When I approached the entrance to the top floor, I came to a sudden realisation that I didn't have my card with me. For a brief moment, I panicked, thinking I had lost it. I then recalled leaving it on my desk. The plan was to stay sober and retrieve my belongings from the office. Looks like the plan went out the window.
Using the telecom, I buzzes in, hoping I wouldn't get asked too many questions.
"Hello?" Said an unfamiliar voice.
"Hi, it's Louisa, I left my pass in my office." I said squinting with embarrassment.
The unfamiliar voice was silent for a while. As I was about to buzz again, the door opened up. Walking towards my office, I got a few smiles from unfamiliar faces, I smiled back while taking a sip of my coffee. I wince in disgust, so much for a thermal travel mug, it was stone cold.
I lifted my hand into a fist, to knock on Alexander's door, suddenly remembering not needing to knock. Slowly opening the door, I peered inside the office. Alexander was typing away frantically on his laptop. He noticed me peering in, stopped typing and shot me a welcoming smile.
"Louisa, come in." He said shutting his laptop.
I closed the door, standing awkwardly, I didn't know what to say.
"How are you?"
"I'm sorry!" I blurted out. "I am so sorry, my behaviour last night was unacceptable. I should have been professional. I'm supposed to be a bloody personal assistant. I haven't done anything remotely useful. I understand if you want to fire me. I just... I... I'm sorry."
All the words fumbled out of my mouth like I had verbal diarrhoea. I bowed my hand down, I was surrounded with embarrassment. There was silence for a few seconds, then Alexander let out a chuckle. I lifted my head, frowning in confusion.
"I'm not going to fire you." Alexander finally said amongst his laughter. "You didn't do anything to embarrass me. Last night when I noticed I hadn't seen you for a while, I started to look for you. I saw you, with your head down at the bar. From far it looked like you were just simply leaning your head down. When I got closer I realised you were drunk. People were concerned, but I just told them you weren't feeling to good."
I let out a long sigh, feeling relieved that I didn't make a fool out of myself.
"Oh? So I didn't embarrass you?" I asked for clarification.
"No you didn't. I mean if you were drunk like that night in the club, then you would have embarrassed me." Alexander said with a sly smile whilst gazing into my eyes.
I shyly let out a smile, remembering that night.
"Now, do you want to tell me why you were drunk?" Alexander asked, motioning for me to sit down.
I sat down, opposite Alexander, awkwardly placing my hands on the desk.
"It's nothing really." I bleakly replied.
"Look." Alexander said placing his soft hands on top of mine. "You can tell me anything, I'm still the same guy from the first time we met. Tell me, what's wrong?"
The touch of his hands sent electricity down my arm. The small, yet simple touch, enabled a reaction within me. I tried to shake the feeling out of my head. I looked at Alexander, his face showed that he was genuinely worried for my well-being.
"It's Calum." I said in a low tone.
"Calum? The boyfriend?"
I sadly nod, remembering the intense hurt I was wrapped in.
"He's been cheating on me." I mumbled, with tears gathering once again in my eyes.
Alexander took his hand away from mine, he formed a fist, I looked up to see the visibly angry ejecting from his face. His jaw started to clench.
"I'm sorry to hear about that." He said with subtle angry tones to his voice. "I knew something was wrong when I saw you. You're living with him, right?"
"Yes, I am. Well I should say, was. Was living with him." I replied.
"Was? Meaning you don't have anywhere?" Alexander asked now in a concerned tone.
"We lived together in our apartment, although it is in my name, I can't bring myself to kick him out. He has no job, I rather have him stay there. I'll just rent somewhere to live-"
"Rent? You can't rent somewhere, do you have a friend you can stay with?" Alexander quickly butted in.
"I have my best friend Sarah, but she has a lot going on at the moment, I don't want to burden her. It's fine, I'll rent a place till I find something permanent." I reassured Alexander.
He rested his arms on the desk, leaning forward. I can't help but feel the heat in my cheeks rise, his gaze latched on to me, I wanted to get lost in his touch just like I did when I danced with him.
"No." Alexander interjected. "I'm not going to have you rent a place. You can live at mine."
