"How's the job search going, Jade?" Richard West asked.
"It's going." Jade replied, shrugging. She sat back in her chair and put her feet up on her father's desk.
"Where have you been searching?"
"I applied for an internship at a newspaper and also a radio station."
Richard folded his newspaper up and sat it on his desk, "Good. You know, I could always get you a job here."
"Obviously. You own the firm."
In all honesty, Jade didn't really want to do anything. She was perfectly content with her life at the moment. Partying, hanging out with her friends, and doing what other wealthy, twenty somethings did. Her parents thought that since she wasn't in school anymore, she needed a job to teach her "responsibility" and "work ethic".
"You could be my little secretary." Richard suggested.
Jade rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I could think of like, one hundred and one other things I would rather be doing. Most of them include creative ways to hurt myself."
Richard sighed, "Well, keep up the good work, Jadelyn."
Jade got out of her seat, "Bye, dad."
Jade exited her dad's office, passing by the attorneys and paralegals who worked for her dad. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket. Her friend, Tori's picture popped up. She clicked 'Answer' and put the phone up to her ear.
"Hi Tori."
"Jade! Where are you?"
"I'm leaving my dad's law firm right now."
"Cat and I are going out. Want to come?"
"Will alcohol be involved?"
"Yes."
"Vodka?"
"You know it."
"Great. I'll be at your house in about twenty."
"See you there."
Beck Oliver was stressed out. Like on the verge of a complete melt down. He was shocked his hair hasn't turned grey, or worse, fallen out of his head yet.
Working at a big company was extremely stressful, especially a production company. Being president of said company was even more stressful.
Beck was just having a bad day. First, he had an argument with his wife that morning. It started out as something trivial, but it just snowballed from there. Then, he nearly wrecked his car trying to get to work. Just when he thought his day couldn't get any worse, his father told him that the start of the film that was currently being filmed got hurt on set, doing his own stunts. That just pushed back production at least a month.
"Mr. Oliver." Beck looked up and his secretary, Jill, was standing at his office door.
"Yes, Jill?"
"You have a visitor." Jill replied.
"I'm not in the mood for a visitor, nor do I really have time for one."
Tori made her way past Beck's secretary and into the office. "I thought you'd always have time for me."
Beck smiled, "Tori!"
"I'll leave you two alone." Jill said, closing the office door.
"What brings you by, Tor?" Beck asked, standing up to hug his friend.
"I just wanted to stop by and see you. Is that so wrong?"
"No. But I probably won't be much company. I'm in a bad mood and I'll just bring you down with me."
"What's wrong?"
"What isn't wrong? You're the only person that I have been happy to see all day."
"Really? Not even Diana?"
"Diana and are having problems."
"Why?"
"Should we talk about her ridiculous spending habits?" Beck asked. "Because that's the problem of the day."
Tori frowned, "Oh no."
"She and I are just in a rough patch right now. And we've kind've been in it for three months. And we don't know how to get out of it."
"I'm sure you two will be just fine. You and Diana are a nice couple."
"Just because something looks nice on the outside, doesn't mean it's nice on the inside."
"Don't say that. You have to stay positive."
"If you say so."
"I do. I do say so."
"Well can you shed some optimism on my quest for a new assistant?"
Tori raised an eyebrow, "Why do you need a new assistant? Didn't you just get a new one a few months ago?"
"I fired her.
"Beck!" Tori chided.
"She happened to be one of the most incompetent people I have ever met. She couldn't do anything right."
"I know you. Maybe you're a ridiculous, high maintenance boss."
"I am not! The employees love me."
"Yeah, because you keep the crazy close to you. The only people who see it are Jill and whatever assistant you have. I honestly don't know why Jill stays."
"Because she gets paid exceptionally well and she loves me."
Tori silently mulled over what Beck just said. He didn't have an assistant and she happened to know someone who needed a job.
"I have an idea!"
"What is it?"
"You should hire my friend, Jade."
"Your friend?"
"Yes."
Beck shook his head, "I don't think so."
"Why not?"
"Because when you start hiring family, friends, and friends of friends, things get messy."
"Says the guy who works for his father's company, Mr. Hypocrite."
"Tori-"
"She's really smart. She graduated top of her class at UCLA. And she needs a job. Her parents are going to kill her if she doesn't a job soon."
"So she needs a job? Like, really bad?"
"Yeah. Her parents are tired of her spending their money."
"She sounds spoiled."
"She's not spoiled. She just likes to party."
