The Billionaire From Atlanta

by Susan Westwood

  She said nothing. There was nothing to say; she had worked a double and she was on her way home.

  “I don’t like you being out this late at night,” he finally said, giving his head one slight shake. He spoke it like he owned her and she was his property. He spoke it as if she answered to him for everything that she did; every move she made.

  Her brow furrowed sharply and she drew in a deep breath. “It doesn’t matter what you like or don’t like. We haven’t been together in over a year! You don’t get to have a say about any part of my life. That time is well over and done, and I didn’t even let you do it when we were together, so don’t go getting any ideas now that you can talk to me like that and have any expectations of me.”

  Resentment flashed in his dark eyes. “You were mine! I will say what I want!”

  She shook her head slowly, her eyes locked on his. “I’m not yours anymore, and I haven’t been for a long time.”

  “Yeah, well that’s going to change,” he snapped low and fierce.

  “No, it’s not, Wendell. That’s never going to change.” She crossed her arms over her chest almost protectively, and raised her chin a little higher. “Now how did you know where I was? You had to know. You’ve been following me since I left the store!”

  The corners of his mouth turned up into a slight grin, and he chuckled quietly, just once. “Oh baby, I know everything you do.” He raised one hand and reached for her face, outstretching his fingertips and letting them caress her cheek until she pulled her head away from his reach. “I follow you all the time. I always know where you are, and what you’re doing, and who you’re with. I know everything about you baby, ‘cause you’re mine, and I’m getting you back.”

  She glared furiously at him. “I am not yours and I am never going to be yours again! You’re stalking me and you can’t do that! Not even if you’re a cop! Now leave me alone!”

  He shook his head very slowly, his grin in place, his eyes steady on hers. His voice was low and even. “Oh no, baby. No way. I’m watching you. I’m always watching you, and soon you’re going to give me exactly what I want.”

  Wendell reached for her again but she pulled away from him and rushed to get back in her car, slamming the door behind her. He stood there near her car with his hands hanging down at his sides and laughed at her; deep, long, intent laughing.

  Celeste’s body was shaking with anger as she pumped her foot on the gas pedal and prayed fervently that the engine would start. It finally did, and she only glanced at him once as she put her car in gear and pulled away from him quickly.

  With a last worried glance in the rearview mirror, she saw him still standing where he had been, turned and facing her as she drove away, watching her.

  Chapter4

  At eight-thirty the next morning, Celeste pulled her dump of a car into the parking garage that reached far below the towering building above it. As she got out of her car and locked it, she glanced around and saw that hers was by far the oldest and saddest looking vehicle in the entire lot. All of the other vehicles were much newer, and much more luxurious. She wondered for a moment if the job she was interviewing for might provide an income for her that would allow her to purchase a new vehicle. She only let herself think on it for a moment before pushing the thoughts from her mind.

  No sense thinking about things so far into the future, she thought to herself. She ought to just focus on the interview and try to get the job first. One step at a time. That was exactly what she did, taking a step at a time to the elevator and going to the lobby of the massive building.

  It was still completely surreal to her that she had gotten an interview so easily at such a prestigious business with nothing more than the word of a friend. It felt like a dream that couldn’t ever be real. Even as she walked across the marble floor toward the reception desk in the spacious lobby, the sound of her heels on the hard surface told her that she was really there, really walking through it, but it just seemed like even that was a figment of her imagination.

  She reached the desk and took a deep breath. The receptionist, who was a man, looked up at her and smiled. He asked her how he could help her and she told him who she was there to see. He pointed to the area in the back of the lobby where the elevators were and sent her on her way with instructions.

  Celeste tried to breathe evenly and slow her racing heart as she ascended in the elevator toward the floor near the top of the building where her interview would be, but it seemed to her that the closer she got to it, the more anxious she became.

  The elevator doors slid open and she stepped out into a quiet office. There was an older woman sitting at a desk off to one side of the room, and behind her there was an open door that led into another office. To the left there was another hallway with more doors.

  She walked up to the woman at the desk and reminded herself to hold her purse lightly, rather than with a death grip.

  Before she could say a word, the older woman looked up at her and smiled kindly. “Hello, are you here to see Hector?”

  Celeste nodded. “Yes, please. I’m Celeste Everett.”

  The lady picked up the phone on her desk and called the information in to the office behind her desk. A moment later, a man walked through the open door of that office and stopped before Celeste.

  He was of medium height and an average build. His hair was gray and white and thinning around the top of his head, though it did not detract at all from his handsome looks. He wore a beard and small moustache that were an even blend of salt and pepper, and his bright blue eyes shown out from a tanned face.

  Reaching his hand out to her, he smiled warmly and his eyes met hers. “I’m Hector. Thank you for coming in Miss Everett.” His speech was as elegant as his clothes; a fine suit with a vest and a tie.

