TITLE: PERSONAL as-sISTANT✴️
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EPISODE 20
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Elizabeth sighed as she stared down at her
feet. “Have you alre-ady had dinner?” James
asked looking at her.
She did not look up as she smiled. “No,
actually I haven’t.” Turning her head to finally
meet his gaze. “Well it might not be much of a
d@t£, but how do you feel about pizza?” He
said standing up and patting the dirt of his suit
p@n-ts.
“Pizza isn’t the problem…” She said taking his
outreached hand. “I figured…” He sighed.
“But since me just avoiding you wasn’t exactly
very nice, or actually just plain rude, I’ll allow
it.” She said smiling at him. “But don’t you ever
just order me to go out with you again.” She
said jabbing him with her f!nger.
He chuckled and held up his hands, “Fair, very
fair.”
The two of them sat quietly eating pizza in a
small pizza joint near their houses. “I can’t
believe that I’ve never been to this place,”
Elizabeth said half what joking.
“Never?” He asked smiling. “No, have you ever
been here before?” She said in disbelief. “No, I
actually ha-rd ly ever eat pizza, to be honest.”
“What is wrong with you?”
At that James chuckled and the two of them
sat in comfortable silence.
“I want to apologize.” He suddenly said. “For
what?” She said confused. “For what I said, on
your last day.”
She looked up at him meeting his eyes and
staring into them. Opening her mouth to say
something she quic-kly looked down again.
“Are you alright?” He said gently gr-abbing her
chin with his hand and turning it back up
looking at him. Using her hand she pushed him
away and gave him a sad smile. “I’m fine.”
James sighed looking away not knowing what
to do next. His hand went up to his forehead
and he leaned back. “Why do you keep pushing
me away?” He said getting frustrated.
“You really don’t remember me, do ya?” She
said looking at him with sad eyes. “I don’t
un-derstand…” He said reaching out to her.
“It’s alright, but just… Just leave me alone…”
She said laying down cash from her wallet and
leaving the restaurant. “Elizabeth wait!” She
turned for a split second before leaving the
restaurant.
Natalie was confused when the call c@m£
telling her to come upstairs. Usually, Mr.
McGregor would call her and just give her
instructions. It didn’t happen to often when he
would call her and tell her to come upstairs.
With caution, she left the elevator, almost as if
she expected to be jumped by a tiger right at
that moment. Her eyes darted over to the PA’s
desk, looking very different from when
Elizabeth sat there. Now a young Asian woman
sat there in her place. She still had to learn the
woman’s name but in all honesty, at this point,
it just felt like a waste of time.
She took a de-ep breath as she reached to the
office door and composed herself. She
knocked three times and walked in after
hearing the familiar, come in.
“You called sir?” She asked tentatively walking
over to his desk. “You know Elizabeth, don’t
you? I mean you’re a friend of hers?” She
asked. “Sir I-” She started and James just
knew what she was going to say but cut her
off.
“Why would she say that I don’t remember
her?” He leaned forward. “I don’t know what
you mean sir?” She said confused. “She said,
you really don’t remember me do ya? Tell me,
did she alre-ady work here last time I was
here?”
At that Natalie’s head sh0t up, fear filling her
eyes. “I…” She sighed. “She did.”
“What dep@rtment?” He asked hopefully, but
Natalie shook her head. “Right here.” She said,
watching his expression go from confusion to
fear and realization.
“That can’t be…” He said leaning back. “That
girl had-” He started. “She used to dye her hair
brown.” Natalie responded sighing, “She had
brown hair in a different cut and used to wear
different clothes and radically different
makeup.”
James sighed gripping his head with both
hands and leaning on the desk and gro-an ed.
“Are you alright sir?” Natalie asked.
“I… I fv¢ked up even before I knew…”
TITLE: PERSONAL as-sISTANT✴️
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EPISODE 21
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For two weeks he hadn’t talked to her and not
even seen her at all.
He closed his eyes as he leaned against the
back of the elevator. His chin tilted up as he
stood there thinking about what to say. He
opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling as
he thought back to his talk with Natalie two
weeks ago…
“What do you mean you fv¢ked up?” Natalie
asked taking a step forward. James sighed as
he recounted the events that transpired three
years ago…
“I hadn’t seen my father in quite a while. and in
all honesty, I didn’t even want to see him. Sure
I hadn’t been the best son, but he sure as hell
wasn’t the best father. I was quite surprised
when he called me and asked me to come
down to the office.