Beck chuckled, "So she's a party girl? You're not doing a good job stating your case, Tori."
"Please?" Tori clasped her hands together for added effect. "I never ask you for anything! Just do me this one thing. Please, please, please, please, please!"
"Does your friend know how to work a BlackBerry?"
"Yes."
"She knows her way around Los Angeles?"
"Of course. She was born and raised here."
Beck sighed, "Fine. Tell your friend she's hired."
Tori smiled and got out of her seat. She made her way to the other side of the desk and flung her arms around Beck's neck.
"You're amazing. You won't regret this, I promise."
"Welcome to the Oliver Pictures!" Jill said, greeting Jade as she got off the elevator to the top floor.
Jade flinched, "Geez, lady. It is like seven in the morning. Can you dial back on the perkiness?"
Jill extended her hand, "I'm Jill Glover, Mr. Oliver's secretary."
"Jade West." Jade replied, shaking Jill's hand. "Mr. Oliver's new assistant, I guess."
"Nice to meet you, Jade." Jill started walking, Jade following behind her. "Oh, and before I forget," Jill handed Jade a sleek BlackBerry, "this is your work phone. Every person you will ever need to get in contact with is in this phone. It needs to be on at all times. Sometimes, Mr. Oliver calls his assistants at all times, for any little thing. I hope you're alert."
Jade burst into a quick sprint to keep up with Jill's pace. The woman was a fast walker.
"I'm pretty alert."
They walked past a ton of offices, will labels on the door like, CEO, CFO, COO, and Vice President.
"Good." The two women passed a room. There was an espresso machine and microwave sitting a granite countertop. A refrigerator was in the corner and in the center of the room, there was a large table and chairs. "That's the break room."
"Board room." Jill said, pointing to another large room, not even bothering to look at it. She knew the building inside and out.
Finally they came to a halt outside of the door. It said: Beckett Oliver, President on a silver sign.
"This is the boss man's office." Jill knocked on the door. "Mr. Oliver, you in there?" No answer. "He must be in a meeting right now."
"Oh."
Jill pointed to the desk a few feet in front of Beck's office door. "But this is your desk."
"Thanks." Jade pulled back her seat and sat down.
"If you need anything, I'll be right down the way."
"Thanks." Jade smiled and Jill walked off.
Jade put her purse on top of the desk and pulled out her cell phone. She had two unread messages.
To: Jade
From: Mom
Hey, sweetheart. Good luck on your first day. Call me later so we can talk about it. I love you.
Jade smiled. Her mother reminded her so much of Cat. Always positive and in a good mood.
She checked the other message.
To: Jade
From: Tori
Hey, sour puss. I hope you're in a better mood than this morning. Did you get your coffee?
Tori was right. Jade was a sour puss that morning. That's only because she had been woken up out of her sleep.
/
"Jade! Jade! Wake up!"
Jade groaned and buried her face into her pillow, but she didn't wake up.
"Jade!" Tori slapped the back of her friend's leg.
"Ow, you bitch. Can you not?"
"You need to get up. It's your first day at your new job."
"How did you get into my condo?"
"I have a key."
"When did you get a key?"
"I stole yours and made a copy."
Jade sat up and threw her pillow at her friend. She looked at her alarm clock. 6:04 was flashing in bright red letters. "Do you not see what time it is? I don't even have to be there until 8:30."
"I want to make sure you're punctual."
"I am punctual." Jade argued.
"Get up." Tori ordered, ignoring Jade. "Go get in the shower."
"Don't you have an album to record or an interview to do?" Jade grumbled, getting out of bed.
"All of that can wait."
"Where's your husband? Does he know that you broke into my condo?"
"André is in bed, sleeping. He doesn't know where I am right now." Tori pointed to the en suite. "Shower. Now."
"You're so bossy." Jade walked into her bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
Tori walked over to Jade's closet and opened the door. She quickly scanned through the clothes. Dresses, heels, jeans, button down shirt, and some sweatshirts."Jade, you don't have a nice pair of slacks?"
"What?" Jade yelled back through the bathroom door.
"Slacks!"
"No!"
"I figured you wouldn't so I brought over an outfit of mine."
Jade opened the door and stuck her head out. "I am not wearing one of your outfits, Tori."
"You're going to be around executives and other really important people. You cannot wear jeans! That is never acceptable."
"Okay, I'll wear your stupid outfit."
"And we're going shopping. You at least need to dress business casual."
Jade didn't even reply. She just shut the door again.
/
Jade hit 'reply' and sent Tori a text.
