Alexia.
It was soon time for lunch and I went to get Michael something to eat. I didn't know what he liked but when I asked, he said that anything was good. Which wasn't saying much, if you ask me. I wanted to get him something that suited his tastes but the variety I was given made me nervous because of how broad it was.
Michael and I had been working together for three days now and he didn't talk to me much. Apart from the greetings we exchanged in the mornings and him ordering me around, we've never really gotten to know each other at all. It troubled me that I was still new to him and him new to me. I preferred knowing everything I was allowed to know about my boss to avoid mistakes.
I had just arrived from an international restaurant that sold amazing pasta and beef stew. Running errands for his father really paid off because I knew all the reliable and wonderful places for food, wine and social and business gatherings.
Walking past the marketing department, I thought of stopping to see Luis and Tony but they were probably out. At this time, most people were either eating out or in their offices and the possibility of missing them gave me more reason to not stop. As I made my way to the elevator, two women stopped me. A redhead and a blonde.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Dawson," the redhead greeted politely.
"Good afternoon," I replied with a smile.
"You're the boss' P.A, right?"
I nodded.
"So you're like, the closest person to him?" The blonde asked.
I looked to the side uncomfortably, failing to fight the feeling that I knew where this was going. "I guess so."
"So what does he like? Have you seen him talking to any women? Where is he usually found during breaks?"
"Unfortunately, I don't have the answers to your questions," I said. "I just started working with him so, I'm still new to his preferances."
"She's just being greedy with the information," the redhead said to her companion.
"I'm not, honestly." I took a step back from the women who were now glaring daggers at me. "I have to go."
"You've got some nerve just because you work so close with him," the redhead said raising her voice. "It's not a big deal, you know?"
"Yeah, sh..... Maybe we need to...." The blonde continued.
I couldn't gather what they were saying to each other and I didn't ask them to repeat it. It obviously wasn't anything good.
"Sorry for making you uncomfortable. Why don't we talk somewhere private?" The blonde asked with a smile so friendly that it was almost scary.
Swallowing my anxiety, I answered, "I seriously need to go. Mr. Clarkson will get mad if I delay."
"You know, if you didn't want to say anything, you could've just said so."
"I keep telling you that I don't know."
"Madison, don't bother. The lady's deaf. I bet that she's having a hard time hearing," the blonde snickered. "Sofia already taught her a lesson at the party, remember?"
The redhead gasped and the amused smile on her face disgusted me. "Serves you right. Despite all that happening, I'm surprised that you still have courage to show your face here."
"He'll fire her in no time."
"I hope so. We're all tired of you and I bet he'll be too."
I hated everything that they were saying but my voice didn't seem to be working. I looked down as they went on with their harassment and wished that they could just back off and leave me alone.
You see?
They were only loud enough when saying hurtful things. That's how it was all the time.
"Hey, don't ignore us." The redhead grabbed a fist of my hair and pulled me closer to her. "Are our voices too low for you?"
I clenched my fists as my anxiety turned into anger. "Everything about you is too low for me."
"What!?"
"What's going on here?" Mr. Clarkson asked as he quickly walked towards us.
The women quickly backed away from me. I looked up to see Michael standing a few feet in front of us and he didn't look pleased.
"Good afternoon, sir," the blonde greeted with a wide smile. "We were just playing around with our friend here." She glanced at me through the corner of her eye. "Right?"
I nodded nervously. I didn't want to explain or start a fight with these women. I hated confrontations and preferred if the incident was just forgotten.
He looked at us closely and pointed at me. "You. Come with me."
He turned and began to walk to the elevator before I could respond. I quickly followed him and we awkwardly stood together before entering the elevator. The ride up was as quiet as a graveyard at midnight and it was like we were both trying not to look at each other.
"Were you looking for me?" I asked, trying to somewhat clear the heavy atmosphere.
"Yes. You took so long that I wondered if you got caught up somewhere and I guess I was right."
I looked at the paper bag in my hands and hoped that the food hadn't gone cold yet. "I'm sorry for making you wait."
A few more seconds of silence passed before he asked, "What did they want from you?"
"It's not a big deal. Don't worry about it."
"It didn't look like that to me. One of them even yanked your hair or maybe you like that sort of play?"
I blushed. "No, sir. It isn't something to worry about and I can deal with my own problems."
"Does that happen a lot?"
I shrugged as I tried to act nonchalant. "Not really."
