The Girl With The Mouse Ears **Sample Only**

Chapter 8

Two weeks flew by me with all the work that landed on my desk. Miles was a strict but fair employer which made it easy to work for him. Most mornings he was in well before me, hunched over his laptop or on the phone with clients and he usually didn't leave until everyone else had gone. It seemed that everyone else in the building worked a high stress job but he certainly carried the peak of it. Still, he always smiled at the staff he passed in the hallways and he always wore perfectly pressed trousers and the button up shirts made from the finest material, but there was no denying that he was a hands-on boss. And with a company this size it came with immense pressure.

I was beginning to understand our dynamic as well. We might've slept together and he might've given me this job because he felt bad for me but he still completely expected me to perform. Every morning he would ask me to recite his meetings to him and he would ask who had called for him, who could be kept at bay with other workers and who actually needed to speak with him. I began learning all of the sub companies, focusing mostly on GuardStone Services. This company catered prominently to protecting the wealthy and a lot of our supplies either came from or went to the American military. Because of that everything involving these companies had to be done correctly and promptly.

It was demanding and fast paced which gave me little time to breathe at my desk or take frequent breaks away from my plain desk. But I wasn't complaining about that.

On the rare occasion that I felt like I had enough time to go and get a coffee or Miles requested I bring him one, I would get side-eyes from everyone else in the break room as I poured the liquid into mugs. They would speak when I spoke to them, answering my questions with one word and my smiles were met with blank stares. I had only wanted to be friendly, to maybe rally someone onto my side or break the circle of silence and gossip that surrounded me, and they received my kindness with coldness. At first it had bothered me but then I realized that it was irrelevant. They could think what they wanted, I was here to work for Miles, not them. And at the end of the day I knew what had transpired between us and what it meant going forward.

Then I would go home, collapse onto my bed and call Bella while I snuggled Mickey. Together, we would complain about all the ignorant co-workers who gave me dirty looks and laugh about bizarre instances.

But one morning when I settled into my chair I could hear Miles muttering under his breath in his office. My eyebrows raised when I heard a few curses tumble out, but proceeded to log in. For a while I tried to ignore it, tried to focus on my own work, but then the muttering was paired with pacing and louder swearing.

With a roll of my eyes I pushed back my chair and got up. The work that I was walking away from would go much faster when I wasn't distracted I decided as I moved to the heavy mahogany door. Miles responded to my knocks right away, his voice low and agitated.

"Is everything alright, Mr. Miller?"

"Come in and shut the door." He ordered.

I did as he said and crept closer to him. I had yet to see him like this. His blonde hair was strewn about, like he had styled it this morning but couldn't resist gripping it in frustration. The tie that always sat so perfectly was now loosened at the base of his throat, paired with a wrinkled dress shirt. Yes, he ran an entire company but I had never witnessed the stress undoing him like this.

"What's going on?" I pressed.

"I have a client that claims they never signed a form freeing us from liability in case of an accident. Now an accident happened and they want to sue. So either this form was signed and is one of these boxes or I have to fire someone for not making the client sign and I'm going to be getting sued on top of that." He claimed as his pacing resumed, almost seeming angrier now that the truth was out.

My eyes scanned over the legal boxes; there must've been at least twenty. Each one of them was almost bursting. I imagined they each held about three thousand papers.

"No one else has time to do this?"

"To be very honest I think someone buried it in the first place because we have a very elaborate filing system and things don't just go missing or get misplaced. So I'm not taking any chances with pawning off this on someone else and I'm not trusting anyone else to get this done in the next twenty four hours. If I'm getting sued for my employee's negligence or someone is affiliated with a client's company in their favor I need to know it firsthand so that I can prepare my legal team."

My eyes flickered over each of the boxes again. Then I twirled away without, moving out of the office and strode to the break room. I didn't bat an eye or flinch at the annoyed or snide looks I received from my co-workers. They were irrelevant now. I grabbed two coffee cups and a handful of sugar packets and individual creams. A moment later I plunked it all on Miles's desk.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"You don't have to, Nike. This is my problem and if I wanted to pass this off onto someone else I would've done it by now."

"You'll never finish this in time without help." I protested. "Well, not unless you don't sleep in the next twenty four hours."

The corner of Miles's mouth quirked up in the tiniest smile for the first time today. He pushed a single box towards me with one hand.

I flicked through hundreds of documents. I never spent more than a second on any of them. All I knew was the company name and I had a very vague idea of what the form looked like. My eyes would scan the page, looking at the date, who required our services, then I would carefully place the form back in the same order that I had pulled it out from. By noon my eyes were beginning to feel strained and I had to pee about three times from all of the coffee I had drank. We still found nothing.

Miles repeatedly told me to go back to my desk. I would refuse. At one point he even started saying that I had done too much already and I should just go home. It was an appealing idea but I denied it as well. With every form he put back into its box and every box I pushed aside I could see his stress growing. The chance that he was getting sued was becoming larger with every second. And by five when everyone else was packing up to leave I had a pounding headache and my hands were shaking from my caffeine intake. But I refused to stop, even when Miles ordered me to stop. At some point in the day I had made finding this form my personal mission and I refused to give up on it so easily.

At seven in the evening we were both working on the final two boxes. I knew the chances were slim, but I forced myself to focus more. And when I touched two papers stapled together I knew that they weren't the same material, one normal printer paper and the other was heavier, legal manila. The date on the first page didn't match the rest of the of the box. I flicked to the second, legal document.

"Oh my god." I breathed when my eyes skimmed over the name.

"What?" Miles's head snapped up but he was groggy and his eyes were unclear.

"Is this it?"

He was at my side in a second. His eyes scanned over the page. Once. Twice. And on the third time he shook his head.

"Am I hallucinating?"

"No." I replied, with an almost hysterical laugh "I found the form, you aren't getting sued and you don't need to fire anyone."

An arm was tossed around my waist and Miles squeezed me to the side of his body in a thoughtless side hug.

"This calls for a celebration." He announced, grabbing the bottle of scotch off of his desk. Glasses were filled before I could even consider protesting and one of them was placed in my hand. "To the best damn assistant I've ever had."

But as he said those kind words I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket and my stomach dropped.

***I'm personally in love with Miles, he's such a gentle soul. How are you all doing? I hope the world is treating you well. Next chapter comes at six votes!***