BILLIONAIRE SCIENTIST & HIS NEW SECRETARY

CHAPTER TWO

PART 4

Tamora Pierce owns all, naturally. If not I wouldn't be studying so hard. :) Author's note on characters' behaviour can be found below.

Can't believe it has been so long since I last updated! If it's any consolation, this update is longer than usual as I wanted to wrap things up for chapter 2. Yup! Next update is chapter 3, wheee! I'm not completely satisfied with my writing for this part, but will leave it as it is as I can't think of how to improve it at the moment.

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This was one of the very, very rare times, she wished that she was wrong.

Wrong for thinking that her second day was going to turn out worse than the first day after she had to lug up heavy boxes of RA 3498. Plural, not singular. B-o-x-e-s.

Wrong for thinking that Numair was probably going to miss the important meeting. Again.

Wrong for thinking that she was going to get into trouble for that.

Wrong for wishing that she never had a boss like Numair Salmalin.

She laid her throbbing head on her table, everything just ached. After Numair stalked into his room, she went down to grab the boxes from the room. To her surprise, the storage room was quite secured - she had to not only pass the security desk, but a number of secured doors before reaching her destination. Perhaps they had placed the applications with some other secured materials. After lugging the boxes up to the office, her palm top had alerted her that the meeting was about to start. She checked the meeting place and was not too surprised that Numair was not there.

Then, the madness started.

She tried searching for him using the palmtop. Strangely enough, it said he was in his office. She checked every single inch of the office, (even under his table though she doubted he would be hiding there) but he was nowhere to be found. She scoured the whole building for him, to no avail. Even the male toilets. Her hesitant embarrassment was soon overcome by her urgency to find Numair, leading her to develop a mild bellow of "Mr Salmalin? Are you there?" Her stress increased when Gareth, one of the board of directors gave her a harsh scolding and an incredulous "how can you lose a six foot five man?" After three hours of searching, she was finally hauled into the meeting place for a thorough berating. Alanna had intervened and brought her to one side, but it was worse to see a disappointed Onua telling her to be more vigilant in her duties. Anger, Daine could take.

Guilt was another matter altogether.

Apparently, according to Alanna, Onua was already under some pressure for hiring Daine, who was relatively unqualified and inexperienced for such a prestigious company as Tortall Inc. It was worse that Daine could not seemingly do a "simple" task of reminding Numair to come to the meeting. Twice. In just Two days consecutively.

Daine closed her eyes. She wouldn't be too surprised if Gareth insisted that Onua sent her a letter to send her packing. How she needed the money! She started thinking of how she was going to have to start making ends meet. She probably had to take on more jobs to make up for the relatively lower pay…

Her eyes sprung open as she heard a dreaded voice mildly say, "It's bad enough you can't handle calls, but at the very least, you shouldn't be sleeping on the job."

If looks could kill, Numair would be six-feet under. "You arrogant pompous ass!" She slammed her hands on her desk. "How DARE you lecture me about being professional? How DARE you take that self-righteous tone with me. You, you irresponsible jerk! You're what? Thirty? Forty? But you act like a spoilt brat. You blow up at me for no reason whatsoever! Just because you're angry or unhappy doesn't give you the prerogative to take it out on other people. You told me, TOLD me that you were not to be disturbed. No calls. So I do EXACTLY what you say. But NOOO, you throw a tantrum like some spoilt brat and blame me because of YOUR mistake. Because YOU didn't tell me you wanted her call to come through."

With jerky movements, Daine got to her feet. "I don't know what kind of ivory tower you live in. But us ordinary people have to work for a living. Money doesn't fall from the sky. I don't have so much money to fritter away on clothes. I have rent, bills, debts to pay. So what if I don't wear branded clothes? They are all just pieces of cloth to cover your body! You think I don't know I'm poor? I do, every time I have to count the coins to pay for my lunch. You don't have to rub it in my face. Heck, I think your suit probably can pay a whole year's rent for me."

