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Of Corporate Scandals

Chapter 13. Celebrity Look Out

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Annabeth sighed as she rode up the elevator to the twelfth floor. It wasn't even nine yet, but her day already sucked. She had woken up to Thalia blasting her heavy-metal-screamo at the crack of dawn on max volume, causing Annabeth to fall on her face while doing morning yoga. Next, Luke had eaten her last protein bar. ("Luke! For the fucking billionth time—") Then she realized she had forgotten to pick up her work clothes from the drycleaners.

Bottom line, the morning sucked.

The elevator dinged as it stopped on the tenth floor and Silena walked in, "Good morning, Annabeth!"

Annabeth sighed, balancing the tray of coffee cups and bag in her arms, "Silena, I'm not really in the mood right now." She said dryly.

Silena laughed, flipping her hair as though she was kidding, "Oh, you're so funny!" She strutted out of the elevator as they arrived on the eleventh, "I'll see you later at lunch?"

Annabeth forced a strained smile onto her face, "Ah, sure."

Silena grinned and waved goodbye as the elevator doors closed.

"Not," Annabeth muttered as she exited the contraption on her floor.

Mary-Sue, bustling about the office as usual, stopped when she saw Annabeth, "Oh, good mornin' dear. You're finally here. Did the traffic get to you this mornin'?"

Annabeth nodded, sighing as she set her coffee cups on her desk with her bags and and slipped off her coat, "Is Mr. Jackson in yet?"

Mary-Sue pursed her lips and nodded, "Mhm." She shuffled the stack of papers in her hands on Annabeth's desk.

Annabeth sighed as she picked at her cuticles, "And his, uh, guest?"

From the day after Annabeth's little talk with Silena to this day a whole week later, Percy had been going out to clubs and bars, hooking up with a different girl every single night, and then bringing them to the office the next day. It was always past Annabeth's desire to know what happened between them once the doors to Percy's office closed and giggling and grunts emitted from them.

Annabeth had managed to convince all of her colleagues that she didn't really care. (It was Mr. Jackson's business after all.) But once the lady of Percy's affection affected her work - that was unacceptable.

Mary-Sue said, still with her pursed lips and pinched expression that conveyed that she felt the same way as Annabeth about Mr. Jackson's dates, "Mr. Jackson's, ah, acquaintance from last night left in a cab about an hour ago, but he has another lady-friend in his office now. She just arrived before you did."

Annabeth grimaced. "Great," She muttered, sarcastically, "Too bad because I need him to sign these, and I'm not going to wait around all morning."

She didn't bother to knock as she jerked the handle and barged rudely into her boss's poshly decorated office, "Excuse me, Mr. Ja-" The sight in front of her was enough to make her blood run cold. She had already had her fair share of run-ins with Percy's mistresses over the last few days, but this was just plain irony.

Annabeth blinked as her hand limply slid off the door hand, "Oh gods, sorry…"

Calypso had her ridiculously long, model legs draped over Percy's lap in a straddle with her lips latched on his neck which gave the appearance of her sucking his face off. Percy's face and neck were smeared with crimson lipstick and his polo was bedraggled and unbuttoned.

Percy's eyes widened as he witnessed his secretary barging into the. He shoved Calypso's thighs off his hips and attempted to straighten out his attire, "Annabeth!"

Calypso, landing her bum on the edge of his messy desk, huffed as she straightened out her dress. (The skirt had – surprise, surprise – been hiked up her thighs in the previous activity.) She glared at the intrusion, "Don't you ever knock? You can't just go barging in"

Percy's face was colored red, but not as deep as Annabeth's, as he glanced at his colleague, "Did you need something, Miss Chase?"

Annabeth had recovered surprisingly fast from the awful sight. She cleared her throat, refusing to even look at or even acknowledge Calypso, "Um, yes, I have some proofs for you to review and sign."

Percy cleared his throat as he adjusted his loosened tie and buttoned his shirt, "Ah yes, I'll take those."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and rather briskly placed the folder in his outstretched hands. Without another word, she turned on her heeled stilettos and exited the office.

The rest of the day as she sat at her desk, Annabeth tried to drown on the sounds of their giggles and sloppy kisses.

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"I mean can you believe the complete lack of work ethics in a man of that high of a position in a multi-billion dollar company? It's absolutely absurd!" Annabeth ranted to her roommate as they lounged on the coach.

Thalia was flipped through the channels, "Annabeth, I don't see what the big deal is. It's his company. He can do what he wants. If he wants to make out with trash he picked up off the streets, then so be it."

Annabeth gave her friend an incredulous look as she shoveled popcorn into her mouth, "It doesn't matter if he can do it or not! The office is a place of business. It just proves how unfit he is to run a company."

Thalia readjusted herself ,yurning to kneel towards Annabeth, "You know, I don't think it's his 'ethics', you're irritated about. You're jealous."

Annabeth groaned, "You're seriously still on about that, Thals? This is the last time I am going to say it. I. Am. Not. In. Love. With. My. Boss!"

Thalia said, "Okay, listen to yourself. You have this really attractive boss. To you, of course. Percy will always be a scrawny wimp in my eyes. There's this girl you hate. You're single. Your boss starts screwing around with this girl you hate and you're still lonely and single. And now you're jealous. It's so obvious."

"Gee, thanks."

Thalia rolled her eyes, "Come on, Annabeth. You know what? I think he likes you too. He's probably just doing all this to make you jealous. Percy is guy, and that's how guys' minds work."

