up her iMac.
It was less than ten minutes before somebody got off on their floor and Emily heard them approaching Diane’s desk.
“Good morning Di. How are you today?” A man’s voice said.
Emily felt a shiver down her spine as she recognised who the voice belonged to.
Nick.
She looked up and, sure enough, he was standing there happily chatting to Diane. Before she realised what she was doing, she got out of her seat and stormed towards him.
“What are you doin’ ‘ere?!” she said with a snarl.
“Hello to you too.” He replied with a smirk.
Diane’s mouth was hanging open in surprise and her face had paled.
“I’m here to go into that office.” He said, pointing to Mr. Lake’s room.
Emily wondered why he was there to see him and what unfortunate circumstances had him within two feet of her.
“It’s ok Di, everything’s fine.” He said quietly with a wink.
Emily was about to tell him not to speak to Diane when he suddenly turned and walked to Mr. Lakes’ office. He even had the cheek to go straight in!
Emily marched in behind him.
“What the ‘ell are ya doin’?” she asked as Nick went and stood by the desk and pressed the button to turn on the iMac.
“Hi, Emmy. Let me introduce myself. I’m Nick Lake.”
Emily’s stomach rolled and her heart sped even faster than it was after she saw Nick talking to Diane.
It didn’t matter that the dark navy suit that he was wearing fitted him perfectly. The clean, white shirt contrasting against the tan on his skin and his grey eyes looking right into her.
“Are you fuckin’ messin’?” she asked incredulously, when her brain had decided to function again.
“I don’t mess when it comes to business, Emmy. This is my company… You’re my assistant.” He said with a smug look as he sat down in the chair.
I actually exchanged pleasant emails with that wanker!
“I’m not your assistant anymore. I can’t work here with you… for you. That’s not happenin’. I’m leavin’.” Emily felt sick she was so angry with him. She wanted to smack him, punch him, scream at him… but then he might just call Mike up from the front desk and she didn’t want that. She just walked towards the door.
“So you’ll work for Oli instead?” he asked before Emily had gotten out.
She paused and slowly turned back to him.
“How did you know about that?” she asked quietly. Emily didn’t like the fact that Nick knew that Oli had offered her a job and she’d refused.
“I’ve gotten to know Oli very well over the past few months. He told me that you were looking for a job but you’d refused him. Well, I had an opening and you’d applied so… here you are.”
“So you tricked me into working for ya? You knew it was me all along didn’t ya? I bet you were laughing ya fuckin’ head off wi’ ya mates. ‘Yeah I’ve got that Emily working for me and she doesn’t know’.” She said, mocking Nick’s voice.
“What? No I wasn’t. Look, Emmy, can you please close the door so we can talk about this?” he asked and he seemed genuine, but Emily was too pissed.
“Shut it yer’fuckin’self, dickhead. I’m not talkin’ about it anymore. I’m not havin’ you gettin’ ya rocks off ‘cos I’m working for ya, knowing full well that I can’t stand ya.” Emily knew she was being a little over-the-top, something that she’d promised Holly that she would work on, but it wasn’t the time to think about being nice.
Nick had tricked her.
He’d probably gotten Diane to call him Mr. Lake so she wouldn’t have gotten on to who he was, knowing that she would’ve refused the job. “Did you hire me as a joke? Thinkin’ it was dead funny seeing me ‘ere, working away…for you?” Emily felt her throat tighten.
Don’t cry! Don’t cry
!
Nick must have sensed her temper because he slowly walked round her and carefully closed the door.
“Look, Emmy. I know you don’t like me, and I understand how you must be feeling…”
Emily snorted.
“…Listen, if I’d have called you up, or Diane had told you who I was, would you have accepted the position?”
“No.” She replied through a clenched jaw.
“Exactly. I wanted to hire you because I think you’re the best for the company. You have excellent qualifications and, congratulations on your degree by the way, you’ve also gotten some amazing experience working in a similar environment. I promise you, if I wanted to trick you just to get a rise out of you, I could’ve thought of more creative ways to do that.” Nick ran his hand through his hair.