She rubbed at her face that had became dampened with tears, not realizing that she was crying tears of frustration, "I may not be some big shot but I'm a PERSON. Just because you're paying me to work for you doesn't give all of you the right to treat me like dirt! I reminded you to go for the important meeting today. You, the head of the team didn't even bother to remember to go. I looked for you, I looked for THREE hours. I am utterly humiliated because not only do your bosses scold me publicly, but also because I had to go through all the male toilets in the building looking for you. I was scolded for being incompetent, useless and getting the job through favours… Heck, I don't even know why I'm even bothering to talk to you. It's not like you give a damn anyway." With that, Daine stormed out of the room, leaving a very shocked Numair.

Her fury brought her stalking out of the building before she realized she had left her purse behind. She furiously rubbed the tears of frustration from her face and muttered, "Great, just great." Her pride would not let her go back into the building looking like such a mess and after such a dramatic exit. She sighed, 'I could use the exercise and time to think… After all, before I had the fortune to meet Miri, I had to walk half an hour to work everyday at the diner… What a humour fate has… To think a mere year ago, the furthest walk I took was from the laboratories to the carpark,' Daine shook her head, pausing at the road junction that separated the office buildings from the high-end shopping street. Suddenly, she heard a car horn at her and turned to see Numair in a black Jaguar. "Jump in," Numair said. "We have to talk."

"Go away," Daine retorted, limping rather badly because of her blisters.

"Daine, please," Numair said.

"I'm not about to get fired in the car, get your new secretary to send me a letter in black and white, IF you can remember to do it by yourself," Daine responded, and walked faster. Cars started horning behind Numair and he growled in frustration as he drove off.

'That's the end of that,' Daine thought. 'I better start looking for another job.' She groaned, now that the adrenaline had worn off, the pain of the friction between her raw skin and shoes was screaming in her brain. She paused before a display case and took off her shoes, grumpily thinking, 'to hell with image, I would like to kick the person who invented hells down the stairs!' She straightened and a glistening light from the display case caught her eye. Turning to scrutinize its source, she caught her breath. It was a beautiful intricate necklace, made of white gold, sapphires and diamonds. She could imagine that it would look gorgeous on a lady in a flowing bustier ball gown. Hmm… with hair pinning back to show the jewelry to its best effect… Daine shook her head, "Whoever wears it, probably lives in a very different world from me…" After glancing at the price, she blanched, "make that a couple of universes away."

She turned and took a couple steps before being suddenly swept off her feet by strong arms. Daine briefly struggled before a stern "Hold still or I will drop you" interrupted her efforts. She stared in shock at Numair.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded. "Put me down."

"Where do you think you are going, all bare-footed?" Numair asked mildly.

"If you haven't realized, all this is thanks to you. Human beings are never meant to walk in covered heels," Daine growled. "Damn company policy."

Numair frowned. "Speaking of company policy, isn't there one against leaving the office before six?"

"That doesn't apply to me anymore," Daine said primly, trying to ignore the curious gazes of passer-bys. "I am going to get fired anyway. So you can just put me down, and go back to the little world of your own." She started to struggle again.

"Daine," Numair said warningly as her struggles intensified. He sighed and from carrying her bridal style, he flipped her over his shoulder.

She briefly lost her breath. "Numair, put me down! This is so embarrassing!"

"Watch your head," Numair said, as he walked into the cool air of a store. Daine gaped to realize that he had just walked into one of the posh stores that lined the street near Tortall Inc. She turned a deep red. The store was simplistic. It was big, with a very artsy like décor. Unlike a normal clothing store, there were far lesser clothing displayed. There were completely no price tags. Apparently it was a "if you have to ask for the price, you can't afford it" type of store.

"Mr Salmalin, welcome to our humble store," came an enthusiastic male voice.

"Ah, Juan, just the person I was hoping to see," Numair said, speaking as if it was normal that he came in with a woman thrown over his shoulder. He leaned forward to whisper to Juan something inaudible to Daine's straining ears. Suddenly, Daine was put down on her feet.

"Finally!" she scowled before firm hands twisted her to face a stylishly dressed man.

"My name is Juan, my lady. You are most lucky that I, the head designer happened to be in the neighbourhood-" he said.

"Yes, that's good for you, but I have to go," Daine interrupted.

"Not so fast. I won't have you bleeding on my Persian carpets!" he ordered.

Daine looked down guiltily at the plush carpet. She didn't think blood stains would be easy to come off. "I-" she said.

