________________________________________________
"You have a condom, right?", Athena asks as she's sitting on top of Nathan as he massages her cherry's. She's feeling his Willy Wonka pressing against her weak spot through his thin underpants.
"Don't you take the pill?", Nathan asks heavily breathing.
"The pill does not protect from STD's.", Athena says getting off of him.
"Do I look like I have a STD?", Nathan asks as he sits up on the bed.
"How does someone even look like who has a STD?"
"I don't know."
"See. Either you get a condom, or it's your time go now.", Athena says as she takes a shirt out of her suitcase and puts in on. Nathan says nothing. He stands up, takes his stuff and leaves the room.
Athena sighs. She goes into the bathroom and takes a shower. As she steps out, there's a knock on the door. Athena wraps a towel around her body and walks to the door. She looks through the peephole. Nathan's standing there holding up a condom. Athena shakes her head smirking as she opens the door.
"A gentleman can't leave a lady unsatisfied, right?", Nathan says as Athena steps aside so he could enter.
"I'll never be satisfied.", she says smirking. As soon as Athena closes the door and turns around, Nathan starts kissing her again. They turn around and fight their way to the bed.
●●●
Something happened in that bed. In the same bed where Nathan is still sleeping hours later after that. No matter how hard Athena tries to remember what happened last night, nothing comes up. The last thing she remembers is saying good night to Nathan. After that: Nothing.
Athena gets all of her stuff together and literally storms out of the room. She takes the elevator and asks the person at the reception if they could get her a taxi.
●●●
A few hours later, Athena sits in her office in front her computer when her assistant Rita comes in. "You look-"
"Say nothing, Rita." , Athena says lifting her hand. "Just tell me my appointments for today."
"You have meetings at twelve, fourteen and fifteen. The third one will be a video conference. And at six you'll have dinner with your father. It's his birthday.", Rita says.
Athena's head turns into Rita's direction so fast that it crackles. "Fuck! It's his birthday! I was so focused on the conference with Na- Mister Collins, that I totally forgot my dad's birthday.", she says slapping her hand on her forehead. Right then, her head starts to hurt again. "Ugh. Fuck."
"I'll find something, Teens. You have to focus on the meetings. And I think you could need some water and coffee.", Rita says amused. "Let me handle that."
"Thank you, Rita. You're the best!"
"You pay me good for it.", she says amused as she walks to the office door. Athena shakes her head smiling as Rita closes the door behind her.
●●●
At the same moment, Nathan sits in his office too. He goes through the memories of last night. He can't remember everything, but the most fun part he hasn't forget. Right when the memory about Athena's body appears in front of his eyes, Jaden walks into his office. "I saw you were early. You really stand by your rules.", he says and puts down a coffee on Nathan's desk. "I thought you would go to hell."
"What?", Nathan asks confused.
"You would have gone to hell because she's so hot. Ya know?"
"Does that work with the guys you're flirting with?"
"I don't need to flirt, honey. I send an eggplant emoji, we'll meet, have fun and that's it. No flirting needed."
"An eggplant emoji?"
"Yes, an eggplant emoji isn't just an eggplant emoji. Don't forget that."
"Now I won't, thank you.", Nathan says and still looks confused at Jaden. "And please stop calling me honey. I'm not one of your eggplant emojis."
"You haven't really understand the mea-"
"Just let me enjoy my coffee, Jaden. I don't want to talk about anyone's eggplant anymore, okay?"
"Sure."
"And please don't say that in my presence again.", Nathan says and sips his coffee.
"What do you mean? Eggplant emoji?", Jaden asks smirking. Nathan takes the newspaper next to him and throws it at Jaden. But Jaden sees it coming and ducks right before it could hit him. He looks down to the papers and says: "You missed." Right as he turns his head back to Nathan, another newspaper flies into Jaden's direction. This time it hits.
"Nope, I haven't.", Nathan says amused and laughs. "I'm always one step ahead of you."
