Walking into work the next morning I had never been so nervous, my plan today is to avoid Xavier as much as possible, cowardly I know but after what happened last night I’m extremely embarrassed. I’m glad Vince walked in when he did, as much as I wanted it I know it shouldn’t happen and what did happen can never happen again, he’s my boss for goodness sake.
I step out of the elevator on my floor, coffees in hand and I’m immediately greeted by Suzy as I have been every morning.
“Good morning Suzy, how are you today?”
“Cait, hi, good morning, great thanks and getting better by the minute” she replies cheerfully, she looks happy this morning, excited even and she seems to be glowing, wow ok I’m glad her morning is better than mine.
“Mind sharing your good morning?” I ask smiling brightly at her, her good mood seems to be contagious.
“One, the boss isn’t coming in today, two, my boyfriend proposed last night and the third, how about I tell you over lunch?”
“Oh my, congratulations Suzy, he’s one lucky man, did Mr Callahan say why he wouldn’t be In today?”
“Thank you and no just asked me to cancel all of his meetings and for you to re-schedule them for next week”.
“Okay will do, here, might as well have his coffee so it doesn’t go to waste then and give me a call or something when you’re ready for lunch”.
“Thanks Cait, see you later, I’m here if you need anything”.
I hand her the coffee and make my way towards my office wondering what the reason could be as to why Xavier isn’t in today and why he didn’t call me directly about the appointments being re-scheduled. He seemed fine last night when he left my apartment, his usual arrogant self.
Walking into Xavier’s office I switch the lights on and move towards his desk to collect the files he always leaves out the night before, I collect them and head into my own office switching the lights on and rounding my desk, I boot up my computer and put my bag in the drawer before sitting down and pulling up Xavier’s schedule on the computer so I can get names of people he is meant to be meeting to ring them and re-arrange.
After spending the morning re-arranging meeting, taking phone calls and replying to numerous e-mails I’m exhausted and welcome the call from Suzy te tell me she’s ready to go to lunch.
I shut down my computer and collect my bag from the drawer before heading to reception to meet Suzy.
“Hey Suzy, where we going, anywhere in mind?”
“Hey, how about Starbucks, we can grab a bite to eat and talk over coffee, I need to tell someone my news, I can’t keep it in much longer” she replies bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement.
Laughing at her eagerness I nod my head yes and head for the elevators, stepping in I press the button for the lobby and wait for it to work its way through the floors picking more workers and visitors up along the way, all that is on my mind is the last time I was in an elevator with Xavier, I feel my face heat at just the thought of everything that has happened between the two of us.
Before I know it the doors open up revealing the now familiar lobby and snotty receptionist.
Suzy and myself walk side by side towards the main doors, I can’t stop thinking about Xavier, he hasn’t called at all today, not once, not one e-mail either, he didn’t even have the decency to contact me himself to inform me about him not coming in today, I am his P.A after all, I should be informed by him, not the secretary.
“You okay Cait, you’re awfully quiet?”
“I’m fine thank you Suzy, just a lot on my mind at the minute, I need this lunch after the busy morning I’ve had, thank you for inviting me”.
“No problem girlie, you’re the only decent female in the building to be honest, the rest are all stuck up their own arses, now your car or mine?” she smiles brightly at me, I swear that grin of hers is contagious, I find myself smiling back at her showing off my bright whites.
“Thanks, you’re not too bad yourself, let’s take your car” I laugh.
She leads me towards the parking lot and her black Audi TT, nice car I must say, now I’m glad we took hers instead of my crappy Punto.
We buckle in and Suzy starts the engine, in no time we are headed for Starbucks, I need coffee right about now and an extra-large one at that.
Ten minutes later we stop outside the very same Starbucks I go to in the mornings, we get out of the car making our way inside and to the counter where a few people are ahead of us in the queue.
“It’s on me, what you after?” I tell Suzy.
“Don’t be silly I asked you to come, so my treat”.
“Nope, not happening, your turn next time” I reply smugly whilst scanning the sandwich section, deciding on a cheese and red onion Panini while Suzy chooses a chicken, mayonnaise and salad sub roll.
Finally our turn has arrived, thank god, I’m a very impatient person, I hate waiting, we hand over our food and tell the barista we would like one large cappuccino and one regular hot chocolate, obviously the cappuccino is for me, I’m a slight coffee freak.
Once our drinks and food are ready we find a table, I can tell that Suzy is excited about something and quite honestly I can’t wait to find out what.
“Okay spill” I tell her picking up my food.
“Okay, okay but you must promise not to tell anyone else okay?”
“Okay, now tell me, you have me intrigued”.
“So they say things come in threes right?” I nod my head and gesture for her to continue, “Well I told you two this morning, one being that I am now engaged to be Mrs Johnson, second that big bad boss man was off today, number three, the big one is that this morning I realised that my period is four days late which is very strange for me because, well, I’m always on time, like really regular so obviously I did the most logical thing and sent my fiancé out to the shops at six o’clock this morning to get me a pregnancy test and long story short, I’m pregnant” she squeals the last part almost bursting my eardrums in the process with the high pitch.
“Oh wow Suzy, I’m so happy for you, congratulations, pregnant and engaged, that’s wonderful”, I say getting up to hug her, I am really happy for her, I may not have known her long but I haven’t got along with a women like her in years and the fact that she trusts me enough to tell me this is amazing.
“Thank you Cait, I just had to tell someone and seen as you’re the closest person to being my best friend I thought I’d tell you”.
“You must have more friends Suzy, you’re a wonderful person”.
“No all my friends dropped me about three years back when Steve and I started getting serious, they didn’t like that I wanted to spend most of my time with Steve so they stopped talking to me”.
“Well who needs friends like that then?”
