I opened the door to meet Mrs Powells standing in the hallway holding a broom and a dustpan. "Lilian," she said with excitement, "I had no idea you worked here." "I didn't know you worked here too. I just started working as Mr Pierce's secretary, it's my first day here." I said with a little smile. I was glad to see a familiar face, seeing here working here just made me feel like I wasn't an intruder. "Well, I hope Xavier isn't giving you much trouble, he's kind of a hot head sometimes," she chuckled as she walked in. I was surprised she called him by his first name "Oh come on now miss P, don't embarrass me in front of my employee." He smiled while looking at me. She stood in the middle of the room, looking for the broken piece of glass. I stood at the door post looking at them both as they both laughed at each other's jokes, wondering why they were so close. "How can Mrs Powells, a nice loving old woman and Mr Pierce, an arrogant, spoiled rich C.E.O. be friends." I thought to myself. "Why are you staring?" he asked. "Nothing," I said quickly as I walked out and shut the door. I sighed and went to down to the third floor to hand over the files to the advertising team. I met Mrs Powells on my way back and decided to ask her how she knew Mr Pierce. "I was his babysitter back when he was a young boy," she smiled as she walked with me back to my desk. "His parents were always travelling on business trips, so I would watch him until the get back. I practically raised him. He was such a sweet boy back then." She smiled again. "What happened?" I asked with worry. "After his father died, he was never the same. All he wanted to do was to impress his dad and proud, and with everything he did, his dad never showed him love for it. Even when he joined the business and made his first sale, his dad celebrate him. Instead, he just told him not to celebrate until he conquered all, not sure what that's supposed to mean. That hurt Xavier so bad. Few moths later, his dad died leaving him behind with the company to run at a very young age. He never got to hear those words from his father's mouth. Since then, he never tried to please anybody again. He just did what he felt was right and didn't give a damn about what people thought." I felt so bad for him, even though he was harsh towards me, I still felt he didn't deserve to be treated that way. "What about his mum?" I asked. "She's in another country; he doesn't speak to her at all. The last time she was here was at his dad's funeral. After she left the funeral, she never came home since." She dropped the broom and dustpan as we reached my desk. "That's really," I said as if I was going to cry. "No one should go through this." She said and then put her hand on my shoulder, "go easy on him my dear, he's just trying to deal with his grief." She picked up the broom and dustpan and left to do other things. I sat on my chair thinking about everything Mrs Powells told me while looking at my injured finger that he plastered up for me. "Maybe he isn't that bad," I said to myself. Just as soon as I said that. He stormed out of his office yelled at me. "You were supposed to remind me about the meeting with the advertising team." I had completely forgotten, I got carried away by the story Mrs Powells was telling me. "I'm sorry sir, I forgot and got distracted," I said rising to my feet. I bowed my head down to avoid looking into his angry eyes. He smacked his lips in annoyance and left; I hurried after him into the elevator. I got into the elevator and pushed the button for the third floor. There was an awkward silence between in the elevator. I thought pf asking him how he felt about his father's death but then, I remembered how he reacted earlier when I tried to bring it up. The elevator doors slid open and once again he rushed of the elevator with me hurrying behind him. "Sorry I'm late everyone, my incompetent secretary forgot to remind about our meeting," he said as he walked in to sit down. I walked in slowly staring awkwardly at everyone in the room, their eyes also glued to me like I was carrying a hundred-dollar bill on my head. "Shall we begin?" he asked rubbing his hands together. "I hope you're not planning on standing throughout the meeting Miss Reed," he gestured his hand to an empty chair beside him. I walked slowly to chair and sat down. Everyone was still staring at me. Maybe because I was new or maybe because I was the only lady in the room, but I wasn't really comfortable about the whole scene. After the meeting, I and Mr Pierce were heading back to the fifth floor. "You didn't have to stay for the whole meeting you know. He had a mischievous smirk on his face. "You're my secretary, not my personal assistant." I just kept on walking with him, no comment or reaction to what he just said. I was pained inside that I just sat down for an hour and half at meeting I was never supposed to be at in the first place. As I got to my desk, I picked up my bag and brought out my sandwich I had packed earlier. "We have a canteen that serves better meals," he said. "I like my food better," I took a bite a bite out the sandwich and closed my eyes to savour the taste. He scoffed and went into his office.
I looked at my clock and noticed it had been thirty minutes since the closing hours passed. It was getting late, and I wanted to go home already. I knocked on the door softly, opened it and poked my head through the door, not entering the office fully. "Work closed thirty minutes ago; I'll be on my way now sir." He gave a short nod; his eyes were still focused on his computer. I slowly pulled my head out of the office and shut the door. I took my bag and left the building.
Outside, the air felt cooler. I stood by roadside, hugging my bag close. A few cars passed but non stopped. I was starting to lose my patience.
Then I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to see Mr Pierce, but he walked past me without saying a word. He went straight to the parking lot. I sighed and looked away.
