Chapter 6
6
BENNETT
“ C an I go to work with you today instead of school?” The question comes from the stool next to me as I finish up my breakfast.
Today is one of those rare mornings, that I don’t leave the house before seven in the morning in hopes that I’m able to catch an investor over in Europe before they finish up their work day. I try to have these late mornings as often as I can, especially since Drake is the only one of his siblings that is living at house full time. Now that the CEO title is close to being on my head, I’m trying to get in as many late mornings as I can before the job consumes me.
I turn slightly to look over at my nephew as he slurps up the remainder of his milked soaked cereal.
“Why the hell would you want to go to work with me?” I say, and as soon as the question leaves my mouth, the ten year old turns to look at me like he caught me stealing one of Henry’s cookies from the baking sheet.
“That’s five dollars in the swear account, please.” Drake almost signs out the words.
I roll my eyes and take out my phone there and then to transfer five dollars into one of the many savings accounts that I have for the kids that was so infamously labeled as the swear account a few days after they arrived on my doorstep.
You would think after ten years, I would have figured out not to swear when the kids are around, but apparently not. I still get caught and depending on the words, a certain dollar amount gets deposited into the account.
I’m positive that by the time that Drake reaches college, there will be a few million in the swear account.
After moving the money over, I show the kid so that he can verify that I did indeed deposit money. When he gives me a nod, I can’t help roll my eyes again.
And to think, I used to find this cute when he was younger.
“Now answer the question. Why do you want to go work with me?”
Out of all the kids, Drake is the one that likes school the most. He never willingly wants to miss a day of school and it has to be in-person school with teachers and other students around him. I’ve learned from the countless trips I have taken him on during the school year that he hates having to learn virtually or with a tutor one-on-one. So the fact that he wants to skip school to go into the office for the day, is surprising.
It wouldn’t be the first time he has gone to work with me, but it would be the first time he has done while school was going on.
The kid gives me a shrug and concentrates on the remainder of his cereal a little too hard.
“I don’t know. I just think it would be fun.”
Fun.
There has only been a handful of times where he has called going to the office with me, fun. When we had the World Series trophy in our building for a week after Chicago won their first World Series championship in a hundred years, a few years back. When an actor from one of his favorite superhero movies stopped by the office to talk about investing in one of out products. And the last one was when there was a snow storm that got so bad that me and him had to camp out in my small ass office for the night because we couldn’t leave.
Today, has none of those things, so it would be anything but fun. Something has to be up.
“Fun, huh? You want to sit in my office all day while I have meetings?” The question earns me a little shrug and not a spoken answer. Something is really up. Putting my fork down, I turn to face Drake. I will get to the bottom of this. “What going on, Bub? You never want to miss school. Not if nothing fun is going on.”
Drakes shoulder continue to slump as he now starts to play with his cereal.
My mind goes to worst case scenario.
“Is someone bothering you at school? Is that why you don’t want to go?” I get a shake of the head telling me no. “Okay, then what is it? You can tell me. You can always tell me what is going on.”
I’m not his dad biologically, but I am the closest thing that he has as a parent. So I’m going to act like one, even if there are times when the kids hate it. So if something is going on with them, I want and need to know, so that I can help them with whatever it is. They know that they can depend on me, no matter what.
I watch as the kid that I raised plays with his cereal some more until he eventually sighs and looks up at me.
“It’s parents day at school today and everyone’s mom and dad is going to go and do arts and crafts with their and have lunch together. And my parents aren’t going to be there so I want to go to work with you.”
A part of me breaks a bit when I hear him say that his parents aren’t going to be there. Not because his parents left him, but because I know he’s not talking about me. I may act like a parent, and legally I’m his guardian, but I will always just be his uncle.
Don’t think that way. It’s a lot easier to think than to actually do.
“Why didn’t you tell me about parents day? I can go with you. I wont go to work and then we can go do arts and crafts and eat nasty school food for lunch. It will be fun.” I try to keep the hurt out of my voice as much as I possibly can.
I get a smile from Drake but it doesn’t reach his eyes. The smile nearly disappears when he shakes his head.
