In Love With My Boss

Eleven

Two months have passed from my first day and I am still standing. It is something, you know? I can feel the respect coming from other people as I pass them on the hallways. They all know who I am and what I do around here. And it feels like I am some kind of knight that has tamed the beast, as Sydney would put it. But in fact, things aren't as bad as everybody thought. Is he annoying me every single day? Yes, of course. But am I sure to pay him back? Always. We have this weird balance that keeps us working. So, there is nothing that I can't handle.

I resisted long enough to take two paychecks. And, because my second check arrived so close after my birthday, to celebrate that, on a Sunday, I take Lissa and Christian out to a nice pub in town, my treat.

'Rose, you really deserve some bravery prize.' Christian says.

'Oh, what can I say? I just do my best.' I respond flattered.

'Yeah, you really are.' he says jokingly. 'At pissing him off. This is so stupid from you. I am truly amazed that he hasn't expelled you from this town yet. I wonder why he is putting up with you. You know, I guess that the only thing he has to do is to call someone and your whole life might be ruined.'

'Oh, come on. He's not that influential around here. Right?'

'Yeah, keep on believing that Hathaway.'

'Hey, he has all his men and things, but let's be honest. He can't go that far. Even he has his limits. He won't do that.'

'Why, because you showed him your panties?' Christian asks.

I turn my head and squint my eyes in Lissa's direction. 'Oh my God, Lissa! You told him that?'

She makes herself little. 'Yeah, I kind of got carried away and spilled the tea.'

'You are unbelievable. You are a little traitor, that's what you are.' I say and begin to poke her. I do this because I know it annoys the s**t out of her.

'Oh, come on. Don't be so shy.' he says, trying to cover his lover, and round his arm around her, pulling her closer to him.

'Oh, f**k off, Ozera.' I imitate his tone.

We spent the rest of the time out drinking, laughing about every stupid thing I did to piss Dimitri off, because Christian was a little behind with my actions and playing never have I ever with shots.

We got home around midnight, and we were all a little lightheaded. Well, I was a little drunk in fact, because it seems that the two lovers complotted against me just for fun. And let's be honest, there were a lot of things they could have made me drink a shot for. I did a lot of stupid things throughout my existence. Especially to my boss. Thank God that not with him.

We went to sleep around two maybe, after we played some Monopoly. It is so hard to take care of how you are spending your money when you are drunk. You just want to buy everything. I lost all my money first, at about half an hour after the game began. Me, the one who studied Economics. Wow, the thing booze can do to your brain. After that, I spent the rest of the game watching the two love birds competing with each other and eating some popcorn.

'Rose.'

'Mmmm. Leave me alone. Five more minutes please.'

'Rose!' says Lissa poking me.

'What? Let me sleep. And bring me a pill. My head is ready to explode. I had too many shots last night. And this is all your fault.'

'Rose, it is 5:30.'

'What?' I jump out of the bed, the sleep disappearing at the sound of that late hour. Oh, f**k! I fell asleep and I forgot to set my alarm. I am so dead right now. Sooooo dead. That punishment thing comes into my mind and this makes me move even faster around the house. I so don't want to find out what he is going to do to me. Who knows what will happen if I come to enjoy it too?

In five minutes I am ready, I put my jacket on and I get out the door, with a stack of folders in my hands. I throw them on the passenger seat, buckle myself up and drive as fast as I can. Unfortunately, I arrive at 5:58 because the city is completely stacked today. It is already too late to do something. So why would I even bother? Even if I am only a minute late, I am going to get that disapproving look from Belikov no matter what. And anything his mind will pull off. So why would I bother?

To make things better, I hardly find a parking lot, and as I was parking my car, one song that I liked began on the radio. I decide to give up on trying to get upstairs on time, so I turn the volume up and lay my head on the seat. I close my eyes and listen to it. This is the last moment of my day today when I can enjoy myself. My last moment of peace. Because the rest of the day is going be a b***h with a grumpy Belikov walking around the office. He and his ''don't be late'' policy. Well, FYI, s**t happens some days and people get late. And who knows, maybe I would get the chance to see his super nice girlfriend today as well. She hasn't been visiting him for quite some time now. In fact, if I think about it, I haven't seen her face ever since that night Dimitri and I had dinner. Who knows, maybe she found out about that and decided to punish him somehow. But anyway, today it would be the perfect day to visit your boyfriend at work. My headache could only get worse this way.

The song was about halfway when someone knocks on my window. Gosh, I couldn't even listen to a f*****g song in my f*****g car without being interrupted? Am I asking for too much? I open my eyes and turn my head to see who is the person daring to disturb me. And it is him. Oh, s**t. The bad day began even earlier than I expected.

I exhale deeply and roll my eyes internally, turn off the radio and lower my window. 'Good morning, Sir.' I say, trying to turn my mouth into a small smile.

'Good morning Miss Hathaway. Do you know what time is it?'

No, I am so f*****g stupid that I can't read four numbers on a damn phone.

Hm, but I could do something.

'Yes. It is exactly' I look at my phone '5:45.'

