"She may be small,
but so are the stars
from a distance."
"Hold the elevator!"
Scarlett wrestled into her coat as she slid haphazardly into the elevator that morning. She puffed out a breath.
"Sky? Are you in a rush?"
Scarlett turned her head to the girl in the elevator. "Elle!" she cried, throwing her arms around the her neighbour, Danielle, "How I've missed your head of pretty, curly hair and your constant smell of vanilla shea butter."
Danielle laughed and hugged Scarlett back. The girls stepped back and took each other in. "Are you late or something? It's not like you."
Scarlett shook her head. "Not late, but I just want to be there a little early."
"You changed jobs?"
Scarlett nodded. No one knew of her real occupation, other than Grace Vanderpool, not even the most exciting neighbour she had. "Yeah, I work for Ace Hardwood."
Danielle gripped Scarlett's arm. "Ace Hardwood? Wow. He's hot, but from everything I've heard, he's ruthless and scary and overall, everyone just cowers when he walks past their workstations."
Scarlett bumped her shoulder against Danielle's. "Well, if he walked past you, he wouldn't be able to help himself. He'd be all over you."
Danielle threw her head back and laughed, making her curls bounce. "I've missed the boosts of confidence you give me. We should hang out some time. Seriously, just walk across the hall into my house at three in the morning and let's just hang out."
Scarlett chuckled, inspecting her reflection in the mirror as the elevator stopped at the ground level. "For sure. I'll see you later, Elle."
"Have a good day, Sky."
Scarlett slid into the town car that was waiting for her and was standing outside Ace's door, ringing his bell before she even knew it.
When Ace opened the door, he was already dressed and looked ready to start the day. "Ambrose, come on in. You're early."
"Well, not too early, you're fully dressed."
Ace's smirk returned. "Were you hoping for something less formal?"
Scarlett rolled her eyes, following him into his penthouse, while marveling at its beauty. "If I wanted to see you less than fully dressed, I already would have," she said, as he led her over to the breakfast counter, where he had been having a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper, as he did every morning.
"You're quite confident in your abilities," he commented, sitting down.
"That makes the two of us."
Footsteps on the tile made Scarlett turn her head as a girl with her short bob held off of her face with a red bandana walked in. The young woman looked from Ace to Scarlett and then leaned against the wall, a mischievous smile crossing her face.
"Ace," she mused, giving his name way more syllables that it actually had, "Who's this? Are we all having another round?"
She giggled, conspiratorially, as Scarlett looked at her with shocked amusement.
"She's my PA," Ace said, nonchalantly, not looking up from his newspaper.
The woman straightened herself. "Oh." She sounded almost disappointed. "Well, I have to change and get to work, so I'm going to go." She waggled her fingers at Ace and left.
Once the door closed, Ace looked up at Scarlett. "Have you had breakfast?"
Scarlett nodded. "I had a protein bar before I left home."
Ace lowered the newspaper. "What are you? Sixteen? A protein bar isn't breakfast."
"Oh, I'm sorry, my lord. Not all of us are billionaires to have our housekeepers whip us up an easy three course breakfast," Scarlett rolled her eyes and tucked her hair behind one ear.
"Sit down," Ace fluffed his paper, "Belinda will be here at any moment at I don't leave the house without any breakfast. Proper breakfast. Tell me what I have on my personal schedule today."
"Nothing," Scarlett told him, sitting down in front of him, "Your personal life isn't the busiest."
"Good. I have more time to work."
"That's sad," Scarlett reached for a banana that sat on the fruit dish.
"That's business," Ace lowered his paper to look at Scarlett over it.
She locked eyes with his as she slowly peeled the banana. Without flinching, without blinking, she held his gaze and raised the banana to her mouth before taking a bite. Ace watched her mouth, her lips.
He raised his newspaper again. "If you want to do that, all you have to do is ask."
Scarlett snorted as the door opened.
Belinda, Ace's housekeeper appeared and blinked at the unfamiliar presence at the breakfast counter.
"This is my PA, Scarlett Ambrose," Ace introduced, making Belinda nod in realization. She knew that Ace wasn't in the habit of keeping his female conquests in his house any longer than necessary and realized that something was wrong. "I'll have two eggs with toast, please. And she'll have one egg, I think. She's already had quite a bit of banana."