Moments later, a car rolled up in front of me. The window slid down. "Get in," he said simply. I hesitated. "I'll be fine, I'm just waiting for a taxi." His brow lifted slightly. "At this hour? Just get in, I don't bite." I climbed in against my better judgement. The car seat was cold against my skin. As soon as I shut the door, an awkward silence filled the car, and I think he noticed it too. I took out my phone to watch some Instagram reels, to keep myself busy. "You seem to like Instagram, right?" from the corner of my eye, I saw him glance at my screen. I quickly covered it up. "It's rude to intrude in other people's privacy sir," I turned my head to the window to avoid eye contact. "Are you calling me nosy Miss Reed?" he sounded sarcastic. "No sir, that's not what I meant," I quickly cut in. His face was unreadable; it was hard to tell if he was in a good mood or not. "A stalker who wants privacy… and I thought I've seen it all." He raised his brow and curved his lips a little. "I'm not a stalker," I said as I sat up on the seat and turned to him. "But my Instagram picture you liked says otherwise." The smirk on his face showed he was enjoying taunting me. "That was a mistake, I wasn't concentrating." I sank back into my seat, folding my arms across my chest. He chuckled; I could see him look at me through the corner of my eye and smile. That awkward silence filled the car again. I started watching some reels again. I came across a video of a couple who recently broke up because of the lady was cheating on her boyfriend. "that's not a surprise," he said, his eyes were still fix on the road. "Sorry?" I looked at him with a bit of confusion; I wasn't sure whether he was reacting to the video or maybe what he saw on the road. "The video… it's never really shocking news if something like that happens."
"Why is that sir?" I asked, I was really keen on knowing where he was going with his statement. "Well, it's obvious that all girls are actually just in it for the money." I pretended not to feel offended by his statement, but the fact that he used 'all girls', made me pissed.
"It can't be all girls." I said hoping he would rephrase his statement.
"Nope, it's definitely all girls. I mean no offense, but you all are just gold diggers, mining off every man who throws money at you. I'm pretty sure if you had your chances with me, you'll take it because of my money." He glanced at me, I frowned. "I'm not a gold digger."
"I'm not saying that you are, I'm just saying you would if you got the opportunity." his tone was filled with pride. I scoffed; I stared outside the window with my arms folded wondering why I got in his car in the first place. "Please stop the car." Tears gathered up in my eyes. "What?" he glanced at me, confused but still driving. "I said stop the car." I turned to face him; my voice was firm. "I'm not going to sit here and get insulted." A mix of frustration and guilt flickered in his eyes. He slowed down but didn't pull over. "You're overreacting." He said trying to calm me down, but it even made it worse. "Overreacting? You don't get to insult me and then decide how I should feel about it. you just called me a gold digger Xavier, and you expect me to be calm. You don't even know me." Tears had begun to roll down my cheeks, I don't think he heard the part where I called him by his first name. He finally pulled the car to the side of the road. The car engine hummed in the tense silence. He gripped the steering wheel, not saying a word. I grabbed my bag, my hand on the door handle, but I hesitated for a bit. I don't know why, but a part of me was hoping that he would stop me and apologise, but he didn't. "Just because you have money doesn't really make you a catch Mr Pierce, some people look at personalities rather than finances, and you should get to know someone first before judging them." I said as I stepped out into the cold night. My apartment was only a few blocks away, so I started walking home. I didn't hear the car drive off immediately, so I figured he was still there watching me as I walked home. I crossed my arms tightly as I walked home because of the cold, holding my bag underneath them. Tears rolled down my eyes. I wasn't sure whether I was crying because of what he said to me or that he didn't stop or come after me. I hated that I cared about him not coming after me. he didn't drive off until I got to my apartment building. I took off my shoes and jumped into my bed wondering how peaceful drive had turned into that. I picked up my phone to call Maya. "Hey boo, how was your first day," she said playfully. "Terrible," I said as I sniffled. I narrated everything that happened to her. "He's really a jerk; how dare he call you a gold digger when he doesn't know you. Just because you work for him, doesn't give him the right to insult you." From her voice, I could tell she was raging. I didn't want to tell her about how he teased me before the argument; I thought it would make me look weak. "Don't worry about it Lily, how about we go out tomorrow huh... since it's the weekend, it will be my treat." Maya always knew how to cheer me up, I guess that's why she's my best friend. "Look Maya, thanks but I think I'm going to have to pass on this one. I don't want you to go out of your way to cheer me up when you have other things to think about, I'll be fine." I was hoping she would agree but Maya has never been the kind of person who stays home all day throughout the weekend. "Come on Lily… you really need to have some fun, this week has been a rough one for you, from loosing your job to running over a lady with a taxi and being insulted by your new boss. Come on boo, let me do this for you. Please…" her high pitched toned when she dragged the 'please' told me she really wanted to this for me. "Fine" I said chuckling, "Yes," she cut in immediately. "But nowhere expensive." I said sharply. "Deal… I'll come pick you up by ten, so be ready by then okay, bye." She said dragging the bye. The line cut off and once again, the room was filled with silence. I went to my minifridge and took out a small soda and went on to watch a movie on my laptop since I wasn't sleepy. I was up on till 2 am watching my favourite movie series 'the call', until I finally drifted of to sleep while the movie was still on.