My Billionaire Boss

by Gold, Bella

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  Falling for an Asian Billionaire

  By Keisha Walker

  Copyright © 2016

  Chapter 1

  “Girl, I am going crazy.” Delia Harris glanced over at her DVR. It was two in the afternoon. She was sitting upside down on her couch, bare heels up against the wall, hair swinging down towards the carpet. She hadn’t been awake very long. Only since noon. But she was still going stir crazy.

  “What are you doing?” Her sister said on the other end of the phone. Delia could hear clicking and typing in the background, phones going off, people walking by. That was the sound of a full-time job. That was the sound of money being made.

  Not like Delia’s life.

  “Nothing!” Delia said.

  “Get on that computer and apply,” Rosalyn insisted from the other end. Her sister still thought it was that easy. Delia had been applying for six months. Her student loans were about to come up due. She had no idea how she was going to handle that. She didn’t even want to think about it.

  “I need a break,” Delia said.

  “Clean the bathroom,” Rosalyn said.

  “I’m not a maid!” Delia shot back.

  “I’m not letting you stay there for free,” Rosalyn said. “You’re either looking for a job or you’re cleaning up my apartment. Which one is it?”

  “Okay, okay,” Delia grumbled. She knew calling her sister was a bad idea.

  But she had no one else to call.

  Life after law school wasn’t as great as Delia expected. Of course, she knew about the odds going in. Entry-level position for lawyers weren’t that plentiful. But Delia was confident. She aced her classes. She’d received some highly sought after internships. She’d left law school to become a bad-ass lawyer, ready to conquer the world.

  Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out the way she expected it to.

  Delia did her best. She was smart but wasn’t able to get high grades all across the board. The best internships took one student out of her class of 300 and it wasn’t her. She received other opportunities, but they weren’t reputable. This industry was about working your way up in a good firm and eventually becoming a partner. But even six months after graduating, about half of her class was still without employment.

  A substantial amount of money down the drain for school got me no where.

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” Rosalyn said from the other end of the phone, reading her mind as usual. “You need to keep on grinding. Don’t waste your life!”

  “Alright, I got it,” Delia said. “I’ll see you when you get home.”

  Delia hung up and dropped her phone on the carpet. Then she turned herself around, fixed up her hair and took a deep breath.

  She could do this.

  She looked around the small apartment. It was a one bedroom, really meant for only one person. The front door lead directly into the kitchen and the living room. Rosalyn’s bedroom was off to the right with the only bathroom in-between. Delia was sleeping on the couch.

  It was time to get out of this situation.

  This place wasn’t big enough for the two of them. Job or no job.

  She got up, going over to the kitchen table which also doubled as a desk. She fired up her laptop and watched it boot up. It was depressing, going to the same job sites over and over again. Why can’t Google just find me the perfect job? She’d check on her applications and see no progress or even worse, rejections. She would call the companies and they had nothing to say or showed no appreciation. It all felt like such a waste of time.

  But she couldn’t give up. She just had to change strategies.

  Delia went to school to be a lawyer but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do something else in the meantime. She had to be open minded. Expand her horizons.

  What was it that she needed to get out of her situation?

  Delia knew she couldn’t get another place without money. And she definitely didn’t have money for that. But that didn’t that it was impossible. She just needed to take a direction and go. She could figure this out.

  Black girl without a job? I’m not the only one, she thought.

  She laughed to herself, after typing something into Google. She had heard somewhere that if you ask, you shall receive. So she did:

  FREE HOUSING.

  The tenth result caught her eye. Delia clicked it immediately.

  High Class House Sitters: for the client who demands the best.

  Delia scrolled down. The requirements read like a dating website. They were looking for people who were college educated, accomplished, intelligent, problem-solvers, trustworthy, reliable and able to pass a 12-point background check with no violations ever, not even a speeding ticket.

  For a house-sitter?

  Delia read on.

  We focus on an exclusive clientele, the website read. All clients must be kept strictly confidential. Anyone who breaks these rules will face immediate legal consequences.

  Delia scoffed to herself. She guessed if she faced any immediate legal consequences she could handle it on her own.

  There was a 10 page application. Delia wasn’t intimidated. Law firm applications were twice as intense. Though there was an interesting question that caught her eye.

  What would you do if a client asked to start a non-professional relationship with you?

  Delia laughed at the question. She didn’t think whatever clients this website had would be able to handle her. She quickly typed her response. She didn’t even try to be clever or wordy about it.

  That won’t be a problem.

  It took Delia about an hour to get through the rest of the application. She still wasn’t sure if this website was legit, but they didn’t ask for any money or social security numbers. The rest of the application was all information that could be found on her desperate LinkedIn profile. So she hit send.