Scarlett snorted, almost choking on her bite of banana. "I can handle a lot more than just one tiny banana."
Ace had to lower his paper to look at the girl, amused. "I'm sure you can."
Belinda blinked, but got to work and set two plates down in front of the both of them. Scarlett smiled up at her. "Thank you," she sighed.
Happily, she tucked in, not remembering the last time she had a warm breakfast cooked for her. Belinda smiled at the young girl. Ace folded his paper and set it on the counter, surveying Scarlett's expression, but he said nothing.
"Did anyone call on my personal phone?" he asked.
Scarlett took a bite out of a piece of toast. "About that. Shouldn't your personal phone be, I don't know, on your person?"
"I don't have the time or patience for the people who might call," was the only explanation she was offered.
"You said you need your suit before four?" she asked and Ace nodded. "The schedule Gretchen sent doesn't have anything planned for after work."
Ace put his fork down. "Let me make this clear to you: you aren't here to look into or question my schedule. You're here to make sure I keep my personal appearances, nothing else. The only reason you are given my work schedule is to let me know if there are any clashes in timing. Do you understand?"
"I'm just saying, if you have mysterious rendezvous in your mind that you don't tell me about, I might have a hard time making sure you avoid clashes." Scarlett brushed the crumbs off of her fingers.
"I'll worry about my mysterious rendezvous."
The young woman shrugged and got up to take her plate over to Belinda. "Thank you," she said, gratefully, handing the plate into Belinda's outstretched hand, "It was delicious."
Belinda tittered at the compliment.
"You can flirt with Belinda later, Ambrose. We've got to leave."
Scarlett sighed and walked out of the kitchen to see Ace slipping his coat on. He nodded to the couch. "That's the suit I need altered. Just tell Giuseppe that I need it done like the last tux."
Scarlett picked it up and folded it over her arm. She followed Ace out the door and into the glass elevator that looked out on to the city.
She couldn't help the smile that overcame her face as the elevator descended, having always had a love for glass elevators. She looked over at her boss.
"Your collar's crooked," she said, and nonchalantly reached out to fix it for him, without even thinking.
Ace eyed her after she had fixed it, but said nothing.
"Be back in the office as soon as you've handed it over to Giuseppe and only to Giuseppe," he ordered, as they exited the elevator. Ace walked to his car, as Hank, his driver opened the door for him.
Scarlett walked to the car that Ace had assigned to her and got in, telling her driver, Vince, where to take her.
When she walked into the store, the bell above the door jingled and the man at the counter looked up at her. He sat in front of high racks of various fabrics. There was a tape measure around his almost non-existent neck and even though his face was meant for joviality, he was scowling at the stranger in his store. "Hi," Scarlett said, brightly, "I'm looking for Giuseppe."
The burly man crinkled his nose, making his mustache twitch. "Giuseppe's busy," he said, gruffly, "What do you want?" The man didn't seem to take well towards strange women.
"I have to hand this over only to Giuseppe," Scarlett waved the suit she had, "Mr. Hardwood said that I can hand this over only to Giuseppe."
The man's demeanour changed completely. "Ace Hardwood?" he asked, brightly, clapping his hands together and coming around the counter, a bright smile on his round, pink face, "Why didn't you say so? I'll take you right away. Come! Come!"
He ushered Scarlett into the shop. "You know, we really only serve our old customers," he told her, jovially, "We like to keep our suits in the family, you know? Ace Hardwood really loves Giuseppe's suits. He's a really good customer."
The man went on at a tangent about the superiority of Ace's taste as he took Scarlett into a bright back room with another two men. "Giuseppe!" the man at the counter called the tall, slim man who looked Scarlett up and down over his half-moon spectacles.
"Something from Ace Hardwood," the man said, gesturing to Scarlett.
Giuseppe raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Hardwood?" he asked Scarlett.
She held up the suit in her hands. "He wants this altered by three today," she smiled, "He said to do it the exact way you did the last tuxedo. He really loves that."
Giuseppe's face broke out into a smile. "He really did like that tuxedo," he said, taking the suit from Scarlett, as the other men left the room.
He took the suit out and inspected it. Scarlett stood there, not knowing what to do. "Who are you?" he asked Scarlett, as he scrutinized the jacket, "Mr. Hardwood doesn't send women to me. The only one he likes is his secretary, and you're not her."