“Everyone is going to ask why my dad is there and not my mom and I won’t know what to answer.”
That small part of me fixes itself when he mentions the word dad.
“We can make something up. Like she up at the international space station or down in Antartica with the penguins.”
A sweet laugh rolls out of his body. “There aren’t any penguins in Antartica, uncle Bennett. They are up in the North Pole.”
“I don’t know where you got that information from kid, but there are penguins in Antarctica.” I start tickling him and his laugh fills the whole damn kitchen. “I need to take you to a museum so that you can learn about them, because that expensive school of yours is not teaching you the right stuff.”
He laugh continues to fill the space even as I stop with the tickle attack, my one laugh combining with his.
“So what do you say? We go to this parents day and tell them all about the penguins in Antartica?” As much as I want to wish that Drake and his siblings situation with their parents was different, I can’t change anything. It’s been ten fucking years, and no matter how much I look for my brother, nothing will ever change the situation.
My brother left them with me and their mom, well she is someone that I will never let come near the kids, no matter how much she says she is willing.
I need to stop thinking about her. She’s not fucking worth even an ounce of time, let alone a thought. If she was worth it, she wouldn’t have left her kids with a literal stranger. Or even turned her back on them when they needed her the most.
Drake is silent for a minute, probably thinking about my proposition. For a second or two, I think he is going to be saying yes, but the kid surprises me when he shakes his head.
“I still don’t want to go, but instead of work, can we go to the museum.”
My schedule pops up in my head and I run through everything that I have to do today and see if there is any wiggle room.
There’s a few meetings that I can skip, but today is my first day with my new assistant, one I know nothing about. I need to get a feel of her and make sure she’s not some plant sent out to get information on me. Sure, I told Linda to hire her, but given that my last assistant was a damn mole, I’m not taking any chances.
“How about this? You skip school and spend the morning annoying Henry and then after lunch you two head to the office and we will go to the museum from there and I’ll teach you all about the penguins. How does that sound?”
“It sounds awesome! I’m going to go video call Grayson and Sam and tell them you are letting me skip school!” He runs off, abandoning his bowl of milk flavored cereal and runs off to call his brother and sister.
There is no doubt in my mind that by the end of the week, I’m going to have two teenagers in my kitchen, eating everything that they can think of all the while skipping school because I let Drake stay home today.
Better have Henry send out for some groceries to stock up.
The man in question apparently read my mind, because he walks into the kitchen looking at me like he has some questions.
“Mr. Drake just ran past me, yelling something about not going to school and going to a museum. Something about penguins.” The way he raises his eyebrows at me, like he wants to reprimand me for my decision.
When it comes to parenting, Henry is definitely the strict grandpa that fold whenever one of the kids throws puppy dog eyes at him. He is a military man after all, so he wants things to go a certain way. He was like that when he raised me and he is like that with my brother’s kids.
Me on the other hand, I can be strict, but I also let the kids get away with a lot more than I should.
I get up from my seat, grabbing both mine and drakes plates and walking them over to the sink, before answering Henry.
“Did you know that today is parents day at Drake’s school today?” I ask, placing both of my hands on the counter.
Henry looks as surprised as I felt earlier.
“No, idiot did not.” He pulls out his phone out of his pocket and starts doing something on it. Pretty sure he is looking to see if the school sent and email about it. “Who the hell sends a notification of something like the day of? Doesn’t that costly school know that people have live and they have to plan?”
I can’t help but to laugh a little at the outburst, but the laughter quickly fades when I get a death glare.
“When they notified us, isn’t important. What is important is that Drake doesn’t want to go, because he doesn’t know what to tell the other kids when they ask about his mom, or why his dad is there and she isn’t. He actually wanted to go to work with me instead, but I suggested that he just stay here and after lunch, you two can come by the office and we will go to the museum.”
Henry stands there mulling over it. I start to wonder if he is going to go on this whole spiel about structure and education.
“Right. Well I’m sure that Mr. Drake will learn more from a museum then from a classroom today. I will make sure to get tickets for this afternoon.”