  The screen said they would get back to her shortly.

  “More like get back to me never,” Delia mumbled to himself.

  She shut the laptop.

  Chapter 2

  “What?” Rosalyn asked when she came home.

  Delia tried to smooth the way with a bucket of Popeye’s chicken, plenty of red beans and rice and a bottle of wine but it didn’t seem to help.

  “You want another biscuit?” Delia asked.

  “No, I want you to hold up, wait a minute and take me back to the time when you, a law school graduate, thought it was a good idea to give all your personal information to a low-level scam house sitting website?!”

  “These are really good,” Delia said, cramming a biscuit in her mouth so she wouldn’t have to speak anymore.

  “I mean, seriously?” Rosalyn continued. She had always been the practical sister. She’d worked for the same company right after college as a business manager. She never spent extra money on frills, so that’s why she was making good money and still in this basic apartment. She was saving for death or something like that. Delia would never completely understand her older sister.

  “It’s not serious!” Delia said. “It’s just for jokes. I was bored this afternoon. So what? Nothing’s private anymore. If any fat white basement hacker wanted to find me then he could do it in two seconds flat. What am I supposed to do about it? At least this way I might get a few place to stay out of it.”

  “It’s just such a short term vision,” Rosalyn said. “If you’re that sick of the couch we can buy a futon. You’ll pay me back later.”

  Delia rolled her eyes. There Rosalyn went again. She was such a tight-ass with her money.

  “It’s not about the couch,” Delia said. “I could sleep there forever. I just need my own space sometimes. Maybe I’m just being all cooped up in here. I need to create my own independence”

  “No one says you have to stay here,” Rosalyn said. “I told you, come to my office. You could intern or something. You can network and make connections. You need to put yourself out there, ot
herwise no one will know who you are.”

  Delia rolled her eyes. She didn’t go to law school to become an unpaid intern/glorified coffee-maker just like she didn’t go to law school to become a maid. Please, she wasn’t that desperate yet.

  “No thank you,” Delia said. “I will find my own way. That’s one thing you can count on for sure.”

  Rosalyn shook her head. Then she grabbed another biscuit.

  Delia had been lying. The couch wasn’t comfortable.

  Rosalyn had a strict routine. She was in bed by 10pm sharp every night. That meant every light in the apartment had to be turned off. The TV was turned off too. Rosalyn couldn't sleep with light or noise. So Delia laid on the couch in the dark. She had headphones, a laptop and an iPad but it wasn’t the same as being allowed to do whatever she wanted. A 10 pm curfew was worse than when they lived with their parents.

  Just another reason why she needed to get out of there.

  Delia grabbed her phone, headphones firmly on. Nothing much was going on there. She responded to a couple of texts but her friends were starting become boring, in their old age. The ones with jobs had to get ready for work. The ones without jobs had to get ready to look for work.

  Typical.

  She was about to put it away when her phone started to buzz in her hand.

  Oh yes, the phone couldn’t ring during the night either or Rosalyn would have had a shit-fit. So it was constantly on silent or vibrate mode. Delia jumped at the buzzing sensation. Her friends didn’t typically text around this time and her mom only called before 9pm, unless under extreme circumstances.

  Hopefully, someone wasn’t dead.

  But her mom wasn’t calling. Delia squinted at her smartphone. It was an unknown number with an out-of-state area code calling after ten at night. Of course, she probably shouldn’t answer it. Who knew who it could be. A pimp or a serial killer or something. Plus, Rosalyn would be upset. This was right about the time she was dozing off and she would be very grumpy if something interrupted that.

  The phone kept ringing.

  Delia answered it.

  “Hello?” She said, in a whisper.

  “Hello,” someone said on the other end. “Hello, is someone there?”

  Delia had no idea who this was.

  She jumped up and hurried out of the apartment.

  They were on the second floor of the building - a walk-up. There was another apartment on the other side of the hallway and a set of steps that led down to the sidewalk. As soon as she was outside, Delia spoke in a louder voice.

  “Hello?” She said, her heart pounding. She was also alone now.

  “Hi, is this Delia Harris?” A man’s voice said on the other end. He didn’t sound like a serial killer, but what did serial killers sound like? If she had to guess, he sounded very intelligent.

  “Yeah?” Delia said. Then she cleared her throat and tried again. “Yes, this is she.”

  “I wonder if you’re available,” said the voice on the other end. “I saw your application on the website. I know it’s short notice, but I have an urgent need.”

  Delia was about to say “what?”, but then she clapped a hand over her mouth. He was talking about the website. Her application had gone up that fast?