"I'm his PA, Scarlett," she said, "What do you mean he doesn't send you women?"
"Ace Hardwood is particular about everything in his life, especially his suits and the company he keeps," Giuseppe said, knowingly, "And he doesn't send women willy-nilly on errands about his suits."
"I don't know what to tell you, Giuseppe. He's a strange dude."
Giuseppe looked at Scarlett over his spectacles. "Is that what you think of him?"
Scarlett shrugged, noncommittally, and nodded.
Giuseppe eyed and mm'ed. "I'll have this ready for you by three."
"You're an absolute star, Giuseppe," Scarlett gushed, making the old man smile, "I'll back at three."
Scarlett walked out, still puzzled by what Giuseppe had said about Ace and how he doesn't send women on his errands. Ace obviously liked women, which was apparent from the girl in his apartment that morning.
Pondering on Ace's strange mannerisms, Scarlett trudged down the hallway towards her office. She smiled at Gretchen just as Ace was stepping out of his office.
"Good, you're back," he said, "I've sent you some extra things you need to add to my schedule and I need you to find a gift for me to give my brother-in-law for his birthday. I've sent you his name and some things he likes. Send me some gift options. And I need that suit by four."
"A please wouldn't hurt once in a while," Scarlett said to his departing back.
Ace turned. "Get to work, Ambrose."
Scarlett sighed. "Nice to see you, Gretchen. I'll be getting to work."
She eyed the door to Ace's office as she passed it, but knew she wouldn't be allowed in as long as Gretchen sat at her desk. Making a mental note to hatch a plan on how to get in, she walked into her own office and opened up her laptop.
There were various emails she had received from Ace and Gretchen. She clicked open the first one from Ace, which was titled 'CONFIDENTIAL'.
It was a short email and it didn't even have Ace's digital signature.
The email only had two lines: one had a credit card number and the other was a four-digit number, which was pretty obviously a PIN. Her eyes widened and she dove for a work phone.
She pressed one button and called Ace, who was the first person on her speed-dial.
"This better be good, Ambrose," Ace's cool, deep voice came over the phone.
"I know this isn't taxes, or death, but I need to tell you that you've emailed me your credit card number and its PIN and I'm going to delete the email right now, but you need to change your PIN, and also, you really shouldn't be sending your PIN to anyone, especially not via email," the words tumbled out of Scarlett's mouth in a hurry.
There was a pause and Ace's laugh trickled down the line.
"Why are you laughing, you psycho? Someone could be hacking into your bank account as we speak!"
"Calm down, Ambrose," Ace laughed, "Those are fake numbers. But I'm glad your first instinct was to call me. Albeit defy my orders of emergencies only, but I'm glad. Now I know that I can trust you. I'll see you later."
He hung up and Scarlett tossed her phone on to her desk, shaking her head in disbelief. "Crazy billionaire," she muttered, under her breath.
Reaching into her bag, she took her personal phone and dialed Dan's number, wanting to give him an update.
"Yeah, Scarlett? Any news?" he asked.
"I can't get into his office yet," she said, "He doesn't let anyone in there when he's not around, but don't worry, I'll figure out how to get in there. Oh, and he wanted a very specific suit for this evening, but there isn't any appointment on any of his schedules, so he might be doing something that hasn't been publicized yet. There isn't a mention of anything anywhere and his secretary doesn't know either. I don't think I know to even venture a guess as to what –"
"Ambrose, what are you doing?"
Blood drained from Scarlett's limbs as she practically smacked the phone out of her hands, as Ace entered her office, with a suspicious look on his face. She exhaled, shakily.
She lowered the phone from her ear, wondering how much of that Ace had caught.
Scarlett shook her head, looking at him.
Ace's look of suspicion changed into a smirk. "I'd suggest that you call the sex-line after work. Or before. Just not during."
Scarlett scowled, swallowing, nervously, trying to get her heartbeat to relax.
"Add the things in that to my schedule, too," Ace tossed her a notebook and began to walk away. "Oh, and Ambrose, don't act suspiciously."
Are you guys excited to see where this ends up?
Do you like Ace's nickname for Scarlett?
How suspicious is Ace right now?