The CEO's Abused Cover Girl

Ch. 4: D*nkin

(Erin’s POV)

These past few weeks have been really strange.

Three weeks ago, I began at the temp agency, putting in a request to work here. Two days later they sent me to fill in for some girl who'd taken family leave. Now I’m working here full-time!

They asked me if I’d like the position last Friday. Ms. Simmons, the woman from HR, told me she’d been hearing a lot of good things about me and wanted to offer me the position full-time. Apparently, the girl who I was filling in for decided to become a stay-at-home mom.

I couldn't believe my ears! Of course, I was happy to take the position. Who wouldn’t be?

That night, I called my cousin, Ryan, and told him. He’s coming up this weekend for a visit, so we’re going out to celebrate together. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to a bar. And I’ll have to find a sitter for Katie. But it should be fun!

Of course, Ryan is staying with me, so if I can’t find a sitter, then we can always party a little on our own. He has friends here who he went to college with. If worse comes to worst, we can always invite some of them over to play a little poker or something. We’ll see.

“Hey. Ready for break?” Amanda asked as she stuck her head around my doorway. “Yeah. I was just going to come out and get some more files anyway. And a cup of coffee does sound nice right about now. I still can’t believe this is my full-time job”. I was still all smiles and Amanda laughed at my enthusiasm.

“You know, you’re like the poster-child for smiles these days. But if truth be known, I only gave you that positive review because I couldn’t bear to see you cry”. She laughed, which told me she was just joking, so I laughed too.

“Yeah, I’m a mess when I cry”. I joked back, giggling with her as we entered the break room. We no sooner walked in when I was greeted with all the smiling faces of my co-workers congratulating me for going full-time. I didn’t even know they knew, so I was completely shocked, and my cheeks flamed with embarrassment in the best way possible.

“Your paperwork went through this morning. You are officially one of us”. Janet said with a bright smile as Toby from marketing handed me a knife and said, “Come on, gurl! Let's have some of that fabulous cake!”

I laughed at his comments as I began passing out the cake as Cindy sat a hot cup of coffee on the table for me. After thanking her, I passed her a piece of cake, then took one for myself. Our fifteen minutes ended all too soon, but with Janet in our midst we were able to linger a few more minutes. It was nice, though. Everyone was happily chatting while eating their cake, which was huge, by the way.

The cake was so big I made everyone take a second piece back to their desks. I also cut a piece and on my way back to my desk I stopped by Ms. Myers’ office and gave it to her. She seemed surprised by my actions and actually grunted out a curt ‘thank you’ before telling me to get back to work.

Of course, I also made sure to take some home to my baby girl. She’s going to love her special treat tonight. It’s Friday, so tonight is relaxation night for mommy. Which basically just means once she’s in bed I get to take a nice long bath, read a little, maybe have a nice glass of wine or listen to some soft music.

Monday, the big boss will be back from his conference. Not really looking forward to meeting him. I mean, everyone says he’s really nice and down to Earth. But I can’t help being nervous. With my luck, he’ll take one look at me and decide I need to be replaced.

For now, though? It’s back to work for me.

*****

Monday morning and I was barely out of bed when my baby started crying. “Mommmyyyy, I don’t feel good.” My baby girl whined tiredly as she came into my room dragging her feet and her blanky, while rubbing her little eyes.

“Come here, baby. Let mommy have a look at you”. I met her halfway and scooped her into my arms, then pressed my hand to her little cheek to find she was burning up. “Oh my poor baby. You’re running a temperature”. I laid her on my bed and went into the bathroom to retrieve our thermometer.

“One hundred, one. Looks like you’re staying home today. You stay right there and mommy will go get you some juice and medicine”. I grabbed my phone and left the room, going into the kitchen for some pedi*lyte and tyl*nol. While I was doing that, I called my neighbor.

“Hi, Sydney. I’m sorry to bother you so early in the morning, but I was wondering if you’d be free to sit with my Katie? She’s running a fever, so I need to keep her home today”. I held my breath waiting for her to answer.

