by Mia Ford
“I need this sorted today. The last personal assistant that worked for me left it in a mess. I was always told that she knew exactly what she was doing, but it seems not… unless she messed it up to spite me.”
“You heard?” I ask, ignoring the part about spite. It’s probably for the best that I don’t know why she left here. I don’t want this journey to begin on the wrong foot. And if it truly is hell, I can leave once Jane has been through her treatment and return to a job where I feel more comfortable.
“You didn’t see?” I reply back.
“What do you mean?”
“You said that you heard she was good at her job. I’m asking why you didn’t see it. If she was your personal assistant, why didn’t you see how well she was doing. That doesn’t make any sense.”
He pauses for a moment before laughing. “Alright, you caught me, I’m no good at my job either.”
“But they let you keep managing the place? That seems like a bad business decision.”
“You think so? That’s something you would have to take up with my father, I’m afraid.”
Ah, things are starting to make a little more sense now. That’s where the sense of entitlement comes from. He’s a rich daddy’s boy who doesn’t have to work hard to become rich. He has everything handed to him and probably doesn’t know what the word “NO” means. I’m starting to understand who that person in the restaurant was, the man who also suggested prostitution to me in a job interview.
Okay, so now I know where I stand. I can work with that.
“Right, well I will get this sorted then. No worries. You carry on with whatever you need to. I won’t get in your way. And holler at me if you need me to do something different.”
He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively at me, but I ignore that. I’m usually very much in control of myself and what happens to me, so admittedly losing that isn’t easy, but it isn’t for me, so I can do anything.
It’s been a laugh, that’s one thing I can say about this job. I wasn’t expecting that at all. I assumed that it was going to be a bit of a nightmare to be honest, but I’ve had a good time with Isaac. I can’t speak about how good he is at his job because I don’t really understand what it is that he does, but we’ve had a good time.
I’ve tried to remain professional, but Isaac does something to unlock me a little. Not in a flirty way, he’s toned that down, thank goodness, but he’s brought out a friendly side of me.
“Who is that?” I hear someone whisper as I leave the women’s bathroom. “She looks weird.”
“Some new girl. Isaac’s new bit on the side, I suppose. He’s obviously going exotic.”
This winds me up. I want to snap, freak the hell out, and say just because I have tattoos that doesn’t make me exotic. Nor does it make me a slut. But, I have to keep my opinions inside. I might lose my job if I snap, and I don’t want to do that on my first day. I already signed up to pay for Jane’s treatment.
Keeping my opinions inside isn’t usually my strong suit, but I need to change for this job. I don’t have a choice. I need to be the tight lipped pressure cooker who does whatever is needed of her. For Jane. I can take anything thrown at me if it means that she gets to live. Nothing else matters.
Chapter Eight
Isaac
I’m bored. That’s all I can think as I tap my pen on the desk, barely able to contain my restlessness. Bored as fuck. I don’t even know what I’m doing here. I know that I want to have some fun, that’s the real issue.
If Charlie wasn’t here today, giving me the stink eye, I would sneak out and head for some fun. I would go to a bar or find some party. Anything other than sitting behind the desk and staring at the wall. It isn’t supposed to be this way, I think that might be the issue. When I hired Lexi, I assumed that we would have this fiery relationship where she would challenge me and make me fire up.
But she isn’t. She’s being boring and professional. She dresses crazy, that’s for sure. Her tattoos are always on show, making me want to see more of them, but she’s keeping herself in check. I didn’t hire her to be professional and behave, I don’t even want my filing cabinet sorted. I don’t give a shit about any of that stuff. I just want fun. I don’t know how I can keep it together any longer. I need to drag her out.
What can I do? I’ve tried flirting and prodding. I’ve tried the friendship thing and having a laugh, which was better than I expected it to be, but it still isn’t what I want. How can I drag out that person who I saw at the restaurant? There has to be a way, something else that I can do.
I could talk about the sexual favors, that part of the agreement we made. I could say that I’m going to hold her to it and see where that could lead. Good or bad, either way would be fun… but that doesn’t feel right now.
If I don’t shake things up now, I’m going to fire her. Get someone in that I can really have a good time with. Someone like Amelia, who was willing to do whatever I needed her to… but I don’t want that.
I chew down on my bottom lip thoughtfully, trying to plan out my next move. Whatever I choose to do with Lexi will determine which way things go. It needs to be the right move. I watch her talking on the phone with a pissy expression on her face, her lips pulled tightly together. She doesn’t like who she’s talking to, they are probably giving her a hard time, but she still isn’t reacting. God damn it, there has to be some way to bring her out of her shell. There needs to be something I can do to piss her off.
Piss her off… that’s what I need to do. I need to really piss her off as much as I can. I need to make her do shitty jobs, to push her out of her comfort zone, to make her flip her lid.
“Lexi!” I call her loudly, grabbing her attention. “Lexi, come here a minute.”
She holds up her finger but quickly ends her call and comes to see me. I smile at the relaxed way that she rocks her hips as she walks. She looks good, and I’m glad that she’s finding her place here. It’s almost a shame to rock the boat for her and wreck the status quo, but at the end of the day, I’m a selfish bastard, and my needs win out. I need this place to spice up a bit, have some fun with Lexi, so that’s what I’ll do.