"Shush!" Juan admonished, and clapped his hands as store assistants sprung forward. He took out a measuring tape and started barking orders in French. He measured her briskly and an assistant took photographs of her using a digital camera.

"I am not trying on clothing!" she said, looking around for Numair who seemed to have disappeared.

"We're not asking you in the first place," Juan responded, making Daine go red. "Here, sit down, we want to get a shoe size."

"But -" Daine protested.

"Shush! Shush! Shush!" Juan interrupted and gave her a push into a chair that was suddenly placed behind her by his assistants. While a store assistant took measurements of her feet, Juan held swathes of cloth against her face, muttering to himself, occasionally shaking or nodding. Daine sighed, she was going to strangle Numair if she ever saw him again.

A gentle hand grasped Daine's foot and she winced when something damp gently dabbed against it. She looked down to see Numair kneeling in front of her, with her foot on his lap. A new first aid kit was next to him. With one hand, he held her foot firmly, and with the other, he had a cotton pad with what appeared as antiseptic. She growled at him, "Let go of me."

He didn't even look at her as he said, "Just be a good girl and behave, I will give you a sweet if you stay still and let me tend to your foot."

She scowled at him, "I'm not a child."

"Then don't act like one," he responded mildly and she suffered his administrations with ill-concealed impatience.

After Numair tended her wounds, he placed her feet in a pair of sandals. "What is this?" Daine snorted. "Cinderella? Oh ooohhhh…." She gasped in pleasure as her foot slid into one of the sandals. It was so soft!

Numair shook his head, "Cinderella came with her shoes, remember? Besides, I doubt glass slippers would be adequate for your feet at the moment." He grinned at her, and Daine felt this kick to the heart. 'No wonder he's such a ladies' man,' Daine thought and fought to stop blushing.

"Mr Salmalin," Juan called and Numair unfolded his lanky body to talk to Juan.

Daine mentally slapped herself, 'What are you thinking Daine? He's just appeasing his guilt! Not like he would be interested in someone like you… He just cooked up the sham engagement lie to ward off his mother, who is rather scary and tenacious…' She started making her way out of the shop when someone suddenly scooped her up. She sighed and folded her arms, "I can walk you know, so you can put me down. In many parts of the world, this is called kidnapping."

"And in other parts of the world, this is called a sweet gesture," Numair grinned. "Besides, we need to talk."

"Look, Mr Salmalin? There's nothing to talk about. Your superiors are going to dismiss me from my post, so as your ex-employee, I don't have any obligation whatsoever to listen to you." Daine said with exaggerated patience. "Besides, the solution to the problem lies with a change in your attitude and not in talking. I have no idea how many times you must have succeeded in explaining yourself out of things, but for your own good -" she patted his cheek at this point. "-you should re-examine and evaluate your conduct. It's clear amazing how you managed to be a top notch inventor without forgetting to turn up at meetings to sell your inventions."

"Harumph," Numair replied, "Watch your head." Daine's breath was knocked out of her when he gently tossed her into his black jaguar.

When he settled himself into the driver's seat, he interrupted her before she could speak, "I'm twenty-nine. Not thirty and definitely not forty."

She rolled her eyes at him, "Is this what it's about?"

"And you're twenty-four. Single, and surprisingly naïve and innocent to the ways of men. With an adorable tendency to blush. Been working since after high school," Numair continued and reiterated to her word-for-word of what was on her CV.

Daine snorted, "You have a good memory, so what?"

Numair looked at her seriously, "I do see you as a person Veralidaine Sarrasri. Though Onua had eventually picked you independently without any input from me, she showed me the list of short-listed candidates. It does matter to me who potentially becomes my secretary-"

"Uh huh… Must have regretted that I did not turn out blonde, blue-eyed and curvaceous," Daine interrupted.

She could hear his smile as she looked towards the door, searching for the handle, "Now now, you don't need to put down yourself so, I'm sure with a bit of prettying up you'll look good as well. As they say, there isn't such a thing as an ugly girl, but a lazy girl."

She was making a break for it, and tried to open the door. "You locked it!" she glared at him accusingly. "Let me out now!"

"Not till you hear me out," Numair replied calmly.

