SCARLETT'S POV
I woke up strangely in my room again. I felt really groggy. I checked the time. 11:42! I never sleep that late!
So I got out of bed and got myself ready. When I opened the door, a little gift bag was sitting in front of me. I bent down and picked it up. On the front was a little post-it note. It read: From Tony and Pepper. Thought you could use this.
Confused, I went back into my room and sat down on my bed. I opened the bag. Inside was a phone. No, it wasn't just a phone. It was an iPhone! An iPhone 5? Those hadn't even been released yet! It wasn't in a case or anything. I turned it on and it was already activated. Sweet.
The wallpaper had been set to a close-up of Tony's face. Ha-ha Tony.
I had 2 unread text messages.
One was from Pepper.
It said: Hi, Scarlett. Tony and I are at a press conference, just about an hour away from the house. We, well...I didn't want to wake you up. If you're hungry, ask JARVIS to make you something. If you have any other problems call me. We'll be back at around 2:00.
So, I'm here alone. Not sure how I felt about that.
I read the other message.
It was from Tony: God, u r such a sleepyhead. ;) Like the phone, don't you. Knew ya would. Um, so yea feel free to mess around in the lab. Just don't break anything. Text me back this place is boring as hell.
So I responded with a: Hey Tony thanks for the phone. And no promises about your lab. :D
iPhone in hand, I walked down the stairs to the kitchen. I was hungry.
"Uh, JARVIS? Can I have a...pancake? Is that too much? Cause I can just eat some cereal-"
"No problem, miss. One pancake coming right up."
I must admit it was a little weird talking to JARVIS. No, it was really weird. The most technology I'd ever experienced before living here was a DVD player.
"Enjoying your stay, Miss Mays?"
"Um, yes, I am. Thanks."
"I believe Mr. Stark would like for you to go down to the lab, correct?"
"Yeah I think so." Just then his robotic arm placed a hot, sizzling pancake in front of me. "Thanks JARVIS. I'll go down there now."
So I carried my plate down to Tony's lab. It was a mess. Papers, pencils, screws, you name it; sprawled anywhere the eye could see. I sat down. Just then my phone vibrated.
Tony said: Hey. Watch it missy. I can take this away ya know.
Me: you're not my dad, Tony. -_-
After that I turned on the music again and got to work. I could see that Tony had been struggling with yet anger piece that wouldn't fit, so I did some calculations. After about an hour or so, I got the piece to fit. Tony hadn't texted me back yet.
"Miss Mays," JARVIS suddenly said. "It appears someone is at the front door."
"What? Should I answer it?"
"I would advise you to, Miss."
"Um, okay..."
I began to make my way to the door.
"Do not worry, Miss Mays, if anything goes wrong I will be here."
I nodded.
I finally came face to face with the huge, marble door. The peephole was too high up for me to see through.
So, I opened the door.
In front of me was a young woman with auburn hair, who looked like she could be a freaking supermodel.
"Who are you?" I said.
"Natalie Rushman. The new notary."
I had no idea what she as talking about. I looked her up and down.
"Tony's not here right now."
"Well, he said to be here at 1:30." She looked at her watch. "It's 1:30." She gave me a hard look.
"Yeah, well, you'll have to come back later." I began to shut the door but her hand caught it.
"Oh I'm not going anywhere, little girl."
"Excuse me?"
"Yeah," she said. "You heard me."
"Listen, fox face. Tony isn't here right now. I can't do anything about it. Now either leave and come back later, or I'm calling someone."
Her hands balled into fists and she slammed me into the outside wall. "You don't talk to me like that. I flew here from halfway across the world. You have no right to-"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Tony exclaimed from his car. He and Pepper had just pulled up.
"Oh my god!" Pepper shouted. She ran up to me ripped Natalie off of me. "Who the hell do you think you are? Why are you-"
"Pep, calm down. She's the notary."
I brushed myself off and went over to Pepper.
She grabbed my face and looked me over. "Are you ok? Did she hurt you? Oh, I'm gonna-"
I grabbed her wrists. "Pepper, I'm fine. I wasn't gonna let that whore touch me."
She rolled her eyes and laughed. "Good." She looked at Natalie and Tony in conversation, then back at me. "So she's gonna be the one to take my place, huh."
"But she's just trying out, you don't know Tony will pick her."
"Have you seen the chick? Look at her!"
I sighed. "You've got a point."
TONY'S POV
"I'm, so, terribly sorry, Mr. Stark...I just really wanted the job, and you said to be here at..."
I waved my hands for her to shut up. "It's really no problem, Miss...what did you say your name was?"
"Rushman. But-"
"Miss Rushman. It's no biggie. Just come inside and we'll talk, okay?"
She nodded. Wow, she was pretty. Like, really pretty.
We passed Pepper and Scarlett.
"Oh, and Natalie? For future reference, I do not give permission for my assistants to beat down on my friends."