Hair that fell just past his collar at the back, but the front fell down over his cheekbones to his mouth, like it had been layered. Mousey brown with golden streaks, kissed by the sun.
Emily blinked a few times to focus on what was happening.
Nick seemed to be telling the truth but she didn’t know if she could trust him. She wasn’t about to be the butt of his joke.
“Emmy, I know you want to do everything on your own. Find work, get your own place, pay for everything yourself, and I admire that. If you walk out that door, the only way you’re going to do that is by going back to Oli and accepting the job he created just for you. I know how you feel about that, too.”
Emily, still not speaking, stood frozen as she listened to what Nick was saying. He knew all of that about her and she had no way out. If she went back to her Dad, she was admitting defeat. If she walked away, it may be a long time before another job offer would come her way and she’d have to stay at home.
She was stuck.
Her Dad had told Nick everything.
She felt betrayed. Again.
Emily took a deep breath before she spoke again.
“I have a few conditions.” She said with confidence, even though she was close to tears.
“Ok. Let’s hear them.” Nick replied with a grin.
“Don’t ever ask me to get you coffee. I might poison you…” she noticed a frown appear on Nick’s face before it quickly disappeared.
“Don’t be asking me to do any favours for your girlfriends…”
“I don’t have girlfriends, but continue.” He said waving his hand for Emily to carry on.
“Ok then… Barbie doll dates.” She said, mocking his American accent. “And never ask me to pick up your dry cleaning, or I’ll put in marks that will never come out.”
“What marks would they be?” he asked, narrowing his eyes as he smirked.
“The kind that are made with scissors.” She growled
“Ok. They seem reasonable, considering the circumstances.” He nodded his head.
“One more thing. I’m going home right now. I’ll be back tomorrow…maybe. I can’t work with what I’m feeling right now ‘cos I might just throw you out the fuckin’ window.”
“Understandable. Go home. Think everything over and, Emmy, I really hope you come back tomorrow. Whatever you may think about me right now, I do want you here.”
The way Nick looked at her had Emily believing him. His grey eyes, shining like silver, bore into her with intensity. Her heart fluttered in her chest and her knees were quivering. She couldn’t let him see that though. He would definitely take it the wrong way.
Emily turned for the door and reached for the handle, and that’s when she saw just how badly she was shaking.
“By the way… My name is Emily.” She said before walking through and slamming the door behind her.
She walked to her desk, collected her things and walked past Diane.
“Emily, what happened?” she asked full of concern.
“I’ll let Nick inform you of that.” She said as she pressed the button for the lift. Luckily, it was already at their floor and she got in.
Emily drove home in tears.
She felt like she’d been stabbed in the back by her own family. They all knew what had happened outside Riss’ house and Holly had told her parents what happened at school when they’d FaceTimed.
Emily and Nick didn’t get along. He pissed her off and then laughed about it. Ok, so they’d only spoken twice and she’d seen him at Cal’s coffee shop in Northgate, but she wasn’t counting that one. Actually, yes she was. He’d sat there smiling at her after he’d overheard her uncomfortable conversation with Big-Wig…Harry.
Her stomach was flip flopping and her throat was tight as she tried to hold back the tears that continued to spill down her face. Emily had to keep wiping them away so she could see where she was going.
It wasn’t a long journey to her home in the Queen Anne area and she arrived in less than fifteen minutes.
Parking the car, she got out, went into the house and headed straight for the kitchen to make a cup of tea.
“Hiya Em. What’s up? What aren’t you in work?” Holly asked as she and Alex walked in from the hallway.
Emily turned and Holly’s eyes widened when she saw Emily’s face. She knew she looked like she’d been crying. She could still feel the sting in her eyes.
“I needed to leave. You’ll never guess who waltzed in this mornin’.” Emily shook her head and snorted a bitter laugh. “I couldn’t believe it at first.”
