Billionaires PA

Doesn't Look Safe

    I woke up in the room I slept in the night before. Angry with myself for not having stayed awake long enough to hear what Jace was saying. Turning my head to the side I noticed medication on the nightstand. Sitting up in the bed I took the pills and gulped down the glass of water. It seemed I would be awake before the sun a lot these days. Today was Thursday though, so I only had one more day of this before I was able to be rid myself of Jace for the weekend.

    Working for Jace brought a new meaning to work. Do not get me wrong he was not all that bad, but he did expect a lot from me even with me being new. The days were regular so far, but he warned me it was only because we were in a slow period. Soon we would be working day in and day out which would mean mandatory overtime. I was okay with this due to the desperate need of money and being a bit behind on my rent, but I also like having alone time as well.

    After using the bathroom and brushing my teeth I made my way to the kitchen to see if Jace was awake. He was not. I decided to start my day with a coffee from his fancy coffee machine. I pressed the power button and went to grab a coffee cup from the cabinet. I pulled down tow mugs and set them down in front of the machine before walking to the fridge to grab almond milk and the coffee grounds. I did not know of anyone other than Jace who kept their grounds in the fridge, but to each his own right?

“Do you even know how to work it?”, I jumped in shock slamming my knee into the cabinet to turn around.

    I put my hand on my exposed knee and looked at Jace. I swear the man was always on stealth mode.

“Do you mind making a little noise when you’re approaching? You scared me!”, I was slightly annoyed that he could sneak up on me. I used to be great at sensing anyone’s arrival within the room I was in. “and its coffee how hard could it be?”, I turned back to the machine.

    Before I could start trying to figure out the machine I was turned and pulled onto the counter.

“What are you doing?”, I scrunched my brows and tried to shimmy off the counter.

“Stop moving you slammed your knee hard”, he grabbed my leg to inspect my knee.

“I wonder who’s fault that was”, I rolled my eyes “I am fine I don’t need you to play doctor with me I am tougher than I look”.

    His gaze was no longer on my leg, but his hands were. One hand was wrapped around my ankle and the other on my thigh above my knee. I looked at where his hand on my thigh was positioned and my face started to warm. Wanting, no needing him to get his hands off me I pulled my leg away from his grasp.

“Really, I am fine, see?”, I bent my knee and extended it out a few times to prove my point.

    He looked me in my eyes for a moment before walking to the coffee machine to make us coffee. As soon as I was sure he could no longer see me I mouthed the words ouch and tired to shake the pain from my knee. The pain was comparable to hitting your funny bone it lingered and vibrated the other bones directly attached to it.

“We have to go into the office today, did you finish revising the meeting topics?”, His voice made me look over in his direction.

“I did”, I kept my answer short. The meeting was supposed to be tomorrow. I had not had time to run my changes by him. I added some visuals as well as changed a few incorrect things within and more. Whoever made it originally was either rushing or incompetent.

“Meeting is in two hours. Someone will deliver you clothes to wear in 15 minutes so Go ahead and shower”, he said bringing me my coffee.

    I slid from the counter avoiding putting weight on my right knee. I took the coffee and tried to walk normal out of the kitchen. I ran a bath in the bathroom and drank my coffee while soaking. I quickly washed before stepping out and draining the bath. I made my way to the room and there was a skirt, blouse, underwear, and shoes laid out for me. I tried not to think too much on who picked out the outfit. I was grateful to not have to wear the same clothes as my first day back to the office.

    I walked to the office to gather my work items and came up short. I turned on my heels careful of my sore knee and walked to the kitchen. I knew Jace would be there it had become our rendezvous point over the past few days. I crossed the threshold and Jace was perched on the counter with his eyes closed and a cup of coffee graced his hands. His hands were rather large engulfing the mug in his hands. By his peaceful facial features, soft breathes, and unmovable stance I would have thought he was asleep or did not hear me approach, but his mouth twitched.

“Where’s my stuff?”, I walked deeper into the kitchen to stand closer to him.

“In the car”, his eyes remained closed.

“Okay, when are we leaving?”, I was ready to get the workday over and return to my apartment. It generally was not safe to leave your apartment unattended for long in my neighbor hood and I was pushing it. I knew I would be on edge until I got back to my place.

“Now”, he turned placing his mug in the sink before walking past me towards the front door.

    I followed behind him not trying to walk his speed. His legs were longer than mine and I was not going to force myself to keep up. Walking out the house and to his car he opened my door so that I could get comfortably seated and I wondered how much of his arrogance had been a façade. I let my thoughts roam as we pulled out of his driveway and into what seemed to be the city. Five minutes into the drive the skyscrapers were in full view. I knew he would not be far away from work. I smiled at the thought of being so attached to something you would not want to be far from it. The idea of being attached to something seemed so foreign to me these days. Sure, I was attached to some of the things in my apartment but that was more so out of necessity than attachment.