"Let me out," Daine demanded. "Now. Before I scream for help."

"No," Numair responded firmly.

She opened her mouth to scream and was halfway cut off when Numair suddenly covered her mouth.

With.

His.

Mouth.

She blinked in surprise, as warmth spread through her veins. Numair broke off his kiss and looked at her in heavy-lidded pleasure, "I figured that would keep you silent for a while."

She gaped at him and his audacity.

He took her hands and said, "Look, it's, it's…" he flushed and plunged on determinedly, "I'm sorry. You're right, I shouldn't have taken out my anger on you. My conduct, it's nothing against you personally. I'm just someone who likes to work independently. I was happy as a free-lancing inventor, till Jonathan came along to persuade me to enter into a joint venture with him, Tortall Inc. He had the vision, I had the brain power he said. I'm not used to this rigid structure, this bureaucracy of meeting after meeting after meeting. My passion is pursuit of knowledge, I just get caught up in my world as many can testify when I'm onto something. I want to make it clear that I didn't deliberately miss meetings just to spite you."

"Sex," Daine blurted.

"What?" Numair yelped.

"I, I mean, you miss meetings because of sex too," Daine spluttered.

"Oh! You mean the first morning you met me? No, I went to bed alone, I just overslept," Numair said quickly. "Not to say I'm a monk, but, when I'm making a break-through for an invention, nothing can pull me away. Not any woman, friend or family member. I'm sure you're bound to hear of all the urban legends of me going without sleep and food for days."

Daine nodded, Evin had been most eloquent on that! "Unfortunately," Numair said. "It's true, those urban legends. But that was just once, or maybe twice. Alright, or maybe more. But it resulted in the flat screen monitor. Which is why probably Jonathan stopped Alanna from nagging or scolding me about it too much. Made Tortall Inc's stocks go up more than 200."

Daine sighed, "Look, this is all well and good. I'm glad that you're not doing this out to spite me. But things are not going to change. You're just going to jam the palmtop again and send crazy signals so that your next secretary can't find you. Continuing your usual ways and I'm out of job anyway. Just… just remember this when you get your next secretary." She bit her lip, 'Damn it Daine, hold yourself together. No reason to suddenly feel maudlin now that you're out of job and your ex-boss is being nicer to you out of guilt.'

"Let me show you something," Numair said suddenly and started driving out of the lot he had parked in. Curious, Daine watched her surroundings as he sped by. Daine sighed as she recognized Tortall Inc and he drove into the underground VIP carpark.

"Numair, after today the board is going to fire me. So it's no point dragging me back here. Besides, I'm a complete mess," Daine said exasperatedly.

"Nonsense," Numair responded, he got out of the car and pulled a reluctant Daine to her feet. He straightened out her clothing, neatening her collar and produced a comb out of no where to brush her hair. He grinned at her, "Slight of hand is one of my hobbies. Makes me very popular among my nieces and nephews." The feel of him combing her hair was… nice… and she had to fight the urge to purr.

He gently wiped her face with a damp towelette and remarked, "Be glad you don't wear mascara or much make-up. You should change your spectacles though. Have you thought of contacts?" He was about to remove her spectacles when Daine said sharply, "Don't, I'm blind as a bat without them." She shrugged out of his reach.

"Well then," Numair said. "I'm about to show you something that you have to keep to yourself till your deathbed."

"Uh huh," Daine snorted.

"Restrain your enthusiasm," Numair responded wryly, "I almost cannot bear it." He took her hand firmly and towed her to the lift. Her whole body tingled at the contact and she could feel herself blushing. She was not a very touchy-feely person by nature, and yet Numair had touched her more today than she had allowed her previous boyfriends in the first month of the relationship. Oh heck! She did not allow kisses on the first date and she and Numair were not even dating!

She kept her eyes on the floor as Numair quickly dragged her through the office, past a bemused Shalene. They stopped in his office and Daine sighed, "So what are you going to show me?"

She gulped as she heard Numair locking the door behind her. He went around her and leaned against his desk. "What I have to show you is something I don't show other people."

