I hope you enjoy it! (No copyright intended, all characters belong to Cassandra Clare)
PILLARS OF SAND, CHAPTER TWO
'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going
direct the other way' -A Tale of Two Cities
Clary sat there feebly staring at Jace from a little ways away. She was stationed behind her new crisp white desk, which was now perfectly personalized after the countless minutes she had sat in utter silence. She had placed a picture frame embroidered in gold on her desk, containing an image of her mother, Jocelyn, and herself; as well she set aside a small Star Wars action figure that Simon gave her for her fifteenth birthday. Jace was persistently avoiding her gaze—busying himself with the stacks of paper lined up in random disorderly places along his desk. Looking around, Clary didn't understand how Jace could stand the top of his desk at the moment; seeing as everything else in his office was immaculately positioned to perfection—clean, not a speck of dirt in sight. He must have some type of over compulsive disorder because not even a wayward girl would have her space this perfect.
She began to drum her fingers on the top of her desk creating the only sound in the room, besides the constant ticking of an old fashioned clock positioned just above the elevator doors. Clary scrunched up her features in annoyance for she had nothing to do and that was surely to get her nowhere, in respect to the fact that she wanted to work her way up in this company. "Mr. Herondale?" Her voice sounded much more sheepish than she deemed it to be; she couldn't exactly place why she felt so nervous around him. He tilted his head to regard her; short golden blonde curls swept across his forehead as he did so.
"Jace," he said and it took Clary a brief moment to understand that, that was a request on his behalf.
"Jace," Clary drawled out, fighting back the nag to roll her emerald eyes. "I've sat here for more than half an hour without anything to do. Surely you could give me something,"
"You're an impatient little thing, aren't you?" Jace cocked his left eyebrow high as a sly smirk crept its way across his lips. He sat back in his large black chair and folded his hands just below his ribcage.
"Well I am your assistant. Don't you want me to go get you lunch or something? Fax some reports? Run to the printer to pick up some copies? Call the wife and say you'll be home late?" Clary threw out suggestions in a rush.
"As a matter of fact, yes. I would love that." He nodded his head, and then swung back around in his seat to face the stacks of paperwork on his desk once again—slowly riffling through them. He was sorting certain papers into different piles on top of his desk; what those piles meant, Clary had no idea. But she really wish she did. She came here to do a job and she wanted to do it well—but unfortunately Jace wasn't giving her the chance.
"Uhm, well, which one?" She asked hesitantly, but he gave no heady reply; causing Clary to finally roll her eyes. "All of those? You want me to do all?" She asked, rather incredulously. In response Jace just shook his head, smiled brightly and laughed.
"First things first." Jace once again stopped what he was doing, having felt accomplished with what he had done thus far. He turned in his chair to face Clary, and then in a rush of movements slid his chair against the lacquer flooring, coming to a stop right in front of her desk. Up close Clary could strangely define every dark curl of his eyelashes that framed his bright golden irises; she could also map out the scattered trail of light brown beauty marks which crossed vertically up his neck to the top of his left eyebrow. Clary found this strange, because she really never paid much heed to mapping out the planes of another mans face so readily. She was one to pay great attention to detail, but that never entailed men who she wasn't interested in at all. "Let me get to know who you are, more." He leaned forward onto his elbows.
"Is that entirely necessary Mr. Herondale?" Clary asked, and when she saw that he made to correct her once again, she instantly interjected, "Jace," instead. His lips twitched up into a ghost of a smile for a brief fleeting second.
"It is completely a necessity to know who will be waiting on me, hand and foot."
"Can't you just look at my file?"
"Yes, but that is very impersonal. Tell me what you like to do." Jace placed his sculpted chin within his hands—which were clasped together in front of him.
"I like to do my job,"
"There's no getting through that thick head of curls, is there Copper?" Jace leaned back in his chair, making it squeak on its wheels slightly. "Just tell me. Do you have an affinity for... Surfing? Singing? Dancing?—"
"Drawing. I guess you could consider me an artist. It's in my blood at least." Clary shrugged her shoulders up.
"Yes, the daughter of Jocelyn Fairchild. I suppose I could have guessed that one on my own," he smirked. That disastrous smirk did wonders on Clary's nerves; and she hadn't quite decided yet if she liked it or not. "How is Johnathan?"
"My brother?" Clary quirked her head to the side and stared into his eyes—emerald meeting gold—in questioning.
"That is his name isn't it?" Jace chuckled and ran his long fingers through his curly blonde hair. "I went to school with him,"
"That would make you twenty-five?" Clary sat back in her white desk chair and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "And married?" Jace laughed again a bit longer this time. His laugh was perfectly infectuous—loud, animated, and significant in the fact that it just fit him. Even if she didn't really know him at all...
"I'm not married—" Jace stated with a minor amount of conviction.
"But it's in the cards?" Clary's voice dropped against her own accord; as her mood became quite disheartened. But really it didn't matter whether or not her boss was in a relationship, at all. It shouldn't matter to her, whatsoever.
