The next morning Sophia awoke to the sound of the coffee machine whirring in the kitchen and she dressed quickly, knowing her boss was already up and more than likely waiting for her to emerge from her room. After clearing the table and washing the dishes the night before, she did a little unpacking before collapsing into the silky sheets. She had one last box to unpack and she picked it up, resting it on her crossed legs. Inside were framed photographs of her family. She kept them all in the box with the exception of one. It was the photograph that sat by her bedside every night which held the most memories. The wooden frame was beginning to break and the glass had a small crack in the top right corner but she couldn't find it in herself to fix it. She'd broken it when she was fourteen after the news of her brother's passing. She picked up the photo and threw it across the room with such force.
The picture was of her, her mother, father and brother sitting by the Christmas tree a year prior to his death. She remembered how her father had set the camera up on a tripod and clicked the timer button, he had three seconds to run around the couch and sit beside his daughter. It took him three tries to finally take a successful photo but after they flicked back through the others Sophia found one that she knew they couldn't delete. Her mother and brother were grinning and her father had just come into frame and sat next to her, his smile was more of a half smile but Sophia's was a look of confusion mixed with shock. It was taken just before the camera toppled over, the tripod smashing into her brand new signed and framed poster of Jesse McCartney, and shattered the glass.
That moment is the one she thinks back to regularly, she recalls how mad she was with her father and shut herself in her room all day not even leaving to have the Christmas dinner her mother had spent all morning preparing. She regrets how childish she acted, especially after her father got into his truck and drove to one of the only places he knew would be open on Christmas day and purchased a new frame. He had to drive for over an hour and she didn't even know until she finally emerged from her room at five to midnight and saw the poster with its new frame sitting outside her door and a note attached with an apology.
She set the photograph on the bedside table and slid the box with the remainder of the photos that used to be set around her family home under the bed. She didn't want to take them out of the box and place them around her room because they were far too valuable. If there were a fire, it'd be the only thing that she'd grab, it was the only thing that meant anything to her...it was the only part of her family she had left.
She showered, dressed and headed out into the kitchen. Sitting at the breakfast bar with a phone pressed to her ear was a woman with vibrant strawberry blonde hair that cascaded down her back. She wore a plain black Panama hat that sat at the back of her head. Her lips were a bold red and the dark shadowing around her eyes gave her an edgy look- as if she were someone you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of. The low cut dress she wore seemed far too racy for the early morning but by the looks of it, she didn't seem to care as her eyes connected with Sophia and looked her up and down with an expression of disgust on her face.
"Are you just going to stand there or make my breakfast?" She spat and sipped on the expresso that was in hand.
"Oh...um," Sophia assumed the woman thought that she worked for Noah and it was true in a sense but she most definitely wasn't a cook.
"Honey..." Noah walked into the kitchen dressed in a navy suit and kissed the woman on the cheek. She leaned into his embrace. "This is Sophia my employee who needed a place to stay. You insisted she stay, remember?" The side of Noah that was loving and affectionate was one she'd never seen before and it made her feel sick to her stomach. The affection seemed forced and robotic.
"Yes. I remember. I just didn't think she'd be so pretty."
"It's nice to meet you," Sophia stepped a little closer and stretched her hand out in the direction of the stunning creature. Rather than accepting the handshake she took one look at Sophia's hand and scoffed, mumbling 'as if' under her breath. She stood from the stool leaving her empty coffee cup on the counter and walked away.
"She wasn't expecting a woman."
"Sorry?"
"I told her about your situation and she insisted you stay here, I think she was expecting you to be a man. Most of my employees are."
Sophia nodded. "Is she your girlfriend?"
"My fiancée actually," he shrugged.
"Does she live here?"
"Is this twenty questions?" He said in a serious tone. "Yes, she lives here but she is away on business trips most of the time. She isn't around too much." There was an awkward pause as if he was deciding whether to tell her more, but his persona appeared to change as his next words slipped from his mouth. "We leave in ten minutes."
She hurriedly ate her breakfast, gathered her things together, and waited for Noah in the living room when the ten minutes were up. As time progressed she realised that he was late and he was never late. She was waiting patiently when the shouting started in his bedroom. Sophia slipped her earphones out of her pocket and connected them to her phone, clicking play on the first song. She only had a few songs on her old phone most of which happened to be Jesse McCartney but nevertheless, she turned the volume up to drown out their conversation.
When Noah finally emerged after fifteen minutes he picked up his bag and gestured to the elevator. At the office, Noah was quiet - more than usual. He didn't ask Sophia to make him a coffee or bring him a file, but instead pushed his chair out from his desk and walked to the staff lounge with his head hung low. When he wanted a file, he did the same, walked out to Sophia's desk and looked for it himself. He'd then go back into his office slamming the door shut behind him, making the whole wall rattle.
The first words he spoke to her that workday was that he was going to make some personal phone calls, and he asked her to sit in his office and if his private line rang to answer the calls and take a message. He had two phone lines, one connected to Sophia which she would then connect to him and the other was a private line he used for important business and only a select few knew the number to.
Sophia took the opportunity to dust and tidy his desk. She'd been sitting there for around twenty minutes by that time and was bored out of her mind. Neither phone had rung at all and she wanted to occupy herself. While straightening the papers on his desk and dusting under the keyboard and mouse she saw the screen light up after accidentally clicking a key. The computer came to life and a photograph of Noah's fiancée appeared as his background.