I don’t really like leaving my baby when she’s sick, but I can’t very well call in on my first real full day either. “Sure. I just need to get myself ready. Give me an hour?” I looked at the time on my phone. It’s going to make me late, but I’ll have to work around that.

“That’s fine. I’ll leave the door unlocked for you”. We said goodbye, and I hung up, then went to the door and unlocked it. Sydney is eighteen. So she’s got the summer before heading off to college. She’s a good kid and she adores my Katie.

Real quick, I jot down when to give Katie more tyl*nol, and how much, then went into the bedroom and gave her, her first dose. Katie is pretty good about taking it, so she just opened right up and swallowed it down without any fuss. “Do you want to stay in mommy’s bed or go to your pretty bed?”

Katie's your typical girlie-girl. Everything in her room looks like a fairy tale character regurgitated all over the place. There are rainbows and glitter as far as the eye can see, and she has unicorns all over the place too.

I’m one of those parents who never wants to stifle a child's creativity, so she has one whole wall for her creative juices. Half is framed out for her to draw on, while the other half is a chalkboard. She also has fairy lights and stars dangling from her ceiling that serve as a nightlight for her.

Anyway, once I got her into her own bed again, I dialed work and let Janet know I was going to be late getting in today, and why. “You know you have personal days if you wanna stay home with her? I can put it through for you if you like.”

Janet's very good at her job. And I have absolutely no doubt she could get that put through for me with relative ease. But I’d rather save my personal time for when I really need it. Sydney isn’t always available, and I don’t trust too many people in general, so trusting them with my kid is highly unlikely.

*****

As I was getting off the bus, Amanda texted me asking if I could stop at D*nkin Donuts and pick up a couple dozen for a board meeting that afternoon. I texted her back saying I’d just gotten off the bus, so I was heading there now.

I went in, placed my order, then ordered myself a coffee as well. Once I had my order, I started to leave. Only as I was walking out, someone pulled the door right out of my hand, and it caused me to lose my balance. I stumbled a little and wound up face-planting in a silk-clad wall of muscle. “F*ck! Watch where you’re…”

My eyes flew up to the voice, my face turning bright red from a combination of shock and embarrassment as I gushed at the poor man I’d bumped into. “Oh God! I’m so… wow!... ummm... Sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“It’s alright. It’s just a shirt”. The man said, now chuckling at the whole thing. But it wasn’t ‘just a shirt’. It was a very expensive shirt. “I’ll pay to replace it, or if you have it dry-cleaned. I’m not normally so clumsy. It’s just that I had my hand on the door and someone pulled it from my hand and I lost my balance, and now I’m rambling. God, I’m so sorry”.

My rambling didn’t seem to affect him, no matter how embarrassing it was for me. He just stood there listening to me rant, smiling and listening as though he found the whole thing thoroughly amusing. “It’s fine. Really. I’ve got plenty of others. Besides, it seems the whole thing was my own fault for not paying attention when I reached for the door”.

I smiled shyly at his comments before noticing the woman waiting with him, who looked absolutely bored with the entire interaction. “Well, at least let me try to make that coffee stain less noticeable”. I said, backing up, so people could get in or out more freely.

“And how do you plan to do that?” He asked with amusement and I smiled as I said, “An old trick my mother taught me”. I told him as I sat my boxes down and went to get a bunch of napkins and a cup of cold water.

When I came back, I went into my purse and took out my hand sanitizer and began to dab it onto the coffee spot. It took a bit of rubbing, but it did lighten the stain. While I was doing that, he asked, “So do you frequent this D*nkin a lot?”

“No, not really. But I work not far from here, and I was asked to pick up some donuts today. I was hurrying to get in with them when this happened. I hope I didn’t burn you. I’m Erin, by the way.”

He never took his eyes off of what I was doing. “Not at all. My shirts seem to have taken the brunt of it all. And I’m Sean. It’s nice to meet you”.