The Personal Assistant.

Chapter 22

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 became apparent that he was just a plain asshole.

Maybe he had cleaned up his act, but the once party 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 playing with the hearts of girls to getting into fights and even ending with sleeping 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 deep 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-shirt. 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 smirk 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 grabbing 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 quickly 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 already 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, please 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 tight but classy dress she wore.

It was at some point that it registered in his mind that she had stopped 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 hard business world and more towards a nice and homy world. No, he wasn't ready 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 dating a young model, a blond girl with amazing breasts 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 stopped 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 making 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 touch in my mansion?"