"And that's why you're the boss and I'm the secretary.", Jaden says as he rubs the side of his face where the newspaper hit him.
"Bingo. Apropos secretary. Could you be so kind and bring this package to the post office as soon as possible?", Nathan asks as he puts a box on his table. "Everything's on it. You just have to bring it there. Make it an express delivery with route tracking."
Jaden takes the package and looks at the receiver. "It's for Athena Burnell. What's in there?"
"Non of your business. And now I have to do mine. So could you be so kind and let the boss do some boss-work?", Nathan says seriously.
"Oh, the bossy-voice." Jaden salutes, turns around and leaves the office with the package for Athena.
"How did I end up with an dickhead like him?", Nathan says to himself and takes a sip of his coffee.
●●●
Around half past five, Athena ends the video conference with a simple: "See you soon." and small wave of her hand. As soon as she closed the computer, her fake smile fades away. She's everything but in the mood to smile. Athena hooked up with a business partner, her head feels like it's exploding any second and she forgot the birthday of her father. She broke her only rule in dating, she literally drank to forget and she has no present for her dad. Athena just wants to get in her bed with a big bucket of 'Ben & Jerry's' ice cream watching a TV Show about failed relationships, so she would feel better about herself.
Right when Athena puts her forehead on the edge of the table in front of her, Rita knocks on the door. "Special delivery for you.", she says smiling as she steps inside and closes the door again.
Athena lifts her head. "What's that?", she asks and points to the boxes Rita has in her hand. One is bigger than the other one. "What's in them?"
"This small one is the present for you dad. I'm not gonna tell you what it is. It's gonna be a surprise for you too.", Rita says winking at Athena. "And the bigger box is something you can wear later. I thought you would need it. I mean you won't be able to get home before the dinner, so I brought you this. Don't worry. You paid good for it.", she says now smirking.
Athena rolls her eyes. "You know me better than anyone else. You picked the right thinks, I guess.", she says calm. "Give me the box with the outfit. I have to change soon. The traffic is horrible today. Some band named 'BTS' is playing a concert tomorrow. Those teenies took over the airport this morning already. What is so special about that band anyway? You only understand three words in their songs."
"Yeah. Right. What's so special?", Rita says mumbling and puts down the boxes in front of Athena.
"Wait. You like them, do you?", Athena asks raising an eyebrow looking up at her. "And I guess you have a ticket for tomorrow? That's why you wanted the day off."
Rita smiles shy and and scratches the back of her head. "Yeah. Seems like you know me well too.", she says sitting down in the seat on the otehr side of the table from Athena. "I mean have you listen to their songs?"
"Oh, I did, yeah. But to be honest, I just like the songs where their sing mostly in english. Ehm, the one is called 'Butter'?", Athena says more like a question than a exclamation.
Rita chuckles. "Yes."
"Well, then I hope you'll have fun tomorrow. Take some videos. I want to see the boys in action.", Athena says and winks at Rita.
"Of course."
"As much as I would want to continue talking about men dancing and sweating in front of us, but I have to go now. Like I said, terrible traffic.", Athena says and stands up. She takes the boxes and walks to the door. "If there's an important call, tell them I'll call them back tomorrow."
Rita nods. "Tell your dad happy birthday from me and that I'm looking forward to your birthday party next month. Your dad always plans the best parties."
"Wait a minute. Who told you that we're even celebrating? Nowone knows. Exept me and-" Athena stops talking. "Why did my dad told you this? And when?"
"Did I say your birhday party? I meant his birthday party next week.", Rita says nervously with a fake smile.
"Rita. You know you can tell me everything. I won't be angry or anything. Just tell me the truth."
Rita is in her late thirties. She has beautiful red long hair which she often wears open. Her hair frames her perfect symectrical face with her blue eyes. Her nose is small and her mouth has the perfect shape. Some people say it looks kissable. In summary, she's a beauty. Rita even looks a little bit like Athena's mother. They have the same eye contour and hair. They even share some character treats. Maybe that's the reason Athena picked her as her assistant. To have a little bit of her mom around her. She died five years ago. She was shot by a criminal she wasn't able to prevent from getting into prison when she still was a lawyer. After he shot Athena's mom, he shot himself. Everything happend in front of Athena's eyes. She saw everything.
