The Office Assistant

Sparks Fly part 2

Annie was waiting at the small coffee shop when she arrived. “Oh, look at you!” Annie smiled, “new clothes and…” she moved in closer, “new lip stick? Dang, I’m jealous. But seriously you look adorable!”

The two linked arms as they walked into the café. After her order came, she walked out to find an outside table for the two of them. A shiver went down her back and she had the feeling of being watched as she pushed her way out the door. She did not want to look back and be obvious or look stupid, so she kept her head down and kept walking. She found a seat and set to wait for Annie. The feeling of trepidation never leaving her.

As she waited and tried to will the feeling away, she texted her mother asking if she could bring Trash Bandit to the family gathering, promising he would behave. She could leave the tom cat at home and let Mrs. Groot feed him, but she always felt guilty when she had to force him to stay outside all the time. I suppose, her mother replied, only if he behaves and stays out of things. Elise grinned knowing her mom could not resist an animal even if she had a gun to her head.

"What are you grinning about?" Annie asked as she set down across from her.

Elise laughed. "I was asking if Trash could come to the get together this weekend."

“Oh, you could have tossed him my way for the weekend. The boys have been wanting an indoor cat, maybe if they have to care for one for a few days they’ll quit bugging me about it.”

“I’m sorry I totally didn’t think about that. Why do they want an inside cat? Didn’t your barn cat just have a litter? But not to worry Mom said yes with a sigh emoji.”

Annie rolled her eyes, “They don’t want one we already have. Gees, how rude!” Annie faked being annoyed then giggled, "And of course she said yes. She’s never been able to say no to an animal! I remember that crow you found in your back yard that one time. The thing was half dead, yet when you brought it in, she helped you nurse him back to health."

"Poor Mom! All the things I brought home as a kid was enough to fill a zoo at least six times!"

The girls laughed and joked about Elise's love and odd attraction to half dead animals for a few minutes. Elise joked that her ex was a prime example of her attraction. Annie could not agree more, but she was laughing too hard to speak. Her laugh being so contagious Elise could not help but join in. Soon passer byers were giving them odd looks which did not help the hysterical laughter coming from their table.

"I can't breathe!" Elise gasped out.

"Oh, oh oh! My ribs!" Annie said between giggles.

Elise fanned herself in a fruitless effort to stop herself as Annie put a napkin to her face, catching the tears that fell during her laughing fit. It felt good to just laugh even if they looked stupid and it was over the most ridiculous things. Elise needed a good laugh after the hell she had dealt with that morning. She had fallen asleep two more times only to wake up terrified and half crying.

After sobering their conversation turned to more serious issues. Among the topics were bills, kid and man trouble, and nightmares.

 Annie looked at Elise, “are you still having that nightmare?”

Elise nodded. "I've tried everything, but literally nothing helps. What sucks more is that they are changing."

Annie took a long drink of her tea before asking, "changing how?"

Elise could see the worry written over her friend's face and shook her head. She told her everything about the dream she had had last night. “Something was different. This time I knew my attacker and where I was.” She took a long drink of her cooling coffee, “Someone named Cassius and I think I was in ancient Rome.”

"Well, that's odd." Annie sighed, "maybe you should talk to your therapist again?"

"I have. She said it was just my subconscious trying to make sense of the attack by adding details that weren't really there." Elise snorted, "she suggested I start taking the sleeping pills again."

Annie made a face. "No way! Those things were horrible on you! As your friend and person who loves you most, I say she's a nut."

"That's what I said when I hung up on her. I'm not going to end back up in an insane asylum because she doesn't know why my brain is adding untrue details to my nightmares."

Elise thought back to that time and shuddered just after Roger, her ex-boyfriend, had attacked her in a jealous rage she had been prescribed sleeping pills. They had made her see things to the point she attacked Annie with a knife one night. It had been so bad Annie would have died if her boyfriend, Mark, had not been there. Elise had been forcibly admitted into The Texas State Mental Hospital and Asylum for six months. Oddly, that had been a good thing as the doctor there had figured out it was her sleeping pills causing her hallucinations. Still, it did not make attacking her best friend any better.

"You know I'm not mad about that, right?" Annie, guessing what she was thinking, gave her arm a squeeze then checked her watch and sighed. "Time to head back, Girly or in your case time to go in."

"Oh, fine if I must." Elise gave a dramatic sigh. "With any luck Georgia has done her job today and I won’t have to stay late again."