"As a matter of fact it is. I should introduce her to you sometime soon. Remind me one of these days." He nodded, and then wheeled himself back over to his large desk. "But anyways, how is Johnathan?"
"He's fine. Still an absolute asshole, but otherwise fine." Clary smiled when she saw Jace attempting to feign the smirk on his face. Her brother Johnathan lived upstate, at least an hour out of the city, in which Clary saw this as a blessing. Growing up with Johnathan had never been a luxury for Clary; he was the star child in their father Valentine's eyes—the one he was most proud of. Not that Clary was someone who liked to gain the attention of others, but she always felt some type of remorse for the years lost between her and Valentine; especially the years where she could have been the best for him, when she felt as if she wasn't even half of the daughter he wanted.
She made her mother proud, that was for sure. But then again, Clary was a spitting image of her mother in almost every aspect and that was something that didn't go unnoticed. "Do you think you're up for a coffee run?" Jace asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"I was waiting for that," Clary stated before she began to pack up her sea foam green tote bag. She straightened out her shirt, brushing her slightly sweaty palms down the front of the vibrant green material, before she rose out of her seat.
"What do you mean?" Jace quirked his eyebrow and raised his hand to the tie around his neck. His nimble long fingers started to undo the tie, revealing the thick muscle point to his golden neck. Clary darted her eyes downwards; shifting her high heeled feet back and forth. She needed to get a hold of herself; the image of her boss was not something she needed to get lost in thought with.
"In movies you see the new assistants going out to get coffee for their bosses all the time," she offered with a sheepish grin; still maintaining to divert her gaze anywhere else but his face.
"Ah, I see. Well, I guess I'm no different than everyone else." He replied with a steady tone of voice; a deep—slightly sexual—tenor tone of voice, that is. "We'll have to go around to some of the different floors, my brother and sister will definitely want coffee as well. Then, when we come back, I'll have you check over some male model applications for next months spread." Jace laughed to himself, obviously cluing into a joke Clary had no idea about. She liked his laugh—it was throaty and loud, confident if you may. "I would hand in my own application, but I don't quite fit up to the esteem of those models—"
"Why? You're hot," Clary blurted out, matter-of-factly. A second after the words had slipped from her lips, her emerald eyes grew wide and she felt all the resistance within her fade away, so much so that a mere moment later she was staring at the impassively cheeky gaze of her boss.
"I was kidding Copper. I do know I'm hot. Stunning even,"
"I was just kidding," she tried to brush it off. Her face was becoming strangely heated; the fair skin on her cheeks was blossoming with a bright red hue.
"Oh were you now?" Jace teased, with that—now sort of familiar—smirk twisting the left side of his mouth up impishly. He tugged even more on his tie, and loosened it from it's knot, then unwrapped it from his neck and pulled one of his desk drawers open to place it inside.
"Is honesty key here?" Clary asked.
"Of course it is,"
"Well then, yes I was absolutely kidding." She smiled brightly and crossed her thin arms over her chest. "And way to feign indifference. I pegged you to be at least a little bit modest."
"I don't have a modest bone in my body Ms. Fairchild. Now come on, I'll introduce you to a couple of people you'll be in contact with fairly often." He held his hand out to the side, gesturing towards the elevator doors at the front of his office. Clary made her way over to the doors, as Jace followed her; grabbing his phone and another electrical device from a separate drawer in his desk. He came up behind her; she could feel the heat of his body washing over her, and if she stepped back a bit she might be able to feel the outline of his tall muscular body. Get a grip Fairchild, she told herself silently.
Jace raised his arm past her shoulder and pressed the down button on the light grey pad next to the elevator doors. For a fleeting moment she felt the inside of his left shoulder brush against her back and it was as if all her nerve endings were set on wildfire and her spine tingled involuntarily. The doors opened a moment later and they both stepped inside. He reached his long slender fingers out to press the floor number sixty-three and with a ding, they were off to their destination.
"Here, I forgot to give this to you earlier," Jace held out his hand and in his palm was the other electrical device that he had taken out of his desk. It was a pager, Clary could see now, and she internally sighed at the implication that it brought with it. "You'll need to keep this on you at all times."
"You won't be paging me at all hours of the night, right?" She chuckled and gazed up into his bemused liquid gold eyes. The slight smile on her face dropped and she pursed her lips tightly together.
"Look, this job does come with a lot of... Baggage would you say? Not that I'm that difficult to handle. I'll just need you sometimes to run over to the office and pick up some things for me. Simple things like that. But then there are other circumstances which we will get into a little bit later on..." He trailed off as the elevator came to a stop. He placed the palm of his hand on the small of Clary's back and ushered her out into another wide set all white room. There were doors and hallways leading off into different directions on all three walls; in the middle of the space was a large rounded desk with a woman sitting behind it.
She was gorgeous, with long straight black hair that fell across her breasts and down her torso. Her lips were obscenely red and her eyes were lined with thick black swatches of eyeliner. It took a moment for Clary to realize that this was Isabelle Lightwood, one of the most sought after models in the business.
"Izzy, where's Magnus? And why are you behind that desk?" Jace let his hand drop from Clary's back and walked towards Isabelle with long strides.
