MY HEART BEAT

Chapter 2

Scarlett’s Pov

Standing on the stairs, I watch everyone. So many people that could never care any less about Al’s death, all glowing in white faking sympathy. Despite how he was, he was like a father to me. I had worked with him for years since college and even with his short temper, aggressive episodes and disregard for people’s emotions, he liked me and he treated me well. I guess I am one of the selfish people too that mostly liked him because I was a benefactor of his partiality. But there are those here that are bubbling with joy, the ones he was never nice to.

Nancy steps up and dings her glass. Oh no, here we go. She starts to give a feigned speech about her husband, how heartbroken she is and his legacy. I never knew if she really loved him but I have never trusted her and I prefer Vivian. I sigh, I can’t wait to leave this party, it’s emotionally draining.

As I walk down the stairs sipping my champagne, a guy running up the stairs mistakenly hits my glass and the wine spills all over my blouse and on my face, over my makeup. I’m so shocked, I just stand there gasping and blinking. I look up at him and he’s just staring at my dress too, apparently surprised. When his eyes move up to mine, I notice how handsome he is. Calm metallic gray eyes, full eyebrows, long wavy neat jet-black hair, thin pink lips . He doesn’t say anything but takes the glass from my hand and drops it on a table close by and he speaks,

“I’m so sorry, let me help you clean it,” his voice is firm but apologetic.

He softly takes my right hand to lead me upstairs. I let it linger but I immediately remove my hand from his.

“No, it’s fine. It’s just champagne on a white blouse, I’ll manage and fix it myself,”.

“No. I insist,” there’s an urgence in his voice and I don’t know why but I yield to it. It’ll be fun to escape with him even if it's just for a few minutes. Who knows what could happen. I take hold of his waiting hand.

“Okay, fine.”

He leads me upstairs and it seems like he doesn’t know the bathroom.

“The restroom is this way,” I tell him.

“I know,” he mumbles.

I just follow him confused and after opening a few doors he exclaims,

“Here it is. It has a similar arrangement to the last house,”

I don’t know what he means and I ignore him. Peeping into the room, I see that it’s a laundry room. A laundry room?

He pulls me and shuts the door behind us. He picks up a towel from a shelf and runs water over it then adds some soap

“Sit,” he points at the machine.

After I sit, he softly places a hand on my waist and then looks up at me. Is he seeking approval? I followed him and I’m already sitting on the machine, what else does he need. His eyes linger over mine for a moment, then he looks down at the stain which is on my chest and he places the towel and carefully cleans. I watch him as he cleans and I don’t know what to think. This is an awkward meeting and I consider trying to talk to him, but he seems too serious and unfriendly.

“There, we go,” he pulls back enthusiastically with a beaming smile on his face and his cold eyes shine bright with warmth. It’s so startling and cute, I laugh.

“Why are you laughing?” He replies, still with his smile plastered on his face.

“It’s you…your…,” I laugh again.

“Your excitement… It’s, it’s just a stain,” my laugh turns into a smile.

“But it’s gone,” he smiles back.

His eyes fixate on mine and I don’t stop staring back.

“We just need to rinse and dry your blouse now,” he snaps and his smile vanishes.

“Rinse it?”.

“Yeah,” he gives me his hand and I know he’s asking me to take off my top.

“Alright. I’m done with you babying me. I’ll rinse and dry it myself, just wait outside,”

I drop down from the machine.

“Are you sure?”.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,”.

“I’ll be just outside,”.

He leaves and I take off my blouse. I run water over the stain and I shove it into the tub. Now to turn it on. I search for spin or dry, but there are too many labels. Why are there so many labels? I try to figure them out but the one I have at home is much easier to use. I’m afraid of messing my blouse up, so I open the door a little and he’s standing outside.

“Um, hey. I think I might need your help,”

He smiles again. This time, it’s not about the stain, it’s a mocking smirk. He's happy I failed. He avoids staring at me because I’m just in my bra and turns to the machine.

“ So what happened?”

“There are so many buttons, I didn’t know which to use,”

“ I thought you said you didn’t want to be babied?”