  “Hello, Hector. Thank you for seeing me today,” she returned pleasantly.

  He motioned for her to follow him, and together they went into his office and he closed the door.

  “Please, have a seat.” He indicated the chairs before his desk. She took one of them and set her purse on the other beside it so that she wouldn’t fiddle with her purse as her nervous fingers itched for something to occupy them.

  Hector sat down behind his desk and turned his attention to her. “As I understand it, you are looking for a job. I’m in need of a secretary and assistant. The lady you saw at my receptionist’s desk is a temp from another office here in the building. She’s a nice lady, but she has another job and she’s not who I need to fill the seat out front. I was told that you are quite possibly the right person to take that seat and to assist me with the work that I do.”

  “I certainly hope that I am.” Celeste smiled brightly and pulled a file from her purse. Handing it to him, she slid forward slightly on the chair so that she was at the edge of her seat. “Here’s my resume and some letters of recommendation.”

  He accepted them and gave them a good look, reading all that she had given him. She felt a good deal of relief that he was reading it all so intently. It meant to her that he wasn’t just skimming over it and ignoring most of what was there like all of the other people who had interviewed her for positions she didn’t get. Hector was actually taking the time to look at it, and she thought to herself that even if he didn’t give her the job, she was going to walk out with a huge amount of respect for him because he had given her that simple and respectful courtesy.

  “I’m impressed that you’re going to school while you’re working,” he said as he continued to read through her resume. “It takes dedication and commitment to do that. It takes drive and determination.”

  He lifted his eyes from the papers before him for a moment and gave her a serious look. “That’s exactly the kind of thing I like to see in those who work for me.”

  When he had read all of her paperwork, he laid it on the desk and leaned back in his chair and began to talk with her. Not about any of her jobs or anything that she had done in her professional life, but more so in her private l
ife; the goals that she had and the dreams that she wanted to work to bring to fruition. He talked with her at length and after a short while, she realized that he was getting to know her personal side to discover what kind of person she was under the dress suit she was wearing and the professional cover she had come in with that day.

  “You’re really getting to know me,” she said in a quiet and surprised tone.

  He leaned forward and rested his arms on the desk, giving her a pleasant look. “I want to know who it is that would be coming in here every day, who would be taking care of my clients and just how they would be taking care of them. I want to know who you are, not what you’ve done. I read your resume. I know what you’ve done, but that doesn’t tell me who you really are. That’s the most important part.”

  A wide smile spread over Celeste’s face and she leaned forward as well, almost meeting him halfway in a sense. “You know, I think you’re right. That’s a wise way to look at it. No one has ever looked at me that way before this interview. Thank you.” She appreciated it, and she wanted him to know it.

  Hector gave her a nod and a grin. “Well, if you would like the job, it’s yours. I would want you to start as soon as you can. I need to send Bertha back to her regular spot.”

  Everything inside of Celeste froze solid for a long moment, and she couldn’t move or breathe or think for the longest second of her life, and then with a snap everything broke free and she felt a rush of exquisite joy such as she could not remember having felt before, to a magnitude that made her speechless.

  Jumping to her feet, she nodded her head vigorously and her hands flew up to cover her mouth, trying in vain to hold in all of the emotion that had flooded her and was nearly ready to spill out of her in a scream of excitement.

  Hector rose to his feet as well, giving her an amused smile with one raised eyebrow. “I take it that’s a yes, then?” he asked quietly, looking as if he was holding in a chuckle.

  She nodded vehemently. “Yes! Yes… it’s a yes!” she finally managed to spill out, reaching her hand to him to shake his hand. “Thank you so very much!”

  The chuckle escaped him then and he nodded to her. “Of course. Thank you so much for coming in today and meeting with me. I think you’ll be a good fit for this office, and for our team. Now, when you can breathe again, you can tell me when it would work out for you to start here.”

  He gave her a meaningful look and all of the tension and thrill inside of her finally culminated in a laugh from far within, and then the well broke and all of her adrenaline began to subside. She did her best to stand up straight and breathe in deeply so that she might calm herself. Her mind was going a million miles an hour, thinking of all of the things that she had to take care of in the changes to the new job, and all of the things that she would be doing and perhaps could be doing with the position she was being given.

  It was with no small effort and considerable willpower that she steadied herself enough to think and process, at least enough to finish her conversation with her new boss.

  “Start… yes… well… I can start tomorrow. That’s no problem.” She would have to go and quit her job at the supermarket, but she could do that after her interview finished.

  He nodded and reached his hand out to her. “Then the job is yours, please report to work here at nine tomorrow morning, and thank you for coming in and agreeing to take the position.”

  Celeste wanted to hug him, she was so excited and so grateful, but she sufficed with another handshake, and then she turned and walked out of his office and grinned at Bertha when she passed the older woman at the desk in the front office.

