Assistant to the CEO

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Plane Clothes

"I can't believe your luck lately," Ava said, as she stood at my door. "First, a free trip to Paris, and now a free trip to LA with Alicia Moore."

"And Clarke," I reminded her, as I packed my bag.

"Eh, yeah and him," Ava scoffed.

"I'm starting to get the impression you don't like Clarke very much," I glanced at her as I opened my draws looking for clothes.

Ava sighed. "It's not that I don't like him, I just don't...trust him, I guess. I mean, how long are you two going to do this thing? It can't go on forever."

"I know that," I agreed with a nod, "and it won't, but right now things are good and I'm still stressed out about school, and he's still stressed about the company. So things are the way they are."

"So...when you finish college is that what you're saying?" Ava frowned slightly.

"Maybe, I don't know," I told Ava. Gosh maybe going to LA would give me time to stop hearing all this. "I thought you'd be telling me to go to LA."

"And I am," Ava promised. "I just want you to be careful. I don't want you to get hurt. You're not just...mucking around anymore. You guys are friends now, I can see it. I can see you care about him now, and what he's doing with that company... and I know, I know, he's trying but I'm just worried he'll let you down somehow."

"Ava, no one has their guard up more than me, I promise," I told her calmly. "So, are you going to just stand there or help me pack? Cause I literally have to leave in half an hour and I have no clue what I need."

Ava sighed. "What would you do without me?"

Ava helped me pack and with that I was ready on time. A car came around to pick me up to take me to the airport as I was meeting Clarke and Alicia there. When I got there they were waiting in the first class lounge as promised. Clarke looked tired, but sometimes he was just was tired, that came with the job. Alicia on the other hand looked extremely upbeat, although she seemed to always radiate happiness. Or maybe she was just happy not to be stuck with Clarke alone for the next four days.

The flight was just over five hours long and other than watching a movie there was not much to do. Clarke seemed to be on his phone the whole flight, probably setting up meetings for LA. The past weeks before we had left Clarke had been working around the clock to ensure people would know he was coming and he would know who to talk to and who would be most willing to do a deal. I made sure to go over to his place just to get him off that damn phone. As for Alicia she sat curled up on the chair, passed out, apparently she was just really good at sleeping on planes.

When we landed it was late, getting towards midnight so I was tired, but I was also kind of excited to see the city. I had always wanted to go to LA but just honestly never really tried to go. I needed sleep though and that was evident when I got in the back of the car and started to fall asleep on Clarke. I think Clarke thought it was funny though because he just let my head rest on his shoulder the whole drive to his place.

When we pulled up to his house, I woke up long enough to see where we were and Clarke was not kidding about how big the house was. We were up in the hills, overlooking LA, where most of the rich people lived. The house was long and white with many window covering the front, but also a security fence around the house. When we stepped inside I heard our footsteps echo as they hit the marble of the floor. The ceiling was huge, the walls were white and the rooms long. Each item places in the house looked expensive, but also like this place hadn't been touched since the nineties, and it probably hadn't been. The best part though was outside.