To: Tori
From: Jade
I'm in a better than mood I was earlier. I still missed out on precious sleep, though. You owe me, Vega!
Within a few seconds, Tori replied.
To: Jade
From: Tori
Have you already forgotten that I got you a job? Correction, you owe me.
Someone cleared their throat in front of Jade. She looked up and saw a man towering over her.
"Who are you?" The man asked.
"Jade West. Who are you?"
"Beck Oliver."
"Oh." This wasn't what Jade was expecting. she thought Beck would be old and stuffy. No, Beck was young—maybe a few years older than her—tall, and extremely good looking. "Nice to meet you. I'm your new assistant."
Beck had to blink and turn away to stop staring at Jade. "Can you make me a dinner reservation at Nozu? Four people at nine tonight?"
"Sure."
Beck said nothing else. He just walked into his office.
Tori didn't tell Beck that her friend would be so...gorgeous. She had huge blue-green eyes that were striking against her pale skin, and long brown hair
Meanwhile, Jade was still sitting at her desk, trying to wrap her head around what just happened. Beck had come off as standoffish and rude. He didn't even say hello to her. No amount of physical attractiveness would make up from that. What did she get herself in to?
It was only her first day on the job, and Jade hated it already. She had a suspicion that Beck would be a handful, but she wanted to strangle him. First, she had to drive to his house to go fire his pool cleaner. Finding his house was a disaster, not to mention it was in Bel-Air and the security guard didn't know who she was. It took her forever to convince him that she was Beck's assistant. And then the housekeeper started crying, which usually didn't fade Jade, but the woman was a blubbering mess. After what felt like hours of consoling the woman, she had to pick up his dry cleaning. But the most annoying task of the day was getting Beck's coffee.
Getting coffee should not have been such a complicated task. But Beck was picky. His coffee couldn't be from a chain coffee shop. It had to be from LAMILL Coffee Boutique or he wouldn't drink it.
He also had to drink his coffee with a croissant. The coffee shop didn't have any, so she had to go to Starbucks to get one. By the time she got back, she had been gone for an hour and a half.
"What took you so long?" Jill hissed, walking up beside Jade as she made her way to his office.
"I had to console his hysterical housekeeper first. Then I had to run around town to get his croissant."
"You've been gone for over an hour. I doubt he'll even want the coffee."
Jade scoffed, "He better want it."
She walked into Beck's office without knocking. He was sitting behind his desk, reading some type of file.
He looked up, "You know people are supposed to knock before entering first."
"I have your coffee." Jade said. She put the cup and bag on his desk.
Beck looked at his watch, "I asked for this almost two hours ago."
"I know."
Beck grabbed the cup, "This isn't hot."
"Sorry. It would've been hotter if I didn't have to go out of the way to get your croissant."
Beck took a sip of the coffee and quickly spit it out.
Jade looked at Beck, confused, "What? What's wrong?"
"Is this dark roast?"
"I think so. Does it matter?"
"Yes it matters. If you can't do a simple task like making coffee, then who knows what else you can't do."
"Look, you can't belittle me because you're my boss. I know how to fucking get coffee. "
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not belittling you. And you obviously don't know how to fucking "get coffee", Beck put up air quotations, "because my order is wrong."
"That's not my fault!"
"Is is your fault!" Beck shot back.
"Well it's only because I was thrown off of my game by your housekeeper who was crying on my shoulder, begging me not to fire her." Jade justified.
Beck shrugged, "That's not my problem."
"It is. You told me to fire her."
"If you're looking for absolution because you messed up, you aren't going to get it."
"You're extremely condescending."
"And if you're going to get your feelings hurt every time I correct you on your mistakes, then we aren't going to be able to work together."
"Trust me when I say my feelings are not hurt, Mr. Oliver. I can give as good as I get."
"Good."
"You're just rude." Jade added.
"And you obviously have no problem with insulting your boss."
"If you can't handle me telling you the truth about yourself, then we aren't going to be able to work together." Jade said, using Beck's words against him.
Beck's eyes got wide with shock. This woman had been with the company for at least four hours and she already managed to infuriate him.
"Get me another cup of coffee." Beck ordered, sliding the cup across his desk.
Jade picked the cup up and popped off the lid. She poured the contents of the cup onto Beck's lap.
"Get it yourself, since I don't know how."
Beck hopped up out of his seat and quickly strode over to Jade, despite his wet pants. He grabbed her arm and spun her around.
"You're insane."
Jade chuckled, "If I was crazy, I would have done something worse than pour coffee on you."
