After the High School Romance

Chapter 7

"Tiffany, I need you to cancel all my appointments tonight. Reschedule the important ones to tomorrow," Damien hung up before she could even begin to protest, and pulled up at the nearest parking lot.

He made his way towards the tall building and pushed through the glass door etched with the words "Cohen Publishings". There was a flurry of activity as he walked towards Kim's office at the end of the hallway, with employees on the phone or rushing to complete drafts for submission.

It was a sophisticated space, modern and airy with shiny marble floors and an abundance of natural light streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. He recognised Brian, Kim's assistant, sitting at a desk just outside her office.

His gaze shifted towards Damien as he approached him, and acknowledged him with a smile. "Mr Walker, Ms White's currently in the middle of a conference call, why don't you have a seat first? I'll let her know you're here."

Damien nodded, and took a seat in one of the black leather chairs. "So Brian, how's it like working here? Busy?"

"Yeah, kind of, I hardly have time off to visit my family in London." Brian replied sheepishly.

"Tell you what, come work for me, I'll give you more time off, with a bigger salary," Damien said smugly. He did own one of the biggest companies in the country after all.

"Are you trying to steal my most valuable employee?" Kim strode confidently out of her office, wearing a slim-cut black skirt, white silk shirt, and knockout black heels. She wore her hair in a sophisticated knot and narrowed her piercing blue eyes at Damien.

"You know I was just joking," Damien smiled, kissing her square on the lips. He knew how much she disliked public displays of affection in front of her employees.

"Very funny," Kim replied dryly, leading him into her office.

"Oh come on, where's your sense of humour?" Damien rested his hip on her mahogany desk, fiddling with the few photo frames displayed prominently. The first picture was of them in their senior year of high school.

~FLASHBACK

"Oh come on, where's your sense of humour?" Kimberly asked cheekily, her blue eye flashing with mischief as she grinned, looking up at him.

Damien narrowed his eyes. "You know I can't afford another failure!" He almost growled, crushing his test paper that he was clutching tightly in his hand. The algebra test paper that he had gotten a huge F for, thanks to the bitch who was laughing her head off at him right now. He had asked for answers (sneakily, of course) during the test, and he had been surprised when she actually gave them to him. He was even thinking of being nicer to her since she had helped him, and had left her alone - well, somewhat alone - after the test. But she had tricked him! How dare she? He glared at her, his gaze falling to her test paper, which had a huge A circled at the top right hand corner, and clenched his fists even harder.

"If I fail another test, I'm going to be expelled from school." He said quietly, still shooting daggers at her. His quiet tone seemed to cause her to sober up, and she stopped laughing. "You know that."

"No... No, I didn't," her eyes grew wide. "I didn't know it was that serious." Then her eyes narrowed. "But if you knew, shouldn't you have studied for the quiz? What were you doing last night, when everyone else was studying? Screwing the brains out of another airhead?"

Damien was slightly taken aback from her harsh tone, but then he smirked. "Are you jealous?"

Kim snorted. "What, jealous of getting an STD? No thanks."

His eyes narrowed. "Come here, you little--"

SNAP! A flash of light momentarily blinded the both of them, and they froze. Damien's arms were around Kim's neck, her body pulled flush against him, and they both turned to glare at the culprit.