    The last time I was fully attached to something and someone I was left hanging to dry. My judge of character was not the best. I used to long for someone to be in my presence so badly I ignored all warnings, signs, and red flags. Looking back on my past I often wonder how I could be so lost, stupid, naïve… I liked to believe I am a whole new person. I try to keep everyone in my life at a distance. I may have crushed some kind spirits who were too pushy, but I am doing it to protect them and myself. Getting attached to people and things causes you to have vulnerabilities and responsibilities to that person. If I were to get attached to someone here, I would be forced to tell them my plan of leaving, leave without telling them, see if they want to come with me or worse must stay. I almost barfed at the thought of staying here. I was ill prepared for all these situations and I was not fond of the ideas of a wrench being thrown into my plans.

“When we get to the office, I need you to set up the meeting room on floor 28”, his voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Ok”, I can do that, I thought with a nod.

    We pulled into the company parking area were someone opened our doors and took the car. I walked slightly behind Jace as we made our way into the building. We walked to the elevators and he held the door for me since I was so far behind.

“Listen, if anyone ask anything about you arriving with me send them to me”, his face was directly in front of mine.

“No one’s going to ask about that”, I snorted to stifle a laugh.

“I am not joking!”, his tone caught me off guard.

“Alrighty”, I responded backing up to regain my personal space.

“The people here are nosey, the men want to be me, and the women want to be with me”, he stood to his full height once again, “They will try to get information from you”.

“I don’t know anything!”, I was exasperated “I am your personal assistant it is my job to be with you sometimes out of business hours”, I was confused as to why he was being like this. Why couldn’t I just tell them the truth. We worked out of the office for a few days. I thought this was normal.

“You know where I live for one and that is more than most of the employees here”

“I would like to point out that is entirely your fault”, I pointed my finger at his squinting my eyes.

“Here we go again”, he sighed for what seemed like the millionth time today and the day had only just begun, “Just do as I say Ryan”

    I leaned back into the wall with am audible “Hmph” before escaping to my thoughts. I got off on floor 28 to prepare for the meeting at hand. I printed off the necessary information placing them into folders with a clear front to see the visuals I added.

    I smacked my palm to my forehead. It completely slipped my mind to tell Jace I added visuals throughout the PowerPoint and informational papers. They were so bland and boring. There was absolutely no way anyone’s attention would remain on the topic at hand with just word and him reciting facts. I set the folders at each place and an additional one on the stand where the presenter would stand. I brought in glasses from the mini kitchen on this level as well as a few pitchers of water to place at point on the table so there was no need to pass them. I added coffee mugs and ordered muffins and pastries from the bakery across the street.

    I placed the pastries on the table along the wall so there would be no mess at the meeting table. I looked at the clock and realized I had an hour before the meeting. I decided to sit and rest my knee before I had to do anything else for the meeting or workday in general. I began rubbing around my swollen knee the middle was far to tender to apply pressure to directly.

“I knew it wasn’t fine”, at the sound of Jace’s voice I yanked my foot out of the chair and stood biting my tongue to hold back the groan I so desperately needed to let out.

“I am fine Mr. Grey”, I retaliated.

“Do not lie to me”

“I am not lying to you”, I crossed my arms over my chest. Which I immediately regretted because his eyes followed. I knew my chest was slightly exposed due to the shirt, but I could not do much about it. I was not going to back down though so I stood my ground and cleared my throat to let him know I could see him looking at my chest.

    He closed the distance between us cornering me into a wall. My eyes widened at the proximity.

“Put your hands down I don’t want anyone seeing you like that”, his voice was … soft. Leaving me confused but I complied. Putting my hands to my side I maintained eye contact with him until he back up.

He grabbed my hand. As I tried to snatch it back his grip tightened, and he placed something in it.

“Put that on it”, He walked over to the presenters stand.

    I sat in the chair and rubbed the cream on my knee. Initially it felt cold and started to numb my pain a bit. I was grateful for this. I looked at Jace and could see his confusion flipping through the folder. I was opening my mouth to speak when the room started to fill with men, and their women?

    I soon figured out they were assistants and I was disgusted. Clearly many of the men were married if not all of them and the women had no morals just as the men. They would bend in front of the men or touch them. I was ready to throw up. Jace presented his proposal to the men and they took a vote on who was in favor. All the men were apparently with Jace. When the meeting finished and the room cleared, I went to grab the glasses only to be stopped by Jace.

“What?”

“Is that how you talk to your boss?”, He asked.

    I mentally scolded myself and it must have showed.

“I’m kidding”, He was clearly amused, and I was not.

“So funny”, I deadpanned.