“Everything okay, Isaac?”
“Yes, all good. I just need you to do a job for me actually.” I pull a ticket out of my suit jacket pocket, working off a moment of inspiration. “I need you to pick up my dry cleaning for me. Across town.”
“What?” She takes the ticket from me but looks confused. “Isn’t that a personal errand?”
“Yes, but I need it for a meeting, so it’s kind of work. Oh, and also, I need my car washed.”
She narrows her eyes at me, I almost think that she might be about to flip out. The excitement brews, I lean forward in anticipation… but then she nods, being as compliant as fucking always.
“Will you be okay monitoring the phones while I’m out then? Or should I take a cell?”
“I’ll get one of the receptionists to sort it.” I feel a sulk coming on. “Don’t worry.”
I have to remind myself that this is only step one. There are plenty more opportunities to make this work out for me, give her worse and worse jobs. While she’s out doing these personal chores for me, I can think of all the other terrible things that I can have her do. She’ll crack eventually. There is only so long that she can hold her head up high. She can keep her confidence high at the moment, but it will crumble.
“Okay, so I will pick up your suit and get your car cleaned. I will be back here as soon as I can to pick up the slack.” She chews on her long nail, which is probably the first time she’s ever done that. “Back soon.”
As she walks away, I smirk to myself. There are tiny signs of her crumbling, which is all I need. One tiny little glimpse into her outer shell falling apart and I can keep on pushing. I will get her back, no matter what it takes. I will do whatever I can to tip her over the edge. She has had an easy first week of normal work. Now she will have shitty jobs until she explodes. I don’t care how long it ta
kes, I will make it happen.
Charlie will be pleased to see me in the office more. He wouldn’t be if he knew why, but that’s beside the point. He just needs to see me, that’s all.
Lexi is doing her best to avoid me. She’s been doing it ever since she came back from running my personal errands. I can understand, I would probably want to do the same thing if I knew that I was being disrespected, but she can’t avoid me forever. She is my personal assistant after all.
It’s time. I nod to myself as the decisiveness runs through me. It’s time to get started.
“Lexi!” I call out with a smirk playing on my lips. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”
She gives me a wary look as she steps inside. Before, she knew where she stood with me, but now she has absolutely no idea. I can see that as she steps towards me, on edge.
“What would you like me to do?” she asks curiously.
“Well, the cleaner can’t come in today. She just called in sick,” I lie. “Most of the place is okay, but the toilets will need a clean. And I mean a deep clean. Because we can’t have everyone using dirty toilets.”
“Right? Surely you aren’t asking this of me. That isn’t in my job description.”
“Well, you haven’t ever been a personal assistant before, have you? So, you don’t know, do you? If the cleaner can’t come in, then it’s up to a PA to do it. Do you not know that?”
Her hands fly onto her hips. It’s coming now, awesome. “I don’t think that’s true.”
“Look, Lexi, go and ask around. Everyone here will tell you that it’s up to the PA.”
“Yeah, probably, because they won’t want it to do it themselves. Can’t you get someone else in?”
“Just for the toilets? No way. That isn’t how it works.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t get this, Isaac. You hired me to be your personal assistant, and I thought that I was doing okay. But now you have me running personal errands and doing things that I shouldn’t have to. It feels like you’re picking on me a bit, and I don’t know why.”
I probably should stop before this becomes a HR nightmare, but I can’t. This is getting so close to what I want. “You are my assistant, which means you need to assist me in whatever I want doing.”
“For fuck sake, I am not dressed for cleaning God damn toilets. I am not happy about this.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re happy about this or not. It doesn’t work that way. I don’t know how things have worked for you in your previous jobs, but here, you don’t get to walk around like you own the place. You have to do what’s been asked of you. I have asked you to clean the toilets, so get to it.”
“You don’t speak to me like that…” Just as soon as her temper flares, she calms herself down again, which is annoying. “Oh God, I’m so sorry, Isaac. Mr. Janie. I didn’t mean to speak to you like that. I know I can’t just act like what I want here. I know that this is a professional place. I’m sorry.”
Her face goes all the way from red to white. She’s losing her mind, but in the wrong way. I want to grab her, shake her, make her see that she needs to be that person. She promised me that she would be the person to call me out when things go wrong, but she isn’t doing anything about it. She’s trying to be cool.
“Sorry, Isaac. I will make it up to you. I will do whatever you need of me. I will make the toilets even cleaner than you have ever seen before. If you don’t fire me right now, I will make sure that you don’t regret it. Honestly, I will do whatever it takes. You will see, you will…”
Who is this sniveling, begging person before me? It’s so weird. Lexi even looks like she’s shrinking in on herself, like she’s becoming less of a person than she was before. I hate it.
“I wasn’t going to fire you…” I mutter back. I wasn’t. That didn’t even cross my mind. But now, I want to know why she’s so desperate to keep this job. She hinted at it before, she made it obvious that she really needs the money. I smell a secret, and I want to unleash it. And when I get a scent up my nose, I won’t let it go until I find out what it is. Somehow, I will.
