The CEO And His Assistant

Chapter 2

PEARL

The next morning I strutted into Mr Lucien Clyborne’s Mansion, confidently as the clonking sound of my stilettos echoed through the hallway. I flipped my newly done wavy hair around my shoulders and I wore a bright smile as I walked towards his room, like the day before, he had already dressed up and he was facing the floor-to-ceiling window, his hands gracefully hooked at the back of his waist.

“Good morning sir! It’s good to see you again. My name is Pearl Dallarosa and I’m your newly employed Personal Assistant.” I said with a bright and brittle face and a grin on my lips. As he turned around, my heart raced, behind my beam facade was a great despair—the fear of being rejected.

“You have got some nerves showing up here again, and why do you keep saying your name, I don’t care about your name girl.” He said coldly as he walked past me.

I followed him, knowing there was hope as he hadn’t told me to leave yet.

“You would have to address me as something eventually sir and my name is Pearl Dallarosa,” I said as I quickened my pace to catch up with him.

“You seem to be so confident that you have the job girl.” He stopped to scrutinize me for a second. He looked at me from my feet up to my face, I could see that he noticed the new look. Well was I still looking untidy Mr. CEO? I smirked mentally.

“I’m deeply sorry for the way I acted the other time sir, I was having a bad day and it made me transfer some aggression. But if you try me for a week and I don’t impress you then I would willingly resign sir.”

“No, you can’t resign when you don’t have the job. Be careful with the words you use girl. However, my HR made me realize something.”

“What’s that sir?” I asked with intimidation lurking all over me.

“That I hate you.” He said curtly.

How worthless could I feel more than I was already feeling, as painful as it was for me, I deserved it, I deserved all the hate, I was rude to him. Besides, being affected by his hatred for me would not pay off my father’s loan or my sister’s tuition.

“Which is why you are now on probation. Like you said, I’ll give you a month to prove to me that you are fit for the job then, I’ll hand over the employment letter to you and if not, you will leave the company without a penny.

“I’m fine with that sir,” I screamed excitedly In my head.

“Good, now that we are on the same page, I will not have to teach you everything, which means you have a week to learn everything. By the second week, I expect you to do the right things without being told.”

“Yes sir,” I said with a little nod.

**********

It had been three days since the outset of my probation and it had been pretty difficult, Mr. Clyborne was a very difficult person and once he told me how to do something just once, he expected that I would have mastered it. An example was how to make his tea, he told me just one time and I had made the tea over 50 times that day until he was satisfied. I almost gave up on everything but the thought of not disappointing my dad was what gave me strength and hope.

In just three days I had learned a college syllabus's worth of knowledge, he expected me to learn all these things in a week, and the next week he’d start to examine my approach to work. Like how I would manage his clients during a meeting, my work ethic and etiquette, even down to learning some languages like Spanish and French. My saving grace was I offered linguistics as a course in college and I needed to brush them up, so I had been staying up all night revising them and waking up by 5 am to get ready for work before 7 am.

But I was excited for today, there was going to be a cocktail party at the mansion later in the evening so Mr. Clyborne would let me get off from work early to prepare for the party. I was supposed to be by his side all through the party as he would be meeting some potential investors and important personnel. I felt like the test had already started and I was going to put in my best to make sure that I impressed him but the only problem was, that I had nothing to wear.

I stood in front of my closet, staring blankly at all my dresses and remembering the HR in his words, “Untidy.” How was I supposed to look smart or clean or… sexy, I smirked at the thought of being all dressed up beside Mr. Clyborne. Well, that was never going to happen with the clothes in front of me.

I stood there in dilemma, as I thought of telling Mr. Clyborne about this but I ended up concluding on going with what I had.

After work that day, as Mr. Clyborne entered his car, I stood after opening for him, I was about to slam the door when he gestured for me to wait.

“The party is at 9 pm, I expect you to be there by 8 pm. And out of all the days, today I don’t want you looking all tacky so have this.” He proceeded to hand over a box to me.

“That is what you should wear, look neat!” He said and slammed the door by himself.

I stood there in utter surprise, I didn’t know how to feel, whether excited or insulted but that didn’t matter, what mattered was that I was going to attend the party and I had a dress.

As soon as I got to my house, I delved into the box, and I saw a peach dress with heels, the tags still attached to it with its price. My mouth gaped at the price, it was worth my tuition for a year. And instantly the thought of selling the dress after the event came to my head.

*************

As I stepped into the cocktail party right beside Mr. Clyborne, the atmosphere instantly enveloped me in a whirlwind of clinking glasses, lively chatter, and a faint aroma of exotic concoctions mingled in the air. The room was awash in soft, golden light, casting a warm glow upon the elegantly dressed guests who mingled and moved with effortless grace.

As we made our way through the crowd, I exchanged polite nods and smiles with unfamiliar faces and caught snippets of animated conversations along the way. I could feel eyes gazing at me as we moved along, the ladies at an angle giggling and looking at me. At that moment I was glad that I was beside Mr Clyborne, it came with a lot of respect and pride. People greeted me as though I was his date or someone important. I stood by his side throughout the conversations with his guests, attending to his every need with a beam and some people who couldn’t meet with him directly had to come to me first, at that moment the job had come with a lot of grace.

As the night stretched on, I started to feel weary and my legs started to ache in my heels also, people had started to retire back to their homes. “Can I take a break sir, I could use a drink right now,” I said to Mr, Clyborne as I couldn’t take the cocktails during the party because I wasn’t allowed to be drunk or tipsy.

“Sure, drink away, you have been a good girl tonight.” He said before walking away. I smiled at myself, would that mean that he was impressed with me already? Would that mean that I would get the job?

I was in a celebration mood because the night had been a success and I had managed to impress Mr. Clyborne. I walked toward the bar and there stood a skilled mixologist deftly crafting a masterpiece in a crystal glass, his hands moving with precision and finesse—the array of spirits and liqueurs lining the shelves behind him glimmer enticingly waiting to be explored.

I raised a glass to my lips, savoring the taste of the cocktail, and there came three girls, they were the girls who were giggling at me during the party.

“Hey, you!” One of the girls bellowed while laughing, I sat there wondering what was funny, it was definitely not the way I looked cos I was stunning, and right there I knew they were just jealous.

“How can I help you?” I asked with a straight face.

“We just wanted to drink with you, you seem close to Lucien, isn’t he the dream.” Another girl asked.

“Well, I can’t say since I’m only his employee.”

“I’m sure you must fantasize a lot about him.”

“If you have nothing important to say, I would like to leave.” I wasn’t going to be a tool for them to kill their boredom.

“Come on! You are such a bore! Well, don’t try to fantasize cos he’s engaged already!” They all chortled with laughter before walking away.

That was shocking, although I could care less about someone who wasn’t even officially my boss yet. I sat there thinking about their statement and before I knew it, I was gulping my 5th glass of c**k tail. At that moment I was already tipsy and that was my cue to stop. I walked away from the bar and along the copings of the pool, the pool had a serene surface, the moon reflecting on it, I stood there for a moment with a wavering sight, I took one more step and submerged into the pool.

In the water, everything turned into chaos. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find the surface. Panic took over as I struggled against the water pulling me down. With each moment, it got harder to keep going. I was running out of strength, and the world started to fade away. All I could do was hope someone would save me, but it felt like time was slipping away.