by Iona Rose
Stewart breaks into a grin that turns into a laugh. “Relax, Elena. I’m joking. Everyone’s lovely and Ashton is a great guy to work for as long as you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”
“Oh. Yes, of course,” I say, a relieved laugh slipping out of me. As if Stewart would have told me any of this if it were true.
By the time the first of the programs has been installed, Stewart and I have finished our coffee, been back to the kitchen, washed the cups and put them away. We’ve talked about what universities we went to, and I know Stewart is a Baseball fan who has just split up with a long-term girlfriend and has a two year old son named Mason. He knows that I’m single and not looking for a relationship.
I decide I like Stewart and if everyone here is as friendly as he is, I’ll soon be settled in. We’re laughing about the kind opportunities out there for people our age who do want to date when my door opens.
I turn and see Ashton. I notice he doesn’t knock, but it’s not like I can exactly tell him off about that.
“Stewart. Are we almost there?”
“Another hour or so,” Stewart replies.
I wait for Stewart to change, to stop the laughter that’s still on his face, to jump to attention, but he doesn’t. Instead, he actually pulls Ashton into the conversation, “We were just talking about how much of a disaster dating can be,” Stewart says. “And how it’s pretty slim pickings out there.”
“Maybe it is if you have no natural charm.” Ashton grins.
“If by charm you mean money, I’d have to agree. How about a pay rise?” Stewart shoots back.
Ashton laughs. “I don’t see it happening Stew. I don’t need any more competition.”
I start to relax a little. Ashton isn’t a monster. His employees don’t fear him. Maybe people can change. Or maybe Stewart just doesn’t get to see the nasty side of Ashton. I went to school with so many people who thought Ashton was hilarious and charming and that I was just being over sensitive to his humor.
There’s a lull in the conversation and I turn to Ashton, determined not to let my nerves affect my job. “Did you need something?”
“Oh, this one is going to keep you on the straight and narrow.” Stewart laughs. “No casual conversation when there’s work to be done.”
“Yeah,” Ashton says, looking me in the eye. His eyes are dark and suddenly full of lust. He holds my gaze. “It seems she’s really going to be riding me hard.” He looks away.
Stewart laughs along, seemingly oblivious to the look Ashton gave me, and to the way my body bursts out in goosebumps as a shiver of desire passes through me. I feel heat in my cheeks and I know I’m blushing slightly. “I’m sorry. I just...” I start.
Ashton waves away my apology.
“Relax. I know what you meant,” he smiles.
“You’re going to have to get used to the strange humor in this place,” Stewart points out. “We’re all constantly ragging on each other, but it’s all in good fun.”
I’ve been on the end of Ashton’s teasing before and I don’t think I’m ready to be on the receiving end of it again, but I force myself to laugh along with Stewart. “I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”
“Yeah, you’ll be giving as good as you get by the end of the week,” he says.
“Damned right I will. I’m not here to be everyone’s punchline.” I laugh.
I’m sure I see Ashton wince and the mood in the room shifts ever so slightly.
Again, Stewart remains oblivious to the tension. “That’s a shame. I was looking forward to making you blush at least twice a day,” Stewart smiles. The computer makes a pinging sound and Stewart switches his attention to the monitor and starts typing in a few commands.
Chapter Ten
Elena
“Elena,” Ashton says.
I look over at him, bracing myself for my body’s reaction. It doesn’t disappoint. My clit tingles as I look at Ashton.
“I thought while Stewart was still busy, you might like to meet the secretaries and have a quick tour of the office.”
“Yes of course,” I say, getting to my feet. I turn back to Stewart. “It was nice meeting you.”
“You too, Elena,” he calls cheerfully. “I’ll likely still be here when you get back unless the tour includes a few tourist hotspots in the city.”
I smile and follow Ashton out of my office.
He walks a step ahead of me, giving me a great view of his muscular back and his ass. I have to look away quickly when I find myself fantasizing about grabbing his ass, digging my nails into his flesh and pressing his body up against mine.
“So you get along well with Stewart,” Ashton says glancing back at me over his shoulder.
It’s like he knew I’d been checking him out. I smile and nod. “Yeah. He seems like a nice guy.”
“Hmm... he’s been with me for a few years now.”
We step into the wide part of the hallway filled with cubicles.
Ashton steps closer to the cubicles. “Good morning, Ladies.”
The women at the cubicles greet Ashton.
He gestures towards me. “This is Elena, my new personal assistant. I expect you all to help her settle in,” he says. He turns to me and starts pointing at the women in turn. “These are my personal secretaries. Sandra. Beatrice. Melanie. And Karen.”
Each of the women smile and nod at me as their name is announced.
Karen even gives me a little wave.
I return their smiles.
“Sandra, how do you feel about maybe giving Elena a tour of the offices,” Ashton says.
Sandra glances at her watch. “I have a call with a client in five, but if it can wait an hour, I’d be happy to,” she smiles.
“I can do it,” Beatrice says.
“Great, thanks,” Ashton says. He smiles at me. “I’ll leave you in Beatrice’s capable hands.”