I was lost for words at his offer. I felt like Alexander was doing too much for me. Ever since I met him, he had shown me nothing but kindness.
"I... I... can't." I stuttered. "Thank you for the kind offer, but I'll be fine renting somewhere."
"No." Alexander repeated. "My assistant will not rent a shabby place. You know you can trust me. Just stay at my place. It'll also be ideal as I wanted my assistant to live with me."
I contemplated on the offer. I gathered that Alexander was a very adamant guy, and there was no disagreeing with him.
"Fine." I let out. "But this will be temporary, only until I find somewhere permanent."
"That's fine with me." Alexander beamed. "We can sort everything out later. Right now I need you to do some investigation for me. For some reason, I'm looking at my accounts and I'm losing money. I have no idea where this money is going. Luckily it's not too much, but I need to know. I've checked over my recent business deals and they are all making money, not losing. So if you could find something, that would be great."
He handed me a stack of files, I scanned through them and nodded, giving him a understanding smile. "Of course. I'll go through everything and I'll get back to you."
Making my way to my desk, I set the files down. I finally logged in to my computer. Going over our conversation, it dawned on me that I agreed to live with my boss.
When my computer was fired up, I saw a email from Charles Moore. I scanned over the name. The name seemed familiar. It then then came to me, Charles Moore, the one who was eyeing me up and down at the business event. The same guy who owned the luxurious mansion. I shuddered at the memory of him.
I read the email, remembering the invite to breakfast. I was about to decline, but a sudden thought came to me. He was Alexander's very good business partner and friend. It would have looked bad if I declined. I gritted my teeth and accepted the invitation. I was not looking forward to breakfast with Charles Moore on a Friday morning.
***
The morning consisted of going through the statistics of the complaints department and the files Alexander gave me. I was so engrossed in my work, I didn't realise it was two o'clock.
Alexander came out of his office, as he was passing I remembered to mention our breakfast.
"Before you go." I quickly let out. "We've been invited for breakfast, with Mr Moore, Friday morning around nine."
"That's great." Alexander said happily. "This will be the perfect opportunity to get to know him-"
Before he could finish his sentence, we were interrupted by a loud rumble, stemming from my stomach. I felt myself go red in embarrassment.
"Are you hungry?" Alexander asked while grinning.
"I think so." I replied feeling mortified by my stomach suddenly starting to sound like a whale.
"Well, you're coming with me to lunch. Don't even bother saying no. Come on, let's go."
I didn't get the opportunity to reply, Alexander was already headed towards the door. I stumbled getting out of my chair. I sped up to catch up with him, who was already half-way across the main hall. He looked back to see if I was following, when he saw me he let out a beaming smile.
***
We arrived at our destination for lunch. Alexander chose a The Roof-Top Italian Restaurant. At this point my stomach was crying for food. We got into the lift that took us to the top floor. At first it was just three other people in the lift. All of a sudden, a rush of people entered the small lift.
I find myself getting pushed closer and closer to Alexander. When the lift doors finally shut, I was in very close proximity to Alexander, my face was inches away from his chest. As my heart started to beat rapidly, I could hear his heart thump. The cologne gradually found its way into my nose, the smell was intoxicating, in a good way. It was hard to understand what his cologne smelt like, it had a exotic, yet sweet undertone to it.
I turned my head slightly up, only to see that he was looking down at me. Our eyes meet. My heart was skipping beats. The back of our hands gravitated towards each other, we slowly lock our pinkie fingers. As our pinkie fingers were interlocking, Alexander pushed my stray hairs behind my ear, with his free hand. All of a sudden I was feeling a strange sensation in my stomach. It then registers that the strange feeling, were butterflies.
Just as I felt like my legs were about to give way, I was snapped out of my intense moment, by the sound of the lift doors opening. As everyone started to filter out, Alexander allowed me to go first. I turned around to exit the lift. I was astounded at what I was feeling. The way we were in close proximity to each other, I didn't want it to end.
A/N
Agreeing to live with your boss? What could possible go wrong? Has Louisa made the right decision?
Ah the tension in the lift... they were close to kissing...
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Love _xxAMxx