The second I walked into the building I was
alre-ady in a bad mood. Then when I c@m£ up
the elevator his young new as-sistant st©pped
me. She started talking about how he didn’t
want to be disturbe-d and asking if I had an
appointment. But I didn’t listen as just pushed
her out of my way whilst saying something
along the lines of, look I don’t have time for
this. That was probably the first stupid thing I
did, as I was quite rou-gh. She nearly fell and
stumbled a bit.
I didn’t even look at her face before I walked
into his office. Sure he was busy alright,
talking on the phone to god knows who. But
when he saw me he hung up immediately. He
started talking but I felt something was off,
something just wasn’t right. So then he started
talking about my childhood, the death of my
mother and my upbringing.
I don’t know why, I just couldn’t hear him talk
about that, so I was inching closer and closer
to the edge. Then that girl walked in with
coffee, she handed my dad his and then gave
me a cu-p of the same coffee. My dad likes
sugar and milk whilst I like it black, I… I just
was so on edge that I yelled at her for
something as trivial as that. I could see the
tears brimming in her eyes but I didn’t care.
Why did that old man think he’d have the right
to talk about my mother’s death like that. Why
he’d have to the right to s£nt me away instead
of consoling me…
So when she c@m£ back I was near breaking
point, she walked over shaking and wanted to
set the coffee down in front of me as she
accidentally spilled some of it over me. I got
angry because of the burn and started yelling
again. But that was also at the height of my
fight with my father, so when I stood up to
storm out of the room I knocked the coffee
over her. Though not on purpose I never
apologized and just said dumb bit-ch. Adding
to that I lost my temper and struck her across
the face.”
James took a break as he sighed. “I… I felt
terrible of that after I left.” He ru-bbe-d his
forehead. “But well, you know the rest of the
story, I stormed out and never c@m£ back. I
really should have made it up to her, told her I
was sorry, but I never did.”
Natalie looked at him with sad eyes as she
listened to his story. She knew that Mrs.
McGregor had died whilst giving birth to what
would have been James his sister. Sadly the
child was stillborn and the mother didn’t
survive the birth.
James Sr. was a wealthy businessman at that
time who just focus on work after that. Poor
James Jr. was brou-ght up by nannies and
boarding schools. His father simply didn’t
know how to handle the situation like that and
pushed the poor boy away, instead of giving
him the love that he nee-ded.
“But what happened to her after that?” James
said looking up at her, waiting to beckon her
to talk.
“Well…” Natalie started, “She didn’t really want
to talk about any of that at the time. All she
said was that she made a mistake, entirely her
fault and that she thought she was done for.
After all, she threw coffee in the l@p of the
boss his son.”
Natalie paused taking a de-ep breath before
continuing. “To be honest the second I saw her
I didn’t think she would even make a good
as-sistant. I even told Mr. McGregor that when
he asked me what I thought of her. It wasn’t
that she didn’t seem to be a good person, she
just didn’t seem cut for this world.”
Natalie smiled staring out of the window, “She
used to wear these god awful jeans with
patches and holes in them, don’t get me wrong
I don’t mind them, but they just didn’t fit right
you know. She had these blunt ban-gs and
brown hair with some highlights in it. But then
suddenly something changed, I can’t really tell
you when it happened gradually…
When I found out about the hair dying I told
her to st©p, why cover such a pretty color? It
was Mr. McGregor that took her shopping for
the first time, I mean those jeans just didn’t
work for the PA of the CEO of a company like
this.
After that things just started changing, she got
a new haircut, her clothing style changed and
her attitude to the world changed. No longer
was she that little push over of a girl, but she
bec@m£ the perfect as-sistant.”
Natalie shook her head, “she sure surprised
me.” a sad smile crept up her face.
“Perfect is definitely a way to describe her…”
He said sighing.
Natalie looked at her hands when she started
talking again. “You know after she met you all
she really knew about you was what the media
said and your father.”
“And I haven’t exactly had the best behavior…”
James said filling in what they both were
thinking.”
“Exactly.”
Natalie looked straight at him, “So when your
father bec@m£ sick she told him that he should
tell you. That you could say goodbye and all
that. But he used to tell her that you’d only be
happy with his death.
All of that combined caused her to have a
dislike for you. Or well, a little more than just
a dislike.”
”
TITLE: PERSONAL as-sISTANT✴️
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EPISODE 22
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Elizabeth sighed as she walked into her office
building on a quiet Friday morning. The
weekend was close, yet so far…
Though she felt guilty about leaving things the
way she did with James, she knew she couldn’t
stay at that moment. She couldn’t let him know
how much that encounter had hurt her.
How he single-handedly had made her feel so
inferior. One could say it was an overreaction
to act the way that she had, but as she learned
more and more about him over time, it bec@m£
apparent that he was just a plain as-s-hole.
