Here's chapter two! Hope you love it. Thanks to those who voted for chapter 1...I totally love you :D Please keep voting and commenting x
CHAPTER 2
MAXINE’S POV
‘The Lord knew what he was doing when he took His time making that man.’
‘Oh He definitely did.’
This was the conversation I walked into when I arrived at work the next morning. I guess the hype still hadn’t died down from our first glimpse at our new boss.
‘Max, tell us what you think of John.’ Louise smiled at me.
I noticed that she had tried a little harder today and was looking extra pretty; not that she even needed to. The woman was beautiful enough already.
‘He’s okay. But I can tell by the way you’re looking today that you think he is so much more.’ I smiled at Louise.
Louise scoffed at me while I sat my bag on the spare seat and placed a mug under the new coffee machine and pressed cappuccino.
‘You are off your head. How can a guy that hot be only ‘ok’ to you? Are you made of steel Maxine Rivers?’ she questioned, one hand on her hip.
‘No, but you know my rule.’ I said as I relaxed against the table top.
‘Who doesn’t?’ they all laughed in accordance.
‘What rule might that be?’ a deep voice questioned.
Immediately there was silence in the room as we all turned around to face our boss; Jonathan Grays.
‘Ladies?’ he asked looking slightly confused at our dumbfounded faces.
I don’t know about the other girls, but my main reason for being silenced was because only my friends and family knew about my rule. I didn’t want my boss knowing!
‘We are just talking about Maxine’s ‘separate business from pleasure’ rule.’ Kerry smiled.
I mentally spanked her and wondered if I should test the theory of telepathy right now by telling her she was so dead later on.
‘Oh I see. I have that same rule as well.’
I cringed again as I imagined that all three girls in the room were more than likely wishing that they could strangle yours truly as hard as possible without killing me.
‘You do? Why is that?’ I asked politely.
‘I just think it’s too dangerous and risky. It could mess up the vibe of everything if a work romance goes wrong. And then what are you going to do? Fire the person because she wasn’t good in bed or something?’
I laughed at that.
‘Some people would argue that sometimes the person is just worth that risk. You never know where you can find love.’ Louise smiled sweetly at him.
‘Well I hope to find mine somewhere other work thank you very much.’
I laughed again.
‘Anyway ladies, as much fun as it is talking to you, I have to return to work now. Have a nice day. Maxine, I would like to talk to you later on please.’ He commented before leaving the room looking at his watch.
‘I hate you!’ Louise snapped at me.
‘What? Why?’
‘You do? Well, why is that?’ she mimicked me, and in the process, doing a really bad impression of yours truly.
‘Firstly, I do not sound like not. And secondly, I just wanted to know. Is it such a crime?’
‘YES!’ All three girls collectively answered.
I pouted, slightly offended that my friends thought that I was the reason why our boss didn’t do office romances.
‘I give up. It’s not my fault. And if you guys wanted him so much, then maybe you’re just going to have to try extra hard to get his attention. Or maybe move firms.’ Was my finishing remark to them before I left the room to walk towards my desk.
I groaned at the folders containing different cases that I would have to deal with today. Too much work, not enough play.
I worked as a lawyer in a big firm called Partnership. When I first began to work here, I wondered why the firm wasn’t simply named after the surnames of the partners of the company. Everyone, and I mean everyone who worked in the firm all seemed to know that the reason it wasn’t named something like: Cooke & Pierce was because the partners didn’t see the point of letting the world know their surnames. All the public needed to know was that this was a law firm and we, the lawyers, would be able to provide them with the services they needed (simples). Straightaway, just from that little piece of information, I knew that I would love working here. Just that piece of information told me that people here were a close knit community and the bosses would be definitely polite and friendly unlike other places where your boss seemed to think you were below his feet.
Within three hours, I called numerous and various numbers, finished up the case of a client who had gone through court proceedings and what nots and updated five other files. And, while doing all that, I had managed to drink two cups of coffee. I rummaged through my drawers trying to find my stapler when my work phone shrilled.
‘Hello?’ I asked placing the phone between my ear and my shoulder while I continued to rummage for a stapler in my drawers
‘Maxine, could you please come into my office. I need to have a talk with you.’ Jonathan’s deep voice vibrated through the phone. For a second there, my brain didn’t even think about responding to the command that he had made. All I could think about was the deepness, sexiness and well spoken tone that Jonathan’s voice carried. He could talk to me all night if he wanted to. I mentally slapped my head. CHILL MAX!
‘Uh, yeah sure. I’ll be down in a minute.’
I placed the phone down quickly, dropped the stapler on my desk, smoothed down my skirt, buttoned up my blazer and began walking towards the staircase up to the fifth floor where Charlie’s office was. While I continued my journey to the office, I mentally repeated over and over again to myself that I was not to get flustered by this guy. He was my boss. I couldn’t let him get to me. I couldn’t lust or desire or fall in love with him. No matter what. It would turn out to be way too messy. And that was the last thing I needed.
Knocking on the door, I told myself one last time: Keep your cool.