“Thank you, Henry.”
He gives me a nod and is one his way to do whatever the hell Henry does.
Noting the time, I start to gather my things to head to the office.
Can’t keep my new assistant waiting, now can we?
…
Ella
I never thought that I would see this day.
The one where I’m looking in the mirror, while wearing business professional attire with a full face of expired make-up and my hair actually looking nice, ready to for my first day at a corporate company.
When I decided to go back to school to get a master’s degree, I thought about this day. I thought about some day in the future when I would wake up and have a job at a company that would help me make a name for myself in the business world. I thought that if the day did ever come, it would be far, far in the future, yet it’s here.
It’s fucking mind blowing.
Not only was I able to get a second degree but I got a job at Lane Enterprises.
Do I know exactly what I will be doing? No. Which is fine, I will learn on the job.
Hopefully.
I’m keeping a fingers crossed that I don’t get fired on day one.
And why would they fire me?
Well, I’ve never been anyone’s assistant.
I can’t barely handle organizing my own life, what makes me think I can do that for someone else?
I’m secretly hoping that there is training involved, even if it wasn’t stated in my welcome email.
Assistants get trained, right?
Let’s hope that they do, if not then my nerves will really get the best of me and then I will be saying goodbye to this job.
Not wanting the let my nervousness win this morning and mess up anything about my appearance, I decide that it’s time to get a move on with my day.
I can’t stay in this room forever. No matter how much I want to.
You can do this. Today is your day and you are going to do great.
Great. Today I will do great.
The pep talk helps enough and after giving my reflection a smile, I turn and finally head out my room and out to the kitchen.
It’s a lot earlier than what I’ve been starting my day at lately, which means that I won’t see Charlie off when she goes to school or make sure she eats a granola bar at very least. I’ll send her a message to remind her.
Starting my day earlier means that I now have a job that pays well and I’m able to not only keep a roof over our head and our fridge stocked but also pay for Charlie to go to Saint Christopher.
After I got my offer letter from Lane Enterprises, I didn’t hesitate in accepting the position. I wrote Linda back within ten minutes after all the excitement came down, and thanked her profusely for giving me the job and that I was more than excited to accept it. More so when I saw the salary that they were going to give me and the signing bonus that was attached to it.
Apparently the old men who run that company, pay their employees well, no matter how low their position within the company is. When I saw the number, I understood why people wanted to work there so much.
What I make at this job is going to be more than I have made in all my other jobs combined. Not only was the pay well, but the signing bonus is enough to help with half of Charlie’s first year at Saint Christopher’s. I just have to come up with the other half.
So as soon as Linda got back to me with all the final paperwork she needed from me and my official start date, I pulled out the email that Charlie had received from the elite private school and accepted her admission.
More paperwork was request of me for a damn private school than what I needed to submit for my new job.
But it was done, and Charlie was set to start at her new school in two weeks. All we need to do is buy her a uniform and pay what we can with my signing bonus and we are set to go.
I couldn’t be more thankful that I was able to get this job, and I haven’t even started yet. I now have a steady paycheck and I don’t have to go into a panic just thinking about how I will be taking care of the things that we need. I know for a fact that there is still going to be a panic here and there about some stuff and there will definitely days where I’m going to completely forget that I can now afford some things now, but hopefully that panic will subside quickly.
Let’s also hope I’m able to keep the job because then the panic will be here to stay.
After pouring my travel mug full of coffee, I leave some cash for Charlie on the counter so that she can buy something to eat on her way to school and and head out the door.
I don’t realize it until I’m on my second bus stop, but there is so much excitement rolling through my body.
I know people usually would be scared or nervous about there first day at a new job, an even though I am feeling those things, excitement overpowers them.
This is the first page of a new chapter in my life.
The last couple of years have been hard for a number of reason, the biggest one being that I became a mom to my little sister at twenty, but it’s finally looking up and that is definitely something to be excited about.
I should celebrate this new step in life with some wine. Maybe some chocolate. I’ll stop by the store on my way home and see what I can get my hands on.
