5.
TW: assault
"Hey", I rasped out.
"Hi, I figured you probably weren't feeling better so I brought you a couple things before my shift."
I had been so caught off guard by Kyle's presence I hadn't noticed the two takeout bags he was holding.
"Are you gonna let me in or should we eat in the hallway?", he asked. His green eyes were lined with amusement as he smiled at me.
Stunned, I stepped back allowing him enough room to pass through the doorway into the apartment. He waited in the hallway of the entry until I closed the door and lead him to the living room.
The dining table was covered in notes and textbooks. I was slightly embarrassed at how messy everything seemed, but I was too sick to care.
I sat on one end of the couch while he carefully unpacked tiny Tupperware's from the paper bags. His long brown hair fell slightly over his forehead as he bent to place them on the coffee table.
"So, what's on the menu?"
"I wasn't sure what you liked so I got a bit of everything off the menu. I went to that Vietnamese restaurant near the bar. I got you Pho soup, spring rolls, rice...", Kyle pulled every item out of the bag as he listed them.
At the mention of soup, I internally winced. I hated soup. It didn't matter which soup it was, I refused to eat it. Every time I ate soup, I would start to sweat intensely and eventually my nose would leak, which is technically what I'm trying to stop.
If my face displayed a lack of enthusiasm, he didn't notice. He was being so sweet, checking in on me and bringing me food. I couldn't be rude and not eat.
"Do you wanna watch something?"
I slowly slipped off the couch and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the table.
"What were you watching before I showed up?"
He sat down next to me. As he got comfortable, well at least as comfortable enough for a man of his stature in a small spot could be, our knees touched.
His jeans were taught against his thighs.
The white t-shirt lifting slightly up his stomach as he leaned behind himself to grab the remote, leaving much to my imagination.
"I was watching Gilmore Girls.", I rasped out. Forcefully tearing my eyes away from him, I faced the forward and mentally prepared myself to eat the soup.
We ate in silence. He, occasionally, asked me a few questions about the show to which I would shush him and tell him to listen.
He had finished eating long before I had.
Once I was done, I offered to clean up the mess we had created but he persisted that I was sick and should not even be getting up from the couch.
Every time I tried to help out, he would slap my hands away.
While he finished cleaning up, I lied down on the couch waiting for him to rejoin. When he did, he sat back down on the ground, leaning his weight on the couch.
"Why don't you sit on the couch?"
He leant his head back, resting it on the couch, as he turned his face to look at me. Without either of us meaning to our faces were close. I stared expectantly as my eyes wandered over his face.
He was so handsome. His normally soft olive eyes darkened as they stared into my eyes.
They slowly trailed to my lips before making their way back up into mine.
His Adams apple bobbed with his swallow.
The air felt tense as I felt myself entranced by him and the way he was looking at me.
I could have sworn that he was suddenly much closer to me than before.
The ringing of a phone broke whatever trance his eyes seemed to pull me in. I quickly sat up and walked over to where my phone lay in the kitchen. I avoided his gaze. I seriously needed a reality check. He was my boss and I'm making goo goo eyes at him?
I quickly picked up the phone when I saw that Mr. Morrentti was calling me.
"Hello?"
"We have an important meeting. I'll be there in five minutes. Be ready.", and with that, he hung up.
I stared at the phone in disbelief. After several seconds, I walked back towards the living room. He was no longer on the floor. Instead he sat on the couch with a tiny frown.
"Hey, I-uh really appreciate you coming to check up on me but something came up. I have to go."
Hopefully, he didn't think I was kicking him out. I never told him about my deal with Ophelia since I didn't think it was necessary that he knew. As long as it didn't interfere with my work at the bar, he didn't need to know.
"Oh, yeah. I was about to leave either way." He scratched his chin lightly as he got up from the couch. I followed him as he lead the way to the door, only stopping to pick up his jacket.
Whatever moment we may have had before was gone. The space between us felt awkward and weird. I summed it down to me basically kicking him out when he was nice enough to come see me when I was sick.
As he reached for the door handle, I pulled his arm back so that he could turn to face me.
"Thank you for coming to see me. You really didn't have to, especially since you could get sick too.
" Before I could think about the consequences, I circled my arms around his waist and gave it a light squeeze.
I felt him freeze momentarily before his arms wrapped around me, settling on my shoulders.
He gently placed his chin on the top of my head.
"Any time. Hey, if I get sick that means you can take care of me."
I pulled back after a few seconds to see him wiggling his eyebrows at me with a goofy expression. I lightly punched his shoulder.
"Get out of here."
With his trademark smirk, he opened the door and stepped out when he suddenly froze.
Leaning on the wall opposite of my door was Mr. Morrentti.
His left leg was lazily crossed over his right leg and his arms were crossed.
His entire demeanor was devoid of any emotion.
His eyes were hard and blank as he looked at me.
He lifted up his left arm, glancing at his watch before replacing it in it's crossed position.
When he looked up, he set his eyes on Kyle.
From this angle, his eyes seemed to darken.