Beatrice, a dark haired, olive skinned beauty, stands up and comes towards me. She shakes my hand enthusiastically, smiling at me. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” I reply, noticing that her smile doesn’t quite meet her dark brown eyes.
“I’ll be in my office,” Ashton says. He turns and starts to walk away.
“Let’s go.” Beatrice smiles at me. “I take it you’ve found the break room and the bathroom next to your office?”
I nod.
She nods back. “Good.” She strides quickly along the hallway. Her long legs mean she takes long strides and I have to almost jog to keep up with her. She points to either side of herself as she walks. “This here is accounting,” she says. “And this is our tech team. These are just their offices. The magic happens in the computer labs. You’ll see them soon enough.”
A woman is coming towards us.
Beatrice smiles at her. “Elena, this is Jess. She’s the head of the software development team. Jess, this is Elena, Mr. Miller’s new personal assistant.”
Jess and I greet each other.
“Jess is the one to go to if you have any problems with any of the software,” Beatrice says, repeating what Ashton already told me. “Since she developed most of it.” She doesn’t give me time to respond before she addresses Jess.
“So clear your schedule, Jess, because there’s bound to be a lot of calls,” she says with a fake sounding laugh.
Jess raises an eyebrow. “I hope you’re not implying my software is riddled with holes,” she says.
“No. God no, of course not,” Beatrice gushes.
So as I suspected, she’s implying I’m stupid.
“I’m just saying Elena might struggle to find her way around it with her being new to it and all that,” Beatrice adds.
I really don’t like where this is going. “Ashton showed me the basics and I think I’ve got it.” I smile at Jess.
Beatrice stiffens slightly when I use Ashton’s first name.
Jess grins at me. “You’ll be fine. Just because Beatrice here doesn’t know a spreadsheet from a diary p
age doesn’t mean you don’t, right?” Jess laughs.
Beatrice laughs along, but it’s clearly forced. “What can I say? Some of us spent our college days having a life,” she says.
“And some of us didn’t need a university to tell us how to do our jobs at all,” Jess says. She shoots me a grin. “No offense.”
“None taken. So... you’re self-taught?”
“Most developers are,” Jess says. She winks. “Or at least the good ones are.”
“Yes, well, we best be moving along,” Beatrice says.
Jess gives a mock salute and ducks into her office.
I find myself trotting along beside Beatrice again. I debate asking her why she seems to think I’m too stupid to learn a new program, but I bite my tongue, remembering Stewart’s warning that everyone here teases each other. She’s probably just teasing me.
We cross the lobby and go down a different hallway.
“This is the marketing team,” Beatrice says, pointing to her right. “And on the left is the main conference room. That’s conference room A. It’s usually just referred to as the conference room where the others get their full names. Make sure you remember where this one is, as Mr. Miller takes a lot of client meetings in here and you’ll likely be expected to sit in on the meetings and take minutes.”
I nod, making sure to remember where this conference room is.
Beatrice turns and heads back out of the hallway. She leads me down another one. “That’s conference rooms B and C. They’re smaller ones that the developers use and they’re often used for staff department meetings. And through here are the main computer rooms.” She opens a door and steps inside.
I follow her into a large room that’s jam packed with computers. At the end of the room, hulking black machinery with an array of flashing lights sits behind a glass partition.
Beatrice sees me looking at them. “Those are the servers. They’re manned twenty -four seven and they’re closed off to keep the temperature in the room constant. There’s all sorts of security on them so I won’t be showing you them in any great detail. The rest of the room is where new apps and programs are developed and algorithms are coded and tweaked.”
The room is busy and the noise level is high, but no one in the room seems put off by the noise. They’re all working away and I don’t really want to disturb them.
Beatrice seems to have the same idea because she backs out of the room. She leads me back into the lobby and points down the hallway where I had my interview. “Along there is HR on the right and IT on the left. And conference room D where you had your interview.” She starts to head back down the hallway leading to my office. “Your interview didn’t go so well huh?” she says.
I raise an eyebrow.
“What?” she says.
“I just find it a bit strange that HR was gossiping to you about interviews,” I say.
“Oh relax.” She smiles, another smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “The interviews are all recorded and I typed up the transcripts.”
“Right,” I say. “Of course.”
“Yours was kind of bad,” she says as a statement not a question.
I chose to answer it anyway, “It can’t have been that bad. I got the job, didn’t I?” I say with the same fake smile as she gives me.
“Hmm,” she says like she isn’t sure how that happened.
You and me both Beatrice. You and me both, I think to myself.
Chapter Eleven
Elena
I think my first day is going well so far. The only slight hiccup has been Beatrice, who I can’t fathom. I can’t decide whether she’s taken a dislike to me, or whether she’s just trying to fit in with the office banter and isn’t all that good at it. I don’t let it worry me. It’s not like I’m going to be working closely with her, and everyone else I’ve met has been nothing but nice to me.
I’ve familiarized myself with the diary system and it all seems straightforward enough. I’ve sent a few emails I was asked to send and made a few calls to set up meetings for Ashton for next week. I even sat in on a short meeting and took minutes. I have to get those typed up this afternoon and on Ashton’s desk by the end of the day, and I have a report to type up too.