  “My usual sitter isn’t available. I’ll need you tomorrow. It’s for the weekend. I’ll fly you to my residence and I’ll double my weekend rate. I’ll pay you ten thousand dollars.”

  This was a scam. It had to be. Some dude was calling her in the middle of the night and offering her 10 Gs to fly to wherever and house sit for a weekend. As in two days. As in, what the hell? Who was this? What had she signed up for? Rosalyn was right. She put her info up on the internet for anybody to find and mess with her.

  Delia’s heart was pounding so fast.

  “I realize you’re new,” the man said. “I’ll send you my ID for verification. Whatever you need. You don’t need to worry about anything. ”

  Delia was surprised by a new buzz. There was a new text. She checked it briefly.

  Marc Wang. There was the ID. It was a California Driver’s license. A handsome Asian man stared at her through the picture. It was just a driver's license but Delia could tell he was cute

  And she’d always wanted to go to California.

  “You’ll fly me there? Who are you?” She asked, skeptically.

  “All expenses paid,” the man, Mr. Wang, said. “I just need you tomorrow. I’ll buy the plane ticket tonight.”

  “I’ll take it!” Delia interrupted abruptly, before she could think about it anymore.

  Chapter 3

  The plane ticket arrived in her email approximately 30 minutes later. It had her name printed at the top.

  First class.

  Delia stared at her phone. This could be the most elaborate hoax of her life.

  Or it could change her life.

  Either way, Delia knew she had to get out of here. What was there to lose anyway?

  Delia had half of the linen closet for her stuff. She opened it in the darkness and just stuffed her clothes in the same suitcase she had used to move in there. She didn’t bother to fold anything, just jammed it in there.

  Her cross-country trip was slated to leave first thing in the morning. But there was no need to wait until the morning. If Rosalyn saw, of course she’d talk her out of it. No, worst than that. Rosalyn would scream and fuss and call their parents.

  Delia didn’t want that happening.

  It was better this way. She just had to leave.

  There were toiletries in the bathroom. She had to find all of her shoes. Not everything was going to fit in her suitcase. She wasn’t moving out forever.

  Right? Am I crazy for doing this?

  Delia shook her head. She wasn’t going to think about this now. All she was going to focus on was getting out here quietly. 10 thousand dollars. She imagined how different her life would be with that cash in hand.

  Finally, she zipped up her suitcase. She had a backpack for all of her personal things. Delia shrugged it on. She grabbed the handle of her suitcase.

  The light clicked on.

  “What are you doing?” Rosalyn’s voice was in the hallway. Delia turned around, trying not to look so guilty. Rosalyn was still intimidating, even in her yellow duck pajama shorts set and yellow fuzzy slipper, with her hair hidden under her satin sleeping cap.

  “Um,” Delia said. She wasn’t fast enough.

  “You didn’t.” Rosalyn narrowed her eyes in a suspicious glare. “You did. Oh my god, you totally did.”

  “Rosalyn, it’s legit,” Delia said, even though she had no idea.

  “Oh my god!” Rosalyn cried out. “You can’t do this! Do you want to die? Seriously, I’m about to call 911! You must be really confused or something.”

  “Shut up!” Delia said. “Rosalyn, you are being way too dramatic right now. Look, I’m going to be fine. He has a background check and everything. You can look it up on the internet.”

  “I can’t stand for this.” Rosalyn shook her head and marched over to the front door. It was so close but so far now that Rosalyn was standing in front of it. Delia stared at her sister. They really did look a lot alike. Rosalyn’s brown skin was a shade darker and Delia kept her curls while Rosalyn relaxed her hair straight. Delia knew where this was coming from. Rosalyn wanted to protect her baby sister.

  But she wasn’t a baby anymore.

  “Look,” Delia said. “I’ll call you when I get there. If it’s shady, I’ll be on the first bus back. Okay? Bus, because we know I can’t afford anything better.”

  Rosalyn rolled her eyes. Then she stepped away from the door. Delia flinched as her big sister came closer. But Rosalyn just reached out and grabbed her hands.

  “Hey,” she said. “I know your life isn’t going how you wanted, okay? And it sucks crashing on my couch. But things are going to get better. You don’t have to go through extremes. You’ll get out of here eventually.”

  Delia bit down on her lower
lip. She appreciated the sentiment.

  But her mind was made up.

  “I’m going to be fine,” Delia promised. “Really. I’m going to be fine.”

  She couldn’t remember the last time she hugged her sister. It had been a long time. And her heart was beating really hard. Delia hugged her for a long time. Rosalyn didn’t let her go.