There it is. I roll my eyes, needing help isn’t being babied.

“I’ll show you,”

“There’s the rinse and spin but you need to set the temperature and some other stuff, this way,”

He presses some buttons and it starts spinning.

“ Well mine is a wash and spin. So it’s pretty different,”

“Yeah, ofcourse,” he says with a smug look on his face.

He hands me my blouse smirking then I snatch it from him and put on. So humble yet so smug. Who is this man?

As I put on my blouse, I summon the courage to ask, he still seems intimidating but there’s no harm in knowing his name. I step out and he’s standing there,

“Please could you help me zip up?”

He stares at me blankly for a while before he mumbles,

“Why not?”

I turn to my back and he walks to me.

As my zip reaches the top, he takes my hair that I was holding up from my hand and as he drops it his fingers slide past my neck. I feel shivers move down my spine. I turn to face him and he’s standing really close. My heart starts beating really fast but my breath slows and my voice quivers,

“Thank you um…,”

“Smith.” He whispers softly.

He moves my hair to the side with his fingers and moves back a bit. As he moves I feel like my breath is controlled by his movement, taking it away as he pulls back.

“Have a nice night…”

“Scarlett,” I manage to utter.

He walks to the door and I’m just lustfully staring until he shuts it and my breath comes flooding out. What just happened? I have a weird feeling in my gut and I can’t think about anything else but his fingers brushing past my back, my neck, my face. I want to go outside and tell him to come back so we can spend the whole night here, in a laundry room, but I don’t. I tap my face and shake my head. Earth to Scarlett, Scarlett. I put on my shoes, fix my makeup and leave.

Downstairs, I look around and I don’t see him, but the party is almost over and some people are leaving already. I’m not interested in saying anything to Nancy or anyone else so I leave too.

* * *

“Ring, ring, ring”

My alarm rings so loud, I almost fall off the bed. I groan as I get up, I’m not feeling as happy as I usually do in the morning. Maybe because that witch is going to be my new boss. The few times she’s shown up at the office have been my worst days, she’s literally The Devil in Prada. How could I possibly work for her on a daily basis?

After having my bath, I sit at the counter to drink coffee. Smith. I whisper while playing with my hair. I giggle. I want to see him again. I hope I will. His designers tell that he’s very rich and he won’t be difficult to find. But would he be easy to meet? I’ve thought about him all weekend and I can’t stop myself, the thought of him makes my heart flutter. To shake him off, I decide to glance through the newspaper on the table. I ordered them because the wifi has been out and I haven’t been able to use the internet. If not, why in the world would I read a newspaper. I turn it over and I spit out my coffee.

“Estranged son of Al Carter, Smith Carter, surfaces after father dies to take over the company… During the memorial service of one of the richest businessmen in America, Al Carter, his wife Nancy Carter announced in a heartfelt speech about the loss, that he has willed all of his companies to his long lost son whom we haven’t heard of until now. Nancy mentioned that he is the son of Vivan Carter, Al Carter’s first wife. Apparently, he owns his very own company, V Advertising, which is one of the biggest in San Francisco. And it seems he’ll be joining the list of New York’s most eligible bachelors.… ,”

There’s a huge picture of Smith on the next page. Holy s**t. The man I’m swooning over is my new boss. Al had a son? I don’t know how to feel. I’m happy that it’s not that devil, but I’ll be around Smith all the time and he makes me anxious and jittery. This would affect my performance.

As I change my coffee stained shirt, I replace it with a better shirt. A fitted short sleeve wrap top. I have to make an impression on him to keep his attention.

* * *

I arrive early at the office and he isn’t here yet. Everyone seems to be expectant too. Sitting in my office, I watch the other employees in their cubicles through the glass walls. Janice is adjusting her hair, Emma is looking abnormally sharp… It seems I'm not the only one who wants to get noticed. Pft, I’m the one he locked eyes with last night, sorry for them.

“Scarlett, the new boss is coming up, you’ll need to be at the elevator to give him a briefing of the schedule. You’re going to be first from the office to speak with him. I hope he isn’t too stern though,” David says enthusiastically, popping up at the door.