“I’m going to do the toilets right now,” she insists with a much too fake smile on her face. “I won’t let you down. You will go in to check on them and be amazed at how shiny and beautiful they are.”
I should tell her not to bother, now is the time to reveal my lie, but instead I just nod. I think I’m stunned, blown away by her weird reaction, and I need some time to process it. As she walks off, I know for certain that I will find out what’s going on. Whether it be a big debt that she needs to pay off, or she’s saving for something, or perhaps she’s in some kind of trouble… I will learn the truth.
Ooh this is exciting. I’m so fascinated by what the truth is.
Lexi just got a lot more interesting to me. Now, this isn’t just about firing her up and trying to see where the sexual favors could lead, I want to know what’s actually going on, which is a sensation that I haven’t ever felt with anyone before. This is interesting, and that’s just what I was looking for, wasn’t it?
Chapter Nine
Lexi
My hands are red raw, my skin aching from the hard graft that they have put in today. I’m not whining about the hard work and scrubbing, it’s something that I’ve done before, but I’m annoyed because I know that it’s a game. It’s obviously a game, isn’t it? Everything has been fine with Isaac up until this point, but now after a week, he has decided to be a massive dick. What the fuck is that about? He’s up to something, but I don’t know what.
Not understanding his motivation is the hardest thing, I don’t know how to work with that.
Luckily, it’s my lunch break and I can call Jane for a bitch session. I need to vent to someone, and she’s really the only person I can talk to. I know it isn’t the best time to speak to her, since she has her own stuff to deal with, but it might take her mind off what’s going on with her. She doesn’t like the nerves when it comes to the thought of starting this new treatment… but luckily, she’s still up for doing it, which is all I can ask of her.
“Hey there, Lexi,” Jane answers, sounding a little sickly. “How’s it going?”
I step outside the building and check around that no one is listening before I answer. I don’t connect with anyone in this place, much less trust them not to snake me. “It’s awful, Jane. Honestly, so bad.”
“Is it? It can’t be that bad, surely. I know it’s a building full of bitches…”
Urgh, it’s not even the bitches today. They don’t bother me half as much as Isaac does. They could say whatever they want to, and it wouldn’t bother me one bit. But, not as much as scrubbing the fucking toilets did. At least no one saw me because I just know that would be good news to a lot of people.
“Well, today it’s my boss. He’s been a real pain in the ass here. I knew that he would be an ass the moment he tried to wreck my date with Will, do you remember me telling you about that?”
“It’s that guy?” As she squeals, I realize that I wasn’t supposed to be mentioning that. This is why lying is hard. I’m so used to being open and honest with Jane that it’s strange to keep things inside. I’m so used to telling her absolutely everything, so any secrecy is hard to deal with.
“Oh, sorry I forgot that I didn’t mention it to you earlier. Yeah, it’s him.”
I feel a bit sick. I’m worried that this conversation is about to take a different turn. One that I wasn’t ready for.
“How did you keep that a secret? That’s so exciting. He’s your boss now?”
“Yeah, and a real pain in the ass. He has got me doing all kind of terrible jobs today, it’s doing my head in.”
“What sort of jobs?” she asks with a glee to her voice. “This is so funny.”
In a way, I suppose it’s good that it’s making her laugh. I usually don’t care, even if it is at my expense, but I guess today I’m feeling a little more sensitive than usual. I hate feeling this vulnerable.
“It isn�
��t funny. It’s a nightmare. Personal errands and cleaning toilets. You should see my hands.”
I glance at them again, knowing that really, I deserve this. I snapped at Isaac which wasn’t cool. He might be a dick but moaning on the phone to my sister isn’t the right thing to do. I shouldn’t bitch. I am his personal assistant and I do have to get on with whatever he tells me to do. Like it or not.
“Anyway, I think that’s how the job is going to be from now on. Shitty jobs.”
“Are you still attracted to him? I bet you are. He sounds hot and fun… I said that before, didn’t I? I think that’s what you need. A man who can challenge you, make you have a good time. Bring you out of your shell. I know you think that you are there already because you’re not the girl from high school, but there’s more to you.”
Her words are oddly touching, and silence me for a moment. I wasn’t expecting a general bitch session about Isaac to turn into this! Now I’m going to have to gather myself before going back to work.
“Jane, I would never be attracted to Isaac. You said that the first night I met him, and I told you that he was an arrogant man in a suit who thinks that he’s better than anyone else, and that still stands.”
“So, you wouldn’t fuck him? I bet you would. I bet it would be awesome as hell.”
I gulp down the thick ball of emotion that lodges itself in my throat. The mere mention of going near Isaac sexually just reminds me of what’s coming for me. There’s no way I can escape it. I keep trying to push it from my mind, forget about it so I can just get on with my job, but it’s still there.
“I wouldn’t have sex with him. Will you stop it, Jane? You’re making this day way worse.”
“Oh, no I’m not. I’m making it better. I can hear the amusement in your voice. You know what I think you should do? And before you shoot me down, just listen to my idea.”
