Pretending? (EDITING)

Chapter 3

CASSEY (P.O.V)

"What do you mean Ms. Andrea did I do something wrong. I'm sorry for upsetting you," I answered in a low voice. I knew I was pushing her buttons but there was no way I was dropping this act.

"Just stop it Cassey, I mean it," Andrea warned in a low voice that she thought would intimidate me. It used to but not anymore.

"I'm sorry ma…"

“Cass…” Andrea says in a low begging voice, she steps forward but I take one stride back, “Please Cassey?” she says while taking another step but I hold my hand out to stop her.

“Don’t.” I mutter to Andrea trying to compose myself, seeing her this close, and about to shed tears was destroying me. I take a deep breath and face Andrea my stoic mask on, “I don’t know what you mean Ms. Andrea?”

"f**k Cass! What’s wrong!?" She asks running her hands roughly through her hair “What happened to you?” I remain silent looking at her peril.

"It seems you are hell bent on holding onto the facade you have going on," Andrea sighed as she goes back to her desk. I follow her and place my bag on one of the empty chairs.

"But ma'am I really don't know what you mean. Do you know me from somewhere," I asked dumbly as I stood near her desk.

"Ooh really," Andrea spits heatedly.

"Yes?" I challenge her to see if she could open the can of old wounds.

"You know what shut up Cass! You know what, I'll indulge in this stupid game of yours and see how far you are willing to take it," Andrea answered coldly.

I tensed and shifted my weight on legs. "Ma'am Andrea who are you really mistaking me for " I asked.

"You look, act and talk like someone I love...I mean I deeply loved. Quite weird don't you think? But it doesn't matter right now. I guess I'm confused right? The Cassey I know wouldn’t be as immature," she whispers and looked pleased with how my breath caught from hearing her words.

My chest was heaving up and down in astonishment, did Amber just confess she fancied me? Of course not. I narrow my eyes at her holding myself from snapping at her stupid words.

"Yea…yes it seems to me that you are definitely confused," I state as a matter of fact. My demeanor got shaken a little with her words but she is obviously lying, now and even in the past.

"Well time will tell Cass...you know it's just very weird you share the exact same names and those chocolate brown eyes that I'll always adore," Andrea says as she rotates in her office chair.

I hold a stare with her grey eyes as she examines them. I want to look away from those grey orbs but they always seemed to draw me in even more whenever I tried to pull away.

"There are like 7 billion people in this world so it isn't rare to find people who look alike and oddly share the exact names. Research has proven so," I tell her folding my arms on my chest.

"Huh research you don't say," she laughs dryly as if mocking my statement.

"Ma'am, so will you assign me my duties please," I request meekly I didn't like where this conversation was heading. She successful tearing down my wall that manipulative b***h.

"Sure, you'll be working in here with me. Your desk will be placed over there," she points towards the wall near the door.

"Mm but what about the desk that's just outside can't I work from there ma'am" I tried to reason with her.

"No! You work where I put you to Ms. Cassey. I'm the boss here. Not you!" She said slapping her hand on her desk.

Why you... Stupid b***h. She just did that on purpose. She knows how I would prefer to be away from her but insists on keeping me next to her. And the shouting part was also on purpose she knows I hate it when she raises her voice at me.

Well, maybe she didn't know since I did just pretend not knowing the only woman I ever loved.

"OK ma'am whatever you say. I'll sit wherever you want me to."

"Even here and here," she asked pointing on to her heart and lap with a smirk adorning those cursed lips.

"In your f*****g dreams Andy besides you must be retarded if you think I'll ever sit there again," I muttered to myself as I refrained from rolling my eyes so hard and hitting her with the keyboard on the desk.

"What did u say Cass," she mocked, "I didn't quite get it."

"Nothing ma'am Andrea and my name is Cassey not Cass ma'am" I answer irritably.

"I'll call you as I please. I'm the boss remember" she mocks looking at me smugly.

My my, how I just wish I could knock her out unconscious right now. If she only knew the thoughts crossing my mind right now she'd freak out e.g. A million ways to kill Andrea 101

"Sure Boss," I sighed saluting her.

“Ok so that’s settled, we I’ll take you around introduce the staff to you so you’ll get easily acquainted with them,” Andrea says standing up, she walks around the desk and comes to stand next to me. I try backing away but she pins me on her desk with a little space between us.

Andrea leans forward and I get mortified of her intentions. My hands grip the edge of the table as I hold onto it for my dear life, “I’m gonna enjoy working with you Cass,” she whispers to me, her lips slightly grazing my earlobe. Andrea moves away leaving me in a daze, her sweet scent lingering in the empty air surrounding me, teasing and taunting my nose.

“Are you coming?” Andrea calls from the door and I immediately break from the weird trance I was in.

