Hello lovelies,
This plot bunny has been bouncing around my head for some time, so I sat down yesterday and wrote it all out. It's a three part drabble (with a possibility of a fourth part of you all really want it).
I wrote this whole story with Beauty Behind The Madness (the latest The Weeknd album) as my inspirational soundtrack (I'll be seeing him in December and I am super excited!).
So enjoy :)
Recommended Songs: Dark Times, Real Life
Dark Times - Part 1
It had been a particularly trying day.
First it had been difficult enough to wake up because of the raging hang-over I had been suffering from (note to self: never drink again). Then two business deals with local retailers had fallen through the cracks due to a disagreement over pricing and image. Not to mention the endless traffic on Madison, which on regular days wouldn't bother me, but today wasn't a regular day.
Today was bloody horrible.
And to top it all off, I was standing in my living room, staring into my bedroom, watching as my girlfriend threw her head back as she rode my brother.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
I gripped the front door, giving it one strong push. It slammed against its frame, the sound reverberating through the entire apartment.
The slam was followed by silence as Hayley stopped gyrating her hips and moaning, whipping her head towards the source of the sound.
"Klaus," she gasped, scrambling off my brother and doing her best to cover herself with my duvet. Why she was covering herself was beyond me- I had already seen her naked countless times.
Elijah shot up, positioning himself between Hayley and myself so that I could no longer see her. "Niklaus," he started calmly, one hand behind him gripping Hayley while he held his other hand out in my direction as if he were approaching a wild animal.
Of course I was shocked, angry, upset. But most of all, I was tired out of my mind. All I had wanted to do was get home, unwind with my friend Jim Beam, and forget that today had even happened. Hell, I was even going to call Hayley over to spend the night because God knew I needed some release.
Clearly that wasn't going to happen anymore.
I sighed, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and index finger. "Just...get out."
There was silence. I didn't hear the shuffling of clothes or any movement from my room, so I looked up again. They were still sitting on my bed. My goddamned bed.
"I said get the fuck out!"
That got them moving. Hayley was the first one to shoot up, grabbing her shirt and pulling on her jeans, not bothering with her underwear. Elijah got up much slower, a pained expression on his face. Was he really feeling guilty now?
After about a minute of shuffling, they were both walking out of my room. Elijah wore his coat, pants and socks, holding his button up shirt, suit jacket and shoes in one hand. Hayley had her panties bunched up between her fingers, her hair all mused up, her head hung.
"Ni-"
"I don't think anything you have to say will make a difference right now, Elijah."
That shut him right the fuck up. He snapped his mouth closed and nodded once before pulling open the front door. Hayley had the decency to keep her eyes down the whole time, hurrying out the door in front of Elijah. Once he had also exited, shutting the door behind him, I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I had been holding.
It was insanely hot in here.
I unwrapped my scarf from around my neck, simultaneously dropping my briefcase and pulling off my coat.
I dropped down onto my couch and threw my head back, letting out a groan. My hand dropped onto the space beside me, gazing unfamiliar fabric. I peeked down at the satin and lace bra that had been discarded there.
"Well, fuck," I barked out, flinging the offending garment across the room and shooting up from the couch.
There was no way I was staying here tonight.
It was the second day where I started off my morning feeling like shit.
I pushed off the couch in my office where I had spent the night and walked over to my desk, realizing I wasn't wearing any shoes only when I sat down at my chair.
I glanced at the clock on my desk, the red numbers the only thing illuminating the room. It was eight in the morning.
I groaned, rubbing a hand over my face and yawning. I didn't feel rested at all.
I turned the dial on my desk that controlled the window blinds. As they slid up, the dull morning light creeped into the room.
During this time of the year, there were hardly any sunny days in Chicago. It was mostly snow and clouds and cold.
I pressed the button on my phone that would call my assistant's desk.
"Yes, Mr. Mikaelson?" I frowned- she sounded different. No matter.
"A coffee and aspirin," I said before letting go of the button. I rested my elbows on my desk and dropped my head into my hands.
My mouth tasted like ass and I had a kink in my neck that I knew would be bothering me for hours.
As I wallowed in self pity at both my personal life and career woes, I heard my door opening and the click click click of my assistant's heels. She stopped right in front of my desk, placing a glass of water and a napkin with an aspirin in front of me.
My annoyance was instantly peaked. I sighed in frustration.
