After the encounter in Sebastian's office, where he helped Mia with her twisted ankle, it was safe to say that things were a little awkward between the two.
Sebastian wasn't entirely sure on why he felt this sudden need to help her. It was something that he kept wondering to himself as well.
He mostly put this down to guilt. He didn't actually want her hurt like that and didn't know that would happen, so when it did, he wanted to help her. Besides, if she was hurt, she would be doing her job as his assistant properly. That's all it was. Only a moment of weakness on his part.
Meanwhile, Mia was equally confused by his actions. One minute he was playing tricks on her and the next helping her with her injury. It made no sense to her.
Before she could ponder on his weird behaviour, Mia realised that this was Sebastian. He was probably playing mind games with her and most likely wanted her to be thinking too much on this.
Luckily for them, the weekend came around the next day, and so for two days they didn't have to come across each other. It was needed to alleviate the odd kind of tension they found themselves in - apparently being nice just made things weird between them.
***
It was currently nearing lunchtime, the part of the day Mia especially loved.
Before going on her lunch break, Mia decided to drop off a file for Sebastian in his office. He was still on a call and she'd rather not wait on him to come back. He could end up taking forever and her stomach was on the verge of making some serious whale calls.
She walked into Sebastian's office, file in hand and place it on his desk.
"You. Who are you?"
Mia turned around hearing the voice of a woman, which left her a little startled.
A blonde woman stood in the doorway to the office. Her eyes were narrowed in on Mia, in an accusatory way, as if she as doing wrong by being in here. Mia felt like this woman was someone out of one of Nicole's fashion magazines', very beautiful and tall. Even her clothes seemed like they were straight off the ramp.
"Can I help you?" Mia responded.
She was utterly confused at the unknown woman standing in Sebastian's office. As far as she was aware, there was no meeting scheduled for right now.
The woman looked Mia up and down, as if sizing her up.
"Where's Sebastian?" The woman asked, her tone snappy.
This caused Mia to frown. She barely tolerated Sebastian talking to her rudely and he paid her wages, however she had no obligations to this woman.
"And who might you be?" Mia asked her.
The woman seemed a little taken aback at the way Mia spoke to her.
"His girlfriend," the woman responded with a smirk, as if that title were a real accomplishment to her, something to strive for. She then at glared at Mia. "Who are you?" She asked.
"His assistant," Mia replied.
The woman seemed to have let out a breath at this.
'Oh, am I no longer a threat?' Mia wondered sarcastically as she watched the woman, who still had yet to introduce herself, look her up and down again.
She clearly wasn't even hiding the fact that she was judging Mia on the spot. However, Mia could care less. What does a stranger's opinion even matter?
"Oh, Sophie's replacement," the woman mused and then tilted her head to the side a little. "I guess he could've done worse," she scoffed.
"Excuse me?" Mia responded.
"Are you single?" The woman then asked,.
Mia couldn't even help the way that her face scrunched up a little in confusion at her random question.
"And that concerns you, because...?" Mia then trailed off.
She didn't quite understand why this complete stranger was interested in her love life.
"It doesn't," the woman replied. "I just wanted to warn you to stay away from, Seb," she continued, taking a step towards Mia, trying to seem intimidating.
The urge to laugh was almost overwhelming for Mia, one that she really had to try and suppress.
Whilst working for Sebastian, she'd seen all kind of intimidating looks from him and if that didn't bother her in the slightest, then his 'girlfriend' most certainly did not either.
Mia had come across a few women like this, who just seem to look down upon others, as if they were much better for some reason of their own. However, she wasn't going to let anyone make her feel bad about herself.
Mia kept a blank face, remaining unaffected by her words.
"It will be a little hard for me stay away from 'Seb'. You know, considering I'm his assistant," Mia responded.
The woman clearly didn't seem to like Mia's response, laid on thick with sarcasm. She glared daggers at Mia.
"You're his assistant," she then stated. "That's it. Make sure you remember that," she warned, taking another step towards Mia.
"Will you be here to always remind me?" Mia asked, tilting her head slightly.
She could practically see the fumes coming out the woman's ears and she nearly let out a laugh at the comical situation.
"He's mine," the woman stated in the most possessive tone.
'Clearly Sebastian liked his women with a few screws loose in the head,' Mia thought.
