Summary: AU. Castiel Novak is too shy to tell his secretary how he feels about her, and his emotions all come across as negative. In short, the girl's scared of him, but then she has to go with him on a business trip and the relationship changes. Please R&R!
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or its characters. I only own Alicia Tyler.
A/N: Wooo, okay, this fic is inspired by The Proposal, but its much less funny and less complicated. It's going to be a little angsty and Cas is a bit of a bastard, but he doesn't mean to be and you'll see why.
Hope you enjoy!
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An Unlikely Romance
Chapter One
"Alicia?"
Alicia closed her eyes, swallowing thickly as she looked up at her boss.
"Yes, sir?"
"Call Chuck Shurley in for a meeting about his book; there are things we need to go over."
The occasional 'please' wouldn't go amiss.
"Yes, sir."
Alicia stood up, black pencil skirt revealing her lower legs to her boss, Castiel, who looked at the beautiful limbs before back at his computer screen. She was wearing her blue button-up shirt today, her small black heels and her gorgeous blonde curls over her shoulders. Her blue eyes met his for a moment, weakness shown in them as she went to leave the room.
"Alicia, I asked you to call Chuck Shurley." Castiel said.
Damnit, Castiel, you can't leave her alone, can you? She was just going to get something and you're jumping down her throat.
"Sir...I was just going to the bathroom..." Alicia said quietly.
"You're paid to do as I ask, not to...go to the bathroom." Castiel replied, "Now do as I ask."
But Alicia needed to go. She was in pain and it was that time of the month.
"Please, sir..."
Now the girl had tears in her eyes, and Castiel felt guilt rush through his system.
"Castiel..." Another voice piped up, Castiel looking over to see his brother standing the doorway, "Let her go, huh?"
Castiel saw the grateful look in Alicia's eyes and she looked to him, Castiel sighing and nodding before glaring at his brother.
"Gabriel!" He hissed.
"Dude, could you not tell that the girl was in pain?" Gabriel asked, "Seriously, where were you in Biology? Can't you tell it's her..."
He looked around him before whispering.
"Her period."
Castiel gasped and blushed for a moment, realising what a stupid, ignorant dick he'd been to the poor girl.
"Christ..." He muttered, rubbing his forehead, "How could you tell?"
"Not important. And by the way, dude, you're really hung up on her, huh?" Gabriel chuckled, sitting on Castiel's desk, "Oh, and seriously, this office is so dull! How is this poor girl putting up with this?"
"I'm not 'hung up' on her," Castiel said, "Whatever that means...and this office is fine the way it is..."
"Cas, the walls match your freakin' coat!" Gabriel huffed, "And you're obsessed with Alicia, wrapped up in your feelings to the point that you can't tell her how you feel, so you order her around like she's your slave instead!"
"Gabriel, she's paid to do as I tell her." Castiel said, "She took the job when I offered it to her."
"Cas, you'd think that saying please and thank you would be a common courtesy," Gabriel breathed, "But oh no, you're so scared of your feelings for this poor young woman, who's never done anything wrong to anybody, that you can't even use manners when you ask her to do something and she does what you ask, pretty well I might add."
"Okay, shut up!" Castiel yelled, "Just stop, alright!"
"You know I'm right." Gabriel said, getting up to leave, "If you're not careful I'll take her out of here and put her in my office where she'll get shown some respect."
Castiel flushed with shame and bowed his head.
"That girl gets treated like absolute crap by you, yet she still shows up every day and does everything you ask of her," Gabriel finished, "Yet you can't even show her that you're grateful for her work."
He turned to leave as Alicia returned, looking a lot more comfortable and less embarrassed. He thought he'd teach his stupid baby brother a lesson and he smiled at her.
"Everything okay?" He asked.
"Yes, thanks, sir." Alicia replied with a soft smile.
"If you're not feeling so hot and you need to go home or anything," Gabriel began, "Just come and see me and you can go home, okay?"
"Gabriel, you can't just..." Castiel began, being cut off by his brother.
"No, I insist." Gabriel said, Alicia unsure of what to do.
"Oh, I'm sure that won't be necessary," Alicia replied, "But thank you all the same."
Gabriel nodded and patted her arm gently before heading out of the door. Sometimes Alicia wished that she worked for Gabriel rather than Castiel. Castiel never said please or thank you, but Gabriel was just so nice, so caring and so...considerate of her.
"Um...I'll call Chuck Shurley..." She said softly, sitting at her desk and dialling the number, Castiel watching her through the conversation.
Her full lips moved elegantly as she spoke, fingers wrapped around the receiver of the phone gently and her gorgeous eyes focussing on her papers beneath her. Her legs were crossed, right over left, right foot moving up and down as she spoke to Chuck. She had such a sweet manner and gentle voice too. He wanted to praise her and thank her for her work, to not have the poor girl dreading going into his office every day, scared to even ask him to repeat an instruction in case he bit her head off.
She was intimidated by him, and that made him feel terrible, realising what a horrible person he was. He was cold and harsh towards her, and Alicia, who was merely four years younger than him, was so into doing a good job and earning a promotion or at least some recognition for her hard work that she dealt with the harshness she was faced with every day.
The young woman finished her conversation and took a deep breath before speaking.
"He says that he needs to check his diary for a day this week, but he thinks the earliest is Wednesday."
"Right," Castiel said, finding himself snapped out of his trance, "I need each of these reports photocopying six times."
He handed Alicia a huge stack of papers, the young woman just looking so defeated when she saw the pile that Castiel felt guilty for giving it to her.
"Yes, sir." She said brokenly, turning and heading out to the photocopier.
She closed the door, walking away with her head hung like she didn't think she had any worth. Castiel slammed his fist on the desk, scrubbing it over his face and resting his forehead on it. He couldn't help treating her the way he did. He was just so afraid to express how he really felt, and he'd been the same with any woman he'd had feelings for since his first relationship with a girl named Meg Masters.
That was nine years ago, and now at the age of twenty-seven, he was still alone, barely able to get through a date with a woman. She was twenty-three and such a beautiful, special young woman who he hardly knew anything about, who he couldn't understand, but he couldn't treat her any better than he did. His walls came up and that was it; he was hiding behind that strong, authoritative mask being merely a tiny frightened boy, a vulnerable person who really couldn't understand how to communicate with the girl he had such deep feelings for it hurt him to look at her sometimes.
He was screwed up and he needed help, because clearly, he walked all over her and treated her like absolute crap. She didn't deserve it and he knew it, but he just didn't know how he could change it.
-TBC-
Hope you enjoyed!
Happy 2011!
Thanks for reading so far!
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