So soon? I take a few breaths and I walk to the elevator. My legs are wobbly, but since no one is looking at me weird, it's not obvious. I don’t have time to gather myself, the moment I get to the elevator it dings open.

“Good Morning, Mr Smith,” I blurt, with a smile a bit too wide, while stretching my hand forward.

“ Yeah. Show me to my office and brief me,” he talks quickly as he walks past me, toward the office. He didn’t even glance at me. I don’t let myself dwell on the thought, I jog behind him.

“ This way Sir. Al didn't have any meetings set for today, he usually reads through files on Monday’s. But I’d like to suggest that you take a look at the company files before looking at the ones already on his table,” I say while showing him the way to his office.

He abruptly stops casually replying greetings and turns to look at me,

“Who are you?”

I’m so confused, does he not remember me? That’s not possible, it’s just been a weekend. Everyone is staring at me because he was quite loud and instead of asking if he doesn’t remember me from last night, I reply like it’s the first time, with my heart ripping apart that I spent every second since we met mooning over him and I was merely a fleeting memory.

“I’m Scarlett Bardot, your executive secretary,”

“I was wondering what gave you the right to make suggestions I didn’t ask for,”

At least no one heard that, it was a mutter but clear enough for me to hear. He walked forward,

“This way Sir,” I mumble sullenly, gesturing to the lobby where his office is. He walks in and shuts the door behind him. I sit on my table and try to get some work done without thinking about how he just treated me but it’s almost impossible.

* * *

It’s lunch time and as I get up to leave, I peep into Smith’s office and he has his neck buried in some documents. Al’s files are still neatly arranged aside as they were in the morning, so he did take my advice. He just wanted to humiliate me. What a jerk. Regardless, I knock on his office door to ask if he’d like to have anything.

“Come in,” he says. He doesn’t look up when I enter.

“Mr Smith, it’s lunch time and I’m heading out, would you like me to get anything for you?”.

He’s mumbling as he reads and doesn’t stop when I start talking. I wait patiently for his reply.

“I was just about to call you,” he pauses to look at me.

“You won’t be going for lunch. I’m done going through all the papers and I have a problem most especially with the staff,” he motions for me to come.

He pulls out a load of staff files and dumps them in front of me.

“I’m letting people go,”

I don’t know what to say. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs. Am I part of them? Just to be sure, I ask

“Are these the people you’re keeping?” while pointing at the files.

He blinks at me, then rolls his eyes,

“Why would I give them to you if I want to keep them?” He gets up from his chair and moves to the glass window with his back to me and I move toward the files.

Right on top is my file.

“Sir,” I almost whimper.

“ What Scarlett?” he said almost in annoyance.

Though flooding with emotion that I would be losing my job, hearing him call my name made my chest flutter.

“ This is almost everyone…”

“ That is everyone,” he says, turning to me now. His eyes catch mine for a moment and it feels like Friday night all over, but he quickly glances away.

“Except you. I could still use you,” he says and swipes my file off the top.

Could you still use me? What does he think I am, a janitor? Without me, he won’t be able to do anything, I know almost everything about the company and I’m very good at my job.

“ You’ll organize interviews for new staff, because the ones we have are inefficient, I don’t even know how Al managed. We won’t fire these ones yet, we’ll get the new ones first. No lunch, do that stat,”.

“ Sir, this is a huge step don’t you think you should take some more time to think about it,” he turns his eyes away from the table and looks directly up at me.

My heart starts beating fast and my legs get wobbly. Look away or I might faint Smith.

“Scarlett?,” he says in a rather compassionate way.

There with my name again, is he trying to kill me? He gets up and walks from behind the table to the front, a few steps away from me. Yes, I think he wants me to die.

“Did I ask for your opinion?”

I’m frozen and I can’t say a word.

“I didn't think so. So don’t tell me unless I ask. You can leave,” he turns immediately and I’m finally able to breathe.

“Yes, Sir,” I hurriedly leave.