Mia tilted her head to the side, an innocent look coming over her face. "Does he know that?" She asked.
The woman now looked furious, intense rage seemingly spread across of her face, which had also reddened.
"You little..." she began to say, nearly lunging at Mia.
However, before she could complete the act, Sebastian's voice broke them apart.
"What's going on here?" he asked, standing at the door to his office, looking very confused.
Sebastian had only just finished up one of his conference calls and had began to make is way to his office. He glanced into Mia's office, but didn't see her there and assumed she had probably gone for lunch.
The closer he walked towards his office, he could hear voices coming from inside it, which left him confused.
His confusion only increased once he opened the door and saw Mia standing there, but also his on-and-off girlfriend, seemingly in a heated discussion.
"Seb!"
Mia noticed the way the woman instantly put a wide smile on her face, as soon as Sebastian stepped into the room. Clearly the two had very different reactions to him.
"Anna?" Sebastian responded in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
He stepped further into the office, closing the door behind him and kept his eyes on her.
Anna was Sebastian's on and off girlfriend for a couple of years now. She was a model, leading a Jetsetter lifestyle, which often meant leaving the country for various shows, shoots and opportunities. This was one of the reasons that caused Sebastian and her to constantly call off the relationship, due to the distance.
The two would often get back together when Anna was back in the city, often seeking him out when she was, despite both of them knowing that wasn't going to lead anywhere and the past would repeat itself again.
She saw Sebastian as the kind of guy that could see herself with in the future, when she was ready to settle down. Anna didn't want to quit her lifestyle right now, not when she everything she wanted, but eventually she wouldn't be able to model anymore and before that would happen, she wanted to be with a guy like Sebastian
However, her reasons weren't exactly the best. Sebastian had money, power, a high position with society, and the ability to accommodate to Anna's lifestyle. It was all she wanted in a guy. The much added bonus was that she didn't have to compromise on a guys' look to get all that, Sebastian was incredibly good looking.
Sebastian thought that Anna was probably the kind of girl that he should be with. She was beautiful, had a great job, and he felt like she understood him. She never distracted him away from his work and let him continue, which he saw as her supporting him.
He knew that his own friends weren't so keen on Anna, and he sometimes he did question himself in the relationship, on whether he was actually in love or not. Unfortunately, his sanity was often flown out the window when Anna was involved.
Anna walked to Sebastian, who was still quite surprised, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She placed a lingering kiss on his cheek, before leaning back.
"I thought we could do lunch," she then said.
"Oh, did you call?" Sebastian asked in confusion.
Anna moved her arms from around his neck and instead placed her palms on his chest, keeping herself pressed towards his body.
"I need to make an appointment now?" She asked in a sultry voice.
Sebastian couldn't help but stare at the lip that Anna was not-so-innocently biting on.
The pair had completely forgotten that Mia was still in the same room as them.
'Why doesn't she just jump him?' Mia thought, watching the interaction between the two, as if it were some kind of nature programme.
She then let out a loud cough to regain their attention.
Sebastian quickly moved himself away from Anna at the sound of Mia's cough, feeling a little hot and bothered. He then awkwardly looked at Mia.
She noticed his red face and realised he really had completely forgotten she was standing there. She counted herself lucky that she didn't have lunch yet, or she would've puked that out, had they actually began to make out.
When the lady, Anna, turned to her, Mia saw the glare on her face. Clearly she wasn't finding it awkward, probably more annoyed at being interrupted.
Sebastian cleared his throat, trying to gain back his composure.
"Miss Sareen, this is my, uh-... friend, Anna Cruise," he introduced the pair. "Anna, this is my assistant, Mia Sareen."
"A friend?" Anna looked at Sebastian, clearly not happy with the choice of word used to describe her.
Mia bit her tongue, trying her hardest not to laugh.
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Cruise," Mia said with a smile, putting emphasis on the word pleasure, since it evidently was not.
"Why were you in here?" Sebastian then asked Mia.
She picked up the file that she had originally placed on his desk, before she had been interrupted by Anna.
"This the file for the Hamilton project," Mia said, holding it towards him.
Sebastian stepped forward, away from Anna and towards Mia, taking the file from her hand.
"Oh okay, thank you," he said.
