by Ted Evans
Scarlett had her work cut out for her. I just bowed my head, happy that my day was finally over and feeling sorry for the woman that was soon to be his wife.
***
“Aunt Veronica,” I said when she picked up the phone, thinking that I would rather talk to her on the phone before seeing her.
“Yes, Olivia. You didn’t need to call. Everything’s going so well. Besides Dawn’s sleeping right now.”
I sighed, realizing she was right. Mom was normally in bed by this hour.
“Don’t worry I’ll be home and then you can leave too.”
“Leave to go where? Didn’t Carl tell you?”
Obviously not.
“I’m moving in. I’m not getting here at six and then leaving at these times. Big Little Lies is on, the new season of The Walking Dead and Santa Claus Diet. I mean, I have a life too. I’ll miss out on all the shows if I’m going back and forth.”
That was what I was afraid of. As much as she was my aunt and I loved her to bits, she had a problem with what was reality and what was not. She seemed to think that everyone’s life was based on TV soaps, because hers was.
“I know, I wouldn’t want you to miss out on your shows.”
“My dear it’s not just my shows. Dawn likes to watch them too. I think that you stopped her watching TV—that’s why she was always so angry.”
Of course!
“Dear, take your time. You don’t need to rush back. We’re fine and don’t worry about my apartment; I’ve already rented it out.”
That was quick!
“Anyway, I have to watch the re-run of The Walking Dead. I never understand it the first time around.”
What was there to understand? There were a bunch of zombies walking around and no one knew why and the writers kept changing their minds about which characters we should love and hate.
Before I could say another word, she’d hung up the phone. I didn’t even realize that Ross was standing in front of me.
“You still here?”
“It seems that way. I was going home. But now I feel like a drink.”
Not with you; Alone!
“Sounds like a good idea,” he smiled, and I was so tempted to remind him that Scarlett would be waiting for him, but I knew that it was none of my business. I didn’t even know the woman; she was only working there for a couple of weeks.“It’s only Tuesday, I shouldn’t really.”
He sighed. “That’s a shame. I thought that we could get to know each other a little seeing as we’ve just met and I think that we started off on the wrong foot. Just one drink?”
Wow, he was asking me and I was being uptight. I wasn’t used to going out with anyone but Mom. She was sometimes great company and at other times I was afraid to take her out. He was right; I needed to get out and let my hair down.
“Okay, Mr. Hamilton let’s have one drink.”
He smiled and said, “Sounds like a plan, and by the way just call me, Ross. Mr. Hamilton sounds too formal.”
I nodded thinking that I did refer to him as Ross, but I wanted to say formal. I had a feeling that anything else would lead us to trouble. I was only here for six weeks, I didn’t need any other type of trouble, my life was as complicated as it was, already.
Chapter Seven
Ross
I wondered whether it was a mistake taking her to the local bar. I’d had a fucking long day. The woman knew her shit; that got me curious about her. There wasn’t a thing that I asked her to do or was about to ask her to do that she hadn’t already thought about. It made me realize that she was head and shoulders above the girls that had been working for me until then.
Don’t get me wrong: once I told them what to do, they were always happy to run with it. But there was no thinking outside the box. Not like Olivia did, and she had only been working for me one day.
“Tell me something.”
She hesitated as she flicked her long dark hair. The hair that was so neatly wrapped up in a bun when she started had been let loose since we entered the bar. It just emphasized her green eyes and now it was my dick that was thinking outside the box. It seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to Olivia.
“Yes?” She quivered as she avoided looking at me. That could only mean one thing. She was fucking attracted to me too.
“Why the fuck are you a VA when you’re so damn talented?”
She seemed surprised by my little outburst, or it could have been because I couldn’t help but brush my hand along her shoulder. Shit, she probably thought I wanted to see her hands again.
“I’ve only worked for you one day, and I’m sure that you’ve had plenty of secretaries that can do the same thing that I’ve done today.”
I shook my head, “You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re one step ahead of the game all the time. I ask you for one thing and you give me three options. Graphs, data that I haven't even requested yet. You’re like a machine.”
She blushed, “Wow. Do you talk to all your secretaries like that?”
“Only the beautiful intelligent ones,” Shit, I was getting so sappy; I needed to get home. Better still just take her home, so that I didn’t get any more thoughts about all the things that I wanted to do to her. And I couldn’t get them out of my dirty mind. I was fucking trying, but it was so fucking hard.
“My mom’s sick, she has dementia and since she developed the disease, I’ve been her sole carer,” she sighed. Suddenly I felt like such a dick for thinking about sex.
Always sex.
“My dad died in a car accident about three years ago. I think that’s what set Mom off. Well, no one really knows. The doctors said sometimes a shock can trigger a disease early.”
“How old is she?”
“Only forty-eight.”
“Shit, and she has dementia already?”
“Yes, there are quite a few that suffer from it early on. She had me right out of high school. That’s when her and Dad got married.”
“Young love.”