He sighed. "You are bad at defending yourself. You're my P.A and I don't want you to be scared of wandering through the halls. What you just said proves that it wasn't a game at all." He looked at me, his chocolate brown eyes meeting my mismatched ones and with a stern voice, he said, "If something like that happens again, you have to tell me, got that?"
"Yes."
He looked ahead and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Who knew that a human being would have such a captivating gaze?
The bullying had started a few months ago. Despite the rudeness of others, they never tempered with my documents so, I never reported it because I thought that it would eventually stop. I was hoping that Michael wouldn't find out about it and I was curious to know what was currently going on in his head. I didn't expect him to be so concerned but at the same time, I was moved that he was protective of me.
I took a quick glance in his direction. Michael was a very handsome man. I could understand why they wanted to get close to him because he rarely interacted with the others outside work matters. He also kept himself in his office until it was time to knock off. Despite looking like he hated every inch of this place, he was a fast learner and diligent boss.
The elevator doors opened and he stepped out as I quietly followed behind. Entering his office, he sat on his desk and I began to set up his food in front of him. The office was peacefully silent, unlike earlier, and I enjoyed it.
I set a fork on top of the napkin close to his plate and asked, "What beverage would you like? Apple sangria or a mango cocktail?"
"An apple sangria would be nice," he answered as he looked at the food in front of him. After I put the glass on his desk, he asked, "Where did you get such exotic stuff from?"
"I bought the meal from an Italian restaurant and grabbed the bevarages from the kitchen downstairs."
"You could've just gotten me a McDonald's meal like every other normal person."
I frowned. A simple thank you would've been great. "I'm sorry. Your father likes expensive dishes and you haven't told me what you like yet."
He nodded, put his phone away and leaned back into his chair. "How about you? Aren't you having lunch?"
"I will after you're done eating."
"I'm neither a child nor an old man. You don't have to wait on me before you think of yourself."
"I feel more comfortable when I do."
"What's wrong with you?" He asked in confusion. "If you think that this kind of act is cute, it isn't."
"I'm not acting, sir," I said honestly.
He shot me the most sarcastic look that I've ever received and it could put Luis' sarcasm to shame. "You know what? Suit yourself."
He sat upright and began to eat. To make him feel better, I sat across from him and began to eat too. No words were exchanged but I didn't mind. This was our first real conversation as CEO and P.A and it made me very happy.
Alexia. Friday finally arrived and saying that I was glad was an understatement. We finished work three hours earlier than usual and I could hear the weekend whispering my name. I had just saved the document that I was working on and leaned back into my chair with a relieved sigh. Closing my eyes, I ran my hand over my face and allowed relaxation to take over my entire being. "Don't you dare drop dead on me." I opened my eyes to see Luis walking towards me with a playful smile on her face. She had a black handbag and a few documents with her so, she must've been done with her work for the day. I smiled at her. "Don't worry. I still have a long life ahead of me." She sat at the edge of my desk. "Guess what I heard?" "What?" "It's about Saturday," she said as she gave me a stern look and the smile that graced her features was suddenly out of sight. I sat upright. "I just tripped. You know how clumsy I get sometimes." Her jaw dropped. "Seriously? You're not honest at all. Kendra,
Alexia. I squatted on the floor and pulled out my clothes from the dryer before putting them in a basket. Standing up, I put the basket on top of the dryer and walked into the kitchen. That was the last cleaning I had to do for the day and I felt extremely bored. I pored some snacks into Cookie's bowl and put it in front of her along with a bowl of water. She was given to me by my mother as a birthday present last year. My mom constantly said that I was too isolated and needed company that wasn't only Luis and Tony. Luckily, Cookie wasn't difficult to hear and her cheerful attitude never failed to put me in high spirits. My school life, wasn't so smooth sailing. Although I got good grades and had an acceptable number of friends, there were always a few stereotypes here and there. It was either them making fun of you because of your disability or them getting all sympathetic and treating you like a "special" patient. Was it so difficult to treat everybody the same? I understood and a
Micheal. "It's been a pleasure working with you," an old dark haired man with a really bushy beard said as he shook my hand. "It's been a pleasure working with you too, Mr...." "Leonard Smith," Alexia whispered to me. "Mr. Smith," I completed with a smile. "You've really inherited your father's work ethic. It's good," Leonard said. "I hope that we do business again." "Likewise." I was from attending a meeting with some business associates that my father couldn't really work with because they demanded ludicrous amounts of money at every meeting. I felt a strong sense of pride at making them come to terms with a much more agreeable profit split. This was the first business meeting that I've ever attended at Clarkson Corperation. It was scary at the beginning because I didn't know anybody and I had a feeling that most of them didn't trust me. Luckily, Alexia was with me and told me the
