HER

Chapter 1

Nina worked in a restaurant as a cook, over the years, she had picked up a couple of things and she was a damned good cook if she could say so herself. The restaurant she worked at was the only good one that had hired her without a degree in anything. She had been over the moon when she got the job because she hadn’t expected it, it was one of those try-your-luck type of thing. It had been a year and a half since she joined Marco’s restaurant. It wasn’t a five star but everyone loved Marco’s. They served the simplest meal in a fair quantity that most of the five-star restaurants don’t. It was everyone’s go to place to hang out and for working class citizens who didn’t have a lot of time on their hands. The regulars always had their food prepared ahead of time and waiting to be picked up. The workers at Marco’s had become Nina’s own family. They all cared about each other and the manager wasn’t one of those arrogant ass-wipes. He was a friendly, understanding man, happily married with a beautiful wife and a kid.

Nina was up front helping the girls with the customers. She was filling in for Gina who had been sick for a few days. Gina, the motherly figure in Nina’s life had been the one person after Tom she’d been able to trust. Gina lived alone in an amazing house a few blocks away from the restaurant. Her husband passed away a while back and her only child had moved to LA with a dream of becoming a star one day. Gina had told her the story many times and it always made Nina wonder what having a dream and following it would be like. The only dream she had was when she was at the orphanage, her dream then, Tom had fulfilled for her and she was grateful for that. But she hadn’t had a dream since then.

“Hi.” Nina looked up at the smiling face.

“Hi Kaylie.” Nina smiled back at one of the regulars. “Ricardo, get Kaylie’s lunch.”

“Right away.” The teenager went back into the kitchen.

“How’s work today?” Nina asked Kaylie.

“Same old.” Kaylie said with a sigh.

Kaylie has been working at RevTech - a company that makes revolutionary technologies – for seven years now. She got the job right after she got out of college graduating top of her class. Her family had done everything to give her the best education and she was determined to make them proud. She had come a long way at RevTech and she was currently working for the position of the head of the IT department. The former HOD of the IT department had resigned over a month ago and she had been his right-hand person, so she was likely to get the position. At least that was what she thought a week ago but now she wasn’t so sure.

The problem? Sebastian.

He joined the IT department a week ago; fresh meat. Except this fresh meat had gotten the job with the connections he had with the CEO. Something about his dad and the CEO being college buddies or something. Sebastian was one of those men who was used to getting everything they wanted without actually going the miles that most people did to get the same thing. He was an arrogant prick and she saw him as a competition. He was good at what he did but she didn’t see it fair that someone who’d been at RevTech for not even close to a month would threaten a position she had been working for for the past seven years.

“You shouldn’t let anything get you down.” Kaylie looked up at Nina when she spoke.

Nina slid a bag across the counter as Kaylie pulled out a ten from her wallet and handed it to her with a smile.

“Thank you, Nina.” She grabbed the bag. “Keep the change.”

Nina watched Kaylie walk out of the busy restaurant. If she couldn’t make her life right, she could at least try to make someone smile. Nina thought with a smile as she got change for the ten-dollar bill, put the tip into the tip jar and the price for Kaylie’s lunch into the cash box. She’d visit Gina at the end of the day and take dinner with her along with the tip she had made on her behalf.

Kaylie stepped out of the elevator to her floor and walked past the cubicles to hers which was closest to the HOD’s office. She paused beside her cubicle as she stared at the office, she sighed.

“It’s a damn fine office.” Kaylie jumped at the nearness of the voice she was beginning to know all too well.

Without acknowledging him, she turned and entered her cubicle, dropping her lunch on her desk, taking off her suit jacket, she placed it over the backrest of her chair and sat down. She grabbed her lunch and began to eat.

“It’s nice to offer. You know that, right?”

“What do you want Sebastian?”

“Lunch.”

“Yea?” She turned to face him and he smiled that charming smile of his that worked with every female he flashed it at. “Well, go get yours and stop being a nuisance.”

“You’re no fun.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re at work.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, it’s lunch.”

She looked at him.

“Still at work.”

“But not working.”

“Would you quit it you two!” Will poked his head from the cubicle next to hers.

Kaylie and Sebastian turned to him and back at each other.

“Get out of my space.”

The bastard smiled at her. He was all charm but she knew the kind of person he was deep down.

“Damn, he has the hots for you.” Will said as she ate.

“He has the hots for anything in a skirt or and heels.”

“If you say so.” Will said before he disappeared.

Sebastian was a charmer and a looker. She couldn’t deny she found him pleasing to the eye but that was it. He was like eye candy, look but nothing more. She didn’t trust anyone that didn’t work for the things they wanted and Sebastian was all that and more. She couldn’t shake off the feeling in her guts anytime he was around.

Kaylie finished her lunch and got back to work. A few minutes after everyone was back from lunch, her office phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Is this Kaylie Patterson from the IT department?”

“This is she.”

“I’m calling from Mr. Reed’s office. He would like to see you now.”

“I’m on my way.” Kaylie was up just as the CEO’s assistant hung up.

She stepped onto the top most floor a moment later and walked in the direction of Richard Reed’s office.

“Hi.” She smiled at Carly – the assistant.

“Go right in.” Carly said with a smile.

Kaylie walked towards the door and knocked before she stepped inside the CEO’s office shutting the door behind her.

Richard looked up from his desk at Kaylie.

“Come on in Ms. Patterson, have a seat.”

Kaylie moved further into his office and as she sat, she looked to her left to find Sebastian seated with that sickening smile of his.

“What…?”

“Ms. Patterson, Mr. Young is here because there is something I’d like to discuss with the two of you.”

Kaylie turned her attention towards Richard.

“Of course.”

Richard rose from his seat and began to pace in front of them.

“We have a new client, a very important one. He wants RevTech to design a software for their fast-growing business and he trusts me to hand this project to my best software developer.”

“I’ll be glad to handle it Rich…Mr. Reed.” Sebastian said.

“Yes.” Richard stopped behind his desk and looked both of them in the eye. “Ms. Patterson has been her longer and she knows the ropes. I was thinking of pairing you up to come up with something amazing but I decided against that.”

Kaylie let out a silent sigh of relief.

“Both of you will handle this project separately, pour everything you have into this because whoever comes up with the best software idea gets the HOD position I’ve been meaning to fill for a while now.”

Kaylie gasped.

This was her chance to show that she had what it takes to be the HOD. Regardless of her rival being someone who hadn’t been her as long as her. She was going to treat him like any other person in the IT department that had worked as long or even longer than her. Richard didn’t care about how much you’ve devoted to the company but he did care about what you had to bring forward and that was something she could handle.

She was going to put everything into this project.

“Alexander Guzman will be here sometime this week to discuss with you what he needs and I trust you two will act your best and put your indifferences aside because Alex gets to decide which of your software he likes, so make sure its according to his taste.”

Kaylie smiled.

“Don’t let me down.” Richard took his seat and got back to the stack of documents in front of him. “That’d all.”

“Thank you, Mr. Reed.” Kaylie rose along with Sebastian.

“I won’t disappoint you sir.”

“We won’t disappoint you.” Kaylie shot him a look.

“I trust you.” Richard said not sparing either of them a glance.

Kaylie walked out of his office with Sebastian in tow.

“Looks like we’re rivals.”

“Like we weren’t before now.”

He smiled.

“Don’t hold back on me Kay because I’m not going to spare you.”

Kaylie clenched her jaw as she stepped toe to toe with him.

“Bring it.”