"Where do you think he is?" She asked, flicking her hair back over her shoulder to lean on the top of the desk. Her dark eyes had a devious gleam to them and her lush lips turned up into a sly smile. "I'll answer that for you. He's probably—no definitely—off with Alec. You know how those two are."
"Yes I do know. But I do expect more from them when they are at work." Jace sighed and shook his head; letting a few blonde curls sweep across his forehead. Clary stepped forward a little, her nude high heeled pumps scuffed on the flooring. "Oh, Izzy, this is Clarissa, my new assistant. Clarissa, this is, well, Isabelle Lightwood—"
"His sister for all intents and purposes." She smiled and weaved her way around the desk to stand in front of Clary. She was much taller than Clary was—even though Clary was wearing high heels and Isabelle was wearing flats—making her feel as if possibly everyone in the building would consider her the dwarf. Isabelle held out her polished hand to Clary, and they greeted each other lightly. "I hope my brother isn't being too much of a dick to you on your first day."
Jace faked indifference and raised his hand over his chest, as if she sent him a strong blow. "I've been good to you so far, haven't I?" He glanced down at Clary with questioning eyes.
"Of course, Jace." She rolled her eyes and tucked a loose curl behind her left ear.
"You guys are already passed formalities? Wow, this little one is working you over quite quickly Jace." Isabelle nudged him in his side and Jace shot her a brief strained glare. Clary could feel heat rise up her cheeks and engulf her face feverishly; her pale skin gave away quite possibly every emotion that she had. And right now she was completely and utterly flustered by what Isabelle had said. If Isabelle was his sister—in which Clary was still wondering how that worked—didn't she know about Jace's relationship that he was supposedly entirely invested in?
"Hey Jace," Clary heard a familiar voice call from the right side of the wide open space and Alec—the guy she had met before that was Magnus' fiance—appeared around the corner. His cheeks looked flustered and his hair was absolutely discheveled beyond belief. What Isabelle had hinted to before, as to where Magnus and likewise Alec was off to, was definitely confirmed to all of them and otherwise blatantly obvious.
"You're lucky you're my brother, or else I'd fire you so fast for having sex when you're supposed to be working." Jace said sternly, but his voice wasn't filled with opium. Alec paled, if that was even possible given the already pale complexion of his skin, and he gulped loudly.
"Jace we were—"
"No, no. I don't want to hear about your sexcapades right now. Or ever." Jace shook his head in mock horror. Isabelle let out a loud high laugh, which was wonderful. "Alec, this is Clarissa by the way,"
"We've already met. I didn't know you were working for my brother." Alec leaned against the wall closest to the entrance hallway he had just emerged from. "If you would have mentioned that, I would have told you to leave this building and never come back."
"Oh, ouch. Why does everyone doubt the fact that I am a nice boss?"
"It's not that you're a horrible boss Jace," Isabelle sighed and picked at her manicured nails. "It's that you've went through so many assistants over the past years and most, if not all, of them fell for you, and you found it uncomfortable to continue working with them."
"Yes, but she's not like that," Jace turned his head to regard Clary, giving her a sweeping glance from head to toe—making her feel as if she were being placed underneath a microscope. "Right Copp—Clarissa?" He caught himself on his nickname for her. For a second Clary froze, not entirely sure if that was true or not. She hoped that it was true, but she couldn't be sure about what the future may hold.
She cleared her throat, rather loudly, and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm not one to fall for guys who think they're just so pretty." She specified and delighted in the fact that it earned her a loud laugh from Isabelle and Alec.
"I like this one," Isabelle tilted her head to the side, letting most of her hair fall across her left shoulder. "Don't screw it up Jace."
"Why are you here anyways?" Alec asked, easing himself away from the wall.
"We came down for a coffee run. I take it you'll want your coffee just black?" Alec nodded his head in compliance. "What about Magnus?"
"Chocolate Mocha latte,"
"I'll just have a soy bean latte," Isabelle interjected. "I have a photo shoot to do in about an hour, so make it quick please?" Jace rolled his eyes. "Hey, don't you roll your eyes at me. It is your magazine that I am working for this week,"
"Whatever Izzy," he took a short step towards her and clasped his hand behind her neck; then proceeded to bend his head down and kiss her on the top of her head. "And you," he turned and pointed to Alec. "No more having sex in my work building. Leave that for home." He sighed and walked over to Clary, placing his hand once again on the small of her back. Clary watched as Isabelle shot Alec a quick questioning look, with her eyebrow raised high. But Jace didn't seem to catch the glance between his two siblings. "Now we can go get that coffee. And then once we're back you can start your real job."
A/N: I am so awful to you guys for making you wait so long. I've just been so caught up with different writing projects, that this one got put on the back burner for awhile. I promise that I will put more effort into updating this on a proper schedule—once every two weeks at the most? I hope you liked this chapter! The first few chapters are really about introductions for me, before I get into the drama and revelations and things like that. So yeah, drop me a comment and tell me what you thought about it!
Review pretty please?
Amber,
