Two.

"Sir, I will be forced to call security if you do not leave."

I scoffed and refused to leave my seat. It didn't matter how many times they called security ln me, I would still be back the next day.

It'd been four days since I got fired from my dream job, and all because a rich entitled man child, thought it best to complain like toddler about his stupid suit. I was going to give him a piece of my mind even if it was the last thing I do. So here I am, seated in the lobby of his workplace, determined to speak to him. The lady at the desk said that he'd been out for a business trip out of town. I knew she was lying, she probably just wanted to protect her boss.

I refused to let this man live without a guilty conscience though. The stupid idiot had gotten me fired and he got to walk off with the last word? Yeah, I don't think so. I crossed my legs, bouncing my knee on the shiney hardwood flooring. This place looked even more expensive than my last job. The random chandeliers that were hanging in the room and even the hallway for some reason, looked more expensive than my rent. Yeah, my rent was probably a grain of rice compared to how much this floor cost to build alone.

The lady sighed, she was beginning to get annoyed, which was great for me, because that meant she might crack and let me talk to her boss. She moved away from her desk, and walked to stand in front of me. If I was standing, we'd probably be the same height, but that was just because of her heels. "Look, dude." She said suddenly, startling me. "I don't know what you want, but you've got to believe me, he's not here." She had a new jersey accent, which she concealed well, but it came out clearly when she spoke to me. "He's been gone for three days, he's not gonna be back for a while."

I narrowed my eyes on her. "I don't believe you." I said. She stared at me, a clearly shocked expression on her face, before she shrugged. 

"Well, I tried." She walked over to her desk, and leaned on it, placing a hand on her hip. "I admire your moxie, hon. It would've come in handy somewhere else. You're just wasting your time."

"But you're entertaining me." I pointed out.

"Because I'm bored." She rolled her eyes. "Don't get me wrong, I will call security, just … not right now." She held a tablet in her hand and started to scroll through it. I sighed and unfolded my legs. I let out a whistle as I looked around.

"So, how long have you worked here?" I asked. I didn't receive an answer right away, so assumed she was ignoring me, but then she answered, not nothing to look up from her tablet.

"Two years." She said boredly.

I nodded. " How long have you worked as Mr. Richmond's assistant?"

A sigh. "I'm not his assistant, sweets, I'm just filling in, cause he fired the last one." I couldn't help but scoff. Typical, just like him to go around making people jobless. It seemed to be something he was good at, I was finding out, or it was a hobby he found guilty pleasure in. 

"So, what do you do here? If you're not Richmond's assistant."

She huffed, moving to one of the many chairs in the waiting room. "I work in Health." She simply said. She looked busy, so I decided to let her be, for now. I was sure Richmond would get here any moment. Thing is, I knew she was telling the truth, about Richmond being out of town for business. I'm a journalist, of course I did my research about this guy before deciding to confront him. He was in New York for a conference, but the conference ended early and he'd be here any time now.

His flight had taken off this morning, and if what those gossip articles were true and he was a workaholic, he'd be here any moment.

I looked up at the lady again, about to ask her something, when the elevator door opened. Theady shot out of her seat, her eyes widening when she saw who it was and straightened her seat. She walked over to the man who wore a long tan trench coat over an expensive Armani suit. I'm guessing, this was Mr. Richmond, which meant that I was right, the man really valued his job more than anything else.

I stood up watching as the lady addressed Mr. Richmond quickly. He was on the phone, speaking to whomever was on the other end and he was also speaking to her as well. They started walking towards me and I tensed, getting ready for him to come closer and yell at me.

That never happened though. He walked by me, his eyes meeting mine. His eyes flashed with confusion. He paused, he hung up the phone, and looked at me like I was the gum stuck at the bottom of his shoe.

"Can I help you?" His deep, baratone voice sent a ripple down my spine, but I refused to be intimidated by him. I lifted my head, refusing to acknowledge the seven or so inches of height he had on me. Damn, this man was tall. 

"Yes, you can. I have something really important to talk to you about." I say as sternly as I can manage. His eyes narrow for a second, before he puts the phone back to his ear and walks into his office. The lady following after him.

I stood, alone in the waiting room, my anger rising at his complete dismissal. Humiliated wouldn't even begin to describe how I feel at this moment, but I refuse to let this man walk away with what he's done.

Huffing, I sat down on my seat again. I'd catch him when he was leaving, he'd have to listen to me then. I wasn't going to give up.

But when twenty minutes turned into thirty and thirty turned into sixty then sixty turned into two hours, I was beginning to think this was a bad idea.

Just as I was gathering my bag, the door opened and the lady came out. She looked shocked to see me. 

She popped her hip. "Why am I not surprised, you're still here." She sighed. "Wait here." She stuck her head inside. I couldn't hear what she said but a minute later, she looked at me smiling. "You can go in now."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. She nodded, a smirk on her flawless face.

"Go in." I walked towards the door and she held my arm.

"Good luck." She said, before pushing me through the door. It clicked softly behind me and I breathed, processing what was going on.

I honestly hadn't thought this far ahead. What was I going to say to him? Did I demand he help get my job back? Would that even work? Given how much of a jerk he was. I sighed, maybe this was a bad idea.

Someone cleared their throat. I snapped my head up, coming face to face with the jerk himself. He glared at me from his big black shiny desk. I gulped. 

Yeah, maybe this was a bad idea.

He glowered at me. "Can we please get on with this interview. I don't have the time." He said. I blinked, confused, then I blinked again. Did he? Did he think that I'd want to work for him? Him? Who in the world would want to work for this guy? 

I stomped over to his desk, feeling motivated again, to get what I came here for. I wasn't actually sure what I came here for either but he would get an apology from him.