Alexia. I stood at the corner of Michael's office as I poured coffee into a white mug that was on top of a short mahogany table that stood at the centre of Michael's office. This office was quite large. When you walked in, you'd be met by a medium, circle shaped rug that was at the centre of the room with the table on it. His desk and file storage units were behind that and a large, potted plant stood on each corner of his work space. On the left, the entire wall was actually a window and it gave veiw to the beautiful scenery around. Hearing the door open, I looked at Michael and greeted, "Good morning, sir." "Good morning, Alex," Michael replied as he closed the door behind him. He then stood next to me and looked at the mug. "What are you doing?" "I decided to make you some coffee early, so that you could find it when you arrive." "Where's yours?" "I'll buy mine downstairs." He hummed. "I thought I made it clear that I had no problem eating with you. Let's eat together from no
Alexia. The City of Venice, Italy. It's been a dream of mine to visit Italy and coming to Venice was an absolute plus. I looked at the beautiful stars that illuminated the night sky through every window we walked passed as we made our way to our rooms at the top floor of our hotel. A wide grin spread across my face as I drank in the elegance of the halls and the fancy interior. "Someone's looking pretty happy," Michael said, occupying the space on my right, and he playfully nudged my shoulder with his own. "I'm excited." I looked at him. "I've always wanted to come here but I've never had the chance." He nodded understandingly. "Then I'm glad that you got to experience this." "It's just for business anyway," I said with a longing sigh. "I don't think that I'll have the time to explore." He chuckled. "We won't be attending meetings all day and the last day is a bit of a free day." "It's still a little time for someone who has never been here," I said, a little bummed that we'd o
Alexia. Yesterday was so embarrassing and the worst way to start my first day at such a lovely place that I was looking forward to being in. After the discussion with Michael, I went back to look for my hearing aids and found them at a corner under my bed, behind the drawer. Today was a new day and I was planning on clearing Michael's name. He was right. I probably left a bad impression and this was a huge business deal for Clarkson Corp. If things didn't go our way, all the blame would be on Michael and the investors would lose their trust in him. I didn't want to be the cause of Michael's immediate downfall. Sophia's words clicked in my mind and I quickly shook them off so as to not jinx my day. I said my apologies to Mrs. Griffin and she replied with an, "Of course. I hope that's the last time you'll show such inadequacy and embarrass Michael." I simply nodded my head. A simple, "No problem," would have been fine. Today, the meeting ended much earlier and as usual, all the att
Micheal. To be completely honest, this meeting wasn't supposed to be in Venice. It was originally scheduled to be in Rome but when I found out how much Alex wanted to be here, I pulled a few strings and made things happen. For your information, Luis was a really loud chatter box. I was innocently walking passed the Marketing Department and she was telling some guy about Alex's favourite places. I wondered why the man wanted to know but I was too busy to care back then. Thinking back on yesterday's kiss, I realised that my decision on changing locations was ingenious! The atmosphere was great and everything about the day went better than I could ever imagine. Apart from getting great shots, I had Alexia in my arms and I was sure that we had the same feelings for each other. I wanted to experience that again. Her soft lips, the hesitant look in her eyes and the soft sigh that she released when I deepened the kiss. The memory sent shivers down my spine. Despite the conversation in the
Alexia. Luis stepped on my butt through the grey fleece that covered me as I slept on her couch with my stomach down. "You've been sleeping all day," she complained. I turned my head to the side so that I could see her properly and mumbled, "I'm really tired." She put her hands on her waist and huffed. "You just got off the plane five hours ago and all you've done is sleep." I buried my head into the large pillow and groaned. "Still tired." "What were you even doing for you to be this exhausted?" Luis' house was much closer to the airport than mine so, I decided to catch some sleep here. After Michael and I departed yesterday, I failed to get much sleep last night because my thoughts wouldn't let me and our flight today was super early. I was dead tired. "Luis, leave Alex alone," Tony said sternly as he walked into the living room with a tray carrying three mugs. "Sorry, dad," Luis responded sarcastically but she backed off a little and stopped her assault on my butt. He chuc