His Cybernetic Secretary

7. Xavier

Xavier checked the clock again like it wasn’t still days until Dante would fly back with their newest endeavour.

His jaw tightened. He hated waiting. Waiting meant someone else was in control of his time, and Xavier had never tolerated that well.

His gaze settled on the empty desk outside his office. That desk was supposed to have a woman sitting behind it by now—someone competent, efficient, and, preferably, smart enough to understand that when he gave an instruction, it wasn't the beginning of a discussion. It was an instruction.

He leaned back slowly, imagining what it would be like to finally have someone who could keep up with him. Not someone who simply answered phones and shuffled papers. A real second hand.

Someone who could anticipate his needs before he voiced them. Someone who could walk into a room and immediately understand what needed to happen. Someone who could take his thoughts, his plans, his impossible expectations and turn them into results.

With the right person beside him, there would be no ceiling.

He could expand into markets they'd never managed to penetrate. Take on accounts they'd previously considered out of reach. Push the company into territory other men had been too timid to enter.

He could finally stop being dragged down by everyone else's limitations.

His limitations. His plans. His vision.

His fingers tapped once against the armrest. Why hadn’t they even given him an update? His mind wandered back.

He'd had assistants before. The memories surfaced reluctantly.

One had been incompetent, another had been painfully slow.

One had cried whenever he raised his voice, which had become irritating enough that he'd eventually stopped speaking to her altogether.

Another had mistaken friendliness for an invitation to become familiar with him. That one hadn't lasted long.

There had been others. Faces blurred together now—people who had taken up space, consumed his time, and accomplished very little in return.

He couldn't understand why finding capable help was so difficult, surely intelligence couldn’t be that rare.

Xavier exhaled through his nose.

"You can't find what doesn't exist."

His eyes returned to the empty desk.

It would have to be a woman. Xavier's expression hardened slightly, then. How long had it actually been?

He leaned back in his chair, lifting a fresh glass of whiskey to his lips. Far too long.

Xavier reached into his pocket with the other hand, dialing Dante. They were going out tonight.