The show house was small, and the staff too. Apart from Andrea’s office there was only one extra office. Two guys worked there, Jimmy in finance and Jacob in legal. We also got to meet the cleaning lady, Maria, who was awfully nice and sweet. Then lastly was Kate, the receptionist who called to inform me of my success in getting the job.

"Today you'll work in here with me just come sit down. I want you to file some papers for me,” Andrea says as we walk back into her office. The office like I said was spacious but would be cluttered if we both crammed in it, but hey Andrea was boss. Whatever she said went. “Tomorrow you'll find your desk already set. But before then, start checking this papers to ensure they don't contain any errors," she says and turns to her computer and begins typing away. I went ahead and sat on the chair in front of her desk.

I refrained from answering her and got down to work. All documents I went through were all correct I didn't even spot mistakes at all. Wow Andy was really good in her work.

I look up to see if Andrea needed me to do anything else but I found her already staring at me. She seemed like she was trying to understand me. Andrea looked so intrigued with me. I couldn't help but look into her grey eyes that I had secretly missed. I loved how they sparkled when she was really happy. They looked like the moon, and honestly the moon was my biggest weakness.

"Like what you see," I stupidly ask breaking her eye contact. s**t why would I say that to her. Andy looks amused before biting her lip and pulling in her seat forward.

"Yes I do. I love what I see," she stated as she looks at me, scanning we up and down. I gulped hard and abruptly stood from my chair, my face heating up from her actions. In that moment I saw how difficult it would be for me to work for Andrea, not like this. Obviously there were no boundaries between us. At least not with the way we were talking with each other.

"Ma'am Andrea I'm... I'm...gonn...I'm gonna go to the bathroom please," I stuttered and walked to the door.

Andrea speaks softly, "Please Cass, please stop this."

"I'm sorry ma'am I think you got me confused," I answered and walked outside the office. Questions popped into my head, could I really work with Andrea with all this emotions surfacing. I had a door open behind me. I knew it was Andrea... but I couldn't I just couldn't look at her this time and not want to embrace her.

Wow... the show house for 88 apartments was so nice. We were on the first floor and that had her office then an open sitting area then the master bedroom and a guest bedroom. The ground floor had the reception area, sitting room and kitchen. It was furnished in a colorful way, theme colors being cream and orange. The paintings were colorful and elegant the rooms seemed to light up.

It must be very expensive to buy this apartments. The furniture were carefully picked and they compared and contrasted with the wall colors in different rooms. The bedroom had an en-suite bathroom that was magnificent.

The rest of the day went by smoothly and I couldn't be eager to leave for home. Around 5 Stacy texted saying she was out front. I smiled at how punctual my best friend could be if need be. I happily grabbed my stuff and stood from my place. "Ms. Andrea I am gonna head out. Have a goodnight," I say picking my bag from the couch.

"You too Cassey," Andrea says not looking up “Get home safely Cass.”

*********************

"So how was your first day," Stacey asks as soon as I had strapped in my safety belt.

"Unexpected," I answered shortly.

"What's that supposed to mean Cassey," she asked driving out of the office parking lot.

"Remember the Andy person I was unable to move on from a while back? She’s my boss," I said at one go.

Stacy looked shocked with everything.  She knew everything but that. I had left out that minor aspect to avoid getting into detail about my past with her. But now she knew.

"Wow," she says chuckling.

"That all you have to say,” I ask her.

"So was it awkward reuniting with your lover," she asked looking at me expectantly. I awkwardly shrug my shoulder.

“No I wasn’t. I was angry,” I reply.

“Will you quit it because of her, your boss,” Stacey asks glancing at me for a while.

“No. I need the job,” I say, “I’ll just keep on doing what I did today.”

“What did you do?”

“Pretended”

“What?”

“I pretended Stacey and I loved every minute of it,”

"Now I'm really interested, wanna go grab drinks, talk about your day Cassey."

"No, there's nothing to talk about Andrea besides I can't afford to have a hangover on my second day of work. I don't want her breathing down my neck. I want space from her. Take me home please," I told Stacey.

"Such a buzz kill," she mutters and I only smile at her words. We drove in silence for a while before starting to chitchat about random stuff.

"Thanks Stacey. We'll talk later maybe Sunday you could come over," I said getting off.

"Why not now?" She asked.

"Because I don't want to answer your silly questions about my boss and I wanna sleep her off,"

"But I ...." Stace tried to finish but u cut her off.

"Bye Love," I said walking into the building heading straight to the elevator. I lived in a fairly alright building.

First thing I did when I got home was to take a long shower then Tommy called saying he’d drop by to celebrate my first official work day. He dropped by with takeout. We shared our day experience and he left just before 11 and I retired to bed.

I sincerely hope Andrea won't give me a hard time at work.