Falling for the CEO: A New York Romance

Ellie’s first week at Hunter Fashion Group was marked by constant stress and exhaustion that accompanied her level of relentless intensity. Like Lucas Hunter’s temper, his expectations were quite high. As a result, Ellie had to quickly learn that there was no room for error. She was always in the office before 8 a.m. Her hands contained a cup of coffee that served no other purpose but to aid in getting her mind ready for the vigorous day ahead. The desk alongside Lucas’s office was always full of tasks, emails, and files that demanded her unwavering attention. He was always observing. While he never said much, when he did it was to issue criticism or give orders. Rather, his presence snuffed out her entire being like a storm cloud. Every time he walked past her desk, she was his focal point and, as a result, she became hyper-aware of her surroundings. On her third day, he meted out a Herculean task that would take any normal person a week’s worth of time to complete. “By the end of the week, these documents need to be organised properly,” he said in the tone of someone who had already made up his mind. He dropped a pile of files on her desk without really making any eye contact whatsoever. Ellie ended up faltering, resulting in her heart sinking. The task was complicated by sorting hundreds of pages that needed to be labelled, categorised, and filed. “Of course, Mr. Hunter,” she replied while smiling, to which he walked away without saying anything further. Now Ellie was left with the seemingly tedious work for which she had to endure the whole portion of the day. Expectedly, the work was so complex that, by the approach of the afternoon, she began experiencing eye strain and her back started to ache as well from being rooted in a single position for a longer time. Still, she carried on. For Lucas did not acknowledge Ellie while walking past her desk for the rest of the office meetings, which is why she started to feel the need to knock on Lucas’ door. Reluctantly, she stood up and decided to knock on his door. He told her to come in with an incomprehensibly sharp tone. She stepped into the office with a handful of files detailing them as organised. “Mr. Hunter, I am done with the documents you gave me.” Upon entering, she said, “Sir, you requested me to organise the documents and I have done the promised work.” He looked back at her from the files and interjected “already” with mild surprise. With little to no effort in hiding the gratification in her answer, she replied “yes.” What did she do wrong? He finally conceded. “Good. Then leave here.” Unwilling to speak, but having her eyes fixed on his computer, Ellie walked out. Her thoughts kept circling around the meeting. What did she do with Lucas? Did she rouse his interest? Or at the very least, did she meet his standard? The answer was unclear, but she was determined to find out. The following day, Lucas assigned yet another impossible task. “He should set up a meeting with the heads of our international divisions,” Elijah stated while presenting a list containing names along with phone numbers and email addresses. “You will have to figure out a time that will suit all of them because they are all in different time zones.” “Sure, Mr. Hunter. Right away,” Ellie responded while drawing a mental picture of all the missing hours. Ellie liaised with various executives to pencil in a time that suited each of them. A complex puzzle like this was right up her alley. At least she hoped it was. After settling on a working hour for all executives, she hopped on a calendar invitation and sent the invite, followed by an update on Lucas’s calendar. However, because she had to talk to him first, he was busy in a meeting, so she decided to leave him a note on the desk. Later, during the day, he instructed her to come to his office. "Miss White,” he spoke, his voice sharp. “I heard you had some meeting with the international divisions and why have you not informed me?" To Mr. Hunter’s statement, Ellie hesitantly spoke, "I left a note on the desk, I thought you would have had time to read it." Hunter replied, "I do not have the luxury to read your notes, next time you come speak with me directly. Is that understood?" With her face turning red with embarrassment, she slowly replied, "Yes, Sir." She brushed her fingers through her hair while walking out of the office quietly. As Hunter had pointed out, once she had left the note, she had thought it to be good enough, but it seemed that everything was not perfectly fine as it had appeared. Motivated, she tilted her head low, ready to face the next challenge. Determined to achieve perfection, she checked every action she took through to the end of the day. She was painfully aware of the underlying truth, that deep down, all her efforts never sufficed. He had his eyes on her at all times and to him, Ellie never did enough. By the end of the week, Ellie did not want to get out of bed, all her energy drained. Her vision was clouded red, suggesting a severe case of eye strain after spending far too long on the computer. Her fingers felt stiff too, presumably due to all the relentless typing she engaged in. But giving up was not an option. For her, it was never an option. This was her opportunity to make a statement about how she was more than just a ditzy intern in front of Lucas Hunter. And she was dead set on making the best out of it. On Friday evening, Lucas exited his office as she was clearing her workspace and walked to her desk. “Miss White,” he uttered in a flat tone. She was surprised when her heart started racing. “Yes, Mr. Hunter?” “You’ve finished the work I requested to be completed by you for this week,” remarked Mr. Hunter, his facial expression still unreadable. Ellie looked as if she was going through an epiphany. “Yes, sir.” He analysed her for a few moments and nodded. “Good. Continue doing what you have been doing.” Ellie's jaw dropped a little in disbelief. After such a stressful and unexciting week, she simply could not believe how Mr. Hunter had changed his remark. While it was never an open endorsement, it was certainly the closest to praise she had received from him since she had started working. And that was good enough. Ellie turned on her smile as the doors of the lift shut. She made it through the first week, and she was looking forward to taking on new challenges. The quickening shift towards remote work opportunities has catapulted freelancing and self-employment in management to the forefront of how business is done. Consulting, as an industry, has also flourished due to the growing mobile nature of the workforce. Businesses have had more resources available for investing in human capital; in response, the employees developed their skills and returned to work with better competencies. More often than not, developed countries have practitioners who invest in their own education.