The woman was sitting on a stool wearing a low cut shirt, a fur coat and bright red lipstick- the same shade she was wearing that morning. Her right hand was behind her head and her eyes were closed giving a provocative sexy modelling appearance. It was clear that she'd done it before and it was obvious why her boss was with her. She was a beautiful woman for sure but she seemed to have the personality of a wet blanket. He was a smart man - after all, he'd built a successful business empire over three years - but she couldn't place her finger on why he was with her. She didn't know much about her boss but there was one thing she was certain of and it was that he and his fiancée were polar opposites.
A distant cough jolted Sophia from her thoughts and as she looked up she saw Mr McKenzie standing at the threshold of the door. She quickly stood and straightened her skirt, told him that nobody called and she rushed around to the other side of the desk. He walked past her without saying anything and downed the coffee that was on his desk in one go, then left the room to get another. She made her way back to her desk and busied herself with more work which she finished soon after.
Sophia took her lunch break just after 12:30 as she usually did and made her way to the staff lounge knowing that if she stayed in her office she'd not get a break as her thoughts would be occupied by the strange behaviour of her boss. She sat alone at one of the tables in the staff lounge and tucked into her lunch as she waited for her colleague Liz who worked a couple of floors down. They often sat together when Sophia decided to eat lunch in the staff lounge and they occasionally texted back and forth. "Haven't seen you around in a while, are you avoiding me?" A familiar smooth voice came to sit beside her.
She looked up and gave him a smile, "I'm not avoiding you. I'm filling in for Linda a little earlier than expected."
"Ah, so you'll be back to your regular job relatively soon then?" Harry opened up the tub that was in front of him and stirred the contents with a fork.
"I guess so...depends what my regular job was. Why?"
"No reason, it's just female staff don't last too long around here, especially if they're working closely with the boss." His eyes flickered up as if he were gesturing to the top floor office.
"What do you mean?"
"When you meet Mr McKenzie's fiancée you'll understand why." She decided not to tell him that they'd already met and she didn't make a great first impression. The remainder of their lunch passed with small conversation and office gossip. It wasn't too entertaining as Sophia found herself zoning in and out of their conversation and almost didn't realise that Harry had said goodbye and headed out of the staff lounge.
On returning to her desk an hour or so later Noah emerged from his and retrieved another file. She wanted to know what was bothering him and almost asked the next time he exited to collect another document but she didn't. Regardless of whether they were roommates outside of work, they were still employer and employee before anything else, and she knew that would be crossing a line.
"Are you ready to go?" He said as he placed the last of the files back into their correct places in the filing cabinet. Sophia nodded and shut down her computer.
*
"Baby, you're home early!" Noah's fiancée squealed as soon as the elevator doors opened. She was lying on a massage table in the middle of the living room, two masseuses working on her tanned skin. A low frustrated growl came from his throat as he walked out of the elevator and he slammed his briefcase onto the table which caused both Sophia and the masseuses to jump.
"Out." The masseuses scurried out of the apartment and into the elevator leaving the table and products behind. Upon realising it was more than likely her cue to leave, Sophia rushed to her bedroom just in time for the argument to spark between them again. She tried to drown it out like she did the last time but curiosity got the best of her and she found herself sitting by her door that was barely open listening to the conversation down the hall.
"What the fuck are you doing here Brooke?" He yelled.
"I live here! Just because things are difficult for us at the moment doesn't mean I'm going to move out!" She shouted back.
"We agreed you'd move out for the time being until I work things out."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere while that gold digging whore is living in my apartment!"
"It's not your fucking apartment, it's mine! She is staying because she has nowhere else to go, not that I have to explain to you. It's none of your business."
"Well, I guess she can attend the charity gala with you on Saturday," Brooke replied snidely.
"Are you fucking kidding me? You can't bail on this Brooke, you owe me after everything I'm doing for you!" His temper ignited again and he slammed his hands onto the table in rage.
"I also owe my time to my job and the Paris fashion show."
"That's the career I gave you, if it wasn't for me you'd still be earning minimum wage at a catering company!" Noah's harsh words didn't affect Brooke in the slightest.
"Whatever. I'll see you when I get back from Paris," Brooke stood from the massage table in all her naked glory and Sophia watched as she wrapped a towel around her waist, the heels she was still wearing clicked away down the hall until they were out of earshot.
Noah hated the way that conversation had progressed because it was staged for Sophia. He needed to gain her trust and throwing him into an unhappy engagement with two bickering parties would surely evoke pity from her. When Brooke finally emerged from the bedroom she had pulled on her clothes and brushed past Noah on her way out, she kissed his cheek as she did. He didn't flinch but he also didn't appreciate the kiss. Sophia wasn't in the room, meaning it wasn't for show, so why did she do it? That morning he had put his arms around his fiancée and kissed her cheek to show affection, it was a ploy.
Noah had met Brooke a few years prior, she was working at a catering company as a waitress and his family had hired them to cater for one of her many social events. Brooke stood in the corner of the marquee holding a silver tray in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. She would hang her head low when a guest approached her and only glance up when they spoke to her to be polite. She went by Brooklyn then, the name her mother gave her. Noah immediately became captivated by her shyness. He was twenty-two years old and just beginning to draft his start-up for his company, and he didn't want to be focused on women, but her beauty was enchanting. They dated for a short while and eventually entered a relationship, but he realised that the honeymoon phase ended shortly after she dropped a bombshell which changed his life forever.