Pretend Affair With The CEO

~~Hazel~~ “What we had was never serious.” My boyfriend says the words so casually as he sits in a chair across from me. “I won’t have you pretend it was. I’m getting married to someone else, and that’s final.” I can’t move. I can’t breathe. I stare at him, waiting for an indication that he’s joking, that this is a prank. None comes. Noel keeps stirring his coffee, eyes on his cup as if I'm invinsible. “What we had was never serious?” I repeat under my breath. The words ring in my head over and over. The tiny cafe bubbles around us, yet the only thing I hear is the pounding in my ears. “What is that supposed to mean?” I croak. It’s the first time I'm speaking since he dropped a bombshell about his engagement minutes ago. “You don’t need me to spell it out, Hazel.” “I.. I do,” I stutter. “I need to understand why you’re throwing what we have away without a care in the world.” He leans back in his chair, his face contorted with something that looks like mild disgust. I sink my teeth into my lower lip as his next words hit me. “You knew we were just having fun. Don’t make this harder than it’s supposed to be.” “Fun? We’ve been in a relationship for three years, and you think we were having fun?” He scoffs, brows arched in amusement. “I’m finding it hard to understand why you think a man of my caliber should stoop so low to be your endgame when I can have any woman I desire. You work in PR, you understand image.” Translation: Being with you will put a stain on my name. Aah! It’s clear to me now. There it is, everything that has caused me to worry since I started dating someone way out of my league. I knew being with a man so high up the ladder like him was trouble, yet I went ahead with it. Everyone who knew about our relationship always found it hard to understand why Noel was dating a plain nine to five worker with no money and connections. I always thought it didn’t matter. He loved me and that was the only important thing. Who could have thought that he had also been looking down on me too, planning a wedding with a woman of his ‘caliber’? “Look.” He leans forward, pushing his untouched drink to the side. “You saw this coming, Hazel. You can’t measure up to Violeta. She’s the perfect woman for me. She was born into my world, understands my challenges.” He pauses, running his hand over the sleeves of his designer shirt that cost the same as a quarter of my annual salary. “And most importantly, she’s from a family that matters.” A tender knot starts to form in my chest at his words. I bite down on my lower lip, blinking hard in an attempt to hide the tears forming behind my lids. It’s hard to believe that the man I've grown to love and trust over the years is the same person saying these words to me. “You’re strong,” he mutters, taking a sip of his drink. “You’ll get over this.” Noel rises to his feet. A few dollar bills land on the table, followed by his condescending tone. “Take this for the coffee. I’m getting married in two weeks. I’ll appreciate it if you can forget all about me, because I'll do the same.” With that, he’s making his way to the door, the heels of his shoes clicking against the tiles. For a second too long, I sit there, gazing at the empty chair he left behind as his statement replays in my head. Fun. That was all he saw me as. Nothing but a mistake he could fix by marrying someone richer. I should run after him and curse him out. Throw hot coffee in his face. But I stay glued to my seat instead. When Noel texted earlier to request a date, I’d been elated, dashing out of my office at the start of my lunch break to meet him. It was the first time we were seeing each other after a week of being ‘swamped with work’ according to him. If I had known I'd be slammed with a breakup, I'd have saved myself the excitement. Now, sitting here torn apart by his words, I can't help but wonder why I didn't see this coming. An alarm blares through my phone, jolting me back to the present. Taking a deep breath, I wipe the tears from my eyes and grab my bag, making my way out of the cafe. I can already see myself getting wasted tonight, but my main purpose for now is to get through the rest of my work day. Starline Entertainment is only a stone throw from the cafe. By the time I reach the office, I’ve fixed a plastic smile in place, ready to go through the day like I didn’t just get dumped by my boyfriend. “Hazel.” My boss's sharp voice rings through the air as soon as I walk into the large office I share with the rest of my colleagues. Zoey’s shooting me an impatient glare through the transparent walls separating her office from ours. “Where’s the pitch deck I requested earlier?” “I’m on it,” I rush to my table, pushing all thoughts of Noel to the back of my mind as I turn on my computer. “Five minutes,” she mouths sternly. “And you have to look a little less miserable at work. There’s a job for you.” I sink into the chair in my cubicle just as a chair scrapes against the floor to join mine. In it is Kimberly, the office gossip and the closest thing I have to a work friend. Judging by the excited gleam in her eyes, I can tell she has new tea she’s eager to spill. “Did you hear?” she asks, leaning over the partition. “No, Kim. And if you’re not bearing news about a raise, I'm not interested.” “We have a new CEO,” she says anyway. “Don’t tell me you didn’t hear about him. The whole agency is going crazy because of him.” I have more pressing issues to worry about, like getting this deck to Zoey before she flares up in anger, and crying myself to sleep while going through photos of Noel and I. I couldn’t care less about a CEO who would only be seen by foot soldiers like us once in a year. “No, I didn't.” She throws a mint candy into her mouth with an eyeroll. “Apparently, he’s a looker.” “Don’t you have a boyfriend? You shouldn’t be praising another man’s looks when you’re in a relationship.” I don’t know if it’s because I just discovered that my boyfriend of three years has been cheating on me, but my voice is laced with mild irritation. Kimberly scoffs, going back to her desk. “He’s broke. A girl can dream of ending up with a good looking man who has good looks to pass down to her kids.” I turn away from her, grabbing freshly printed pages from a whirring printer and running them through a binder. I can see Kimberly’s concerned gaze on me as I pad over to Zoey's office without a word. My boss is seated behind a large mahogany desk, her eyes on her monitor as she swivels in her chair. I straighten my blazer and place the file on her desk. Wiping a smudge of lipstick off the corner of her lips, she regards me with a tight expression. “You handled the PureGlitz perfume launch last month?” “Yes,” I say warily, because even though I put my all into making the launch as successful as possible, Zoey is hard to please, there’s a possibility that I didn't meet her expectations. “It was great. The client was thrilled.” “Oh!” I exhale, then on second thoughts, I add. “Thank you.” I didn't expect that. “That’s why I have chosen you for a high profile assignment. There’s a big wedding coming up, and we’ve been hired to cover it. The clients are conglomerates. We’re talking destination wedding, a week-long trip with friends and family to the Caribbean which you have to cover.” “Me?” With a nod, she narrows her eyes at me, as if she’s trying to figure out if I’m really the right person for the job. “I sent you the client’s file. Go over it today. You’ll have a protographer assigned to you. This is a last minute assignment, so pack your bags, you are to leave in two days.” I have handled events for minor clients, but nothing on this scale. If these people are willing to go on a trip just to celebrate a wedding, it means this is one of the biggest gigs the agency has gotten this year. I shift my weight from foot to foot, waiting for her to say anything else, but she has turned her focus back to her laptop, scrolling away as if I'm not in the office. “Do not embarrass us,” Zoey says just as I turn to leave. “A review of your performance will be sent to the new CEO when he arrives next week. If you want to get considered for a promotion, impress him.” That’s all the motivation I need. I give her a brief bow and scurry out of the office. In an instant, I'm back at my desk in full work mode, going through the file she sent to me. I have such little time to prepare for something so important. I can’t afford to make mistakes. Then, I catch it. The names of the bride and groom. A knot forms in my stomach as I skim through the words. Violeta Ashford and Noel Sterling. The universe really has a sick sense of humour.