As they walked the five blocks to the office Annie suggested Elise should tell Georgia to go stick it. Elise had to admit she was very tempted at times, but she needed her job and she really did love it. After all it was what she had gone to college for, so she did not think she had any reason to complain too much.

“Oh, I forgot! I met a very handsome guy.”

“You did? And you are just now telling me? Do I mean nothing to you?” Annie asked dramatically. “Where? When? What’s his name? What does he look like and where does he work?”

When Annie to a break from questioning to take a breath Elise informed her, “here, last night, don’t know, and here.”

Annie looked at her cockeyed, “Wait, you don’t know what he looks like?”

Elise laughed. “Oh, yes I know. Like a Roman god.”

“Huh? Girly! I think your fascination with Rome and Greece have finally drove you crazy.”

Frowning, Elise described her elevator guy in detail. “See Roman god.”

Annie giggled as they stepped off the elevator. “Oh, he sounds dreamy. See you tonight for dinner?”

“Of course, I can’t say no to Mark’s famous barbeque.”

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. Georgia had been called up to Grace Lin’s office, once she had come back, she had locked herself in her office and refused to even look at anyone else. Elise had managed to get all her work done and was doing some extra to pass the time when the afternoon mail had come round.

She smiled up at the lanky tall teen that delivered the mail after he got out of school. “Hi, Elgin. Did you have a good day today?”

“Yes, Miss Myers! I even got an A on the paper you gave me pointers on last week. It’s my first A in English ever.” Elgin beamed.

“That’s great! I’m so proud of you for applying yourself.”

Elgin ducked his head and turned bright red, “Here’s your mail, Miss Myers.”

Elise thanked and congratulated him again as she took her mail. She went through the stack while she sipped her coffee; a few random thank you cards from writers she had helped with editing, a few not so nice letters that she paid no heed to and tossed in the trash. A small envelope with the company’s insignia on the front above her name caught her attention. She set her cup down and pulled her letter opener out of her pin holder. She opened the small flap and pulled the note out. “Miss Myers please come to the office of C. Gaius tonight at nine p.m.” She turned the note over, but there was nothing else, “that’s it? Okay, then. Why does the owner want to see me?”

Elise was plagued by thoughts of doing something wrong, of losing her job for the rest of the afternoon. So much for a good day, she thought as she turned in a report for Georgia. Walking into Georgia’s office she absently asked if she needed anything else. After a moment, the older woman glared up from her computer.

“Coffee. If that’s not over your pay grade.”

“Okay, then.”

Elise turned from the office and went to the coffee bar to pour Georgia’s coffee. Had her elevator guy told his boss what she had told him about Georgia? She seriously hoped not, the woman would make her life miserable if she knew what she thought. Elise was so lost in what ifs she had not heard Roy Night, Annie’s assistant, come up behind her. She turned slamming into his chest. Coffee splashed on his crisp white button-down as well as on her blouse.

“I’m so sorry, Roy!”

“Elise, I swear if you weren’t my boss’ friend, I’d sma…”

The look on Elise’s face stopped his words short. She stared up into sea foam green eyes. “You’d what, Roy, hit me? Honestly, I should report you. I didn’t mean to spill the coffee on you, and you walked up behind me not beside like everyone else would do.” She turned to refill the cup, leaving him still gapping at her. “And another think Mr. Night, never threaten me or attempt to threaten me, again.”

She turned on her heel, her anger at the threat was still boiling over. She had thought the handsome assistant was an acquaintance at least. The sudden change and office drama annoyed her to no end. Annie seen her walk by and mouthed 'you okay?' Elise nodded and kept walking. No, she wasn't okay. She was pissed off. After delivering the coffee and getting Georgia's out box, Elise decided she needed a small break. Dropping off the mail off she rushed out of the building keeping close to the buildings as a random rain storm pelted the street. A few minutes later she watched the rain slow as she waited for her coffee. 

                                                                                *  *   *   *  *  

Cal had called Mrs. Anders just after two that afternoon. He knew he should leave the girl alone. He knew she was in danger around him. But he could not help but want to see her again. Even after the nightmare that had caused him to wake, screaming, earlier than normal he had not gotten his mind off the little brunette. He shuddered at the memory of the nightmare that always haunted him. He had not had it in a few months maybe more. He did not want to think on why he was having it again. Dreaming about murdering his wife was never his favorite topic and he refused to think on it when he could.

