Vivienne

I walk out of Mr. Crawford’s office and approach the desk across from it.

“Hello,” I say to Vivienne.

“I can’t believe you didn’t take the money. How much more money do you want?”

“Excuse me, how do you know he offered me money?”

“You just want to work here so you can seduce Jason and get more money out of him,” she says, ignoring my question. I’m surprised she called him by his first name. They must be really close.

“No, that’s not why I want to work here. Why would you make such an accusation?”

“I’m going to tell you right now, it’s not going to happen. Jason already has enough office romances. Your plan of seducing him isn’t going to work,” she says, ignoring my question again.

“I don’t plan to seduce Mr. Crawford. Can you stop hurtling accusations, please?” I’m starting to get annoyed.

“Honey, you can pretend all you like, but don’t worry. The day you try to seduce Jason, he’ll reject you and throw you out. And I’ll be smiling and telling you, ‘I told you so,’” she says with an evil smirk plastered on her face.

“I don’t plan on seducing him. Let me tell you something about me--I don’t date guys his age. He’s too old for me,” I say, honestly. Mr. Crawford might be an attractive man, but he’s more than a decade older than me. If you add a few more years, he’ll be the same age as my uncle. It’d be weird and creepy to seduce someone as old as the man who raised me.

She lets out a fake laugh. “No woman on this earth wouldn’t want to date someone as attractive as Jason. You can lie all you want, but I don’t believe you. And I won’t be letting my guard down around you. I’ll be watching you closely.”

I suspect Mr. Crawford and Vivienne are already closer than a CEO and his secretary should be. It would make sense with the way she’s been talking about him. You’d think Mr. Crawford is her boyfriend and I’m trying to steal him from her.

“As much as I’d like to continue arguing with you about my true intentions, I don’t think anything I say will change your mind. So why don’t we just move on, and you can fill me in on my duties.”

“That’s a good idea; at least you’re smart,” she says, rolling her eyes.

“Thank you.”

“It wasn’t a compliment. Follow me. I’ll take you to your first assignment for the day.”

I don’t say anything as I follow her. We walk a few doors away from the CEO’s office before stopping. Vivienne opens the door, and it’s a smaller office. I’m getting my own office! I’m surprised because even Vivienne doesn’t have an office, but I get one. Or so I thought. Vivienne’s next words make the smile on my face turn into a frown.

“This is my office. I want you to move everything you saw on my old desk to here.”

“Okay,” I say, sad the office is for Vivienne, and I have to help her move.

I do as Vivienne asks and move everything from her old desk to her new office. It takes me roughly twenty minutes. She didn’t have a lot of things on her desk, but it was stressful walking back and forth with files in my hands. She even made me carry her computer and refused to find someone to help me. I’m going to be working the front desk now. I’m just happy I finally have a real job.

I spend the day running errands for Vivienne and answering calls. I didn’t do anything difficult. All the errands I ran for Vivienne weren’t even work-related. They were all personal errands of hers. I can see her making my time at the office very difficult because she thinks I’m after Mr. Crawford. I’m not after him, even though that’s what she thinks. Mr. Crawford didn’t ask me to do anything today. He acted like I didn’t exist.

***

I’m on my way home after a long first day at the office. I still can’t believe he wanted to throw money at me. I arrive home after walking from the bus stop. As I step inside the house an incredible aroma drifts to my nose. Uncle Jack must be cooking. I quickly walk to the kitchen to find out what he’s cooking.

“Uncle Jack, what’re you cooking?” I ask eagerly as soon as I step into the kitchen.

Uncle Jack works as an assistant chef at a fantastic restaurant. I think he should be made head cook, but his boss thinks otherwise.

“Hello to you, too. How was your day?” he asks, smiling as he stirs something in the pan over the stove. I could pass as Uncle Jack’s daughter with how much we look alike. We have the same blue eyes and blonde hair. The same round faces with pointed noses. He’s a handsome man, and of course, I’m not bad myself.

“My day was horrible, Uncle Jack,” I say, exhaustedly dropping my shoulders. I walk over to the stove to see what he’s cooking. He’s making creamy pasta, one of my favorite dishes.

“Why? Is your boss hard to work with?” he asks while fixing me a plate.

“You could say that,” I say, taking a bite of my food. “This tastes amazing as always.” I continue eating and tell Uncle Jack everything that happened at the office.

“You know I love you, but I can’t blame the man for doubting you a little. His grandfather put you in the hospital for a week, and you refused to take a dime from him.”