"I said coffee, not a glass of-" I stopped mid sentence because the woman standing in front of my desk was not my assistant.
She was blonde. Well, so was my assistant, but this girl's hair was shorter and wavier. And lighter. Alexis' hair was long and pun straight.
She had big, green eyes and pink lips and pale skin.
"Who are you?" I snapped.
"Caroline Forbes," she said in a very cheery tone, seemingly unbothered by my unfriendly demeanor.
"What are you doing in my office?"
She frowned and scrunched up her nose in disgust. "Lexi's home with the flu. She couldn't come in today, so I'm covering for her."
"Lexi?"
"Oh, I mean Alexis."
"And who authorized this?" He sure as hell didn't. He couldn't have just anyone being his assistant when his actual assistant wasn't around. That's not how things worked.
"Well, it's in her contract as well as mine. So, by default, I think you authorized it? Or maybe it was just the people in HR who wrote up our contracts." She was biting her lip, seriously thinking about this.
"What is your regular position in this company?"
"I'm Lexi's assistant."
"My assistant has an assistant?"
She chuckled, giving me a soft smile. "You should take your aspirin now, Mr. Mikaelson," she said, pushing the glass of water and pill towards me.
"I asked for coffee."
She shook her head. "You really shouldn't mix pills with caffeine. I could bring you your coffee in about fifteen minutes, but only if you drink the whole glass along with the pill."
I hadn't thought of that. Now that I really did think about it, mixing caffeine and drugs didn't sound very prudent.
Grumbling and not looking back up at Caroline, I threw the pill into my mouth and gulped down the whole glass of water.
She took the napkin and the glass. I heard her heels click once more as she exited the room. "I'll be back with your coffee soon."
And she was gone.
Well, that had served as a momentary distraction.
How had I not known that my assistant had an assistant? Especially one like that?
I wasn't going to lie to myself- Miss Forbes was attractive, and for some reason I got the feeling that she was smart as a whip. Confident, too. She hadn't so much as flinched when I snapped at her about my coffee, calmly giving her reason for bringing me a glass of water instead.
Before I knew it, there was a light knock on the door, it opened, and there she was again. This time, with a white porcelain mug in one hand, a tablet and legal notepad in the other.
She placed the mug right in front of me and then pulled out a white paper bag that was on top of her tablet. I hadn't seen it. She placed it right next to the mug full of steaming coffee.
"It's a breakfast sandwich. I could take it back if you like, I just thought you would be hungry." And I was hungry, I just hadn't thought of it like apparently she had.
"Thank you," I said, unwrapping the paper bag and taking a bite of the sandwich before looking back up at her.
"No problem," she smiled and then held up her tablet and legal pad. "If you want to review your schedule for today, we could do it now. Or I could come back at a later time."
I regarded her for a moment before gesturing for her to sit in one of the two armchairs in front of my desk.
She sat down, turned on her tablet and flipped to a new page in her pad. She looked up again when she was ready and I nodded at her to begin.
"You have a meeting with the representative from Lockwood's at ten to go over options for their magazine spread and to begin discussing commercial ideas. Marcel and Jeremy will be at the meeting, as well."
Of course they would. Marcel was head of our print department and took care of everything from magazine spreads to newspaper ads (for those who still picked up a newspaper). Jeremy was our Creative Director. He would be there to pitch commercial ideas.
Caroline continued talking.
"You have lunch with your brother at-"
"Cancel it," I said quickly, not bothering to finish chewing my bite.
"Cancelled," she replied without missing a beat. She tapped the screen of the tablet a few times and then continued through the itinerary which included two more meetings and a dinner with a partner.
"Would you like to add anything, Mr. Mikaelson?"
"Nothing to the itinerary," I said, finishing off my sandwich and taking a swing of my coffee which was no longer so hot it would burn my tongue. "Have someone call a cleaning service to my apartment." She nodded, writing this down in her notepad.
"Anything else?" She asked.
"That'll be all."
She nodded again, closing her notepad and shutting off her tablet before standing up and walking out of the office again.
The ten o'clock meeting was rather uneventful, which I was grateful for. The Lockwood's representative was pleased with the options for the magazine spread and picked two to show his boss. They discussed some rough ideas for the commercial, but Jeremy insisted he would have a more concrete outline for them for their next meeting.