"Something has to be wrong with you. You're lucky I don't have you arrested."
Jade looked up at Beck. His eyes were dark, his jaw was clenched, and his grip on her arm was exceptionally tight and she could smell his aftershave and cologne.
She glanced at him once more. Maybe she had gone too far with that one. Beck looked extremely pissed and her stomach dropped. Jade was a bit nervous, but he couldn't know that. A part of her was also a bit...excited. She like angry Beck. He actually had emotion, but he couldn't know that either. She removed her arm from his grip and pushed him off of her.
"And you're lucky I don't have you arrested for assault." Jade shot back, taking a deep breath, trying to calm her rapid heart beat.
The room was suddenly hot and Jade could practically feel the air around her, it was so thick.
Before she could even think, she was out the door.
"You did what?" Tori shrieked, horror evident all over her face.
"I...poured coffee on him." Jade said, stabbing her fork into her salad.
"Did it burn his...you know what?" Cat asked, nervously.
"The coffee was cold by the time it hit him."
Tori shook head in disbelief, "You have lost your mind, Jade. What on earth possessed you to pour coffee into his lap?"
"I don't know." Jade said, sheepishly. "He pissed me off. We were arguing and he was talking to me like I was a child. I am not a child!"
"Are you sure? Because you poured coffee onto your boss' lap! Jade, he's my friend. He and André golf together. I do yoga with his wife. How do I explain my friend pouring coffee on him? I told him that he wouldn't regret hiring you."
"Stop being such a narcissist, Tori. This isn't about you."
"I am not a narcissist." Tori argued. "I'm sorry I can't be as cavalier as you are right now."
"And wait," Jade continued, "did you say his wife? He's married?"
"Yes and he has been for three years now."
Jade but her lip. That wasn't fun at all. "That's too bad."
"You weren't thinking about sleeping with him, were you?"
Jade shook her head, "No. It's just a shame that such a gorgeous man is already tied down. Even if he is a jerk."
Tori picked up her glass of water and took a sip, "Good. Let's leave it at that, okay?"
"Okay."
"You're going to apologize to him."
Jade scoffed, "No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are." Tori repeated. "Even if I have to drag you into his office myself and make you say the words "I'm sorry", you will do it."
"You aren't going to drag me anywhere. And you can't make me apologize."
Jade begrudgingly knocked on Beck's office door the next morning.
Somehow, Tori convinced her to go back and at least apologize for being so rude. She didn't know how Tori did it because Jade liked to consider herself headstrong and stubborn. She didn't do what she didn't want to.
"Come in."
Jade opened the door and entered the office. She looked down at her—actually, they came from Tori's business casual collection—shoes. "Hi."
"Jade." Beck replied. "Can I help you with something?"
"I just wanted to apologize for what happened yesterday. I was out of line."
"Apology accepted."
"I'll just collect my things and be on my way."
"Where are you going?"
"Home." Jade answered.
"Why? You're on the clock."
Jade stared at Beck, "Wait, you aren't firing me?"
Beck shook his head and stood up, "Nope.
"But why not?"
"I'm sorry too. You weren't the only one who was out of line yesterday. I've been having a stressful week and I've been a bit of an ass. And you're the only person besides Jill to call me out on it."
"Well, your social graces do leave much to be desired." Beck shot Jade a look, telling her not to push it. "Sorry."
"There's something about you that I like. I guess I'll keep you around for a bit. That's if you want to stay here."
"I do."
"Good."
"So are we just going to forgive and forget?"
Beck almost let out a snort of amusement, "Absolutely not. I'll never forget that on your first day, you poured coffee on me."
"Oh."
"But we can try to start over and move forward."
"Sounds like a plan."
Beck extended his hand. Jade grabbed it. There was a spark in the touch. Jade tried to retract her hand, but Beck still held on. She eventually pulled her hand out of his grip and it fell to her side, still tingling.
Beck cleared his throat and turned his head slightly. "I have some calls to make."
"Okay. Call me if you need anything."
"I will."
Jade turned and walked out of the office. Beck sat back down behind his desk and picked up his phone.
And that was the start of it all.
Thought? Comments? Suggestions? Let me know please!
I am a mess. I should be writing my philosophy paper due on Tuesday that I haven't even started (wish me luck please). I should be studying for my math test. I should be doing something productive with my three day weekend, but I'm writing this and watching Scandal on Netflix. Darn you, Scandal and your addictiveness. Anyway, have an awesome Labor Day weekend, guys! Have fun and stay safe! xo