He raised a brow, looking me up and down. He leaned back in his seat. His black suit unbuttoned. He pointed to the seat in front of me. "Have a seat, Mr… "

"I'd rather stand, thank you." I said, my voice lacing with as much honey I could put on. Both his eyebrows rose and I could tell if this was a real job interview, I wouldn't be getting a call back. He's forehead was wrinkled and his stupidly handsome face was void of any emotion. He looked intimidating. "And it's Sam Elliott." 

Up close like this, you could see just how expensive his suit was. The detailing on it was amazing and the material looked unreal. I could probably understand why he'd been upset about the suit I'd ruid earlier. Though I still didn't see why he decided to get me fired. Heck, I wasn't even sure how management had figured out that it was me who spilled the coffee all over him.

"And why do you want this job, Mr. Elliott." He said, his voice had dropped a few octaves lower than before. He was upset, bit keeping composure, I kind of wish I was more calm about this, but as it is, I barely had enough money for a can fare right now, I didn't want to think about rent.

"Well, let's see. I got fired from my job a few days ago. All because some stupid jerk said I was terrible employee for spilling coffee all over them and it wasn't even my fault!" I breathed, standing up straighter. I'd been yelling.

I folded my arms over my chest. Richmond narrowed his eyes, the blue irises flashing with recognition. He pointed a finger at me." You." He said. "You spilled coffee on me!" He sat forward, a cheeky smirk on his face.

I scoffed. "You spilled my coffee all over yourself." I corrected him, because clearly he doesn't recall just what had happened.

"But what does getting fired have anything to do with me?"

"What do you mean what does it have to do with you?!" His eyes widened, and he sat back. I would've lowered my voice, but I was upset and I didn't have money for rent and it was his fault. "Why did you write that review?"

"What review?"

"The review that got me fired!"

"Will you stop yelling?"

"No!"

"Okay, geeze." He ran a hand through his black hair. "Sam, I have no idea what you're talking about." He said. He was being rude when he said that, in fact, he hasn't said anything rude to me at all.

I shook my head. "No, you wrote a review about me speaking rudely to you when the coffee spilled and they figured out it was me and now I got fired from my new job." I managed to keep my voice level this time. His brows furrowed.

"Look, I know you won't believe me, but I promise you it wasn't me." He said. "I would never do something like that - fuck!" He grabbed the phone on the desk and dialed a number. I opened my mouth to ask him what he was doing but he shushed me. There was a crack on the other end and then a deep voice answering. " What did you do?" Richmond asked, his voice strained. There was a reply I couldn't hear, then Richmond groaned. "I told you to leave it. It was just fucking coffee." The voice said something and Richmond clenched his jaw. " Damage? Damage? You got someone fired you daft monkey!" The voice yelled back at him, and Richmond sighed, and put the phone back down.

He looked up at me, looking sheepish. "I–on behalf of my friend, apologize for getting you fired."

"You mean, you're friend, wrote the review?" He nodded. "Not you?" He nodded again. "He's the reason I got fired." I stated. I pulled out the guest chair and dropped into it. I was tired. All this was all for nothing, and either he was telling the truth or he wasn't, either way, I got fired. I don't have a job and ultimately, I'll have no place to live. This was pointless.

I dropped my head in my hands, fighting off the urge to cry. This was complete and utter shit. All of it. Richmond, his friend, who thought it was smart to get someone fired and fucking fact that I have no idea what to do now. 

I looked up again, and found Richmond watching me intensely. "What?" No answer, he just looked at me, like I was a specimen, or a rat. I felt like a rat. A small, ugly, broke rat. Sighing, I stood up, hiking my bag over my shoulder, I brushed the imaginary dirt off of my pants and spared one last look at Richmond, who still stared at me. I scoffed and walked to the door. 

I'd almost walked out when he spoke. "You can work here."

 I turned to face him from the door. "What?"

"Work for me. I need an assistant. I think you'd be perfect." He replied.

"Why? You don't even know what I do?" I raised a brow at him. He smirked.

"You used to work for the Cosmetic Masters magazine. So I'm guessing, journalism? Which means you're great in English, and can compose reports. You're probably also good at time management too." He played with his pen. " You'd be perfect for the job."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "What makes you think I'd want to work for you?" I asked him. "You got me fired."

He frowned, and I saw what would've been a pout on his lips if he wasn't grinning as well. "I thought, we established that it wasn't I who got you fired?"

"How am I supposed to know that you didn't trick me?" I retorted. "And again, who would want to work for you?"

 He was still frowning, but now he looked a bit annoyed. "Lots of people, believe it or not."

"I don't."

"Yeah, I figured." He shook his head, before reaching into his desk drawer and getting a paper. He wrote something down, and slid the paper to the other side of the desk. I stared at the paper. He gestured to paper. 

I sighed, and walked to the desk, picking up the paper. I almost choked at the numbers he'd written down. This was more than the magazine was going to pay me. It was way, way more than the magazine was going to pay me. With this amount of money, I could get done with my student loans in three years.

I looked up at him. "All this money, to be your assistant?" He nodded. "W-why?"

He shrugged. "I need an assistant." He huffed, crossing his fingers. "Of course, the job requires a lot from you. You'll be with me six out of seven days a week. You'll have to travel and I'll require your presence here at every single meeting I go to. You'll have to be dedicated to the job. Can you do that?" He said all that, but honestly, all I could focus on was the fact that with how much money he paid me, I could be worry free for years to come. It wasn't easy money, but it might as well have been. He raised a brow at me. "well?"

I looked at him and gulped. I could be money free for a long time.

~~~~

Thirty minutes later, I walked out of Richmond's office to find the secretary lady, packing up her things. She smiled when she saw me come out.

"Wow, you took long, what happened?"

I clutched my bag in my hands. My bag, that held my employment contract. I smiled. 

"I just got hired."