"My assistant can help you set up a meeting," I said, opening the door for the representative. Sure enough, Caroline was by the door, a pleasant smile on her face.
"This way, Mr. Lockwood," she said, gesturing for him to follow her.
"Please, call me Tyler," he insisted walking along side her as she lead him away from me.
"Whoa, what happened to Lexi?" Jeremy asked, coming up behind me.
"At home with the flu, it seems. Miss Forbes is her assistant."
"I know," Jeremy nodded.
"What do you mean, you knew?" I turned to look at my employee.
"Well, yeah. She's been working here for what," he turned to Marcel for a second while thinking it over. "Three months, I think?"
"Yeah, I think so. Maybe more," Marcel replied, picking up his boards and tucking them under his arm.
"You knew about her, too?"
"Of course man," he said, walking towards us. "She's been down at my department a few times to deliver your requests."
"Isn't Miss Branson in charge of that?"
Marcel shook his head. "No, she has other stuff to do like make phone calls and organize your itinerary. Caroline does everything else."
"Huh," was all I could say.
Jeremy clapped me on the shoulder and walked away towards his office. Marcel did the same.
With nothing else to do, I went to my own office, nodding at my employees as I went. I was sitting at my chair, going through some personal emails when there was another soft knock at the door. And there was Miss Forbes again.
"Yes?" I said, turning away from my laptop.
"Mr. Lockwood suggested next Wednesday at three in the afternoon for your next meeting. He said that his father would most likely be attending that meeting as well."
"That's fine."
"Uh," she started, walking a little closer, her bottom lip caught between he teeth. "You have your brother's birthday dinner that same day at five-thirty. I know your meetings could last anywhere between two or three hours, so I didn't want-"
"Schedule it, it's fine," he ground out. I had forgotten Elijah's birthday dinner. Well, not exactly forgotten, more like consciously put it out of my mind. "And cancel my RSVP for that dinner."
"Alright," she nodded. "I'll call get on it."
And she left. Again.
I forgot to order lunch, but Caroline took care of that. At around one in the afternoon she came in with a plate of Chicken Parmesan, a salad and a soda. I mumbled out a thank you, keeping my focus on the flat screen television in my office, watching the stock market.
I saw her nod and then duck out of the office again.
Lunch was delicious.
At five to two, there was another knock on my door. Enter Caroline.
"Your two o'clock is here," she said. I nodded, turning off my laptop and putting on my suit jacket which I had removed to be more comfortable.
When I reached the door, Caroline held out a water bottle and a stick of gum to me.
I was about to ask her what it was for when she shrugged and simply said "Lunch."
Which I understood immediately. I popped the stick of gum in my mouth and took a swing of water. "Thank you."
"No problem," she replied, reaching up and dusting something off my jacket. Then she gestured for me to get a move on.
The meeting went by fairly quickly. It was just a preliminary meeting, and it was done within forty-five minutes. I was shaking hands with the man by the end, again telling him to set up a follow-up appointment with Caroline. Again, she was waiting outside the conference room door, pleasant smile and all.
And that was how the rest of the day went. Caroline came in to announce my last meeting of the day at four, and she was there at the end of it to schedule a follow up meeting with the client.
At six o'clock, I powered down my computer and slid it into my briefcase along with some paperwork I would have to look over.
As I was heading out, I passed by Caroline's desk. Well, it was Lexi's desk. But Caroline was taking over Lexi's position for the day, so it was her desk. Why am I thinking about this so much?
Caroline had been sitting, typing away on her computer when she looked up and smiled.
"A car is waiting for you downstairs."
"What?" I could drive myself home – why had she called a car?
"You have dinner reservations with the Salvatores at Shanghai Terrace. There was a note along with the event with clear instructions to call you a car," she said calmly.
I shook his head – this was surely Alexis's doing. She knew that whenever I went out with the Salvatores, I wouldn't be in any condition to drive home. Well, tonight would be no different, fuck my note to self.
"Thank you, Miss Forbes." I said, continuing to make my way towards the elevators. I stopped after a couple of steps and turned back to face her. She had already gone back to her typing, but looked up at me again when I turned.
"Will you be staying here long?"
She shook her head. "I'm just replying to a few emails and then I'll be out," she said with a tight lipped smile.
I nodded and swallowed, clearing my throat before speaking again. "Will you be back tomorrow?"
She gave me a rueful grin. "Of course. I work here, you know."