"I- I'm sorry. It- it happened all so fast. You were late and-"
"It's okay.", Athena says smiling. "Come here." Athena puts down the boxes and spreads out her arms. Rita stands up and pulls herself into a hug with Athena. "You know that you just could have told me, right?"
"I- I didn't know how.", Rita says ending the hug and takes a step back. "What should I have said? Hey, Boss, I might become your stepmom?"
Athena chuckles. "Something like that, yeah." She picks up the boxes again. "I'll never call you mom, ya know?"
Now Rita chuckles. "Of course not."
"I'll see you on monday. Have fun at the concert."
●●●
Jaden and Nathan sit in one of the conference rooms. Nathan sits with his eyes closed. His feet are up on the table, his fingers interwind with each other on his stomach and with his head resting on the back of the chair. Jaden sits there with one leg crossed over the other one and with his phone in one of his hands. "She's a ten but wears socks during bunga bunga.", Jaden reads out load.
They've been doing this for the last ten minutes. Jaden asks, Nathan asnweres. "Ten. Nothing wrong with that."
"She's a four but knows how to whistle your flute."
"Come on. You only have this one thing in your mind, right?", Nathan says and shakes his head. "Can't you think of something else? Just once?"
"Okay. But only this time.", Jaden says and smirks. "She's a ten but isn't interested in you because you're business partners and both of you do not mix pleasure with business."
Nathan opens his eyes and looks at Jaden, then closes them again. "Ten. She has her principles. It's important to have those."
"Yeah. But those principles keep you from getting laid."
"You know that there are other women than business partners?", Nathan says calm.
"That's what I wanted to hear, Boss!", Jaden says excited, stands up and slaps Nathan's feet off the table. "Let's get laid!", Jaden says loud and bumps his fists on his hips as he moves them forward.
●●●
"You're really okay with it, honey?", Athena's dad Denzel asks her.
"I am, Dad. I told you as long as you're not doing it under my roof, I'm totally fine with it."
"That won't change anything, right?"
"Everything will be the same. I promise. You too are the most important things in my life. It would be dumb of me hating you for something you can not even control.", Athena says as she takes the hand of her father.
"She just reminds me so much of-"
"-Mom. I know.", Athena says smiling. "That's the same reason she's my secretary."
"Does she know? I mean that she looks like your mom."
Athena nods. "That was the first thing I said when she entered my office for the interview.", she says and chuckles. "But it will never be the same."
"That's right."
"I don't like the mood of this conversation. Let's change the subject. Open your gift.", Athena says tipping on the small box.
"You're right. Let's see what my daughter brought me." Her dad ephasizes the word 'daughter' with an undertone of irony.
"So you know."
"Come on. You never put your gifts in any kind of packaging. You always say it's a waste of paper. So why would you do it differently this time?", he said and raises an eyebrow at Athena. "Rita bought it for you, right?" Athena just nods. As her dad opens the present, Athena pures them some wine. Memories from just twenty-four hours ago play in front her eyes. "Something's on your mind?", her dad asks.
"What? No. I'm just wondering what's in that box."
"Then let's find out."
●●●
As Athena enters her office on Monday, there's a package on her desk. She walks over and looks at the sender. She's wondering why and what Nathan would send her. Athena opens it. On top is a card. On the front of the card is a picture of flowers. She opens the card and starts to read:
"You left something at the restaurant. You left so quick, I haven't got the chance to say good-bye properly. You can have the dress. It suits you better than me anyway ;) Here's my number for a quicker way of communication. Only for business concerns, of course. Xxnc"
_____________________________________________________________________________
Nothing really happened in this chapter, but hey, Athena has Nathan's number now...
Sexting is still a thing, right? 🤔
Have you found the references? 😉