Not Another Love Story
Summary: So, you all know Bruce Wayne, right? The playboy, the secretive masked vigilante, the business man. Yeah, well, this is one of those stories. No, not one of those 'damsel-in-distress-falls-in-love-after-being-taken-to-Bruce's-penthouse-after-scare' stories, in this one, Bruce's life will be turned upside down. So, what happens when a social butterfly heiress from out of town move's to Gotham to start a new branch of the company rivaling Bruce's? And what happens when the same girl's secret life, rivals the supposed playboy's secret life? Give chapter one a chance and see where it goes.
Chapter 1
"Who told you to do that?" A very irritated Amelia Bennet walked briskly past the front desk to her new office, speaking currently to her former assistant at the main branch who hired a new assistant without authorization. "Cynthia, you were my assistant for five years. You know better than anyone that all new employees have to go personally through an interview with me and a background check, and this new girl didn't get either. You all seem to forget that I own this company, and though I may be across the country I'm still in charge. This is a warning. Next time, you may not be as lucky." She sighed in exhaustion before plopping into her new office chair. She hated starting a new office branch. It just meant more stress, and more boxes.
She picked up a gift basket that held an assortment of various foreign chocolates and rare fruits, it presented a card that read 'Welcome to Gotham! Every best wish to you and your company. -The city of Gotham.' Amelia shoved the card into her briefcase with the many other welcome cards she's received, and put the gift basket on the large scale bookshelf behind her desk, looking into the random articles laying on her desk. A contract to sign here, merger deals to deny there; the usual.
A knock came at her door, before a petite lady a little younger looking than her came timidly into the room. "Ms. Bennet? You have a call waiting on line one."
"Thank you Violet. Please, call me Amelia." She sighed, stressed. She really didn't feel like taking calls right now. "Bennet & Sons, this is Amelia."
"Emma. Did you get the papers I sent you?"
"Ryan, I really don't have time to sign your divorce papers. I just transferred to our new building in Gotham. Call me back in a couple of weeks when things settle down."
"Unfortunately, doll, I don't have time for you to settle in. I have a girl here who's anxious to get hitched." Amelia made a noise of disgust into the phone before responding as calmly as she could.
"Oh, found a new hooker to get a new disease from? If you happen to recall one of your last classless ladies was the reason for our marriage falling apart."
"Amelia, I don't have time for your bull. Sign the papers."
"Fine. But you're lucky I don't sue you for all you're worth; which isn't much." She said before hanging up the phone rather angrily. "Damn. The movers are probably at the house already." She stood her 5'10" body up from the comfortable office chair to head to the elevator, preparing to see her new home. It was on the larger scale, close to the office, but on the opposite side of town; as to avoid the narrows. The house fit her simple, yet vintage style. The home came pre-furnished with classic twenties style decor; which went along with her twenties style fitted suits that were soon to adorn her closet.
Pulling her Porsche Panamera into the new driveway, she looked to the house that she would be occupying. It was on the large side; having five bedrooms, four and half baths, a large finished basement, a large backyard, and a gourmet kitchen. She inspected each room to her heart's content, and told the movers where to put everything before heading down to the basement to explore. The basement probably took up the entire layout of the house, leaving it quite large. Amelia brought down a few boxes labeled 'BASEMENT FRAGILE.' In means to keep the movers from rustling her items around. She boxed the items beforehand so they wouldn't snoop. She really didn't need people knowing what she was up to when she moved from town-to-town. She wandered around the well lit area, finding herself come into a separate room, that was more dimly lit. She found bookcases filled with books lining two of the walls; running perpendicular to each other. Running her hands along one, she came across one of her favorite books in a rare first edition. Reaching to grab it off the shelf to examine it, it caught with a second book and the books tipped back. Cringing, and waiting for the rare books to fall to the ground, she instead felt a whoosh of cool air; blowing her wavy, dyed, copper red hair - recently taken down from her tight bun - behind her shoulders. Her heart rate increased in anticipation before entering the room. Instantly reminding her of a speakeasy, there were bare cement walls with sporadic lamps lining the outside of the walls. A few wooden desks were left behind from whoever was last in this room. She wondered if the previous owners even knew this was here. Seeing this as the next hideout for her, she brought the boxes in with her and grabbed a flashlight from the upstairs before searching around the strange room again.
She discovered one stained glass window that was covered from the outside by a bush, and a small tunnel hidden behind a locked door. She found the key on the door frame; obviously waiting to be discovered yet again. She traveled up the stairway at the end of the tunnel to find herself coming out of an external carriage house looking building in the very back of the backyard. Finding the key worked in the outer door to the shed, she locked the door and traveled back into the house to check the progress off the moving.
She would have to thank her best friend, Regina, - the only one who knew her secret - for finding this amazing house for her. It all seemed too staged to have stumbled upon this house spontaneously, as Regina said she had.
Finding the movers finished in her house, Amelia finally had time to sit on her blue couch for the first time. She paid who she was supposed to before showing them out the door.
Plugging in the T.V., she turned it on and changed it to the nearest channel that wasn't on a commercial break. All she saw was a picture of her form a few years back and a headline that a nasal newscaster was reading that said, "Heiress to the Bennet & Sons fortune, Amelia Bennet, opens her new branch of the multi-million dollar company in our very own Gotham city tomorrow. Bennet took over the company after her father's untimely loss to cancer, and her mother's unfortunate disappearance two years earlier. The company is a well known rival to Wayne industries, will there be problems between the two companies? Will there be problems between the two young heir's of their companies? Or will a new industrial, or romantic, relationship be formed? More at ten."
"Yeah right. Disappearance my ass. She ran off with her French beau." Amelia groaned, getting up from the couch. She might as well go out and make an appearance. She decided to throw on an off-white drop-waist shimmering dress that ended about her mid-thigh. She decided to curl her unnatural red hair and threw on a couple of items of jewelry. She called to reserve a table for one over at the Criterion in the city. It wasn't hard to get a table, most people aren't eating alone at that sort of restaurant.
Handing her keys to the valet, she stepped out of the car to check if her table was ready. Making her way into the building, she heard the impatient scuffle of shoes behind her, subtly glancing behind her to see the very own, Bruce Wayne, looking extremely bored, riding her heels into the restaurant. Slowing her pace even more, she took her dear sweet time going into the building.
"Welcome Ms. Bennet, your table is ready for you." A nice waiter greeted her, taking her light jacket; that was protecting her from the aftershocks of a brutal Gotham winter.
"A Ms. Bennet is it?" Amelia looked up from her half-empty water glass at a tall, handsome, man with brown hair and brown eyes.
"Yes. You must be Mr. Bruce Wayne."
"Please, call me Bruce. You just moved here, right?"
"Amelia, please. And yes, from New York."
"This seat taken?"
"No. Take it please."
"So, what brings you to Gotham?"
"Oh, you know. Business dominance, the norm." She replied slyly. He lifted his eyebrows, bemusedly. "So, I guess the whole city of Gotham is trying to set us up as well. Let me tell you though, I just left a bad marriage, and I'm not interested in getting into anything else if that's what you're trying to pull, sitting here." Amelia said haughtily whipping herself from her seat and dropping a hundred dollar bill at the waiter and went to get her keys.
"What did I say?" Bruce wondered innocently.
A/N: Okay, here's my new story! I just wanted to get in some character development and all that boring stuff. Just let me know what you think!
Good? Bad? Lemme know!
