In Love With My Boss

Twenty

On Monday I get back to work. Without an unexpected pregnancy to worry about every single second of the day, I had all weekend to completely calm down and get my s**t together. I can say that I have come back to my past self.

Thinking about it now, I am really glad that I didn't tell Dimitri the truth about us. What would have been the point? Like that, I would have just stirred the pot for nothing. But I don't know how much time I can keep this from him. In only two weeks, a lot of things happened around here and it is becoming harder and harder for me to keep this thing a secret. Plus, I know me and I am afraid that one day something else will happen and I would simply slip and let it all out and I surely don't want that thing to happen. And if I keep on hanging around, he might remember something else or just realize it somehow. After all, he is not stupid and I did a not such a good job at not letting incriminatory things behind. All he has to do is to link them to me one day. And I get the feeling that that day is going to come soon. I really don't want him to know. I don't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he brought me into his bed. I want to leave this place with what dignity I have left. Yeah, you heard it right. I want to leave this place because it is for the better.

So from today on, I am officially on job hunting. As soon as I find something, whatever satisfying job that can help me provide for myself, I can get out of here and forget about everything that happened. It was a pleasurable night, but I need to get over it. I know that it cannot happen again. And after this, he can go back to torturing other women that will take my place and do whatever he wishes in bed with them. I just have to keep this secret from his as best as I can for some time longer. I just hope that not for too long though.

As usual, I enter his office at six sharp, all ready for hard work. When he sees me, he seems very surprised. It's like he didn't expect to see me. Hell, somehow I am surprised myself that I really came back to work. I have considered a couple of times these two days not to come back, but I thought that leaving all of a sudden would make him ask himself some questions. Or worse. To make him ask me some questions I don't really have an answer for.

'Feeling better already?' he asks excitedly. Oh, so this is what it was about.

'Yes, I am. Thank you for asking, Sir. The weekend was enough for me to get better.'

'I'm glad to hear that, Miss Hathaway. So, what is the schedule for today?'

'Just an appointment with the new investor's men at one. We had to move it a little later because something happened with their flight, I don't really have all the details about the delay, but I managed to get the big conference room booked for then.' He nods, a little smile being at the corner of his lips. Okay, it may be weird for me to feel this proud of myself when he is appreciating me silently, but I like that slight glint I see in his eyes when I do a good job. All I need is a pat on the head and I would get to be a good dog. Yeah, maybe I am that broken in my head. 'Besides that, your whole day is free, Sir. Oh, and I prepared all the papers you need for today's meeting. I just printed them earlier. Should I bring them now to you to check them or should I just put them into the conference room for later?'

'When?'

'Pardon me?'

'When did you have the time to do that?'

'On Saturday.' In fact, I dragged that chore all weekend long, trying to keep myself busy. I swear that I have never typed a thing that slowly in my entire life.

'Why?'

Well, because I needed something to do in order to get my thoughts away from you mister, that's why. It's better to be drowning in papers than to keep on reliving every moment in which I thought you might feel the same for me but you only wanted to pick me up for a one night's stand. But it is not his fault that I am just seeing things where there are not any. For my own good, I really think I should stop misinterpreting things.

But I can't tell him the real reason. 'What do you mean why? Because this investor is very important for this company, and I know you needed them for today's presentation, Sir, that's why. And I needed to make them on Friday anyway, but since I got a free day on Friday, I had to take care of them later.'

'But you were sick.'

Where does all this sudden concern for me come from? On a usual day he would just throw an ''I don't care'' at me when I would have an excuse for something I didn't do, and now he is the one giving me excuses not to do some things? Like, some important things, not just some usual day to day s**t. There is something fishy going around and I don't like not knowing what.

'No, I wasn't that sick. I took some pills that made me feel better and by Saturday morning everything was already good.' I need to keep on to my lying now that I started this s**t. And if he keeps on asking more questions, I might need to add more lies to the story. But God, I so hope that I won't get caught in them.

He smiles at me and nods.

'You should have rested instead, Miss Hathaway. Those were your free days. I would have managed to deal with this thing on my own. But thank you. I really appreciate the effort.' And again I see that little glint in his eyes and I want to make a pirouette around the office. Yeah, I am surely and slowly losing my minds over this man. 'Bring me the papers, please. I'd like to take a look at them before the meeting.'