His eyebrows pulled together in his usual frown.
When he looked back at me, there was something in his gaze that made me feel almost bad.
This feeling engulfed my stomach and spread throughout me.
It worsened when he pushed off the wall and walked down the hall, towards the exit.
"Who was that?", Kyle asked turning towards me. "Do you know him? Should I call the cops?"
"Ya, I do. I'll explain it some other time.
See you Monday!", I rushed out with an embarrassed laugh.
I turned around and shut the door, leaving a baffled and curious Kyle out in the hallway, partly because I didn't want to give him the chance to ask more questions and partly because I didn't want to keep a certain someone waiting any longer.
I sent him a quick text saying I would be out soon. He could wait. It wouldn't kill him. Anyways, what decent person gives another person only five minutes to get ready?
After I hopped in the shower, I quickly slicked back my curls into a low bun and put some light mascara.
I had no time to do Ophelia's usual makeup look.
He was going to have to take what he could get.
I paired the white t-shirt I picked with a long brown silk skirt.
I slipped on the black kitty mules instead of Ophelia's stilettos.
I wasn't just dressed like Ophelia, but I doubt anyone would notice.
If anyone did, I could easily say I was sick which wasn't a lie.
I tightened my jacket around me as I made my way to his car. The weather was beginning to become brutally cold. His driver rounded the car from his seat and opened the door for me. I thanked him as I slid in, a small sigh of relief sounded from me as I felt the warm air engulf me.
"Hi, sir. I'm very sorry about the wait. 5 minutes was too short of a time to be ready."
I brought my elbow up as I coughed lightly. Before leaving, I had stuffed a bottle of tylenol and stuffed my purse with a whole bunch of tissues in case my nose leaked.
"Are you sick?", he asked.
I looked at him in shock. This was the most self-absorbed man I've ever met. Not even twenty-four hours ago, I spent an entire night sneezing and coughing in his presence. For heaven's sake, I literally sneezed on him and he didn't even notice I was sick this entire time.
I pinned him with a hard glare. He didn't notice. He was too busy looking out the window.
I slightly sniffled, feeling a sneeze coming on. I managed to rasp out, "Yes"
"Well then, you should have called in sick."
"It's Sunday!"
"You're my personal assistant. You're on call twenty-four hours a day. If you are unwell, you should email before 8 am to request a sick day. Otherwise, I expect you to be on point and ready."
"You're being ridiculous.", I snapped as I slapped my palm on the leather seat between us as I turned to face him.
"You know what's ridiculous?", he asked as he turned to face me. His eyes bounced between both of mine, waiting, egging me on to respond.
"What?"
"The fact that you toy with my time and patience. I could easily fire you, Miss. Merile. You've fucked up enough in the past week to give me intent and yet, you push me further by making me wait while you flirt with your boyfriend.", he said in a clipped tone.
Each word dripped off his tongue with malice and disgust as he looked at me.
His were sharp, calculating and analyzing to see my reaction to his words.
I felt my cheeks redden in embarrassment.
My heart started pounding as my annoyance grew into anger.
If he wanted a reaction, I would give him one to talk about for years to come.
"If you took your head out of your ass or maybe thought of someone other than yourself for a minute, you would have noticed I was sick yesterday."
"Oh, trust me. I recall.", he sneered.
"I come in. I do my job." At this he scoffed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Add to the list of sentiments: insulted.
I knew I wasn't on Ophelia's level. I doubt anyone was. I didn't mean I was bad at it. I made his coffee, brought his lunch, scheduled his appointments and organized his files. Considering I had no training and no ambition, I thought I was doing a pretty decent job.
"Miss. Merile, you can't even make a cup of coffee anymore.
This past week, you've been tripping all over the office like a damn fool.
You've mischeduled multiple meetings with future clients.
Your behavior indicates a lack of precision and control to which I will not accept in my company, least of all of somebody who works directly with me. "
"Well-", I tried to come to my defense but I was rudely cut off.
"And if this has something to do with that man, do yourself a favor and end it."
I guffawed at his comment. Kyle was my boss. In this scenario, so was Mr. Morrentti. He had no clue who Kyle really was to me. In fact, he didn't even know who I was. Even if he did, he had no right to make that comment.
"Excuse me? Who the hell do you think you are?"
"I'm the man who pays your apartment, your phone and your clothes. You ought to do well with remembering that when you talk to me. Miss. Merile, I have to say you've never been so blatantly disrespectful in the past."
Somehow, in our dispute, we both got closer together. We were slightly leaned forward over the space of the middle seat between us. His jaw was clenched and his eyes had melted in a pool of amber from the fire within them.
I'd never been this close to him. I doubt anyone has everyone been this close to the devil before. He had a light dust of freckles that you couldn't see from afar. His straight black hair was pushed back and lips were sealed in a hard line.
His words began to register as I looked at him.
He's right. Not just about the fact that 'Ophelia' was lacking at work lately, but also about the fact that she probably never acted like this around him.
She was always calm and docile. She would never tell her boss to take his head out of his ass if she was mad.
