Christmas With the CEO

Chapter one- The hangover from hell Introduction There was nothing particular exciting about my life, I was extraordinarily ordinary. That was until I met him, the CEO of the company I worked for... Jack Hartley. Yes that's right, Jack Hartley- the son of congressman Frank Hartley. Despite his dads wealthy and prestigious back round- Jack was a socialite in his own right. His perfectly chiselled face plastered the pages of various newspapers and magazines almost every week, as he was often featured in various scandalous affairs. He lived his entire life in the public eye and relished in it, his own wealth mainly consisted of real estate and stocks in the odd car company here and there but it took everyone by surprise when he bought the publication company I worked for.  I work for a magazine called "Attraction" which mainly ran cheesy articles about beauty products and gave tips on "How to satisfy your man in 3 easy steps". It was a pretty shitty job but I had my foot in the door... Once you worked for Fredericks Publications you could basically walk in and out of any of the magazines that fell under its very wide umbrella. Anyway, this is the story of how I fell for him and how he broke my heart... on Christmas day.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------     I opened my eyes with a light groan, I could already feel the hangover creeping in as the aching set into my body. I needed water. I fell chaotically out of my bed and onto the cold hardwood floor with a loud "Thud", immediately I heard banging on the floor beneath me. It was my grumpy downstairs neighbour Mrs Crovinski, banging on her ceiling with her broom at my noisy escape from the grey satin sheets that decorated my bed. "Sorry Mrs Crovinski" I shouted/groaned as I tried to gather enough strength to peel myself from off of the floor. When I finally stood up I placed my hand over my forehead and began to stumble out of my room and into the communal lounge, as I opened the door the loud deep voice of my room mate  Christian entered my delicate senses. "Oh my god, honey what the hell happened to you?!" He floundered at me, I couldn't open my mouth as I was worried I was going to puke so I just shook my head at him as I made my way over to the kitchen to make myself a glass of water. "I was worried sick about you last night, I mean I know I only turn 30 once honey but you did not need to get drunk enough for the both of us..." He said judgingly as he went back to reading his favourite gossip columns. "I know I'm sorry, I was just so excited to be at your first performance!" I managed to say hoarsely in between loud gluggs of water. "And I love you for it, but seriously girl you are going to land yourself in the worst trouble one day!" Last night we had gone out to celebrate Christians 30th birthday or "The funeral of his youth" as he had written on the invites, he had also managed to land his very first gig as his drag queen persona "Charmain" so it was kind of like double celebrations. He had been trying for years to get a gig in one of the top bars and when he was finally offered it on the date of his birthday, how could he refuse? Of course to nobody's surprise- last night was a huge success as Christian is one of the funniest stand up artists I'd ever seen. They were so impressed that the manager decided to book him every Saturday for the run up to Christmas! Even though I was basically black out drunk last night, I remember that important piece of information well...  "Okay, so you have a total of..." He started while looking down at his watch, "One hour to get your s**t together and go to work.". I was basically bug eyed when I heard him, I slammed the water down onto the counter and ran back to my room to get ready. Today was a super important day, once every 3 months they would post a list of job openings coming up and it was rumoured that an editor-in-chiefs job was coming up right before Christmas at a brand new magazine launching in the New Year. It was my dream job and it was definitely my time to shine and spread my wings, I jumped into the shower while I thought about finally having my own office and no longer being in the bitchy pen of glamazons. It was no secret around the office that I hated my job, and I think that's why I hadn't been promoted to assistant editor yet. That and the fact my plastic barbie boss was an utter b***h, it was no secret that she only got to where she was today by sleeping her way there. Her name was Francis Murphey and she was extremely under qualified for her job, she clearly had no passion for it but enjoyed spending her working hours racking up the dollar signs on the company credit card rather than giving us editors an actual outline of what she wanted from each issue. We were hands down the backbone of the magazine, were the ones who did the research, social media posts, book shows and of course produce killer content. All she does is approve the draft for printing basically, I cant even remember the last time she was in a meeting.  I raced out of the shower, dried myself super quick and ran to the wardrobe. I decided on a stone cropped roll neck sweater and paired it with slightly lighter tailored pants, I started to scrape back my mid length brown hair back into a slick and tight low bun. Once I had sprayed the strays down I popped in a pair of my favourite small silver hoops and began my make up, I looked at myself in my small mirror in the bathroom only to be greeted by the worst bags under my eyes I'd ever seen. Without thinking I started piling on the eye cream and concealer, blending it out until smooth before applying the rest. Once I was happy with the finished look I grabbed a pair of heeled boots and a white bag before running back to the kitchen to make a coffee. Christian was still sat there, his eyes glued to the TV while he absorbed the latest celebrity gossip. "Come on we have to go!" I said while throwing on my scarf and coat. Christian let out a groan like a spoilt child as he switched off the TV. As we made our way out of our apartment, my stomach filled with butterflies as I thought about the list of jobs coming up. Today was going to be the day my life changed. "Wait, your missing something from this fabulous outfit." Said Christian as we rushed down the stairs, I stopped briefly on the landing just in time to see him pull out a pink gaudy looking badge. "Happy 30th Birthday Mia!" I was touched but I playfully rolled my eyes anyway as he pinned it to my jacket, "What? Did you think I'd forget?".