He hated he could still hear her calling to him, could still taste her blood all these years later. In his dream he sliced her lily-white throat and drained her blood from her body as she screamed his name. In life he had been drugged, chained, and forced to watch as his long time enemy and would-be murderer, Cassius Chaerea slaughtered his beautiful wife just three months after they had been wed. Cassius was weaker than Cal in his human life and after he had found a lower vampire to change him not long after Cal himself had changed. He knew he could not beat Cal on his own, he had had others changed with him. Unfortunately for Cassius, he had lost support of the men not long after they were made Vampire, but that had not stopped him. He had just found new ways to torture Cal. Mostly it involved killing any person he seemed to have a connection too.

He had not seen nor heard a word from Cassius since sixteen-forty-two when Cal had been courting a young, widowed Duchess. Then Cassius had drove the woman mad until she took her own life in an asylum. Cal had sworn off heart and s****l connections then and that seemed to have settled Cassius for the time being. Cal knew better than to hope Cassius would be happy with his decision forever. But he hoped it would settle the psychopath for a few hundred years. Time moved different when you could live forever; Cal had once told Grace it was like Alice falling down the rabbit’s hole. What was years to a human seemed like only weeks or months to a vampire. That was what drove most of them to the sun; the realization that a hundred human years felt like a year was too much. He himself had been close to that point when he had met Grace.

She had been parked on the side of a deserted road waiting for a tow truck the night he had decided to meet the sun. He had lived for too long too alone and he had been done. He had gone out to the middle of nowhere to be alone his last night, but no fate had other ideas. Grace had been lost when her car’s engine had begun smoking on the back road. Her curses and distress had captured both his annoyance and curiosity. And that had been the beginning of their friendship.

He looked up at the knock on his door, knowing it Grace. “Come in.”

Grace smiled mockingly, “You know for someone who sleeps during the day to avoid dying a fiery painful death, you probably shouldn’t leave your door unlocked.”

Cal rolled his eyes, “yes, mother.”

“Ass.” Grace sighed, as she perched herself on the side of the chair, he was seated in. “I’m serious though. I do not want to walk in one night and you be a pile of ashes. And don’t tell me you just unlocked it because I know you better than that.”

“For your information, Grace, I’ve been awake since one-thirty. And I had to sign for a package so yes, it has been unlocked for a time, but I have been awake.”

She looked down at him suspiciously then shook her head and handed him an employ folder. “Okay, so why did you want me to bring Elise Myers’ file?”

He ignored her question as he took the folder. He read it quickly. “No. family history?”

“I didn’t hire her, so I’m not sure. I think Annie Holt did and I believe they were friends for years before either of them started with EWAP. So, she might not have thought to ask. Why?”

Cal shook his head. “Never mind.”

“Gaius,” she was the only one who called him by his first name, “what are you up to?”

He walked to his room leaving her curious as he dropped the file open on the low coffee table. Cal was not sure he wanted to tell Grace about meeting Elise the night before. He was not sure he even wanted to go to the meeting tonight. He was abruptly nervous as he searched his closet for a suit.

“Well?” Grace set on the edge of his bed.

That is the worst part of having her as a best friend, he thought, she was not any shyer around him than he was around her. He dropped his blue pajama bottoms and stepped out of them, most women would have gasped, turned away, or said something provocative, but not Grace. No, she merely stood and walked up beside him. She pulled out a silky black button down, a black suit jacket and pants then handed the items to him.

“Here.” Grace looked him over unphased by his nakedness. “Do you own any other colors?” Honestly, Gaius it’s like a funeral director’s wardrobe in here.”

Cal laughed as he dressed. “No tie?”

“When do you wear ties?”

“I have some,” he mumbled almost defensively.

Grace snorted a laugh, and he rolled his eyes again. He always found her honesty and bluntness fascinating, yet annoying like a sister. Even knowing what he was and how fast he could kill her, she had always told him the truth and expected the same from him. He looked in the large old mirror and ran his hands through his unruly curls. He caught Grace shaking her head behind him.

“What now?”

He c****d his head and turned around. She walked up and without asked permeation she reached up and unbuttoned the top few buttons. After she ran her hands down the shirt straightening the wrinkles, she created she nodded and walked from the room. After he put on his shoes, he joined her in his office. She was looking at a large painting he had started before he went to bed.

“Does it meet your expectations?”

She turned and smiled, “when are you going to realize anything you create, whether it’s painted, drawn, or written, goes beyond my expectations? It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you,” he nodded.