She would tell herself a couple mantras and go on with her day.
Also, there was nothing like a subtle reminder that he was the reason Ophelia had a roof over her head and food on the table to bring you back to reality.
I felt the fight leave my body as my thoughts processed what just happened. If he noticed how close we had gotten, he didn't show it nor did he make any action to pull away. He continued to stare at me. I pulled away and sat deeper into my chair. He remained. He knew he won this battle.
"I apologize Mr. Morrentti. I'll work harder.", I said and turned to face the window. I didn't have the guts to look at his face, not even in the reflection of the glass.
"What are you wearing?", he snapped as he looked at me.
"Clothes?", I said questioningly as I looked up from the book I had just placed on the conference table.
"It's against the company's dress code policy."
"How?"
At my question, his gaze snapped up from his phone. His jaw clenched as his eyes lingered around my waist.
"Go change."
"I don't have anything else. I don't understand. How am I not respecting the policy?", I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned most of my weight on one leg. His eyes followed my movements before he looked at his phone.
"Fuck.", he muttered under his breath. He ran his hand over his hair, pushing it back slightly. "They're here. We'll talk about this later. Is everything set up?"
I only had time to nod before a light knock against the door sounded and several men walked in. Mr. Morrenti introduced me to each man as they greeted him. After introductions were made, the men sat down and Mr. Morrentti began his presentation.
I couldn't help but feel entranced as I watched him speak as I took notes.
He was so confident and sure of himself as he stood at the front of the room.
His strong hands moved with precision and thoroughness as he pointed to certain things.
Even if he was cut-off, he answered the questions with ease.
I noticed that everyone's water cup was getting low.
I got up and made my way around the table, carefully pouring water in each glass as I smiled at them when they said thank you.
When I got to the last man, I leaned forward to grab the cup when I felt a hand lie softly on my butt.
I quickly stood up straight and felt the water in the vase nearly spill over. I didn't know what to do.
I didn't want to interrupt Mr. Morrentti's presentation and ruin this deal for him. I didn't need another reminder of how much I've been screwing up lately.
My heart was pounding. I felt as though I could hear it. I felt nauseous. I felt as though I was frozen, unable to move. When I did, the man tightened his grip on my ass painfully. I looked down, begging him to stop with his eyes but he's eyes were trained on Mr. Morrentti giving his presentation.
My vision was becoming increasingly blurry. I looked towards the other men, hoping they would notice what he was doing. Why was no one noticing?
As his hand trailed down my leg and I felt his hand skim my shins, I heard a throat clear. Through the tears in my eyes, I looked at Mr. Morrentti who was staring at the man touching me.
His face was sharp, highlighted by the light from the powerpoint screen as he took slow calculated steps towards him.
Mr. Cantino placed his hand on his lap, removing it from my body.
Immediately, I stepped back, pressing myself into the wall wishing it would swallow me whole.
The water vase and cup I was still holding were shaking and I tried to convince myself it was because of the cold in the room.
As he stood in front of the seated man, he looked over his shoulder at me. I tried to give my best attempt at a smile, but my eyes were clouded and body shaking from shock and fear. I just wanted to go home and shower.
He looked back at the man and slowly leaned over his chair placing both his hands on opposite ends, encaging the man.
"You're mother clearly didn't raise you right."
The other men around the table began to fidget as they nervously looked at Mr. Morrentti.
"How dare you? You-you"
"You disgusting fucker. I invite you to my company. I give you an opportunity to work with one of the biggest company in New York and what do you do to repay me? You assault my PA."
"I did not."
Mr. Morrentti tilted his head side to side as if weighing his options.
"Apologize."
"This is preposterous. I didn't do anything."
With one hand Mr. Morrentti grabbed the back of Mr. Cantino's head and with the other he gripped his jaw, forcefully turning it to my direction. He knelt down slightly to reach Mr. Cantino's ear level.
"Here's how this is going to go. You're going to apologize.
Then, you're going to resign and turn yourself in for assault to the police.
Trust me, she will be pressing charges.", he growled as his grip on the mans chin tightened.
"Then, I'm going to rip apart your life, slowly.
Everything and everyone you love in your life will be gone until you have nothing.
Until you are nothing. After all, someone has to teach you a lesson. Now, apologize."
"I-I'm s-so-sorry.", the man had visibly shrank in the chair and was on the verge of tears.
"No, no, no.", Mr. Morrentti chuckled darkly. "That's not a real apology. What are you sorry for? Go on."
"I'm sor-sorry I to-touched you wit-without perm-permission."
At this, I flinched. I just wanted to disappear from this entire situation.
Mr. Morrentti stood to his full glory and straightened his suit jacket. He walked over to me before carefully taking the vase and cup from my shaking hands and placed it on the table. As he placed them down on the table, he addressed the other men in the room.
"Gentlemen, this concludes our meeting. It's safe to say we will not be conducting business with you moving forward."
Despite the other men voicing their disagreement and pleading with him to hear them out, Mr. Morrentti walked towards me and guided me out of the conference room.