Under the Cover of Darkness

28 | Carson

Goodbye Carson.

Goodbye Carson.

Goodbye Carson.

Those two words had been stuck on repeat in my head after the disaster that was last night.

I had barely recovered from the shock that the woman of my dreams was actually my unassuming assistant when she'd told me she was leaving for God knows where.

After I got home I fell into a fitful sleep before I couldn't take it anymore and broke one of her rules. I called her number.

Unfortunately it didn't even ring or go to voicemail. There was nothing. And now I was back to square one.

“Sir,” a tiny voice and a snap of fingers brought me back to the present.

I was in my office, a mound of work on my desk and the frightened blue eyes of my new assistant peering at me as she clutched a brown styrofoam coffee cup like it had the power to protect her from me.

Mary — or Marion, I wasn't exactly sure what her name was — was my second assistant since Alex had left. I had fired Helen over the phone sometime last night after I called to ask about my schedule today and she told me she had to check the calender. Alex would've known it by heart.

Mabel had appeared some five minutes after me — something that ensured she would never be in my good books — and introduced herself as my new assistant. She was two whole feet shorter than my prerequisite to work with me and had the one hairstyle I hated above all else: bangs.

“Sir,” she started after adjusting her thick black-framed glasses. “Your coffee.”

It also appeared that in addition to every other thing, she had cotton wool in her ears because I couldn't count how many times I had told her to call me Carson in the five hours I had known her.

“Thank you, Maya,” I said and took the cup from her.

“It's Martha, sir.”

“Of course,” I replied, immediately forgetting the name.

After I had the cup she started on her way out of my office.

I went back to my laptop and took a sip of the coffee. I instantly regretted it as my tongue was attacked by something so sweet it was sickening. It took sheer willpower to keep from spitting it out all over my table.

“Michelle!” I called out to my assistant as I ripped tissue after tissue from the box on my table to clean my tongue. “What is this abomination you have given me to consume?”

Maria walked back to my desk, her blue eyes widened even more as she checked the other coffee cup on the tray she held. “Oh my God. I'm so sorry sir. I mixed up the cups. That's mine. This one's yours. I apologize.”

Setting the cup on my desk I dished her a glare that made her visibly shrink. “Why are you such a gigantic screw-up, Mindy? And I mean that ironically because I'm sure an average eight-year-old is taller than you. All you had to do is call me Carson and pick up a goddamn cup of cappuccino but somehow you couldn't even manage such simple tasks. Leads me to ask, what exactly is it that you can do? How exactly have you assisted me today? Besides to an early grave via the road of high blood pressure and sugar, that is.”

I watched as Megan's bottom lip began to quiver and she wiped her free hand on the pink dress she wore.

Before long her eyes began to fill and my stress level went through the roof.

This is not what I need right now.

I sighed. “Listen Maureen, I don't condone mistakes. You're here to do a job, I expect nothing but the best. Mix-ups and tardiness are considered cardinal sins within these four walls. One more fuckup and you are out, got it?”