Million Dollar Devil

4.

Kyle reaches in front of me, moving the handle swiftly. As the door gently opens, he gestures for me to enter.

I peel my eyes off the ground to take in the giant room in front of me. The back wall is made of windows and in front of it sits a large black wood desk, leaning on the edge is who I assume to be Mr. Leo Hayes. His eyes are hyper focused, diligently scanning the paper in his hands. I take in his figure, a black suit elegantly paired with a stark black collared shirt, his dark hair cleanly slicked back. His jaw is clenched, revealing a jawline so defined he could cut glass with it. His clothes perfectly fitted to his solid form. I internally thanked his tailor for doing gods work.

His green eyes peer at me in his peripheral before he smoothly stands up from his leaning position, resting the papers on his desk. His eyes scan my figure slowly, his dark lashes like curtain to a broadway show. He stands silently, in no rush to acknowledge my or Kyle's presence, just taking in the scene in front of him. I stand there anxiously, my heels tapping together ever so lightly. He gently rubs the his stubble with his olive tanned skin, looking like the cover of GQ Magazine.

He glances at Kyle, "Is this her," he asks, his adams apple prominent and as he speaks. His monotone voice showing no glimpse into his internal thoughts.

Kyle nods gesturing to me, "Yes, this is Lillian Wright, your new assistant," he then turns to me, "Lillian, meet Mr. Hayes."

I awkwardly give a half wave which I immediately regret, "Nice to meet you Mr Hayes, and thank you for this opportunity. I'm looking forward to starting tomorrow."

His eyes narrow and his deep stare remains fixed on me, "Nice to meet you Mrs. Wright-"

"Lillian," I interrupt, "You can call me Lillian, or Lily, most people call me Lily," I mumble on for longer than I should have. I shut up and bite my lip nervously.

"Nice to meet you, Lillian," his eyes drop to my lip, my front teeth still sunken into my bottom lip nervously. I try to compose myself under his stare. His eyes shift to the door on the right of the room and he nods in that direction, "Your office is over there, Kyle will give you a key."

Kyle nods at him, gently touching the small of my back for a split second as he leads me towards my office. The room is small but beautiful, a large white leather chair behind a glass desk. Hanging above my desk is a beautiful glass dry erase calendar with AKMO elegantly engraved in silver lettering across the top. I look down and notice the MacBook Air and IPhone 13 on my desk.

My mouth drops as I turn to Kyle, "Are these for me?"

A barely noticeable chuckle escaped his mouth, "Yes, Mr. Hayes needs to be able to reach you, so please keep your work phone on you at all times," he gestured to the laptop, "This is your work laptop, though we encourage assistants to bring it home with them and check their email frequently. As I mentioned in the interview you sometimes have timely tasks that will need to be completed outside of your normal hours, which means you should always have your laptop with you in addition to the phone."

I nod intently, "Of course."

Kyle's phone buzzes, he pulls it out of his pocket and begins to read his messages as I do another lap around the room, admiring my new office. I run my hands over the cold glass desk, admiring the sleek look.

"Lillian, I have to get to a meeting now. I'll walk you back down the lobby. Your onboarding forms should all be processed by this afternoon. Be prepared to start at 8am tomorrow morning, I believe Mr. Hayes will be meeting with you briefly to go over expectations. I'll give you a card key which will bring you up to Mr. Hayes office and let you into your office."

"Sounds great, thank you for everything Kyle."

Mr Hayes stands is in the same spot we had left him, his eyes once again glued to the papers in his large hands. He glances up as we walked past his desk toward the door.

"See you tomorrow, sir" I say politely. His eyes shoot up to meet mine, but are glued back to the paper so quickly I almost thought I dreamt it. I exit the room with Kyle, taking a deep breath in and exhaling for what felt like the first time since I had entered Mr Hayes' office.

Kyle walks me to the lobby and leaves me with a firm handshake before returning to his office. As soon as I get home I eagerly set up my new laptop and phone. Staring at my MacBook, I almost laugh at how out of place it looked in my shitty apartment. The juxtaposition of my my two jobs was comical, even I could acknowledge that.

Around 8pm I begin to get ready for Lilacs. I slip into a sequin bikini top and shiny bottoms, grabbing a pair of heels and dabbing on some lipstick before hopping in the car. I had told Lilacs I would work limited short shifts during the week, maxing out at 9 hours a week in order to keep my sleep schedule in order. 9pm-12am three days a week, that was the deal, and I was content with it. Some extra cash on the side which I could put aside to save for a new apartment down payment.

When I arrive at Lilacs I see Dominique doing her makeup in the back room. She looks at me through the mirror as she applies generous amount of red lipstick.

"Hey mama, how are you?" She says in a sweet tone. Dominique had been my favorite coworker since the moment I started at Lilacs. She was one of the few that actually acknowledged my presence. The environment  tends to be competitive, Alex prefers it that way, in fact he encourages it. He has control over who gets to entertain private parties, which are incredibly lucrative. He often pits us against one another, using private parties as incentives. He says it keeps us 'working hard', I think it just keeps us unhappy. Dominque never played into Alex's games though. She was the only one willing to show me the ropes and give me a tip or two when I first started.

"It was okay, I got a day job today," I told her, surprised by my openness but also knowing I needing to rant to someone.

"Què?" She turned to me with excitement, "I didn't know you were taking on a second gig, good for you!" She smiled at me, a genuine smile. She could tell since my first day here that this wasn't where I wanted to be. She didn't take offense to that, I appreciated her for it.

"Thank you," I smiled back, "I'm a personal assistant to an executive."

"Ooh sounds like fun," She said in an amused tone, "Playing business women with rich men. Count me in," she laughed.

"No Dom, you don't understand. He's like a very serious man. He's got stone cold eyes and I don't know if I'll be able to form a coherent thought in his presence," I explain.

"Mama, do you hear yourself," she laughed, "Sounds like you just think he's hot. Is he hot?"

"Ugh," I threw my head back and grunted in response, "Yes, so hot." We both laughed and for a minute.

"So you cutting your hours here?" She asked.

"Yes, I told Alex maximum twelve hours week. He reluctantly agreed," I said as I fixed my hair in the mirror, adding a little more volume to my high ponytail.

"I'm sure he was secretly pissed," she said with a smirk, "He's losing his best seller," she laughed.

"Are you kidding me? That's definitely not the case, I don't know what I'm doing up there half the time."

"Babe, have you noticed how many private parties you've booked this last month?" she turned to face me, "Christina hasn't booked one in three months."

I thought for a minute. She was right, I had done five private parties in the last month alone, maybe even more in the month prior. I was completely unaware other girls weren't getting the same type of treatment stage time.

"Honey, you've got something no one else here has and that's your superpower...or should I say your stripper power," she laughs sweetly.

I tilt my head in response, "I'm not sure what you are talking about..."

"Innocence baby, you've got that angel eyed innocence," she smirks at me as the words roll off her tongue.

*********
AUTHORS NOTE:
Hello! Thank you so much for choosing to give my story a read. If you like it, it would mean the world if you click on that star button!

All my love,
Alexandra