"Me? Trying to make me jealous? He doesn't even like me that way. I'm his assistant."

The next day...

Annabeth shouldered her cell phone as she fed paper into the copier machine, "No, Thals. For the last time! He is not." She groaned as she hung up.

"It's true, you know."

Annabeth jumped, almost tripping in her heels as she spun around, dropping her phone. Silena caught it before it hit the ground and handed it to Annabeth.

Annabeth sighed, leaning against the copier, "Oh my gods, Silena. You scared me."

Silena shrugged as she walked inside the room and helped Annabeth with the papers, "But it's true."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow as she rolled up the sleeves to her charcoal-colored blazer, "What's true?"

"That Mr. Jackson is being intimate with Calypso to make you jealous," Silena stated, nonchalantly as she flipped her raven locks.

Annabeth's eyes narrowed, "H-How do you know about that?"

The other girl shrugged, a mischievous glimmer in her eyes, "You don't exactly talk quietly when you speak with your roommate, Thalia, isn't it? I could hear your conversation all the way down by the break room."

Annabeth's cheeks colored, "That's eavesdropping."

Silena's laugh filled the room like a bell, "Doesn't matter now, does it? But, your friend is right. He is just doing this to make you jealous." With a turn of her sparkly, ballet flats, Silena, and her perfectly pressed dress were gone.

After the initial anger at Silena for eavesdropping came and went, a sense of confusion and slight giddiness came over Annabeth. Percy Jackson was trying to make her jealous! As soon as it came, the giddiness left, soon to be replaced by anger. All of the anger and irritation she felt, (and fine, she'll admit it) jealousy, was for nothing?

Annabeth jammed all the rest of the papers into the machine and stormed out of the room. All the new interns walking about the office, wide eyes and teetering their trays of coffee, moved out of her way as she rampaged down the hall. She stopped at her desk and, still fuming, angrily threw her empty coffee cups into the wastebasket after kicking it for good measure. This whole time, Percy had been playing her for a fool!

"Hey, Annabeth."

Annabeth looked up and suppressed the urge to scream when she saw Percy leaning against the edge of her desk, looking as freaking nonchalant as ever as he daintily sipped his afternoon mug of hot cocoa. She resisted the urge to barf when she saw the stains of magenta lipstick still on his neck.

She muttered, dryly, "Hi."

He sipped his coffee, "Did you copy the fliers Mary-Sue needs to send out?"

Annabeth thrust the stack into his hands, "Here."

Percy, oblivious and obtuse as ever, took them and grinned like a puppy dog, "Wanna help me go through some files later?"

She glared at the clock. 2:59. 3:00. Annabeth stood, pulling on her black pea coat and muttered, coldly, "Actually, I'm going home. I'm off the clock already."

Percy was taken aback by this. Annabeth suppressed a smug taunt. She always stayed after her hours to help Percy or someone else before heading down to her classes at Columbia University, but this time, Percy couldn't take advantage of her generosity.

Percy said, "Oh, okay. Um, well, see you tomorrow."

Annabeth didn't reply as she grabbed her bag and strutted into the elevator and pressed Lobby.

Later that night...

Annabeth sighed as she flipped through the channels and finally settled on a reality show about young adults in Jersey. For some strange reason, that show always made her feel better about herself. It was probably because her skin color wasn't the same as that of an orange, unlike her favorite character on the show..

Classes had been particularly hard that day so Annabeth was happy to come home and change into her baggy sweats and throw her up in a messy bun. Thalia and Luke were out on a date so tonight was to be spent in solitude. After heating up some take-out leftovers, she had settled on the coach to watch some mind-numbing TV.

But, alas, the Shore show had to end and she wouldn't see her beloved Snookie until next week's episode. Annabeth picked up the remote and flipped through channels. One particular show caught Annabeth's eye.

"Hello, everyone and welcome to Celebrity Look Out! I'm your host, Aphrodite Love. Tonight's episode is extra juicy. Our Celebrity Look Out paparazzi took us to the Upper East Side of Manhattan where New York's young, rich, elite, and oh-so-scandalous reside."

Annabeth's eyes were glued to the screen as the young, glamorous hostess pointed to a screen.

"The world knows him as People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. He's TIME's youngest millionaire and Seventeen's #1 Hottie! Meet Percy Jackson, entrepreneur and heir to his dad's multi-billion dollar company, Open Seas Inc. No, he's not an actor, musician, or model, but the world's sexiest and most notorious playboy."

The screen flashed several pictures of her boss posing on the cover of several elite magazines and several paparazzi shots of Percy leaving assorted clubs and bars with different girls.

"Up until now, Percy's player relations have been kept on the down-low, but has he gone too far? Starting a few weeks ago, Percy has been seen leaving clubs with a new girl every night and bringing them to his home on Fifth Street and the Open Seas Inc. Tower."

Numerous shots of Percy and girls leaving the office and his apartment flashed on the screen.

"We have a statement from one of his co-workers who wishes to remain anonymous.' Percy's always been known for his one-night stands, but taking them to the office is so wrong!' "Aphrodite stared at the viewers, "Is the world's Sexiest Man Alive in need of a sex intervention, or is this just a phase this preppy-kid-turned-bad-boy is going through. And now, is it fashionable or Orange Is NOT the New Black?"

Annabeth growled as she switched off the TV, "Now he's using his exploits for publicity? Gods!"

Though, she did have to agree with Aphrodite Love. He was oh so very, very attractive that she didn't even mind it that much anymore...

A/N: Please leave your questions, comments, and constructive criticism in a review below!