Chapter 4

It had been almost a week since Sebastian and I's fallout. We haven't spoken much, except when we had to converse about what he could and couldn't say to the press. Other then that, the tension was unbearable.

Darcy and I spent the last few hours of our shift doing a bit more back round on Alexander Berke, my next "client." As we had gotten through the third British article that talked about him missing out on his father's promotional dinner...twice, someone knocked on my door.

Even though it was open, everyone who knew me knew that I required them to knock first.

"Hey, we need to talk." Sarah said, not even waiting for me to respond before sitting down in the leather chair opposite of me.

"What is it?" I asked, concerned.

Sarah bit her lip "So you know, Henry Dravis...Sebastian's COO or 'right hand man' now?"

I nodded.

"Well we met up together by fate or what ever as I was leaving Human Resources. We talked and...well he wants me to be his assistant."

I smiled, it coming out kind of halfheartedly. Even though I was happy she was getting an offering, it would mean I wouldn't see her as much.

Sarah scooted the chair closer to my desk "I mean, Lucinda and Lucas are kept busy and I'm only there when their hands are full. It kind of feels like I'm only taking up unnecessary space. And plus, considering what happened on Monday, it's kind of tense around here with all of us."

I rolled my eyes playfully "You can say that again. Well, I think that's great. And plus Sebastian already let go Gia so the assistant position is open."

She sighed in relief "Thank God. I felt like I was doing something completely shitty. Thanks for your input. Oh! And one last thing, Henry wants a representative to sign this paper revoking my employment to Sebastian. I would have Sebastian do it but he's been on his man period this entire week."

I heard Darcy snicker behind me.

I laughed "Sure, I'll sign. He won't even notice you're gone with all the work he's been doing."

Sarah handed me the paper "Speaking of work, oddly, when is your friend Becca coming back?"

I glared at Sarah from over my computer "It's Beth, and I think she's coming back Sunday; Paul and I are supposed to go get her at the airport."

"Oh. Hope she doesn't come back speaking french the entire time like those dumb ass tourists who completely forget their American."

"God, Sarah you have an opinion on everyone." I handed her the paper, signed.

She winked as she stood up, stretching her legs "That's how I roll. Now, I've got to go home after I give this to Henry; my friend is making me cook for him."

I raised an eyebrow "Who's him?"

She giggled "No, it's not like that. He's like my brother. Except he's not even Mexican or Native American but you know, we're close."

"Yeah, I mean we all know you've got your eyes set on Luc-"

She wiggled her limbs like a five year old throwing a fit "Don't even go there, Ms. King!" She groaned.

I laughed. It was silent as I checked my phone for emails. Even though she was vague, I was curious, and she knew it too. Frankly I was never good at hiding stuff from her.

Sarah grabbed a sticky note from my desk and scribbled something on it. "It's Friday, and you need to hang out, so here's my address. His name is Matthew, Matt for short, and he's a tattoo artist. Really nice guy, reminds me of a teddy bear for some reason."

She stuck the sticky note to my forehead.

"Hey!" I yelled as she exited my office.

"There will be fajitas and beer. Be there!"

**

"See you Monday, Leslie." Darcy said, grabbing her purse and her laptop.

"Bye Darcy, have a nice weekend." I said, not looking up from my agenda.

"Remember, Sarah's waiting for you; don't work too hard." She smiled, tucking a bit of her jet black hair behind her ear before leaving my office.

I stopped jotting down in my agenda and stared at the door longingly. Paul was still at the receptionists desk, but he was probably getting ready to set up the automatic voice mail; it was 9:30 already, and almost everyone had gone home.

I took Darcy's words into consideration. I packed my laptop and agenda in my purse, powered off the computer and started for the door. After locking it behind me, I made my way to the elevator.

"Girl where you going?" Paul asked, getting his things together.

"Sarah's. She invited me to hang out with her friend."

Paul looked at me, shocked "You? Having fun? I can't believe it."

I stuck my tongue out at him "What ever. It's your date night with Max?"

He nodded "Yup. It's a netflix type of night though. Don't forget to text me!"

He hugged me before walking into the next open elevator, as I stayed behind to analyze the address. As I was going over the cross streets in my mind, trying to figure out if they sounded familiar or not, the sound of my name being called interrupted my concentration.

"Lucinda?" I asked.

She smiled faintly, making me nervous "Hey, Leslie. Sorry to bother you, but..."

She handed me a folder filled with dates of events. I groaned.

"Mr. Harrison wants you to transfer these into your agenda, as well as make sure they correspond with the main schedule. He also wants you to call the hosts of the events listed and make sure they are open if you change the schedule around. His requests are at the bottom."

I looked over the list, hating the fact that it was two pages long.

"Four months worth of events, this...this is going to take me all weekend."

Lucinda wore a sympathetic look on her face "I know. You could go ask him about it now, he's just talking with the Foreign Affairs manager."

I shook my head "No, it's fine. I mean, it's mostly charity events and stuff."

She nodded "Yeah, at least you don't have to schedule every trip, every appearance, not to mention running to the copy room every thirty seconds for the stupid Board-"

"Lucinda!" I heard Sebastian yell from his office.

"That's my cue. Have a great weekend, Les." She said, as she jogged down the hall towards his office.

"Yeah, you too." I mumbled.

I entered the next open elevator and looked at the dates when the doors closed.

