12. Emerson
Emerson
Iheld in my smile as Pearl sent me an updated file that was supposed to be presented to my team later today.
Let's see what she came up with this time.
Originally, I had her doing mostly admin tasks, but she said she wanted something a little bit more challenging.
She was trying her best, and I could see her getting better, but if she were anyone else, I would have berated her for not getting it fast enough.
It had been almost a week since she started, and well…
she was very good at her other duties, but the actual assistant part of it would need some work.
I knew she’d get there in time, so it was a constant fight against my instincts to not rail into her about it.
To be fair, she was good at my stuff. My lunch. How I liked my coffee. Making sure my office was clean and set up just the way I wanted it. She was thoughtful, and it counted for something.
She was also perfect when it was just her and me alone in my office. She had begun to let go, but I was going to need her to be more vocal about what she wanted for aftercare. She mostly settled on a lingering hug.
She complimented me on my hugs the other day.
It was stupid how much it fed into my ego.
And then you walked into the house without a word and left her there.
It was a dick move. I knew it even as I was doing it, but I couldn’t stop myself. I had… maybe bitten off a bit more than I could chew with this contract. The panic I felt when Pearl asked if she could touch me… It had been slowly building up since that first hug.
It was… more intimate than I had allowed myself to be before.
And to make it worse, I found the food untouched in the morning. She had tried to be kind, rewrapping it and putting it back in the fridge for later, but it was easy to see she hadn’t even taken a bite.
All of it was sitting heavily on my chest, clouding my mind and making me even more antsy than I usually was.
Was she truly that upset that I left her?
I caught Pearl’s eye as she was looking at me through my office windows, and she gave me a halfhearted smile.
She hadn’t been totally herself after the steakhouse fired her. I was secretly happy they had so I wouldn't have to go through the trouble of making it happen, but I hated that they made her cry.
The trip to the lookout had been a spur-of-the-moment thing that I figured might not help at all. But as soon as I saw those beautiful eyes filled with tears… I needed to do something.
I hadn’t meant for it to turn into a thorough fucking session, but neither of us complained.
I was happy I’d bought a couple of fake dicks that were still in the back of the car.
It’d been on my mind to get them since she’d told me to fuck her with a dildo back at the club and the bigger, the better.
I aim to please.
Maybe part of me had also wanted to fuck her as if we were teenagers, just like I hadn’t had the chance to do in high school.
It had been… serendipitous.
But her fucking manager hadn’t left my head. What a dumbass to fire someone like Pearl.
Unforgivable.
So I didn't let him get away with it. I made sure he was paid in full for what he did.
Yes, she was now all mine every day except for the time she was at school, but there was only one person in this world who was allowed to make Pearl cry.
Me.
I pulled up the presentation and immediately got to work. Pearl had some good ideas but little practice. Too many words, though I kept most of them.
And she had left a stupid fucking heart GIF at the end of the thank-you slide.
I hovered my mouse over it, meaning to delete it, but for some reason, I looked back up at Pearl, and she was looking at me with such hope that I couldn't do it.
E. Blackwell: Made some minor tweaks. Good job.
If she were anyone else, I probably would've fired her by now. But she wasn’t, so I wouldn’t. And it wasn’t only because she was my perfect little plaything.
She brought out a part of me that I didn't even recognize. Someone who wanted to protect instead of destroy. Someone who wanted to be gentle. Who wanted to do right by others.
By her.
To hold her. To make others pay when they hurt her.
After high school—after she left—I had never thought about anyone other than myself. Now, Pearl always came first.
P. Meadows: Thank you <3
A fucking heart. She sent me a fucking heart. It was so fucking annoying and incredibly endearing at the same time.
My attention wandered when I saw her look up in the opposite direction. Cristian was walking toward her, holding our food. She gave him a smile as she took it and brought it into my office, not even bothering to knock.
“Oh, looks like they gave us Indian food today. I wonder how the food team knew I was craving it,” she said with an excited tone.
She sat down and placed our boxes on my desk as I moved my computer out of her way.
Eating lunch together had somehow become a thing for us.
“I don't know why you let me buy you food that first day if your company provides it every day.”
