The Assistant(21)
Author: Elle Brace

Don’t be late.

I was about to reply telling him I wasn’t going to fall for that trick again when another message came through:

I’m being serious this time.
I need to get dressed at the office
and then we need to get started
on the new billboard advertisement for the hotel.
Make sure my coffee is ready as well.
Try not to dream about me too much. Goodnight ?

I glared at the glowing screen of my phone before locking it. I moaned in frustration as I got under the covers and closed my eyes to get some sleep.

***

“You’re early today,” Allen stated with an amused grin as I walked into the small, and surprisingly packed coffee shop grumpily.

“You’ve got a full house today,” I responded, leaning on the counter as I checked the time on my phone. 7:15AM.

“It’s always this crowded at this time,” he explained. “Rush hour. The usuals, I presume?”

I nodded slightly, mumbling a tired ‘thank you’ before he went away, chuckling.

“Hey Emily!” Lisa said in a chirpy tone as she handed two orders over to two men in business attire. They gave her the money and exited the shop as I lazily raised an arm in response. She laughed and walked over to me, getting a napkin for another customer. “Not a morning person, huh?” she asked with a cheeky grin.

I shook my head and she giggled before taking another customer’s order.

“I’m guessing today’s morning call is real this time,” Allen stated, a slight smirk forming on his boyish features, ”with you getting the coffee before the usual time and all.”

“Yes, it is,” I said as he handed over our orders. “I can already tell it’s going to be a long week.”

“I wish you the best of luck. Hey, maybe when the week is over, we can go out to dinner and celebrate?” Allen asked, a hopeful look in his eye as I handed him the money for our orders.

“Sure. I’ll see. Thanks for the coffee. See you Lisa!” I called out, before lazily strolling out of the shop. I was going to be late, but I was too tired to care.

Once I arrived at the office, Adrian was pacing in his room back and forth, looking pissed off. I noticed he was wearing the exact same clothes as yesterday when he dropped me off, and I bit my lip curiously.

“You’re late,” he snapped once he noticed me standing in the doorway. I sighed and walked over to his pacing figure, handing him his clothes and shoes before putting his coffee on his desk. “Only by a minute, Mr. Kingston, and that was because I had to collect your clothing from my office.” I stifled a yawn before taking a sip of my latté.

“Are you sure it wasn’t because you were too busy throwing yourself at Allen?” He scowled as he yanked his shirt off his body and threw it on the floor. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve blushed and looked down at my ballet flats to avoid staring at his muscular body – but he was currently accusing me of something.

“What?” I asked, frowning. “’Throwing myself at Allen’? Where the hell did you get an idea like that?” I exclaimed, putting my latté down next to his.

“From the queen,” he snapped sarcastically, pushing his pants down roughly. I gasped and turned away from his almost naked figure, blushing furiously. “From Allen, who else?! You’re going on a date with him this Friday! I didn’t know you were that eager to get into his pants,” he snarled.

“What the hell are you going on about, Adrian?!” I retorted, “I’m not going on a date with Allen! He asked me to dinner, as a friend! And I haven’t even said yes yet! I said I’d see – not that my personal life is any of your business, anyway.” I crossed my arms over my chest stubbornly – even though he could only see my back.

“Well he doesn’t seem to think that!” he snapped.

I almost turned around to glare at him – then I remembered he was changing his clothes.

“And your personal life is in fact, my business,” he added. “I can’t have my assistant sleeping around with whoever she meets. It’s unprofessional.”

“Oh, but it’s okay for you to do that?” I blurted before I could stop myself. “Where were you yesterday anyway for you to come into work in the same clothing?”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” he snapped, and I heard the slight clink of a belt before he continued, “I was at Adrianna’s house.”

“A booty call. That’s good for you. Although, it’s still not an excuse to come into the office wearing what you were and-”

“And it’s my office. I’m the boss around here. I do what I want. That also means I control what you do. You’re not going to that dinner with Allen on Friday because you have to stay back in the office and set up my planner.”

“I can do that on the weekend! You know, when it’s supposed to be done?” I pointed out, getting angrier by every syllable that came out of Adrian Kingston’s mouth.

“Well, not anymore. Every second Friday, you and I will stay back in my office and we will organise the planner together. That’s final.” His voice was closer to me now, and I turned around just as he stopped directly in front of me. “If you so much as squeak in disagreement with the new rule, you’re fired. Understood?” He raised an eyebrow as he stared down at my short figure.

I pressed my lips into a straight line before pursing them and glaring up at him. “I understand, Mr. Kingston,” I said as evenly as I could, trying to mask my fury.

He smirked. “Good. Now tie my tie so we can go set up the meeting room for the billboard ad.”

He bended his knees until his face was level with mine, and the satisfied smirk never left his lips as my hand reached out and tied the tie around his neck. I pulled it a bit tighter than what was suitable to show my anger. He just chuckled and pecked my nose before grabbing his coffee and the files he had placed on his desk before walking out of his office, expecting me to follow.

Chapter Six

The rest of the week had gone by at an agonizingly slow pace – even while I was running around like a mad woman who had just lost one of her cats due to Adrian’s constant indecisive behaviour towards the project we were working on. Suzie had given me sympathetic looks most of the time, and even offered to pick up some of the slack I had piled on my plate; but I declined, not wanting to overwork her either.

Adrian had also decided that it was a completely appropriate time to let his army of Barbie dolls saunter into his office to do god knows what, leaving me to take all of his crucial calls and basically managing and overseeing the final outcomes for the billboard design. There was hardly any interaction between us after the small argument we had on Monday morning.