“The cleaning crew will be here shortly”, he checked his watch “Lets go there’s more work to be done”

    The day went by quickly. We had lunch at our respected desk due to high volume of work. I thought the other days were work filled but today… I was ready to punch out, shower, and simply sleep. Two more days until Friday, I thought ready for my paycheck. The company paid employees weekly knowing it was hard to make ends meet every two weeks for some. I really appreciated HR for this. I would not get the check until Saturday with pay week ending Thursday, but money is money.

    At the end of the workday I checked to make sure there was nothing more I needed to do and clocked out before leaving the building. Once again, the cold air kissed my skin passionately as I walked to the bus station. The buses at this time were spaced out more but I did not mind. I loved he weather, and this gave me time to relax and clear my mind.

“Why didn’t you wait for me”, I sprung from my seat not expecting to hear anyone’s voice.

“What is wrong with you!”, I clutched my chest trying to calm my heartbeat. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing”

    I sat back down on the bench before speaking, “I’m waiting on the bus is that not obvious”, I looked up at him.

“I will take you”

“No thank you I enjoy the time to myself to think”, I looked down the street praying the bus would appear.

    I felt the heat from his body trying to form an assault on me causing me to turn to him. HE was grabbing my stuff and walking away.

“Are you serious?”, I yelled chasing after him.

    He held the passenger for open for me expectantly. I threw myself into the seat crossing my arms over my chest pouting. I kept my eyes forward even when it was challenging. Watching from my peripheral vision as he leaned in buckled my seat belt and spoke.

“But your arms down and fix your face before I make you”, I pushed my lips out more and sunk deeper into my seat ignoring him.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you”, he closed my door and walked to his side.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you”, I mocked him.

    We drove in silence other than me giving directions on where I lived. When we pulled to the front of my apartment building, I grabbed my stuff and went to open the door.

“You live here?”

“Yes, now unlock the door”, I was no longer annoyed he did shave about an hour off my transit time. Giving me more time to sleep. I tired again at the handle but nothing. Turning in my seat I looked at Jace who was looking at the building behind me.

“I don’t want to leave you here”, he finally met my eyes.

“Well, its not up to you”, I just wanted to get in my bed and my annoyance was quickly resurfacing.

“This place does not look safe”

“I have lived her for over a year and nothing has happened I am fine”, I told him honestly, “Do you not have a girlfriend you can be annoying right now instead of me?”, I asked trying to lighten the mood a little.

“No, no girlfriend… yet”, I nodded not sure exactly what that meant.

“So, you have someone in mind then?”, I was always curious about relationships and how regular people decided to be in them.

“Yeah, she doesn’t know yet”, he smiled softly.

“That you like her?”, I was confused which was not surprising because I was always confused.

“Exactly”, he looked behind me again.

“Why don’t you tell her”, It seemed obvious to me.

“I don’t want to scare her away”, I understood he was a bit daunting.

“Why would she be scared”, my face scrunched a bit.

“She’s been broken before and my lifestyle is flashy compared to hers”, He looked almost sad.

“But if it’s worth the risk then shouldn’t you go for it?”, I thought people did that.

“She worth the risk but I want to take it slow”, He looked in my eyes like he was searching for something “I have never been a relationship person but I can tell she’s different”.

“Different is good”, I mumbled turning to sit forward in my seat.

Jace opened his door and I tired again at mine.

“Oh, come on!”, I was getting frustrated. Getting ready to climb into the driver’s seat my door opened. I stepped out of the car and grabbed my bag. “Thank you for the ride”.

“It was no problem”

“I know it was out of the way”, I rubbed my forehead.

“I said its no problem Ryan, let me walk you to your door”, he closed the door to the car locking it.

    I was going to fight him on it, but I knew he would fight back. I led the way to my apartment fishing for my keys as I walked up the stairs. Pulling them out I saw the yellow paper in the door and knew he had as well. I pulled it of shoving it in my purse not needing to read it to know it was a notice. I would have a portion of the money soon. My landlord worked with me a lot and I was grateful. I would call her and tell her about the new job to hopefully gain another extension. I was 6 months behind, but she understood saying she was like me at one point in her life. I always gave her what I could.

    Turning to Jace his eyes were on my purse. I knew he saw it but it was folded and I doubted he knew what a notice was given his stature in life.

“Thank you again… Ill see you at the office in the morning”. I tried to get him to leave.

“Yeah”, he was clearly spaced out.

    I turned inserting my key.

“Oh, great job on the folders for the meeting. The graphs and visuals added an aspect I did not think we needed as men but it was a real crowd pleaser”, I was surprised.

    I smiled not turning back, “Thank you, Goodnight”

“Goodnight”, I stepped in at his reply closing and locking the door behind me.