The Billionaire's Inconvenience

Chapter 1

The alarm was so loud it jerked Vivienne out of bed. She clutched her chest as she dragged in deep breaths of the cool New York air. To be fair, it wasn't just the alarm; she just had the weirdest dream she had ever had in... well...three days.

The last odd dream she had was three days ago, and they always revolved around the same subject. She lay back on her bed, contemplating whether to take another short nap, but remembering what happened the last time she tried it she got out of bed immediately. On her way to the bathroom, she paused briefly in front of the mirror and, looking at herself, shook her head sadly, unable to recognize herself.

She looked tired, and why not? The last few months have been utter hell. She jerked her head to the bedside where her phone was ringing. "Ugh!' she groaned. "It's goddamn six am in the f*****g morning."

She walked to her bedside and peeked at her phone. It was an unknown number. She rolled her eyes and left it to ring while going back to continue getting ready, or rather, in this case, to begin as all she had been doing was looking at herself in the mirror and trying hard not to feel as miserable as she did.

She wondered when he was finally going to leave her alone and stop calling her, after all, wasn't he the one who walked away? abandoning her when she needed him the most. Now she found it hard to understand what he wanted from her, now that she was finally getting her life back together.

The incident that happened a few months ago turned her life upside down. Everything she was familiar with was snatched from her, making her have to even flee from her hometown to a city as bustling and full as Manhattan, all in the hopes that nobody, or at least very few people, would recognize her. Now she was finally getting her life together.

She got a job she loved, a career that, with the right push from the right people, would go through the roof, and, of course, a friend who made every day a little better than it would have been.

Slipping on her pair of dark velvet stilettos, she wondered if she was hungry enough to have breakfast at the moment or if she could wait till her lunch break. After all, it was just... she looked at her watch... four hours away. Yup, she could definitely wait till lunch. She carried her bag and double-checked everything in her apartment as she always did before work every morning. She turned off the lights and slipped out, locking the door behind her as she left.

To be honest, one of the things she liked the most was how walking to work felt, or at least the transition between getting a cab and reaching her office. Looking at everyone else every morning rushing to work, and going about their daily business made it easier for her to convince herself that nobody really cared about her past or who she was.

It also made it difficult for her to regret her decision to move. At the end of the day, she was a city girl, so whatever life she chose as long as it was lived in the city, she was always going to be alright.

Vivienne had worked for Cipher magazine for six months now, and she was amazing at her job, which made it easier for people to tolerate her feisty and occasionally sassy attitude.

She wasn't necessarily rude unless the person in question totally deserved it, but she had a mean streak that let people know she wasn't the one to be messed with. In fact, the only person who knew about her misery and also the degree to which she was so miserable was herself.

To every other person, she came across as the sassy, no-nonsense workaholic who had her life together, mostly because her work was where she thrived. Investigating other people's lives gave her the consolation that maybe hers wasn't so f****d up after all compared to others.

She got the job after her mom asked a favor of the magazine's editor-in-chief, a longtime friend of her mother who happened to be her boss. After the scandal nobody in America wanted anything to do with them, including Dominique Frost, the ruthless, sharp editor-in-chief of Cipher Magazine.

However, behind that cold, ruthless exterior was a soft maternal kindness, and when Simone's daughter Vivienne came to see Dominique for the first time, how could she say no to giving her a chance? And besides, she owed it to her friend because Simone had come through for her a couple of times in the past, and a debt was a debt.

The office occupied the top three floors of a narrow Flatiron building that had survived three world wars, four recessions, and a brief, embarrassing stint as a hat factory in 1923. The elevator groaned on the way and gave a sharp 'ding!' once she reached the second floor. "Vivienne!" Martha called from her desk. "Dominique is calling for you," she said.

"When was this?" Vivienne asked.

"About five minutes ago," she replied. Okay, five minutes wasn't so bad. She walked quickly to her desk and dropped her bag, coat, and coffee, which cost her ten minutes of her time that morning. If she had been quicker with the coffee, she would have been earlier.

She walked quickly to her boss' office and rapped softly on the glass door. Dominique was sitting, facing the window, with her back to the door. "Come in," she called.

"Good morning, Dominique. You called for me." Vivienne said.

She turned her chair around slowly, facing her. "That was ten minutes ago". Her voice was soft, feminine, and husky with a lilt of French accent. It would be very foolish for one to mistake that femininity for weakness. "Are you just coming to work, Vivienne?" She asked.

"I just came in not long ago". Dominique c****d her head to the side.

"Well, not too long ago... I was just..."

"Sit down." Dominique said. Vivienne pulled the chair in front of her and sat. She let her eyes glance briefly at the view in front of her before looking back at her boss. Sigh, what she wouldn't do for that view. "I have a role for you. Maxwell Ashford's son, Dean, is turning thirty-two in the next 6 months, and Cipher Magazine has been chosen to do a piece on him."

"Oh, okay. You want me to do the piece?" Dominique took off her glasses. Uh-oh.

"This is something different Vivienne. You're not doing a piece per say, you're doing an autobiography. WE are doing an autobiography. but you're the lead writer and investigative journalist."

"What? what do you mean? I've never even written a book before." She replied.

"Yes I know that. That’s why I said we. Just think of it as an extensive piece."

"Well yeah, an extensive piece spanning over chapters Dominique." She replied as calmly as she could.

"Quit whining. If I didn't think you were suitable for this role, I wouldn't have called you in. You're going to be side by side with him for three months. That's going to be enough to study him, observe him, and ask him as many questions as you need to."

Vivienne dragged a deep breath. "Okay. When do I start?"

"That's what I like to hear. You start today. He is already aware of your coming."

“Today? I don't even know anything about this or what I'm supposed to do. I'm going to go there and look like an idiot."

“You won't. We were just informed about this last night. Everyone is on their toes at the moment. Go see Jeoffrey, he'll update you and give you the rest of the details. And if you have any further questions, just ask him. Off you go." Vivienne felt a little dizzy as she got up.

"And Vivienne?" she turned as she reached the door. "You've got this. And don't disappoint me, I mean it," she gulped and nodded, closing the door behind her. Maybe she should have had that breakfast after all.