She shrugged, “Yes, I think that she couldn’t cope without him. He was taken away from her so quickly. She went into depression at first; that’s when I quit my job as executive director for Swan Kick Techies.”
Shit, she’d been working for one of the top IT firms in the district. “You were a director at such a young age.”
She nodded. “But now I’m just a virtual assistant.”
She dismissed it as if she wasn’t doing something worthwhile.
“Hey, you shouldn’t dismiss it like that. It’s a lot more than that. You’ve sacrificed your life to look after your mom. That’s admirable.”
I thought for a moment about the selfless acts that I’d done in my life. And for one brief second while our eyes locked and my dick wasn’t out of control, I stored the memory of her face.
She shook her head as her phone vibrated on the bar. “I better go. Probably my aunt.”
“She’s looking after your mom now?”
She nodded, “For six weeks, right?”
I don’t know what came over me. But as she stood in front of me after we both hopped of the bar stools, curiosity got the better of me and I put my lips against hers. I held her firmly next to me and then I crushed my face against hers. I expected her to move, but she held still for a minute before she started to respond as my tongue explored her mouth.
It was a kiss so damn powerful, I felt tempted to take her on top of the damn bar. I did everything to remember that I was in a public place, yet my fingers started to explore her shoulders and the nape of her neck.
I felt so determined to hold on to her and not let her go. She couldn’t move even if she tried. It was a passion that I’d never known I possessed. I had never kissed, held hands or done anything affectionate in public.
Yet here I was, kissing my new virtual assistant, and then I felt a throbbing so hard between my legs that I had to pull away.
“Shit, I just shouldn’t have done that!” My voice was ragged and her eyes were still closed a
nd she seemed to be in a different place. As if she was trying to recover from the kiss.
“That won’t happen again,” I murmured, as I quickly got a twenty out of my pocket and dropped it on the bar.
She said nothing as I left and said, “Sorry.”
That was a fucking lie. I wasn’t fucking sorry, but I had to be in control. Especially if I wanted this deal to go through. I hesitated at the door as I was about to leave. But I needed to leave and just get on with it. Otherwise, I’d do something that I’d regret and I’d lose the best secretary that I’d ever had. And Craig would probably just chop off my nuts for messing with her and for me doing the one thing that I said I wouldn’t do this time. I really needed to make a phone call to Lenny and join that fucking club. Quick time, before I really do lose control.
Chapter Eight
Olivia
I didn’t know what had happened at the bar, but I couldn’t stop touching my lips. It was such a powerful kiss; I’d half-expected him to lift me up and fuck me in the bar. I started giggling like a schoolgirl as I grabbed my purse and headed out of the bar.
What was he thinking?
What was I thinking?
He was getting married to Scarlett and he was kissing me in public. I shook my head at the idea of it. It was only a kiss…
Damn, this guy just knew what he wanted and he didn’t mind taking it. I needed to tell him that I wasn’t the kind of woman that he could mistake for one of the girls in the office.
Yet I had a feeling that he wasn’t thinking that way. Otherwise he wouldn’t have left me at the bar wanting more. I wondered if that was the reason he didn’t even offer to take me home. Then again, it was a good thing, because I would have invited him in. With only one thing on my mind.
His photo in Forbes did no justice to the real-life person. The man was full of mystery, darkness, and intelligence.
Only a couple of stops on the subway and I was home, still touching my lips and thinking about him in ways that I shouldn’t be. Not only was he engaged, but more importantly, he was my boss.
“Good evening dear. I was just about to make some more popcorn. Would you like some?” Aunt Veronica asked with her curlers in her hair and fluffy slippers on her feet.
She looked as if she’d more than made herself at home as I opened the door.
“No. I was thinking that I would get some sleep. I have an early start in the morning.”
“Oh, come on. You need something to help you relax and I know that there’s nothing like a comedy and some popcorn to do that.”
I turned to shut the door.
“Oh I just thought: Have you eaten?”
I shook my head, realizing that I hadn’t eaten all day. I had forgotten the downside of being in an office, my time was not my own. Not like when I worked from home; I had this rigid schedule and I always made sure that Mom and I ate together. Today, I hadn’t felt like eating alone, but by the time I’d looked up most of the other employees had left for lunch or were eating at their desks. I’d tried to introduce myself, but no one seemed interested, which was a bit of a shame. That was the only thing that I had missed about being in an office: having someone other than Mom to talk to. Yet, today I wondered if things had changed and people didn’t do things like that anymore.
“No, I haven’t eaten since breakfast this morning.”
She giggled as she waddled to the kitchen with the popcorn bowl in one hand. She’d married a military man and she had spent most of her life living in different countries. Most of the time he was away, she was at home, waiting for him to come back safely. When he was injured and dismissed from duty, he went back to Korea saying that he had met someone there and that he didn’t want to come back to the States. Since then she’d been living off her divorce settlement and spending her time in front of the television. She said that she spent most of her life traveling, so she was making up for lost time by keeping still for once.
