The King's Girl

chapter six

My fingers twist together, a nervous habit I can't seem to shake. Jackson, Lucas and I are currently standing in the elevator along with 5 other people. When I woke up this morning they informed me they could take another day off but I assured them I'd rather they not skip work again on account of me. However, Jackson and Lucas didn't think it was fair for them to leave me home alone on my third day in the city... so here we are. Tightly packed into an elevator with a bunch of other unknown people that are too terrified to even look at either of my brothers. Lucas explained to me on the drive here that the way they behave around me is... different from how they behave at work. That was made clear the second we walked in the glass doors of the building labelled 'Meier Industries'. People who were previously walking around, standing, smiling and talking immediately straightened their backs, cast their eyes downwards and dispersed. Jackson and Lucas told me their offices are located on the top floor of the skyscraper, and that there are few other people working alongside them on the 39th floor.

    Before long the rest of our elevator clears out and it's just the 3 of us stepping onto the final floor. The twins lead me down a short hallway with 2 frosted glass doors on each side but they don't stop until the single door at the very end of the hallway. The door opens to a spacious room containing 2 dark oak desks facing each other from either ends of the room. Behind each desk is an extensive wall bookcase. The wall straight across from the door is Lucas and Jackson's signature, floor to ceiling windows. I walk across the room to stare out at the view while Jackson and Lucas set their things down on the desks. All I can see is skyscraper after skyscraper.

    "Where does that door go?" To the right of Lucas's desk is another frosted glass door.

    "That's Julia's office."

    "Our personal assistant," Jackson supplies.

Lucas walks over and cracks the door open, "Come in here for a moment."

A petite woman walks through the door and smiles when she sees me, "Is this your sister you told me about?" She's addressing Jackson, she must be the one he texted about the credit card.

"Yes," Jackson beams at me, "This is our baby sister Orabella."

She holds out her hand to me, "It's nice to meet you Orabella, I'm Julia."

"Nice to meet you too, but you can call me Bella." I can already tell how kind and soft spoken Julia is, it's no wonder Jackson and Lucas chose her to be their personal assistant. Not to mention her beauty, with shoulder length brown hair, hazel eyes and big framed glasses.

"Bella would you like to hang out with Julia for awhile? Jackson and I have some things we need to talk about."

"Um, yeah sure." I wonder what they'd need to talk about that I can't hear. Eh, probably just high and mighty CEO stuff. Julia leads me back to her office and I immediately fall in love. She has a dark wooden desk with matching desk organizers. Along with a white computer she has a white vase on the desk currently filled with pink tulips. There's gold picture frames littering the grey walls.

Julia sits down in the white rolling chair and I settle into a white cushioned chair opposite her, "I'm in love with your office! It's so perfect!" I can't help but fangirl a little bit... over an office. How much nerdier can I get?

Julia's cheeks tinge red, "Thanks, I was just recently able to convince the bosses, er your brothers to let me decorate. It used to be this desk and white walls, that's it." I grimace at the thought, leave it to the boys to think that was perfectly fine. "So you must be why they took a couple days off work?"

"Sorry about that I didn't mean to pull them away from anything. I do actually feel badly about it."

Julia waves her hands wildly, "Oh no! No, don't feel badly I think it's a good thing. Since I started here 2 years ago, I've never seen them take a day off."

I try to smile and break the awkwardness, "Oh, okay." Julia starts typing on her keyboard and now that it's silent I can hear Jackson and Lucas's muffled voices, they almost sound... angry? I try to brush it off, "So what are Jackson and Lucas normally like at work... ?"

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I spend the rest of my day with Julia, even taking her lunch break together. After the original awkwardness, everything seems to flow with her. We talked the entire day, I'm actually more than a little worried she didn't get any of her work done. But then again I guess it's okay because her bosses are the ones that put us together. Throughout the day, I learned how crazy smart she is, Julia skipped 2 grades and that's how she's already been working for the twins for 2 years now at the age of 22. I finally have someone that can relate to me about all of the books I've read! I could never talk to my parents once my brothers left because they were never big readers. Julia on the other hand...

I glance at the clock on Julia's desk and it reads 5 o'clock already. "What time do you usually get to leave work?"

"The thing is I don't leave until the bosses leave and they don't usually leave until sometime past 9-"

"9 p.m.?!"

"Well, yes. Luckily I live nearby though so I get home around 10 usually!" She calls after me, as if that makes it any better, I'm already storming towards Julia's adjoining door.

I yank it open, "I can't believe you don't let Julia leave until after 9!" The words are already out before I notice Isaiah standing in the room, an intense conversation going on between the 3 men, an intense conversation that I just rudely interrupted. They all turn to look at me and Isaiah scoffs at my outburst. An embarrassed blush quickly rises to my cheeks.

"Hello Bella," Jackson greets me with a smile from his desk. All of the sudden I don't feel as confident as I did 2 seconds earlier. Most likely due to the way Isaiah's looking at me as if I'm a child.

"Is there any chance we could discuss this later?" Lucas offers from where he's standing in-front of Jackson's desk.

"S-sure," I quietly back up into Julia's office, dragging the door behind me.

"You didn't have to do that Bella."

"I didn't have to do that, but I'm still going to bring it up again because that's just unfair to you."

"Well, thank you for standing up for me, it might be nice to get home a little bit earlier." Julia gives me a small, comforting smile.

"Gosh! I just can't stand Isaiah!" I exaggeratedly throw myself back down on my chair, the words burst out of me, needing to be said to someone. I most definitely can't confide in the twins because they probably wouldn't be convinced in what I was voicing. Even if they did believe me I wouldn't want to ruin their friendship with their best friend just because he annoys me.

"Why? I mean he's a bit arrogant but not usually all that bad."

"I just... he's been rude to me ever since I got here and he always manages to make me feel like a child. But I don't want to complain about it. He can be whoever he wants to be."

"You can always talk to me about anything Bella, it'll stay between us."

"Thanks, that means a lot to me.  I've never had someone I could talk to before... or even a friend really."

"You can't say that anymore Bella." Julia walks around her desk and leans down to give me a hug. I can't contain the smile that comes out at her gesture.