“How was I supposed to know you were such a thoughtful assistant?” I drawled.
In reality, my company had never provided lunch—until now. The space we had wasn't enough for our own cafeteria, though I had always planned on changing that. I wanted my employees to be comfortable, which meant more than just a snack cabinet.
Pearl just… sped things up. I didn't want her spending her money. Because I knew she'd go out every single day to bring back lunch for me because she thought it was her duty as a good assistant.
That was what Pearl was good at. Noticing people. Caring for people. Me, mostly. And I’d overlook all the fucking heart GIFs in the world just to keep her.
“Don’t act all humble now. We know you know me better than I know myself.”
I shrugged. She had a point.
“Tell me about school."
Pearl suddenly froze. She tried to play it off and went back to acting normal within a few seconds, but I knew what I saw.
Weird.
She had been so excited to go back. She had even arrived more than thirty minutes early on the first day to tour a campus she already knew.
Did something change between now and then?
More importantly, whose life did I have to ruin to make sure Pearl was happy?
"I just started, so it's hard to say, but the classes are pretty straightforward. It’s just a bit weird to be in school again after so many years.”
I nodded. Maybe it was just nerves.
It better be.
“You never did tell me why you had to drop out,” I said and leaned back in my chair, fully forgetting about lunch. I felt like I needed to probe some more.
“Is that really what you want to talk about?” she asked and started opening the boxes. “What, you don't want me to give you a show today?”
“No, I think I want to hear about this instead,” I answered, tilting my head to the side to watch her more closely.
She started to shift nervously in the chair.
“I could find out for myself,” I noted. “But I want you to tell me.”
I had done a little research. Most things could be discovered with a thorough internet search, but Pearl had nothing.
No social media presence at all. No friends as far as I could tell, or at least her phone hardly ever rang or beeped. Where were her parents? Didn’t they keep in touch?
I had connections. An information broker—a bit on the insane side—who could get the job done for a certain price and tell me all I needed to know.
But I would only resort to that if Pearl refused.
“It's nothing. I just… It was just all too much, okay? I was alone. I couldn’t rely on my parents—not that I wanted to. I cut them off as soon as I left for college. But it meant that I could barely make ends meet. Sometimes it all just gets to you, you know?”
She was lying. I didn’t know how I knew, but Pearl was lying to me.
It may be time to send the info broker a message. I had distanced myself from her for a reason, but for Pearl, I would close the gap.
I wanted to call her out on it, but then I saw movement behind her. My employees were chatting together, but they seemed to be… panicking a little bit? Cristian was running his hand through his hair. Leslie stood next to him, her arms crossed. She kept looking from my office to the door.
“Hold on,” I said and got up, going straight for Cristian, who immediately dropped his voice into a low whisper.
“You have another… visitor.”
Anger burst inside me. This had happened once, but I had made it clear that if he sent another person to my goddamn place of work, I wouldn't be so kind next time.
“Go have lunch with Pearl.”
Cristian nodded.
“We'll make it a team thing,” he said with a forced smile. “Let me know if you need help.”
I nodded, but there is no way in hell I would ask him for help on something so… embarrassing.
It took a lot for me to feel embarrassed. I was self-confident, and there wasn't much in the world I was ashamed of.
Only one thing. One person.
I took one last look at Pearl as Cristian walked into my office and gave her a quick explanation. Whatever he said, she shot me a panicked look. Like she was… scared for me or something.
If she only knew.
With a sigh, I turned and left the office.
I took the elevator down to the lobby, fuming the entire time and trying desperately to calm myself down before I caused a scene. As soon as the elevator doors opened, I saw him where Pearl had been sitting not too long ago.
The man’s clothes were ill-fitting and mismatched, telling me they were likely loaners. His hair was buzzed, and his skin was covered in tattoos, many of them looking like sticks and pokes.
I didn't pause as I strode up to him. When he looked at me, his face remained blank.
“Get out of here or I'm calling security.”
This got him to smile. He slowly stood up, taking his time, as if he didn’t give a single fuck about my threat. He probably didn't. He looked like he was just having a little fun outside and would end up going right back in.