The idea had come to him the night before. A young woman on a hill from his past. An angel with broken wings forming behind her. He hadn’t a clue who the woman or the angel were, yet they seemed so familiar. He told her he was not done yet as he studied the piece.

“Are you going to enter it in Dave’s new showing at the gallery?”

Cal turned toward her, “Not sure. I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“You should. It’s this weekend so knowing you it’ll be ready.” Cal just shrugged and Grace went back to the reason she was there. “So, are you thinking of moving Ms. Myers up?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure. I heard there was a little trouble with her head editor.” He omitted how he had heard the news.

Was it odd for him not to tell Grace almost everything?

Yes.

Did he know why he did not want to tell her about Elise?

No.

“I have a meeting about it tonight.” Once again, he omitted some of the detail.

Grace shrugged, “Do you want me there?”

He shook his head and tried not to look guilty. “No. I think I can handle this one on my own.”

She looked suspicious but did not air any doubts. Why would she? He had dealt with work related things on his own before. He changed the subject. “How’s Stevie?

“He’s feeling better. His doctor said the transplant took rather well and he should be able to return to school in a few more weeks.”

Cal knew talking about her son would get her mind off the elephant that seemed to be stomping around the room. That elephant’s name was Elise Myers. He was also interested and concerned about Stevie. He felt bad using him as a distraction and made a mental note to take him a present in the next few nights.

“That's great news!" He was genuinely happy. 

"He asked about you the other day. I told him I'd tell you to come by or call him." Grace checked the time on her phone. " It's almost eight thirty, my friend. I have to give Stevie his meds so if you don't need my help anymore and you aren't going to tell me the real reason you wanted Elise Myers' file then I'm going to get going."

He showed her out of the building then crossed back around to the parking garage. He was almost as nervous that Grace was going to show up at the office as he was that Elise was not going to come. When he got to the office he nodded toward the new nightguard, Jeff, and stopped when he waved toward him.

"Everything alright, Jeff?"

The other man's bright blue eyes grew warry. "There is an employee waiting for you, Mr. Gaius."

Cal raised an eyebrow, "who?"

"Georgia Hay...Hay something."

"Not Elise Myers?" 

Jeff shrugged, "Elise was here in the lobby not long ago, but Georgia insisted she needed to speak with you so I let her go up. Elise..."

"...Elise is right behind you."

Jeff turned and Elise grinned. "Hello, Miss Myers." Cal walked to the elevator and hit the down arrow. "Like to join me?"

"Yes I would. Thank you Jeff." 

They were quiet most of the ride up. They were both deep in thought; wondering the same thing. Why was Georgia Haystack wanting to speak with him so badly? Cal subdued a growl as he realized his night had took a turn he hadn't seen coming. Things he couldn't control was something he could not stand. 

"So," Elise started.

"So." He knew he should say something else, yet could not think of anything. 

Elise sighed, "So, you're my boss."

It was not a question, he noted. "Yes."

"You didn't want to tell my last night?"

He looked at her and his jaw working. Cal opened his mouth to reply just as the door dinged open. "We'll talk about it after I deal with Mrs. Haystack, okay?"

"Alright," Elise let the subject drop as the doors slide open. Georgia stood accusingly by Cal's closed office door. She couldn't help it, Elise smiled sweetly, "Hello Georgia. How are you tonight?"

The older woman's eyes turned into tiny slits. "So it is true. You are f*****g the CEO. Trying to take my place, you childish bitch."

Elise snorted, but before she could give a rebuttal Cal cleared his throat. "We are not as you so crassly put f*****g each other, Mrs. Haystack, though if we were it would none of your business. As for childish behavior, I believe you take the cake on that. And if you must know Miss. Myers has not said a word to my about taking your job, yet your actions just now may have put it on the block."

His tone, commanding and powerful, drew both women's attention. Elise stared up at his profile almost shocked that someone would talk to Georgia in that tone. She bit her lip to hid a grin. Georgia looked confused and angry at the same time. Apparently she didn't think anyone would dare talk down to her either. Yet what could she say? He was the owner and top dog of the company, what he said went and anyone who bulged him would probably find themselves on the street without a job in less than a minute. 

"So you're firing me?"

Cal's smile was almost deadly. "No, I'm warning you. Do your job, don't over use your assistances, and do not waste my company's time or money on your little lunch dates and your appearance. Now that you have wasted my time I suggest you find your way out."

The last words were spoken with so much force they could have commanded an army. Cal closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. He did not open them until he heard the elevator doors close. He looked at Elise, she gave him a small smile. 

"Shall we?"