Natalie shot Scarlett a look. If she wasn't this stunning, I would've already sent her out. We emerged into the kitchen, Pepper and Scarlett following.
"Just have a seat there, Natalie," I said.
I then felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around.
"Tony," Pepper whispered. "May I have a word?" She looked at Natalie. "We'll just be a minute," she said nicely, with a plastic smile.
"Talk to me." I said as soon as we were in the corner of the room. Scarlett stood at the counter fiddling with her phone. I kept a close eye on Natalie, and not just because of what you probably think. I didn't want her to, you know, almost kill Scarlett. Again.
"Tony, you can't possibly be thinking of even considering her as your assistant."
"Pepper I-"
"If you have any heart and or soul, which I believe you may, you will send her out right now."
"Listen, why don't you just give her a chance? You don't even know her yet."
"Oh, I know her. I know that she's a slut and that she almost hurt Scarlett. She was this close, Tony!"
"Okay, okay, I know. But-"
"Mr. Stark." I turned around to see Natalie's head popped out of the corner. Eyeing Pepper, she said, "I'm...kind of on a tight schedule here. Can we...get on with it?"
I looked back at Pepper to see that she was rolling her eyes.
"Of course," I said.
I heard Pepper mumbling to herself as I walked away with Natalie, something about, the nerve of that little...and that's all I heard.
SCARLETT'S POV
Just as I was emerging myself into the world of Minecraft, the sound of Pepper's clicking heels filled my eardrums. I looked up.
"What's up? You look...stressed."
"Stressed? Me? No. Just, I'm gonna have some little female stripper working for me. In this house. With Tony's eyes all over her 24/7." She put her head in her hands as she leaned against the counter.
I locked my phone and put a hand on her shoulder. "Okay, for one thing. You're her boss. She can't make you do anything. You have complete power over all of us. You're CEO, remember?" She looked up and half smiled. "And also, I don't think you have to worry about her and Tony. You're beautiful, Pepper. Inside and out. She's just got a pretty face. And, this may be hard to believe, but, I think Tony is over posers like her. He's not completely heartless, ya know." She laughed at my quoting of her previous statement.
"I don't know how you do it, Scarlett." Then she blushed. "And, um, you really mean what you say? About Tony?"
"Of course. Oh my god, you're blushing! You like him!"
"Shhh!" she said in a panic. "You're not supposed to know."
"This is great. This is just great. Come on," I said while grabbing her hand and leading her out the door.
"Where are we going?"
"To find you a dress," I said. "You're going on a date."
TONY'S POV
So, after talking with Natalie for some time, I decided to let her be my assistant. I knew Pepper would be pissed at me though. Hopefully I'd make it up to her by taking her out tonight.
Just as I was leading Natalie out, I got an incoming text from Scarlett: Excited for tonight? You better not screw it up.
I responded with: yes, I am excited. And it's not a rooftop party, it's a charity event, fyi.
I really was excited. My feelings for Pepper were getting stronger by the minute, no matter how much I denied it.
But what if I did screw it up? What if made things awkward? I'm freaking Iron Man, for crying out loud. I could save the world and crap, but now I was about to pee myself.
I needed a drink.
"JARVIS. Martini."
"Right away, sir."
I sat there for about half an hour by myself, worrying my ass off. Then the front door lock jiggled. I straightened up and fixed my hair, just in case it was Pepper. She came in with Scarlett, both smiling and carrying various shopping bags.
"Tony!" Scarlett said, coming up next to me and setting the bags down. Pepper trailed behind her.
I looked at the bags.
"What, you guys didn't get anything for me?" I said.
"Actually," Pepper intervened, "we did."
She pulled out a very expensive looking suit.
"For tonight!" Scarlett said excitedly.
"You don't expect me to wear this do you."
"Tony!" Scarlett shoved me. She gave me the look.
"Kidding. Geez."
"Well," she said. "I'm going to go help Pepper get ready. You go clean up. Can you handle that, Anthony?"
"Whatever you say, Scarface."
SCARLETT'S POV
"Ow!" I gripped my hand.
"Burn yourself again?" Pepper asked from the chair in front of me.
"Hey."
"Sorry, sorry. God, I'm just so nervous, Scarlett! I'm his CEO! I shouldn't even be-"
"Snap out of it, Pepper!" I picked up the curling iron again. "Stop moving so much."
After I had finished her hair, she left to go change.
A few minutes later she came out wearing the dress we had gotten for her today.
It was navy blue, satin, and backless.
She looked stunning.
"How do I look?" she asked shyly.
"Um, do I know you?!"
I guided her to a mirror. "Look at you! You're...you're...beautiful!
She fixed her hair a bit. "This is all because of you, you know."
"I did a pretty good job, didn't I?"
Just then JARVIS said, "Miss Potts, Mr. Stark is waiting for you outside."
"I guess that's my cue."
I looked at her, then leaned in for a hug.
"Thank you," she said into my ear.
"Go get em, tiger."