Maybe he had cleaned up his act, but the once
p@rty animal adolescent sure didn’t have a
clean past. He used to be your average,
stereotypical bully and even into adulthood that
stayed. She remembered how his father spoke
about him, a sad smile adorning his face as he
recounted the things his son had done.
Things ranging from pla-ying with the hearts of
girls to getting into fights and even ending with
slee-ping with his best friends girlfriend.
All that combined had caused the dislike that
Elizabeth had to come to harbor for the man.
Sure he was different to her now and she
hadn’t even seen him with any other girl then
she had set him up with.
For a moment she wondered what happened
with her as she set foot out of the elevator and
walked down the hallway.
“Morning Paul.” She said with half a smile as
she handed him his coffee. “Morning honey.”
He said with a cheerful smile. “Have a nice
day!” He yelled after her as she waved.
She hummed softly to the tune of here comes
the sun as she walked down the hallway over
to her office. Setting down the two coffees she
was startled by the de-ep voice of a man
behind her. “Good morning.”
Swiftly she turned around to face the tall
brunet standing behind her. His chiseled
features as strong as ever and a light stubble
that she hadn’t seen that often before adorned
his face.
“Morning.” She said not looking away from his
face. Something about him looked…
different… She, however, could not pinpoint
what it was… Other than the stubble, however.
Somehow he seemed less polished… It was
then that she noticed he wasn’t wearing his
usual suit and tie, but a leather jacket and t-
shi-t. Her eyes went all the way down to his
shoes and to her surprise she found him
wearing sneakers.
He watched her observe him and her eyebrows
raise as she noticed his footwear. A sm-irk
crept upon his face as he saw her reaction.
“Well, you look…” She started turning away.
“Different?” He said stepping forward. “That.”
She said walking over to her desk and
gr-abbing a stack of paperwork. “Is that all you
want to say to me?” He said.
“No, it’s not.” She said walking towards the
door. “Aren’t you coming?” She said as she
stood in the door opening holding the door
open with her foot.
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he
followed her down the hallway. “What do you
mean?” He said walking beside her.
“Well, you’re here to discuss the mansion
right?” She said not even looking up at him as
she walked at a steady pace down towards the
meeting room.
He didn’t reply as he quic-kly walked past her
to hold the door open for her. In return he got
a short, curt thank you and the two of them
walked in.
“Morning Daniel,” Elizabeth said to her boss
who apparently was alre-ady in the room. “Ah,
there you two are,” Daniel said running his
hands as he stood up from his chair.
“Good morning Mr. McGregor, how are you
today.” He said shaking James’s hand. “Good
how are you,” James replied stiffly. “Good
good thank you, plea-se sit down.”
“Do you want coffee? Or anything else?” Daniel
asked sitting down next to him. “No thank
you.”
Elizabeth cleared her throat and both men
turned their heads towards her. “Ah right, well
show us what you’ve got.”
James watched as she showed them her
drawings and design styles for his mansion.
He wasn’t paying attention however as he just
watched her. He watched the way she moved,
the way she wore her hair down more often
and the ti-ght but clas-sy dress she wore.
It was at some point that it registered in his
mind that she had st©pped talking. He turned
to look at Daniel and he saw him looking at
him too.
“Well?” Daniel started, “What do ya think?”
James turned away from Daniel and looked at
the drawings in front of him. The drawings
were striking and clean images of the design.
The pictures of other houses looking clean and
modern as well, all quite masculine but none
of them looked homy and cozy…
It had started some time ago that James felt
himself leaning away from the ha-rd business
world and more towards a nice and homy
world. No, he wasn’t re-ady to quit working or
anything or to marry the first girl he met for
that matter.
James had always been one of the guys who
liked children, just as long they weren’t his. But
when he had seen his best friends first son
something changed. He had watched as his
best friend and his wife held their firstborn
son, the joy in their faces radiating off of it as
they looked down at their bundle of joy.
That had been two years ago… Back then he
had been d@t!nga young model, a blond girl
with amazing brea-sts and long legs. Sure she
was nice looking, but he just knew they
wouldn’t stay together. And sure enough a
week later he was single once more.
It was then that the strays st©pped and he
started thinking about ‘the one’. But instead of
going out to try and find the love he had
focussed his efforts on his work and work
alone…
Now he didn’t want to admit that Elizabeth was
the one, not yet… but some voice in the back
of his mind seemed to be sure about her…
Broken from his trance he looked up at
Elizabeth and back down at the drawings. “I
like it.” He said ma-king Daniel smile. “But it’s
a little too sterile, how about something a little
more homie.” He said like looking into her
eyes.
“How about a little bit more of a female t©uçh
in my mansion?”
To be continued