Chapter 1

"I'm telling you Mara, he's got a thing for you," my coworker, Ashley said.

"I don't care if he has a thing for me. I have a boyfriend AND he's our old, perverted boss." I rolled my eyes. "Why would I ever want to have anything to do with that?"

She smirked at me. "I would do it. Money is power baby."

She got out of her seat and gave me a stern look. "You should come get drinks with us tonight."

"I'll think about it," I said as Ashley sighed.

I wasn't a fan of "going out." It wasn't because I didn't enjoy hanging out with my friends and drinking, but having one shitty experience seemed to be enough for me. But, I also knew that it was time for me to get out of the house, so giving Ashley the benefit of the doubt was the best option.

"Let me know," she finished before walking out of the room.

I checked the time. I had a meeting with my boss, Mr. Cline, in five minutes. I was his personal assistant, but I basically just did his job for him. Made the powerpoints, wrote the flash cards, printed the notes, everything. No one knew this of course, and even if I told my supervisors, they would shove it out of their way without a second thought.

I walked groggily up to the meeting room. When I entered, I noticed that myself and Mr. Cline were the first people here. Great.

"Miss Hale, It's great to see you," he said as he looked at me like I was a piece of meat.

"Mr. Cline." I smoothed my skirt.

"Why don't you come take a seat?"

"I'm ok standing. Thanks," I sharply responded. My face contorted into a grimace.

A crowd of people started swarming into the large room and I took a seat next to Ashley with a grateful sigh.

The presentation seemed to go on forever, and I found myself having to force my eyes to stay open. I needed to get more sleep, but that was hard these days.

"Miss Hale, please stay after for a second," Mr. Cline requested after the meeting.

Ashley left with a wink. "What's this about sir? Were the notes not descriptive enough?"

"No, not that." He made his way closer to me and said, "don't think I haven't seen the way you've been looking at me recently."

"I don't understand," I said, genuinely confused. He better not be talking about what Ashley insinuated.

"Don't be coy Amara," he flirted, backing me up against the door and reaching around my waist to squeeze my ass.

I pushed him off. "What the hell are you doing? That's sexual harassment!"

He rolled his eyes. "I know you wanted it. That's all girls like you want these days."

I scoffed at him and sprinted out of the room. I was reporting him whether or not the supervisors believed me.

I stormed into my supervisors office and announced, "Mr. Cline sexually harassed me."

The three chairmen stared at me with wide eyes. "Say that again?"

"Mr. Cline sexually harassed me," I repeated.

"How so?"

"He grabbed my as- butt. He grabbed my butt in the conference room after the meeting ended."

The door to the room opened. It was him "Dave! My man how are you?" He exclaimed.

+

"Great. We were just talking about you."

I could feel his eyes burn into my back. "Oh really? What about?" He stood there contemplating for a second. "Actually, never mind that. I just came to inform you that this mornings 11 a.m. meeting was cancelled. Just so there aren't any mixups."

The chairmen looked at me after Mr. Cline left the room. "You said your meeting just got done?"

"Yes, but he's lying! He's always been a snake," she blurted, wincing at her words.

"Miss Hale, we're going to have to fire you. Making false accusations is very serious and can ruin a person's life."

"What? But I wasn't lying! Ask another member at the meeting. It wasn't cancelled."

"We're going to have to ask you to pack up your stuff, effective immediately."

I couldn't believe this. They could have clarified with anyone that the meeting was in fact, not cancelled. I stormed out of the office and aggressively packed up my desk before speeding home.

After getting to my apartment t, I ran into my room and jumped face first onto my bed. Then, I shoved my face into my pillow and screamed for a while.

I aggressively rolled over onto my back and called my best friend, Lara to explain to her the whole situation. She was pissed.

"That motherfucker! I'll kill him," she angrily responded.

I smiled at her words. "It's ok. Maybe this is what I needed. You know I always hated that job."

"You're right. I have to go Mara, I have some family over. Text me later."

I checked the time. Jake should be home soon.

Jake Ryan. The one college boyfriend I had who wasn't in a frat. He was a business major, but ended up changing to biology a year before our graduation, so he was a little behind.

My phone started buzzing, interrupting me from my thoughts.

+

Hey Mar, will be late tonight. Still researching. Love you.

I sighed. Jake and I had been drifting apart lately. He always showed up after I fell asleep and was gone before I woke up, and if I was being honest, sometimes I didn't even know if he came home.

I smoothed the dress out and made my way to Tanner's.

It was your average college bar, except ambitious 24-year-olds went there for fun to relive their youth and reminisce over the past. I wasn't usually one of those 24-year-olds, but I needed a night out. Especially after the day I had today.

I showed the bouncer my ID and walked past him to the entrance.

Because it was a Friday night, the bar was packed. I looked around for Ashley. I wonder if she heard about today? It didn't seem like it when we texted.

I made my way past the groups of sweaty bodies and spotted her out of the corner of my eye in a round booth. Her blonde hair was tied up into a messy ponytail and her lips were painted the dark shade of scarlet.

She spotted me and waved me over. "Mara! I want you to meet some people." She gestured towards the other two women in the booth with her. "On the right is Asia, and the left, Aaliyah. They're visiting from New York."

I took a second to admire their beauty. Asia was dark skinned with tight, kinky, curls. Her lips were round and she had cat-like eyes. Aaliyah on the other hand, was extremely pale. Her long hair was dyed pink and she had big brown eyes. "It's really nice to meet you. I'm sure you already know this, but I'm Amara," I reached out and shook their hands.

They both gave me warm smiles and I took a seat next to Ashley. We talked for a while before the alcohol finally made it through my system. "I'm going to use the restroom real quick. Do any of you want anything?"

They shook their heads no. "Do you want me to come with you?" Aaliyah asked.

"I'll be ok. Thank you."

+

I walked to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror for a bit, until I heard some obnoxious giggling from a stall.

"Oh my god, Jake! Stop!" The woman squealed.

My eyebrows furrowed and I didn't make a move. The giggling continued for a couple more seconds and then the man spoke, "we should get back to the group.."

+

"Fine," She whined, dragging out her words.

They came out of the stall and my eyes widened. It wa my Jake.