Two of a Kind | Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 44: New York

Whenever he was there and saw her, he would drop whatever he was doing and stop any conversation he was in the middle of and run over to her and start flirting with her, trying to use his "charm" to make her fall for him. And every day, Claire bit her tongue and plastered on a fake smile and politely decline any offer of a date or hook-up that he threw her way; she didn't need to get fired. The thing that she hated most about him was his complete lack of understanding for "no means no".

"Hey, Claire. How's it going?" Claire internally groaned at the sound of Brad's voice behind her. She put on her fake smile and turned towards him.

"I'm fine, Mr. Matthews. Can I help you with something?" Her voice was strained as she suppressed the snarl that vibrated in her chest. Brad flashed her his signature cocky grin and stepped forward, closing the distance between them, causing Claire to take a step back into the wall.

"Hell yeah, you can help me with something." He lifted his hands that held several manila folders and handed them to her. "I need you fill out the rest of the paperwork for the Johnson account. Some dumbass screwed up their order, so we gotta redo everything. Have them on my desk when you're done." He then walked away, leaving Claire with bitter thoughts racing through her head.

She sighed and took the folders to her designated work station and began getting to work. As she read through the reports and documents that had the mistakes, she could only think of how Brad was definitely the one who screwed up the order since he couldn't pay attention to anything of importance for more than two seconds. She did the best she could to right the wrongs that had been made, and when she was done, she returned the folders to Brad's office and left before he could talk to her again.

"Hey, Claire, wait." Her plan failed and a small audible groan left her lips. She turned to face him. She had only been at work for a few hours, finishing half of her shift and she was already exhausted. "So, I know you get off in a couple more hours, and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out and get some dinner and hang out at my place." His cocky grin told her exactly what "hang out at my place" meant, and it took everything in her to not throw up her lunch. He wiggled his eyebrows at her, hoping to convince her to say yes, but she once again smiled and declined.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Matthews, but I need to run out after my shift. I have to get home to take care of my sick and elderly grandmother," she lied, but his grin didn't let up.

"How about tomorrow night? I know you have off tomorrow; I could skip out and we can get some food and catch a movie? And then if things go right..." he winked at her.

"I'm sorry, but I have plans." Claire didn't let him respond, walking out of his office and back to her area to finish her work so she could clock out.

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Claire sighed in relief as she walked out of the building at the end of her shift without another interaction with Brad. She walked to the corner and down into the subway and walked the short distance to get to the right train that she needed to take to home. She groaned when she got on the train and sat in the hard plastic seat, pressing her hand against her forehead and closing her eyes, hoping to ease the pounding headache she had. She was stressed and aggravated and in addition to this, her wolf screamed to get out and to claw Brad's fucking face off. All she wanted to do now was go home to Wanda, eat dinner because she was starving, and drink a fucking river's worth of alcohol.

After fifteen minutes on the train, Clair got off at her stop and walked up the steps, stepping back out into the cool night air. She walked the three blocks to the apartment building and then stepped into the elevator, pushing the "7" button. The doors closed and the elevator shook a little as it rose, which should've alarmed Claire more than it did, but at this point...she didn't care. She got off on the seventh floor when the metal doors opened for her and walked down the hall towards Jemma's apartment.