“ Carson may have hit me with his car, but I only sustained minor injuries. It’s partially my fault anyway.”

I had an accident a few weeks ago. Carson was the one who hit me. After I recovered, we became good friends. I was so stressed and depressed that day about not finding a good job, I was crossing the street slower than I should’ve been. The lights had already turned green, and Carson didn’t see me and hit me with his car. It was a minor hit because he caught the brake quickly. I only stayed in the hospital for a week, but I had no severe injuries. When he tried to settle with me, I refused to collect the money since I was the one at fault. But Carson refused to let it go and got me a job at the company his grandson runs for him. 

“I know, but these are rich people. They don’t believe they’re good people who aren’t out to get their money.”

“I’m not out to get his money. Hopefully, he’ll see that.”

“Don’t worry, he will,” he says, reassuring me.

Uncle Jack is the closest family member I have. My mom died when I was six years old from an overdose, and I’ve lived with him ever since. At twenty-five, he was young when he had to take in and raise his cousin’s daughter. Men that age are just considering marriage, but he had a six-year-old kid to take care of. I’m so grateful he agreed to raise me. My mother’s parents are alive, but I’m not very close with them, though I do see them once in a while. My father is also dead; he died drinking and driving. I wasn’t surprised when I heard the news. The man drank all the time, so I wasn't surprised it killed him. Uncle Jack was married once, but the marriage didn’t last long because his wife cheated on him, My poor uncle.

After eating dinner, I walk inside my room to shower and get ready to visit my best friend, Amber, at her workplace. I’ve known Amber since high school. We’re polar opposites, and I often wonder how I’m friends with her. Once I’m done showering, I walk over to my tiny closet to find something to wear. Since I’m only going to the club because Amber works there, I put on black demi jeans and a green silk tank top. After I am done with my makeup, I order a uber to take me to the club.

I arrive at Devil’s Share, the club Amber works at. I’m here all the time to visit Amber, so I walk inside without having to wait in line since the bouncer knows me. I see her by the bar serving drinks; walking over to the bar, I sit on one of the stools.

“I’ll take a glass of sparkling water, please,” I say, ordering a drink. Amber had turned her back before I got to the bar, so she didn’t know it was me.

“Who orders water in a bar?” Amber asks as she turns around and places a cup of water in front of me. “I should have known! How’re you doing?” she asks. Amber is a beautiful, black-haired woman with piercing blue eyes.

“I’m doing okay. How about you?”

“I’m fine, and how was your first day at work? Do I need to poison your boss’s drink any time I see him at the club, or always give him a discount?”

“I wish it were the latter, but you’ll need to poison him.”

“Really? Your boss is an asshole? I was hoping you’d get a good boss this time around.”

“Me too,” I say, feeling sad that Mr. Crawford hates me and will most likely make my job difficult. I’ve had horrible bosses all my life. I always worked part-time jobs in college, and the bosses never made life easy. I was looking forward to a nice boss this time around, but maybe I’m unlucky. Maybe I was a horrible boss in my past life, and karma’s catching up to me now.

“Don’t worry. I know you, and you’re impossible to dislike. He’ll come around.”

“I hope so.”

Amber and I talk about other things, and I order a real drink and stay for a while. A sketchy-looking stranger approaches me and starts talking.

“Do you want to dance?” the man asks, whispering in my ear, his horrible breath fanning my neck.

“Thank you, but no, I don’t want to dance,” I refuse politely.

“Come on, baby girl, it’ll be fun,” he says, tugging my hands, trying to pull me to the dance floor. Before I can pry him off, Amber does it her way. She roughly removes his hand and uses her body to shield me. I don’t know when she crossed over to this side of the bar.

“She said she doesn’t want to dance, so beat it,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest while making sure to show off her tattoos. Amber can be scary; she’s tall and it helps her intimidation factor. Amber’s around 5’7”, whereas I’m 5’5”. I’m not tall, but average height.

He puts his hands up in surrender. “Calm down, lady. No need to get aggressive. I’ll leave,” he says, walking away.

“Thank you,” I tell Amber.

“Anytime, cupcake,” she says, smiling.

This is what I’m talking about when I say Amber and I are polar opposites. The way she dealt with him is something I could never do. I have a degree, but Amber refused to go to college even though she’s more intelligent than I am. I’ll never let anything touch my skin, but Amber’s body is decorated with dozens of tattoos. Regardless of these differences between us, there’s nobody on this earth, after my uncle, who understands me the way she does. That’s why she’s my best friend. I spend a little more time with her before leaving early so I can get some sleep before work tomorrow.