  She waited until she was in the elevator and at least two floors down before she shrieked out loud with a pent-up holler of pure joy. Her life was going to get better, and it was happening right then, with no wait. It was almost more than she could believe, but once she was in her car and driving out of the heart of downtown Atlanta, she told herself out loud over and over again, “I got the job… it’s real… my life is changing for the better. I got the job… I start tomorrow…” She went on and on, trying to make herself believe it by saying it aloud and hearing it as well as speaking it.

  It seemed slightly more believable as she pulled the car into the parking lot at the grocery store. She picked up her purse and went inside, and was immediately greeted by Tonia and Keisha who were on their break in the staff break room.

  “You work today?” Keisha asked with a confused frown.

  Celeste shook her head. “No, I don’t, but I came in to talk to the boss.”

  Tonia pointed to the closed door with a narrow window at the back of the room. “He’s on the phone.”

  “What are you talking to him about?” Keisha asked nosily.

  Celeste couldn’t hold in her secret any more than she could hold in her joy. “I just got a job!”

  Tonia and Keisha were both surprised. Tonia seemed to light up a little bit more. “You did? Where?”

  “At a big old company in the city. I’m going to be an assistant and personal secretary to a senior partner at the firm!” She had said it to herself so many times on the drive to the grocery store that she almost believed it was true.

  “How’d you get that?” Tonia asked, standing up and walking to the door as their break ended. Keisha and Celeste followed her, walking out toward the registers.

  Celeste felt her cheeks warm. “Oh… uh, well I have a friend who works there and got me an interview. A little inside help, I guess. So, I went for the interview this morning, thinking I wouldn’t get it, and I got it!” She shook her head, still in disbelief. Her life was finally turning around, and it was more than incredible to her.

  Keisha began to laugh deep in her belly. “A friend?!” she exclaimed in considerable doubt. “What kind of friend?”

  Clearing her throat quietly and doing her best to look nonchalant, Celeste lifted her chin and spoke a little louder. “Just a friend.” She hoped she sounded believable.

  Tonia smiled at her and Keisha’s head snapped to one side, her attention suddenly solely focused on the tall, well-built man who had just walked into the grocery store. Celeste felt her heart nearly jump out of her chest. It was Wendell.

  “Now there’s a man I’d like to be friends with.” Keisha moaned low and gave her head a shake. She gave him a big grin and a wink, which he saw, and he smiled back momentarily at Keisha, but then his eyes became riveted on Celeste.

  Celeste turned away and tried to pretend that he wasn’t there. Wendell walked near them, staring at Celeste, and then chuckled softly and walked away on the pretense of doing some shopping while he was in his police uniform.

  The moment that his back was turned, Keisha spun on her heel and planted both of her hands on Celeste’s arm. “Girl! He is into you! Now do something right for once and go after him! He wants you! You need to get yourself together and land him! Go on now, go get him!”

  Celeste felt as if she might vomit. “He’s really not my type,” she replied quietly.

  Keisha’s face twisted in shock and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head as her mouth scrunched up. “Girl, have you lost your mind? That there is the finest specimen of a man I have had the pleasure of laying my eyes on in a good long time! Now you pull your head out and go on and go talk to him! He couldn’t stop staring at you when he walked by here just a minute ago. You’d be an outright fool just to walk away from that! He is fine, honey!”

  “I have to go talk to the boss.” Celeste ignored Keisha’s adamant plea and walked back to the break room. Her boss walked out of his closet-sized office and stopped, blinking at her through his thick glasses when he saw her there.

  “What are you doing in here today?” he asked in puzzlement. “You aren’t on the schedule, are you? You didn’t switch shifts with anyone did you? You know you can’t do that without my approval and I know that I didn’t approve any kind of schedule change for you.”

  Feeling a sense of freedom moving through her like a fr
esh breeze, she spoke clearly and strongly, lifting her chin as she did so. “No, I’m not working today, I came to quit this job. I got another job and I am starting there tomorrow.”

  He stared at her for a long moment and then began to shake his head slowly. “Oh no you don’t.”

  “I beg your pardon?” she asked, bewilderment clouding her mind.

  “You’re not just going to walk out of here that easily… walk out on me… walk out on your responsibilities here. I don’t have anyone to fill your spot here on the spur of the moment like that. No way, missy. No. You have to work a full two weeks. You have to give me two weeks’ notice before you can just walk right out that door.” He looked full well like he meant it.

  She frowned. “I’m not giving you two weeks, I am starting my new job tomorrow morning!”

  He took a step and advanced toward her aggressively. “Oh yes you are. You’re working two more weeks for me here or I’m not going to give you a good reference! When your new job calls me for a recommendation I’ll tell them you’re the worst employee I have, that you left me hanging high and dry and that I wouldn’t hire you back here if I was desperate for help!