“Who?” Holly asked as she took over making the tea from Emily, who’s hands were still shaking.
“Nick.”
Holly’s eyes snapped to hers, her mouth wide.
“Nick? What was he doing there?” asked Alex.
“He’s the boss.” Emily replied, running a hand across her forehead. She and Holly did the same thing when they felt stressed.
“What?! You got a job at Nick’s company? Why did you take the job if you knew he was the boss?” Holly asked, putting a cup of hot tea in front of Emily.
“I didn’t. Diane just kept calling him ‘Mr. Lake.’ I didn’t know his surname so I didn’t even think about it.”
“Ryan Lake. Didn’t you guess the connection?”
Emily knew Nick owned his own company but she never thought it was that company. More like a motorcycle shop or garage.
“I didn’t know his surname! I knew Alex and Dev’s, that’s it. God, I feel like a total fuck-wit. Now I know why Ryan was giving me funny looks at Riss’ last week. He knew and he didn’t say anything, the little shit.”
“Ok, ok. If he had said something, would you have gone back there?”
“No.” Emily would’ve definitely told Nick where to go if she’d have known.
“So…You’ve been there for a week and you said you were liking it so far.” Holly continued.
“Yeah, so? I’m hardly going to be happy there now, am I?”
“The pay is good, right? The work load is enough and the hours are great too?”
“Yeah but Holly, it’s Nick…” Emily took a controlled breath. “It doesn’t matter because I have to go back anyway. He knows about Dad’s job offer. I was about to walk out and he asked if I was going to work for my Dad now.”
Emily told them all about the conversation she had with Nick, in his office. The things he said and the conditions she had for working for him. As she spoke, she felt the stab of betrayal again. She didn’t want to talk to Nick, let alone other people, especially her family telling him things about her.
“Dad told him? I can’t believe he would do that maliciously, Em. He’s been excited for you to come here and he’s been telling everyone that he’s happy you are, so I’m sure it was just conversation.”
“But it’s Nick, Hol. He knows I can’t stand him, yet he goes and tells him everything.”
Hopefully not completely everything! Not about Jeff.
“Talk to him about it, hun. I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think.” Holly said quietly, rubbing Emily’s hand.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be having a talk with him.” Emily replied with a
threat to her tone, before leaving and going to her room to change.
She decided to attempt to run her anger away on the treadmill before facing her Dad. She couldn’t see him doing it on purpose but she couldn’t help but go back to the thought that he knew exactly who he was telling.
*****
Nick’s ears were still hurting after Diane had torn him a new one over deceiving Emily.
“You knew each other and you didn’t tell her?! That’s mean, Nick. Why would you do that?” she’d scolded with her hands on her hips, glasses at the end of her nose.
After explaining his reasons to her, she’d calmed down… a little… before defending Emily.
“Just for the record, Nick, if I was her I would have punched you. It doesn’t matter that you actually do want her to work here, you could’ve been honest about it. At least with me. I could’ve slowly gotten her used to the idea of working for you without you springing it on her this morning. That was a shit-head move.”
That statement had surprised him. It was something Emily would’ve said. He smiled knowing that Diane liked Emily a lot.
“You better apologize to her, young man. Or I’ll be speaking to your Mother about what you did.”
Now that was a shit-head move.
Nick knew Diane and his Mom got along really well and the last thing he wanted was for her to call and tattle on him. He wouldn’t hear the end of it. Worse still, his Mom would have them paired up by the end of the day.
He agreed to apologize to Emily and make things right. He didn’t know why, but he was looking forward to doing just that.
Nick drove back to his apartment that evening, feeling guilty about what he’d done. However, seeing Emily riled up like that made him smile.
When she’d marched after him, into his own office, he couldn’t help but stare at her. Seeing her there, in her black pencil skirt and her dark Navy blue blouse… They’d matched each other as he’d had on his dark navy suit.