"UNICEF, Marriott, dinner with Edwin Richen and Maxine Richen..." I remembered Maxine, Hannah's friend that actually wasn't rude.

I shuddered at the remembrance of Hannah. Or "The Bitch" as Sarah likes to refer to her. I preferred Sarah's reference.

When I got to the garage, I texted Darcy and told her about the change of plans. She offered we work on organizing the schedule Saturday, and with the both of us we could probably get most of it done that day. Once we both agreed on the date, I texted Sarah regretfully telling her I couldn't make it for Fajitas and beer with her and Matt, and the reason why.

"I swear I'm going to shove a Fajita up his ass on Monday." Sarah replied, with an angry face emoticon.

"Be careful, he may lay you off."

"lol" she texted back. I locked my phone and got into my car, resting my head on the stirring wheel for five minutes.

**

Darcy and I spent the entire weekend working on organizing the schedule. It was so extensive, Paul had to go pick up Beth from the air port without me. When she got back, we only spent 20 minutes talking about her trip to France and the drama involved with it, then it was back to work; Paul had to high light her on the new CEO and the lay offs that happened.

"So how many people did he let go?" She asked.

"A lot." I interrupted "He transferred more than he laid off, but...still." I changed the meeting with Eduardo Palmas from 10:30am to 4:40pm, moving the interview with Businesscentral.com to 10:00am instead.

"Wow" Beth said.

"I know, right?"

Paul took a sip of his drink "And, Leslie and Sebastian had a mini show down over Darcy."

Darcy nodded, blushing "It was crazy. He came into the office himself, which scared me, then told me to just pack up my stuff and leave since I was one of the ones being laid off suddenly. I asked him if I should wait for Leslie and he told me that 'she has no authority here at the moment'."

Beth's mouth dropped "Then what happened?"

I moved the last of the events scheduled before answering "Well, I told Darcy that she wasn't leaving, and I tried to move her stuff back into the office but he slammed the door shut and started yelling at me-"

"Then, Leslie told him to fire her since he threatened to fire Sarah and Lucas too. He couldn't do it, though. He just walked away. Wonder why...damn this tea is great." Paul took a long sip of his tea, looking away from me. Beth laughed so hard she had to go into the kitchen to get water.

"Okay, Kermit thanks for clarifying for everyone." I said, trying to hide my flushed face behind the folder in my hand.

"So what are you going to do?" Beth asked after she cleared her throat.

"What do you mean?"

"Well...aren't you going to retaliate? Show him who's running the show-"

"There's no 'show' and no 'retaliation', I'm just trying to steer away from his bad side so no more fall outs happen."

Beth scoffed "Bullshit! You need to show him that you can't be walked around on like that! I mean it's obvious he still wants you, and it's obvious you do too, yet Sebastian is suffering from what I like to call 'rejection syndrome.'"

"Basically, he's so embarrassed he doesn't know how to deal." Paul added.

Beth smiled "Exactly. I mean do you honestly think that a guy like Sebastian Harrison has ever legitimately been rejected I mean have you seen that face? Well, you kissed him so..."

Paul clapped his hands excitedly "Yaaas bitch, yaaaaas!"

I waved my hands in front of them "Hey! I did not kiss him he kissed me and it was a publicity stunt."

"But you loved it, didn't you?" Beth asked.

"I am not obligated to answer that."

Paul cracked up, almost chocking on his tea "My God, Leslie you're too much."

"Either way, I-I think it's better this way. I mean he's my boss now and I work for him. A relationship wouldn't be wise nor would it be appropriate."

Beth rolled her eyes "You act like it would blow up all over the place if it happened. No one would know, it would be on the DL..." Beth was counting off her fingers, and knowing her she would have more than ten reasons.

"And plus, have you seen The Proposal? Everything worked out fine for them."

Darcy pointed at Beth with an ecstatic look on her face "I love that movie!"

Beth jumped up and down "Yes! Sandra Bullock is queen-"

"Anyway, no matter how convincing your arguments are, it isn't happening."

Beth glared at me "I can guarantee one of two things will happen. One, Sebastian is going to realize that he just can't get over you no matter how hard he tries to and will kiss you passionately, without it being a 'publicity stunt'-"

"Bullshit." Paul coughed. I shot him the "I want to kill you" look.

"-Or two, he will continue to be an ass and push you to a point where you are going to break. And then both of you are going to be clashing. It will be like two negative charges rather than a positive and a negative one. But it would be awesome to see you turn into this total boss ass bitch? Holy shit he would hate it."

I shook my head "No, no no. I'm not a total boss bitch and I will never be a total boss bitch."

"No, seriously! You start not giving a fuck what people say and think, you wear clothes that aren't the color of death and aren't two sizes too big."

"And you let your hair down..." Paul reached for my bun, but I backed away.

"Nuh-uh. Not a chance."

"...or three..." Darcy butted in, timidly holding up three fingers.

"She finds someone else, which will make Sebastian realize that it's time to actually fight for her. That always works. See, right now he thinks, even though he isn't treating you like it, that he can have you when ever he wants since you're with no one. But if you were to get into a relationship..."

Paul bent his fingers and separated them from each other "Boom." He said.

I closed my agenda "Either way, none of those things are going to happen. I'm just...riding the current."

Beth looked at me "I will bet one hundred dollars on it. He is going to push you to a point."

"I doubt it." I said.