I did love Aunt Veronica, but sometimes her eccentric ways and obsession with the television irritated me. She talked about the characters as if they were friends of hers, and one when season closed another one seemed to open up. That was the downside of Netflix: she was always spoiled for choice.
“Well, no wonder you’re so thin. You need to eat more.” She sighed as she gazed at me.
I was about to tell her that I’d put on weight. That I no longer jogged or watched my figure the way that I used to do. I was scared yesterday that none of my suits would fit. They did, I just filled them out a bit more. Besides, with Mom I tried to keep my meals simple and not spend too much time in the kitchen. Sometimes, mom wanted to help with supper, which at times had resulted in a bit of a disaster.
“The Chinese take-out round the corner is so much better than mine. I couldn't stop ordering from there.”
“But I left food in the fridge…”
“Salad and vegetables; we’re not rabbits dear. You hold on, I’ll order the same thing that I ordered for us today. Dawn loved it, she even asked for us to eat there next time.”
“Did she?”
I wanted to ask the question; the one that’d been bugging me ever since I spoke to her on the phone.
“Did she recognize you?”
She sighed as if she were thinking about the question, “At times she did. She even asked me at one point where Mark was stationed this time.”
Wow, she even remembered Uncle Mark?
“Then when I told her Korea, she said that Mark loved the girls in Korea. I wish she’d told me back then, I would have made sure that he never went back there.”
She chuckled as she dialed the number to the Chinese restaurant and I wanted to tell her not to bother. I didn’t feel like eating, but I knew that if I went to bed there’d only be one thing on my mind.
Ross Hamilton.
My boss, who was getting married. I needed to keep things professional. Even if he didn’t want to.
“Now, that’s done. I hope you have a twenty on you to pay when he arrives.”
Typical!
“What happened to the money I left for Carl earlier? There was a fifty on the table.”
She chuckles, “Oh, that’s gone. You need to leave more money next time.”
“Oh, why?”
“Because tomorrow we’ll eat in. Not out. And we may want a bit more than we had today. We were on a budget, because you only left fifty and I need to pay the movers.”
“Aunt Veronica...”
I was about to tell her that I was on a budget. Sure, Ross had doubled my salary seeing as I had to go in the office, but I couldn’t be going through money like water until I got paid. I’d been on a budget for so long that even the transport costs and having my clothes dry-cleaned felt as if I was overspending. I’d only been in the office for one day.
“Don’t worry dear. You worry too much. I’ll get the guys in my apartment to help move the rest of my things and if you don’t have enough on you, then don’t worry.”
Her fat fingers patted my hand, which was resting on the table.
“You can just leave your card and I can charge it to that and use the fifty to pay the guys. One thing’s for sure. Dawn’s really happy to have me around. You should be too. Now, let’s go and watch Santa Claus Diet. Seriously, this show’s to die for.”
Then she chuckled once again, “Look at me, coming out with funny jokes.”
It must have been a private joke, because I didn’t get it. I dropped my bags and took off my jacket and slung it onto the back of a chair. I decided to grab one of the few bottles of wine that I’d had hidden in the house for so long and join her watching the show until my very expensive Chinese order came through.
“Oh dear, why didn’t you get me a glass?” she asked as her eyes darted in my direction. That was when I saw the show and understood about her joke. Maybe she was right. Her being there would bring some warmth to the house; it had been cold for so long. And anything that was a distraction from what had happened in the bar was a
good thing. Even if it meant watching a show about vampires.
Chapter Nine
Ross
Craig wanted us to catch up the following morning. I wasn’t really in the mood, especially after such a rough night. I’d thought that having cold showers was supposed to work. It didn’t, and no matter how many times I tried to jerk off, I still couldn’t get Olivia off my mind. This wasn’t a fucking temptation issue, this was deeper than that and it made me feel on edge.
“You look like death warmed up,” he said as he went over to the bar at the corner of my office. We seemed to be doing that a lot lately and not even at night. Sometimes during the day or even first thing in the morning.
“I was going to suggest that we go out for coffee. Just to get out of the office for a change. Besides, this one smells off…” He moved to the sofa and started to sniff it. He wanted to know if I had sex in my office, which according to him seemed to be my favorite venue for fucking the secretaries. Craig was trying to figure out whether I tried anything with Olivia. I could have lied and told him nothing had happened, but that wouldn’t have worked on Craig. It hadn’t worked whenever I tried to lie to him before, it certainly wouldn’t work now.
“Nothing happened.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Something happened, otherwise you wouldn’t be looking like that. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
He sat in front of me and then crossed his legs. “You going to tell me? Or are you going to be playing games all day?”
He was right, I had no one else to talk to about this thing. And it was best that it was Craig, because he was my only voice of reason. Even if I hated listening to him sometimes.
“Just that…”
“Yes?”
“Well, I took her to the bar.”
“And?”
There was an awkward silence as I tried to describe what happened, knowing that in about twenty minutes she was either going to walk through the door and continue working here or walk through the door and give in her notice.
“Then I kissed her.”