“So what’s going on with you and hot, sexy, boss man then?” she asks me, I spit my coffee out almost choking.
“What, nothing, what do you mean, I have no idea what you’re going on about”.
“Okay of course, I believe you”.
“Thank you”.
“But thousands wouldn’t” she adds.
“It’s nothing honestly” I try to convince her although I have a feeling I’m not getting away with this.
“Cait you can tell me anything, I’m not going to say anything and I’m not going to judge but I have seen the way you look at him and him you when neither of you thinks anyone is watching”.
“Okay but promise me that this goes no further than us okay?”
“Promise, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, no cross counts included” she childishly sings, I haven’t heard anyone say that since I was about twelve.
“Well I’ll start from the beginning then” and I did, I told her everything that had happened to the present day, I feel like I can trust her, I literally poured my heart out.
“Wow……..oh wow, I don’t know what to say, that’s a shocker” she whispers barely audible, if I wasn’t listening properly I wouldn’t have even heard.
“I know and now in don’t know what to do, I mean I like him but I think it’s just an infatuation, but I don’t want to do anything about it because I don’t just want to be somebody’s play thing that they can pick up and throw away whenever they feel like it”.
“I say go for it, honey that’s one fine piece of arse, if I weren’t engaged and pregnant, the thing’s I’d do to him” she says dreamily.
I can’t help but laugh at her, the look on her face is priceless.
“Suzy, I can’t he’s our boss, if things go south I’m out of a job, I couldn’t continue working with him”.
“Who says thing will end badly, just set some ground rules”.
“Like what exactly?”
“I don’t know, like no getting attached, end things before they get complicated, no emotions involved, them sort of things” she replies shrugging.
What am I going to do with this woman, surely things can’t be that simple.
“You really think that would work?”
“Sure, why not, worth a try right?”
“Come on let’s get back to work, we only have ten minutes left” I say standing up, I take my rubbish with me and throw it away.
On the ride back to the office all I can think about is what Suzy said, maybe it could work, once we have both had our feel of each other we can end it and go back to the employee/employer relationship, no harm done.
We arrive on our floor and I realise I have been quiet the whole time.
“Just think about it Cait” I hear Suzy say breaking me out of my thoughts.
“What do you think I’ve been doing since you mentioned it, I think I’ll speak to him about it, I’ll call him later”.
“Okay, let me know how it goes, no shoo I have work to do” she laughs.
Laughing back I walk into Xavier’s office then into my own, I stop dead in my tracks when I notice who is sitting at my desk.
“We need to talk Cait”.
“I know Xavier, I’ve been thinking and I’ve come to a conclusion, I think it may work”
He gestures for me to continue, I take a few steps forward and sit on top of my desk as Xavier has remained seated in my nice comfy leather desk chair.
“I was talking with a friend, I am willing to try this but we need to set some rules, there is to be no emotions involved, no falling in love, if either of us realise feeling are developing then it ends straight away, this will be a benefits only arrangement, once we have our fill of each other it ends and we go back to working together as if nothing happened, no-one is to know about this, we will not have relationships with others and as soon as one of us wants to start dating again we let the other know and again all this ends, no hard feelings, there will be no mushy shit between us okay, like I said, strictly benefits, agreed?”
I maintain eye contact and wait for Xavier to answer, he appears to be in deep thought assessing everything I have said, he’s taking too long to answer and the suspense is killing me, I open my mouth to ready to tell him to forget that I said anything, I feel completely stupid for even thinking this, before I can get any words out he finally speaks up.
“No” he states, plain and simple, I was hoping for a little more than that. He seems to have changed his mind, this was his idea yesterday, why the sudden change.
“What do you mean no this was your idea, I just set rules that need to be followed”.
“I mean no c, I’ve changed my mind, that’s what I want anymore”.
“Okay I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bought that up, I feel so stupid, if you could please leave I’ll continue with my work”.
Next thing I know Xavier is in front of me, his hands cup my face and he kisses me softly, not rushed or urgent like the times before but soft and passionate, after a minute he pulls back, his hands remain on my face, his thumbs stroking my cheeks soothingly.
“What I mean is that I don’t want you like that anymore Cait, I don’t want to just use you for my own selfish needs”.
“It’s not you being selfish, I want this as much as you do” I reply still confused, he says that he doesn’t want this, want me but he kisses me?
“No I want you Cait, not just for sex, I want you, all of you, I can’t stop thinking about you, when I left your apartment last night I just wanted to turn around and walk straight back to you, I don’t want to just hump and sump with you, I want to hold you after sex, I want to fall asleep with you in my arms, I’m not saying that I love you because I don’t and honestly I don’t think I can ever love but I would like to date you, let it run its course and fizzle out naturally”.
I’m stunned, frozen in shock, I stare back at him with my mouth agape not knowing what to say, we have only known each other six days, not even a week and in them six days we have only seen each other for five, four being work related so we have spent hardly any time together, he can’t mean what he’s saying, this has to be a way of getting in my panties.
“Xavier I already agreed to sleep with you, you don’t have to say things like that to get in my knickers”.
“It’s the truth Cait, you wait and see, I’ll show you how serious I am”.
“Okay, whatever, we’ll see, how do you plan on doing that then?”
“Come for dinner with me tonight, let me woo you, no sex just a date, a nice meal, get to know each other better”.
“You know this is against the rules right?”
“I’m the boss remember, I make the rules” and there’s that smirk.
“Okay, fine” I sigh.
“Great be ready by seven I’ll pick you up, you can leave whenever you want, to get ready” he smiles, a real smile, not a smirk but a gleaming white smile then bends his head down kissing me softly.
“See you later” he adds before leaving.
I take a seat putting my bag away and starting up my computer, leaning back and closing my eyes, what have I gotten myself into?