I rolled my eyes and found myself grinning back at her. Actually, I hadn't known until this morning. "I meant will you be back as my assistant tomorrow?"
She shrugged. "Lexi's still feeling under the weather. I'll check in with her tomorrow to see if she can come in. So for now, I'm not one-hundred percent certain."
I nodded, accepting her answer. "In any case, have a good rest of your evening."
"Same goes for you, Mr. Mikaelson," she smiled, and went back to her typing.
Call me Klaus, I wanted to say, but the words were stuck in my throat. I just nodded, and turned to exit.
What floor do I live on?
I stared at the rows of numbers on the elevator wall, scratching the back of my neck as I tried to remember.
Oh, yeah. The penthouse.
I pressed the button all the way at the top, and it lit up under my finger. The doors closed, and the elevator began its ascent. I kept my finger on the button until the elevator reached the top floor. It dinged, which was much more of an annoying sound than what I ever remembered it being, and the doors slid open.
I stumbled out into the hallway. There was only one door at the end of the small hall, but there was a lounging area out there for some reason I was never able to understand. Would people lounge out there while waiting for me to answer the door?
I fumbled with my keys before getting the right one and slicking it in the lock, turning it and pushing at the door. But the door wouldn't open.
I looked down at the key again, realizing it was the wrong one. After about a minute of going through every key on his key chain (Why the fuck did I have so many keys?!), I finally got the right one and stumbled into the apartment.
It smelled like clean in there.
I dropped my briefcase and toed off my incredibly uncomfortable shoes, removed my jacket and scarf. I tripped and stumbled towards my room, falling onto the perfectly made bed, my face in between two pillows.
And then I remembered that my ex-girlfriend had fucked my brother on this bed.
I could not roll off of it fast enough.
They had been together in this room, who knows how many times. Who knows how many orgasms she had had at the hands of another man in this room? Who knows if she had only been cheating on him with Elijah? What if there had been more?
"Fuuuckkkk," I groaned, rubbing my face and running my hands through my hair.
Again, I could not stay here another second.
I got up on my feet, wobbling a little before setting out to find my keys. They were somewhere on the floor. Somewhere in my drunken haze, I was still able to remember that my car was still at work.
Double fuck. How am I going to get out of here?
I pulled my phone out of my pants pocket and fumbled with it for a few seconds before I was able to get my pass code correct.
What was the number to the car agency again?
I had it saved somewhere on this phone, I just couldn't remember under what name.
Instead I scrolled through in search of it, one name popping out at me once I passed over it. How did I have Caroline's phone number?
I pressed her name and initiated the call, putting my phone up to my ear. After four rings, she picked up.
"Hello?" She said, sounding like she had just woken up.
"Caroline?"
"Mr. Mikaelson? Why are you calling me at two in the morning?"
"How do I have your number?" I slurred.
"You have the agency directory programmed into your phone," she answered.
"Oh," I said lamely, not having anything else to say. Of course I had the agency directory on my phone.
"Did you need something, Mr. Mikaelson?" She didn't snap, it was just a question.
"I, uh, need a car to pick me up," I answered, running a hand down my face.
"Wasn't there a car waiting for you outside the restaurant? I gave them specific directions to do so, I apologize for any inconveniences – I'll get on it right now."
"No, no," I stopped her quickly. "I'm at home already."
"Oh," she said. "Alright, I'll call a car for you. What's your destination?"
I rattled off the address to her without a second thought. I couldn't remember a number on my own phone but I could remember an address? How funny.
"That's the address to the agency building, Mr. Mikaelson."
"I'm aware of that, Miss Forbes," he snapped. My patience was running thin these days.
"Just making sure. I'll call you back when I've called the car agency." And then she hung up. She fucking hung up.
I stared at the phone. The screen went black.
Two minutes later, it started to ring, the screen lighting back up.
"What?" I said, not even bothering to look at the caller ID. Whoever was calling me at this hour was insane.
"There will be a car waiting for you at the front of your building in five minutes." That's right. Caroline.
"Okay."
"Will that be all?"
"Yes," I said. "Goodnight, Caroline," I added as an afterthought.
There was a pause on the other end. "Goodnight, Mr. Mikaelson." And she hung up again.
I groaned as I stood, grabbing my jacket and shoes and heading out the door.
Let me know what y'all think :)
