Going Back

Chapter One - Uneducated Pleb

I'd seen the building in pictures, but nothing prepared me for the monstrosity as it stood before me. So tall that looking up to search for the top of it left me with a moderate case of vertigo.

Booked Out. The Black letters were front in centre above the entrance, there was no mistaking it.

This was where the story had begun.

Amber, my birth mother had told it to me many times, usually as a way to bolster me after a disappointment in life. I'd grown holding on to the seams and memories of the infamous 'Patchwork Family" and now I was standing right in front of it's beginning.

I brushed down the loose fitting blouse Scarlett had talked me into wearing with a black pencil skirt. It was completely not my style, but I had to make a good impression even if my new boss was a family friend.

See, my new boss was threaded into the same patchwork as me, although we'd never met, not that it really mattered. Despite our connection I didn't expect preferential treatment, I wanted to prove myself on my own merits.

Truth be told though, six months into the job and his reputation was famous already. News of his escapades had travelled far and wide, and not via the normal 'patchwork' lines either. He was a playboy party animal, with too much money and not a lot of sense. Still Nick and Marc had seen something in him and had handed the entire company over to him on his 28th birthday.

I sucked in a deep breath and brushed a loose strand of auburn hair behind my ear. As I walked toward the door in the black stiletto's I'd borrowed off Scarlett the two doormen opened the doors.

"Morning Ma'am." They chimed in unison as I walked through.

"Thank you." I replied, stepping onto the dark granite floor. The lobby was organised chaos with people moving in every direction. I approached the security sensor and waved the card Scarlett had given me before I left over the machine. It beeped and let me through. I glanced at the oversized clock on the wall, it was almost 9am. If I didn't hurry that good impression I'd hoped to make would evaporate into thin air. I quickened my step and almost skipped toward the elevator entrance. I reached out for the button, at the same time as someone else. Our hands collided, as we pressed it together.

"Watch it." An impatient voice exclaimed. I looked beside me, barely concealing a scowl. "No not you Juliet. Just a pleb in a hurry trying to break my fingers." he spoke into his phone, barely acknowledging my existence, at least in a civil way.

Pleb? I felt my eyes narrow. Who was this jerk?

"Sorry." I muttered through clenched teeth.

"Save your sorry and be more careful next time." He hissed. "No Juliet. Not you."

I didn't give a flying fuck who this jumped up pen pusher was. He'd insulted the wrong girl. When the doors opened I stepped in first and pressed the button for the top floor before he'd even stepped inside. I prayed someone else would walk in, to break what I could already tell was icy tension. As soon as his royal rudeness was off the phone, I'd give him a piece of my mind.

The doors closed without another willing victim. I held back a sigh as the ice box began to move upward.

"That's the reason for my call Juliet. I have to cancel." He sounded pissed off as he spoke. "No, I do care. I do. But I did a favour for family and now the hire I never hired is starting today. I can't force some other poor soul to train the uneducated girl, so it's in my hands."

I choked on the gasp I'd just sucked in, as I looked at the man whose face I hadn't yet been able to see clearly. Jumped up pen pusher was Evan Jackson... Evan Jackson my new boss.