‘Come in.’ Jonathan’s voice shouted.
I turned the doorknob of his office and walked in.
‘Close the door please.’ He said without looking up.
As commanded, I closed the door behind me and leaned against it. After being in his office for about two minutes and hearing nothing but silence, my patience started to wear thin.
‘You wanted to see me Mr Grays.’
At that, Jonathan looked up from his desk and instantly our eyes met. See at this point, you’re expecting me to say that at that moment, I fell head over heels with him or that maybe he looked right deep into my soul. But nope. In fact, if my mum could hear my thoughts right now, she would smack me on the head. All I could think was : sexy sexy sexy fine fine fine hot hot hot sa-moking sa-moking smoking.
‘Sorry about that. I didn’t realize it was you.’ He smiled apologetically.
‘I’ll try to forgive you. Although it may be quite hard.’ I shrugged.
At my comment, he chuckled lightly. I smiled in return as it was rare for me to make someone laugh. According to others, I was too serious.
‘Maxine Rivers. You’re forming quite an impression aren’t you?’ he smiled once his laughter wore off.
I raised my eyebrow in question.
‘Impression? And what impression do I have on you so far?’ I asked interested.
To some people, it would sound like I was flirting with him. But truly and honestly, I just really wanted to know what impression I had on him so far. He was my boss for crying out loud and first impressions are extremely important; especially when it’s your boss.
‘Funny, opinionated, hard working and smart.’
Dropping his pen, he leaned back against his chair and clasped his hands behind his head showing me a hint of just how muscly he was.
‘You got all that from today only?’ I questioned.
In reply, he gave one polite and curt nod.
‘Thank you Mr.Grays.’ I smiled.
‘Please call me John. You make me sound old when you say Mr.Grays.’
‘Oh, my bad. John.’
‘God, you make it sound so sexy.’ He whispered.
My eyes instantly widened. My boss was flirting with me. He was! Oh my goodness. Everything my dad said about business and pleasure flew out of my head. I think those thoughts were somewhere in Antartica right about now.
‘Sorry, that wasn’t supposed to come out.’
‘Two mistakes in one day John. Are you going to make a habit of making mistakes?’ I said tilting my head slightly to the right emphasising the fact that I was asking him a question.
‘Can I be straight with you? Like, super straight?’ he asked, suddenly sounding seriously serious.
‘Yeah.’
I crossed my legs and leaned forward slightly.
‘I find you seriously attractive. You’re beautiful,’ he looked at me from my crossed legs to my face and bit his lip, ‘but I have this really strict rule about business and pleasure. I don’t mix them. Ever. You have to understand that.’
I nearly fell off my seat with my mouth hanging open. John, my boss, was attracted to me. Me of all people. Not even Louise or that woman with the big bum who worked in housing and estate law. Me!
‘Yes I understand. I have the same rule. And do you know what? You’re pretty fine yourself.’ I winked.
He laughed.
‘Ok, so putting that aside. Charlie specifically asked of me to do something. He said that before he left, he promoted and demoted some people.’
I distinctly remembered this. There had been uproar in the office. No body had been safe. Plenty of people had gone from high positions to working at ground floor just as simple lawyers with simple cases. Plenty of people had moved around. Very few had stayed in the same position. I had been one of the very few. When I realised that I hadn’t been moved, I hadn’t known whether or not I should have been shocked or happy. I had put a lot of hard work in during the past year, and I thought I had earned a promotion. But at the same time, I had been happy that I hadn’t been demoted.
‘Charlie claims that you were one of the first people who should have been promoted and for the life of him, he can’t remember why he hadn’t promoted you. So I’ve been instructed to promote you. You will now be dealing with much bigger cases obviously. We’ll be giving you some hugely important cases as well as almost doubling your salary. Your office will move to the top floor, obviously, where we are now. In fact, your office is the one right next to mine. I want you to finish up all your cases that are nearly done, and anything that isn’t should be handed over to Gillian Partridge. I want you to spend a week, talking over anything she needs knowing, and by next week, I want you up here, ready and revving to go.’
My mouth hung open. My brain was still trying to process the fact that I had been promoted. My salary would be practically doubling. And I was being promoted!
‘Maxine, say something.’
I realized that I had been staring and hadn’t said anything for almost ten minutes.
‘Hi.’ I squeaked.
All of a sudden, my brain had gone blank and I couldn’t think of anything to say. It’s almost as if my brain had decided it had had too much to take in and had to rest.
John laughed at my greeting.
‘Hey to you too. Are you ok over there?’ he smiled.
I shook my head.
John got up from his chair and walked over to me. Taking my hands into his, while also setting my hands on fire, he spoke to me in a calm voice.
‘You’re moving up. And I want you right next to my office on Monday morning. Understand?’
I simply nodded.
‘You’re killing me.’ He sighed as I walked out of his office.
It was only when I was on my way home that it all kicked in. I instantly stopped the car close to the pavement of a random road and screamed. Really, really loudly. I WAS GETTING A PROMOTION!!
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