Okay, leaving aside how much I enjoy it, this thing is weird. Did he hit his head or something? Did the Christmas ghosts visit him earlier than planned or something? He is acting waaay to nice with me all of a sudden, and the fact that I don't know the reason is bothering me very much. Did he realize it was me that night and now tries to make a move or something? God, why am I even playing this game with him? I should have been long gone from here but I keep on messing around and fooling myself with every misinterpretation of his gestures. There is nothing going around, I am just imagining things. And I need to stop before things get bad.

I get out and back in with the stack of papers. As I hand them to him, I take a look at his wrist, as I always do ever since after that night. No necklace. Wow, not even a whole month passed as I first predicted. It took him just two weeks to get over that. So, maybe he didn't find out and gave up on trying. Just like a normal person would, Rose. What was I expecting? For him to have a sudden revelation and come running into my arms? No, really Rose. Make up your f*****g mind! Do you want him to know or not? And honestly, I have no idea. Some days I do, some days I don't.

And now my necklace is lost forever. What am I going to tell my mother? I am surely going to get a lecture about being responsible and having to take care of my family's possessions the first time I'll meet her. And she will surely enjoy every second of it. But the damage is already done. There is nothing I can do to retrieve the necklace from him. Unless I decide to tell him the truth, of course.

Things would have been so much easier if I just didn't take that glass of alcohol from him that night. It's funny how one small thing can lead to so much s**t. I had one job. To stay away from him. How hard could it be, right? Obviously, harder than I first expected because I failed lamentably.

When the meeting was about to start, he told me that I didn't really need to come because they were going to talk mostly in Russian and that I wouldn't understand very much. If he would need me, he would send someone for me. I was more than surprised to hear that.

The last meeting he had with the same men, about two months ago, he practically dragged me in there with him and let me get bored out of my mind while, from across the room, he constantly took glances in my direction, enjoying seeing me suffer. I was about to tell him that he should have taken a picture because it would last longer, but I didn't get the chance. I didn't really want to snap at him into a room full of people who were respecting him. I preferred to keep the teasing battle more private. Now, I prefer not to have that battle at all. It would be too risky.

That time too I made myself busy with drawing some comics in all which he ended up dead, and he kept on trying to see what I was doing, but to my luck, he was kind of far and managed to see just half of one my ugly ass drawings that was trying to depict him as satan. And to my most luck, he didn't see the resemblance between the two of them because I have like zero talent, and after the meeting, he just made fun of it, asking me how old I was.

Ah, such good times we had. Now I have to be completely stiff around him, trying not to let any stupidity leave my smartass mouth or let my hands do what I really want to do.

Well, I was not going to complain about him not making me attend that meeting. If he was going to leave me alone, I didn't mind at all. No one wants to hear some men speaking a language you have no knowledge about. Just on special occasions. Like when he is the one speaking. Everything he says has this sexiness about it, even though he might as well be reading his shopping list. Sometimes I wonder how it would be for him to whisper to me that sweet word again. Or to call me Roza all day long. Stop that! This is not healthy at all Rose.

The time passed and after about two hours he finally came back. Yeah, I would have surely ended up clawing my eyes off out of boredom.

'Well, how did the meeting go, Sir? Are they going to invest?'

'Not yet.'

Well, he seems somehow pissed. Hell, I'd be more pissed than he is right now if I would work my ass off for so much time and someone would just flip me off. Again. Who the hell this important investor is anyway? Who he really thinks he is after all to play with us like this? And why is he so pretentious? We did everything perfectly, until the last detail; I personally took care of that. What didn't he like this time?

As he reaches for his door, he suddenly stops and turns my way, a sudden revelation seeming to pass his brain. Oh, he has some great idea of how to put this investor on his good behavior, I am sure of it.

'Miss Hathaway, do you have something important to do next week?'

Oh, so are we going to go back to working late again? This is his master plan? Well, I should have seen it coming. The last time the investor turned us off, this man practically kept me captive into this office. I barely got home to catch some hours of sleep. But you know what? The money I will get for my additional hours is going to come in handy. If I can't find another job soon, I will quit and survive with the money I set aside for my bad days, until something better appears. This is the best plan I have right now.