He looks at me and doesn't say anything to argue with what I said, his face keeping its expression unchanged, even though I can see his eyes getting that shiny thing they get every time he thinks about something to do to pay me back. But to my surprise, he doesn't come out with anything.

'Fine. I'll wait for my coffee.' he says and leaves. Wow, so, no ''don't be late'' speeches? This is new. I thought that he was just waiting for the occasion to mess with me. Why isn't he taking advantage of this? There is something fishy about this.

But wait, this means that I still have time to repair the situation. After all this time, he finally gave me a f*****g break. I might be lucky today!

I get out of the car, take all my files and run inside. To my continuous luck, I catch the elevator as its doors are closing, and I enter fast. But I am not alone. He is already in there. Of course he is. I give him a smile and wait to ascend.

In order to save some time, I put all my files on the floor and proceed to unzip my jacket. But the zipper gets stuck in my shirt. Just perfect. I was struggling to pull it down but that bastard was not cooperating at all.

'Oh, motherfu-' I begin to say, but I realize that I am not alone and stop myself in due time. Otherwise, I would have gotten the ''watch your language Miss Hathaway'' speech one more time in the last couple of days.

He exhales and says: 'May I?'

'Yeah, sure.' Go ahead, have fun.

I turn and let him handle my s**t. He grabs the little key and pulls it down hard. He succeeds to unzip my coat. But at the same time he managed to rip my shirt in the process. Now, the left half of my chest is visible, revealing my pink flowery bra and some part of my chest. And he is staring with a hungry glare.

'Seeing something you like, comrade?' I distract him before he decides to get touchy.

He snaps out of it, shakes his head and takes back his place, facing the doors, looking down.

I pull my coat, covering myself. What do I do now? Walk around showing off my bra all day? Why did I even let him do that? And couldn't he just pull a little gentler?

The elevator stops, I grab the files from the floor and get out fast as the tension in that little room is kind of too much to resist to.

I decide to keep my jacket on for the rest of the day. I will die from the heat, but I have no other choice. From now on, I am going to have some spare clothes in my office. What if he is going to rip another shirt of mine? I have to be prepared.

I make his coffee and bring it to him, along with all those files.

'Thank you, Miss Hathaway.' I nod and head to the door. 'Are you going to stay like that all day?'

'I guess I will. I have no other clothes.'

He bends down and gets something from one of his bureau drawers. It is a white shirt. Well, at least someone thinks about everything around here.

'You can wear this. It might be big, but at least you won't have to wear your jacket all day.'

'I, um, thank you.'

I get to the bathroom and change myself. His shirt is amazing. It has a nice diamond pattern on the front, and the back is simple. The material is so soft at touch and it faintly smells like him. It does look funny on me, but I roll its sleeves up and tuck it into my skirt, and like this, I look quite okay.

My brain suddenly makes me think about how would I look dressed only into his shirt the morning after we would have spent the night together, as I would make my way to his kitchen, where I would find him making me breakfast. I shake my head as I look at my reflection into the mirror. No, really, what the hell is happening with me?

I get back to my office and do my thing. But as I take a look on my desk, I find there an expensive box of Belgian chocolates. Where did that come from? It surely wasn't here when I got here.

He usually gets things like these from a lot of people and maybe this is something for him and the delivery boy around the building left it on my desk to deliver it. I get in his office and tell him about the box. First, as he sees me changed into his shirt he gives me a smile and then says this:

'No, Miss Hathaway. That's for you.'

'For me? What did I do for them?' I have been nothing but a constant annoyance.

'Wasn't your birthday on Saturday? I got you something.' wow, he remembered that?

'Oh, thank you, Sir. That's very thoughtful of you.'

I get out of his office, already ripping the wrapper of the box.

If he keeps on doing things like these I may come to the conclusion that maybe, he's not the son of a b***h I thought he is. Maybe. But I know too well that he has an agenda when it comes to me.

But maybe today won't be that bad after all. He gave me a break earlier and he is being nice to me? And he even smiled. A genuine smile, people, not only his half lip turns! I guess I stumbled onto an elf on my way to work today.

Oh, and the best part of this day was seeing Tasha. It seems that I somehow invoked her by thinking at her earlier and she really showed up today. Her face dropped when she saw what I was wearing. She didn't say anything to me, but, from what I could pick up, Dimitri got a big lecture about it. Of course, he invoked the old phrases with: ''A thing just happened and I borrowed her my shirt.'' And ''That is none of your business anymore Tasha.'' But let's be honest there boy. She is your girlfriend and it is somehow her business, no?

I don't get to hear the rest of their conversation because I had to urgently go downstairs to deliver a file and when I was back Tasha was already making her way out, with a flushed face that she makes every time things don't go her way and when she sees me she throws me an ugly glare. I was just entering my office and she came my way fast and we were both into the doorway when she decided to speak. Her voice was cold as ice and harsh: 'I know what you are doing and I tell you it won't work. Back off or I will end you.' is all she says and gets past me, pushing me out of her way with her elbow.

Hell, it seems that the two of them had a little fight because of me and I don't know how to feel about that. I really don't like the situation in here. I don't want for Dimitri to give her other reasons not to like me. She would already kill me in my sleep if she could.