"I was just going to leave it on your desk, but then bumped into your friend," Mia added, a smirk on her face as she saw Anna's angry expression at her words.
She then made a move to leave the office, sensing Anna and Sebastian would probably like time for themselves, or at least Anna clearly did, and she didn't want to be there for that.
However. before she could leave, Sebastian stopped her.
"Wait," he called out to her.
Mia turned around in confusion.
"Yes?" She questioned him.
Sebastian wanted to smack himself for stopping her so abruptly, but he just had to bite the bullet he had been holding himself back from doing the entire morning.
"How's your, the-...the ankle?" He asked, and Mia was a little taken aback by his genuine curiosity.
Sebastian cursed himself when he saw the look of surprise on Mia's face and began to think he should've just carried on with avoiding the topic, like they had been doing since that moment.
However, before he could tell her to just forget about his question, he saw a small smile on her face, which stopped him from saying anything.
"It's better now. Thank you," she responded.
Since he asked nicely and a little awkwardly, Mia decided not to give him a snarky response in return.
"Good," he nodded.
There was this sense of relief at her words, for some unknown reason.
The pair looked at each for a moment longer, before Mia snapped out of it realising this was quickly becoming weird again.
"I'll leave now," she said.
"Right," Sebastian nodded.
He watched as Mia walked past him and out of his office, closing the door after her.
As he was looking at her, Anna had noticed the way Sebastian gave a lingering look at the door, where his assistant had just walked out from. This annoyed her to her core.
"I don't like her," Anna stated.
Sebastian turned his head to face her. "What?" He asked.
"Your bitch of an assistant," Anna stated, not hiding her distaste for the girl.
"Mia?" Sebastian questioned, a little confused on what Mia could've done in a couple of minutes to piss Anna off to this extent.
"Yes. Her," Anna spat out. "Why did you even hire her? I mean, what could you have possibly seen in her?" she continued.
When Anna had seen Mia, and saw the big glasses she wore, the simple-clothing, she had assumed her to be a plain-Jane type. She didn't think that there was anything special about her and was sure that she would be no threat. But now, the look she had seen on Sebastian's face, worried her a little.
"My Dad hired her," Sebastian said, as he walked towards his desk and placed the file on top of it.
"Well that explains it," Anna scoffed.
She felt relieved that at least it wasn't Sebastian's choice to hire Mia, but rather's his father's.
"Why are you here, Anna?" Sebastian asked.
He didn't really care or mind that she was here, he just didn't want to continue to talk about Mia.
Anna then flashed him a smile. "I told you, for lunch."
Sebastian knew that smile all too well and the meaning behind it. That smile of hers was like a siren's call, alluring and dangerous and one of the reasons, despite his better judgement, he couldn't stay away.
"Anna..." he started to say, but she interrupted him before he could continue.
"Seb, come on. It's just lunch," she said and then placed her hand on his arm, affectionately stroking it. "Please," she pouted.
"Fine," Sebastian agreed.
The pair walked out of his office, with Anna linking her arms with Sebastian. He wasn't exactly comfortable with the display of affection.
Before they could get to the lift, Sebastian untangled himself from Anna's grip.
"One second," he said and she just nodded, checking her phone.
Sebastian walked back the way he came from, but instead of his office, he went towards Mia's door and knocked.
"Miss Sareen?"
Mia was sat at her desk sending off a last minute email before she was about to go to lunch, when she saw Sebastian poke his head through.
She was glad not to see Anna with him, at least not without some food in her stomach to give her the energy to deal with someone like her.
Mia wasn't entirely sure why Anna disliked her, but after the way she spoke, the dislike was mutual.
"Yes?" She replied.
"I'm going out for lunch," Sebastian informed her.
"Okay?" Mia raised a brow at him.
"I should be back for the conference call," he then added.
"I'll have the meeting room ready before that," Mia replied.
Sebastian stood there, looking at Mia, an awkward silence enveloping the room. He wasn't even sure what in the world possessed him to come back to her and tell her this.
"Okay," he then mumbled and then headed out.
Mia was stumped at the interaction, not really understanding why he needed to tell her that he was leaving, but just shrugged it off.
'Maybe he had a few screws loose too,' she thought.
***
Thank you for reading :)