'No, Sir. I have no plans for next week.'

'Fine. You may want to start packing because I am taking you with me to Russia next week.' This is totally unexpected.

'Wait, what?'

'I am going to personally meet our next investor, no more middlemen. And I am taking you with me.'

'But, but… What should I do there?'

'Accompany me, Miss Hathaway. Aren't you my secretary?'

'Yes I am, but I can't-'

'Make sure you pack enough for about five days, Miss Hathaway.' he said at last and entered his office.

'Five days, Lissa! Five! It's close to a whole week! How am I going to survive to be 24/7 with that man? I can barely restrain myself sometimes from strangling his neck when I see his face for some hours a day! You know he drives me insane. Oh, what if I speak in my sleep and he finds out? You know I do that from time to time. And hear this. Lately, he is being nice. Too nice. Why is he being nice? What is he after? He surely wants to get something from me.'

'You should really stop being that paranoid honey. Maybe he is like that with everyone and you just don't want to accept it.' Yeah, he treats everyone nicely until they push his buttons, but I can feel that with me, things are different. And I kind of guess why. 'And it's not exactly 24/7 Rose. Unless you plan on sleeping with him again. Or in the same room, at least.' she says barely keeping a smile appear on her face.

Yeah, the s**t I got myself into might be funny from her point of view, but for me, it is so f*****g frustrating to be so close to him and not be able to do anything. There is this constant battle in me whether I should let myself feel the things I feel for him or to run away from him as far as I possibly can. I didn't come to a conclusion yet.

'Oh, so this is funny now? Because for me it surely isn't. And you know what I mean so cut the crap.'

'Yeah, sorry. You know I can't help myself at times. I swear that I am getting some of Christian's behavior lately. But why didn't you just say no?'

'Oh, so don't you think I tried? But I just wasted my breath. It seems that my excuses weren't good enough. He just told me that I first said that I am free and asked me where all of those new duties came from all of a sudden. And of course that I didn't know what to respond to this! I have already scratched my brain out just to come up with those lame excuses. And when I couldn't answer, he told me that I am going with him and that it is final. And he even served me the ''Maybe the change of decor will do you some good to your stomach.'' What could I have said to him about that? That in fact there is nothing wrong with me and I just thought I was carrying his baby? And then he would have asked me how did that happen and hell, wouldn't I have had some good explanations to give? So, yeah. I am doomed to go on this trip.'

'But maybe it won't be that bad.'

'Yeah, sure. It won't be that bad. Just me and him, alone into a cold county for five days. And when there won't be anything to keep us warm what will happen? I can't do this.'

'Then there must be something we can do to help you avoid leaving.'

'I know! Lissa, I will need your help.'

'With what?'

'We need to get outside first. Then, you get into the car and drive pretty fast in front of the building. At some point, I'll come out of nowhere and jump in front of the car. We will make it seem like an accident. No one will know anything, and you will not get into trouble. I'll even state that it was my entire fault. I wasn't paying attention while crossing or something, I'll come up with something credible. And I will be safe too because you are a nurse and you can give me first aid right on spot. But be careful please not to hit me too hard, okay?' She frowns and tries to stop me. 'No, no. Listen to me until the end. This is the perfect plan. Just make sure that you hit me into the legs so that I'll need some cast. I would prefer to be the left foot because I already have some pain in the right, but it is not mandatory. Like this, Dimitri won't be able to drag me to Russia with him. Or he will? He may do this, from how I know him. Yeah, he would. I mean, a broken leg wouldn't stop him. Liss, tell me what is the most noninvasive way to get hospitalized? Only for a few days. Like this, he will surely-'

'Rose, stop it. I will not do that. Ever. Are you out of your mind?'

'Well, maybe I am. But I am pretty desperate right now.'

'You have to do this, there is no escape. Oh, there may be something you could do to get away.'

'What? Will it hurt?'

'No, it won't hurt. Maybe just your ego a little. Buuuut,' she says rounding her eyes around the room. 'you could quit.'

'No! I won't quit until I find another job. You know I need the money.'

'You don't really need it, I already told you that-' I throw her a glance. I so don't want to go back on living on her money and this is final. 'Fine. Then, you have to go. There is no other way out.'

'I so don't like it when you use logic on me.'