The job is nothing I can’t handle, although I know the pace is going to pick up quickly once I get my first day over with. I’m just grabbing a sandwich with Jess in the kitchen and I really like her. She’s intelligent and funny and we have a lot in common.
“So how you are finding everything?” she asks.
“Good,” I reply. “I’ve been doing the personal assistant job for years, so I’ll soon find my feet with that.”
“And the people? How are you fitting in?”
“I’ve met a ton of people. I have a list of names in my head and a list of faces, but I’m not sure they all match up yet.” I smile.
“Within a week or two, you’ll feel like you’ve known everyone your whole life.” she smiles at me. “Everyone will understand if you don’t instantly remember their names.”
“I hope so,” I say. “I don’t think Beatrice likes me much, but luckily, I have her name down, so at least I can’t offend her by forgetting her name.” I didn’t really mean to say that. I don’t want Jess to think I’m paranoid, or worse, a gossip. She smiles and I relax a little.
She doesn’t seem to be bothered by what I’ve said. “Beatrice is a little standoffish at first. It’s nothing personal. It’s just the way she is. Once you get to know her, she’ll warm up a little,” Jess says. “I think she’s just a little shy and she tries to overcompensate for it and it makes her come across as a little brusque at times.”
That makes sense I suppose. There’s no reason for Beatrice not to like me. I haven’t known her long enough to have offended her in any real way.
Jess stands up and stretches and her back clicks audibly.
I try not to wince.
She laughs. “That’s my party trick,” she says. “And speaking of parties, I have a meeting so I have to dash.” She puts her trash in the bin and flashes me another smile as she leaves the room.
I debate going back to my office, but I’ve only been on my lunch for fifteen minutes and I don’t want to get a reputation as an ass kisser. I nibble on my sandwich and sip from a bottle of water. My thoughts go back to Ashton.
He’s been nothing but nice to me, complimenting me on my work and making it clear he’s available if I have any questions or anything. I can’t help but be suspicious though. Part of me wants to just move on from my suspicions, but part of me is clinging onto them so if anything happens, I’m not completely blindsided by it. I just can’t bring myself to trust him. I’m sure he’s playing some sort of game with me where he lulls me into a false sense of security and then goes back to his old ways, undermining me and humiliating me.
If I keep thinking like that though, I’m never going to settle in here fully. I sigh as I dig in my pocket and pull my phone out. I scroll idly through Twitter for a while, and then move on to Instagram, but I’m not really paying any attention. I’m just thinking about Ashton and whether taking this job was really a good idea.
I sigh again and scroll through my contacts until I find Lottie’s name. She’ll be the voice of reason, the one who tells me to get out of here. I press call and wait for her to pick up.
“How’s your first day going?” Lottie asks instead of hello when she takes my call.
“Good,” I answer. “But weird.”
“Weird how?”
“The CEO who I’m the assistant to. It’s Ashton Winston from school. Remember him? Only he’s calling himself Ashton Miller these days,” I say.
“I remember him,” Lottie confirms. “It’s been forever since I last saw anyone from school except for you of course. How’s he doing?”
“Well, good obviously. He’s a multimillionaire.”
“Coooooool.”
“Lottie, do you remember how he used to bully me?”
“Sure I do, but
I’m not sure he was really a bully. He teased you for attention and you overreacted and made it worse for yourself.”
“Thanks for the support,” I mutter.
Lottie laughs. “Oh come on Elena. I know it felt bad at the time, but it was years ago. We can laugh about it now surely? You were so touchy about it because you were into him. Other kids said way worse stuff and you laughed with them.”
“I guess.” I think about it. Is that true? Did I make it out to be worse than it really was?
“Wait, is he still doing it?” Lottie asks.
“No. That’s the thing. He’s been nothing but super nice to me. He even apologized for the way he used to act. Unless it’s an act right? Like some sort of game.”
“Or maybe... just maybe... he just grew up like we all did,” Lottie says gently.
“Maybe. The thing is Lottie, he’s smoking hot. Hell, he’s hotter than he’s ever been. How can I find him attractive after everything he put me through? It’s weird, right?”
“The heart wants what the heart wants,” Lottie trills.
“Yeah, it’s not my heart that wants him,” I shoot back with a giggle.
“Go for it.”
“He’s my boss,” I whisper.
“So what? I’d do my boss if he looked as hot as you say Ashton turned out.”
“You would?”
“Absolutely. I can always find another job, but hot men. Thin on the ground, girl. Thin on the ground.”
“I’ve caught him looking at me in a way that suggests the attraction isn’t one sided,” I say. “And there’s a definite chemistry between us.”
“How are you making this sound like a problem?” Lottie asks.
“Well, I just... How am I supposed to believe that someone who hated me so much can suddenly feel differently about me?”
“Oh Elena, you still don’t get it do you? I’m going to tell you the same thing I told you every day at school. Ashton doesn’t hate you. He never did. He just wanted to get your attention.”
“Whatever.” I sigh. “I have to go.”
“Ok. Don’t let this whole overthinking thing you do cloud your mind and ruin a perfectly good job.” She ends the call.