For the remainder of my bus rides, three in total, I drink my coffee and do something that I haven’t done in a long while. Let my mind wander to all the doors that this new job can open.
I don’t usually let myself hope for things, because life is cruel and can take everything away in a split second, but with this job, I can let myself hope. Even if it’s a little bit.
With this paycheck, not only would rent and food and Charlie’s school be taken care of, but with extra money under my name, I will be able to pay off my debt a lot quicker.
That thought causes a lump of emotions to form in my throat. And not the good kind of emotions either.
My debt isn’t the normal type of debt that people my age get into. There is no credit card or school debt. Which is thank you to the four jobs I worked during all my years of higher education. I pat myself on the back more often than not for that choice. Because no matter how tiring it was or or the fact that I lost myself for a few years, working all those jobs was a blessing in disguise. If I hadn’t done what I did, I have no idea how I would be able to make it every single month with the added expense of students loans.
No, my debt isn’t the normal kind. Mine is tied to my sister and if I don’t pay it off, I will lose her and she will be right back living a life that she doesn’t deserve, with people that don’t love her and only want to use her for their personal gain. I’ll be damn if I ever let that happen.
My mind drifts to dark place. One where Charlie is crying in a corner, screaming and a figure looming over her.
Never. She will never go through anything that traumatic.
When the bus driver announces the next stop, I push all the dark thoughts and the lump forming in my throat down and try to compose myself as best as possibly can.
Get back to that excitement bubble you were in earlier. Don’t let the darkness overcome you.
I can do that.
After a few deep breaths, I’m close to being back in the head space I was in when I left the apartment. Not one hundred percent there, but close enough that I can put a smile on my face and actually mean it.
When the bus comes to a full stop, I’m in a better mental state and it gets slightly better the closer I walk myself over to the Lane building in downtown Chicago.
By the time I arrive I feel like I did when I woke up this morning. So much excitement rolling thought my body that I take a second to take it all in and not burst into the building like a ball of energy ready to take the corporate world by storm.
This was actually happening.
Sure, it’s just an assistant position, something that anyone could do, but it’s a step in a good direction. An amazing direction. A direction that I know for a fact that so many of my classmates would kill for. I may have been a part of an online program, but it was still a known fact that as soon as graduation came and went, the majority of people were going to be applying for any job they could get at this company.
Makes me wonder just how many people in my class I beat out for this position. Surly there was someone that was more qualified for this job than I was.
Who cares? I got the job not them.
That the mindset I try to stay in but the more I look up at the building and take it all in, the more I feel the nerves come up to the surface. The more I think about walking into the building and start my first day, the more I feel like puking in the flower pots that sit by the doors.
You got this. You will not puke in the flower pots.
“You got this.”
I got this. I really, truly do. I just need to move my feet and walk into the building.
My mind may be ready for this new adventure but apparently my body is not.
“Just start walking. One foot in front of the other and you will be inside the building.”
“Never heard anyone giving themselves a pep talk to walk into a building before.” A deep voice says from somewhere next to me, startling me in the process and causing me to not only jump but to also let out a yelp.
With my heart beating a million beats a minute, I turn towards the voice and for a second, I loose all train of thought.
Standing not even three feet away from me, close enough to touch, is one of the most gorgeous man that I have ever seen. A gorgeous man that I spent more time that I care to admit looking at through pictures online.
Bennett Lane. The very man that I had a dream about.
His dark brown hair is perfectly styled.
His eyes that look like they would look blue in some lights and possibly a version of green in others.
A well put together face that I know for a fact models and actors from all over there world would kill for, and scruff that covers the bottom half of his face that fits who him just beautifully.
My mind is going crazy with one singular question. Why is this man, whose pictures don’t do justice, standing so close to me or even talking to me? Why did he approach me?
As much as I want those very questions to come out so that my curiosity can go away, I can’t find myself to actually speak. I feel my mouth open but not a single word comes out.
I don’t know how long I continue to gape at this gorgeous man but I do.
Great. My first day at a new job and I’m already making a fool out of myself.