'Oh dear, please don't tell me he's a pervert and he's going to flash me…' Daine thought, looking around his office for a weapon. His office was efficiently designed. There was no artsy or ornamental items here as there were in the reception area. His table dominated the room, a sleek contraption with an impressive length of 3 metres. It was even bigger than Daine's single bed at home. Behind the desk were floor-to-ceiling cupboards. The middle portion of the cupboards comprised of exposed bookshelves. A preliminary scan of the materials revealed an impressive collection of scientific textbooks and journals. Natural light came in through the floor-to-ceiling windows that flanked the desk.

"Daine?" Numair said, waving his hand in front of her.

'Thank goodness he's not waving anything else at me,' Daine thought and replied, "Yes?"

Numair looked at her suspiciously and continued, "As I was saying, I did not block or interfere with your palmtop's tracking system. How it works is that it tracks what was the last door I had opened with my card."

"So you snuck out of here on somebody else's card?" Daine guessed.

"No…" Numair replied, "But that is quite a good suggestion..." He strode forward to take her hands, "Promise me that what I tell you will be kept a secret... Just between you and me..."

Daine's eyes blinked at his sudden closeness, his unique scent -a mix of clean soap and spices- enveloped her. "I, I won't tell..." she promised.

He tugged her hand as he led her towards the shelves of books. He raised his left hand, while his right hand still firmly clasped Daine's hand. Daine watched his long tanned fingers brush across the books. They paused at a particularly thick volume of "The Logic of Scientific Discovery", written by Karl R. Popper. Numair pushed the book inwards and a small screen unfolded itself from the space previously occupied by the book. His fingers hovered over the keypad, hesitating.

"I guess this is where you type in your password huh?" Daine said, breaking the awkward pause. "If you want, I'll turn around." She turned her body, tugging her hand out of his. Numair gave a muffled oath and his right hand grasped her waist and spun her around. He pulled her next to him, tucked against his side.

Numair sighed, "It's not that I don't want you to know my password, but it's just... embarrassing... that's all. When it comes to passwords like these, where I use them everyday, everyday I type it in... each time I type it in, the password just runs around in my head... so I tend to use... names that are close to my heart."

He blushed. He actually blushed. Numair, the sophisticated connoisseur of women was blushing. Daine found it awfully adorable. She stopped herself from giggling; she hardly thought Numair would be pleased to find that she found him adorable. Suave, yes. Adorable like a cute puppy or bunny, no.

"Surely it's not Bubbles from the Power puff girls?" Daine ventured a joke.

Numair looked at her, surprised and laughed. "No, no," he said. "As adorable as she is, no, it is not. It's... Well, I guess you know her name already..." Daine watched his fingers as he started to type in the password "V-A-R-I-C-E."

Daine felt a sharp pang in her heart. 'Stop it Daine!' she scolded herself. 'He's your boss. Nothing else. His personal life is his own business. Who he sees, he dates or sleeps with...' She bit her lip, then forced herself to sound light as she said, "I already know her, so it's not exactly that surprising."

His grip around her waist tightened a bit, then he said, "as you already know, it's a bit of a sensitive issue..." he gave a self-depreciating laugh."If you want to know more, you have to wait till I am really drunk. It's awfully embarassing for a fine specimen like myself, well-educated and all, to hold a school boy crush after so many years..." He shook his head and looked at her, "You and your god-blest eyes, just looking at me, it's so easy to talk, with words dropping off my tongue. Doing what many hardened negotiators were unable to do."

A portion of the cupboard swung inwards, Numair gently pulled her through the opening. The door silently shut behind them and Daine looked around with unabashed curiosity. It was... messy. Stacks of books, files, loose papers were scattered around the room. She could see that this was where Numair really worked. His computer was a haphazard collection of different screens. There seemed to be different programmes running on each of them.

"Appearances can be deceiving, you know," Numair smiled. Daine nodded, ignoring a stab of guilt. She knew that too well...

He flung his arm out, "This, my dear lady, is my humble abode where I work. When we first moved into this building, I was given free reign as to how to design this level. I am good friends with the architect and had this built with a small unknown construction company. This is my last place of sanctuary, to escape from all the buzz and bother."

"Wouldn't Alanna and the others know?" Daine asked, curious. "I'm sure they must have some sort of floor plan to rig up the security devices."

"Nope," Numair said. "Let's just say... their floor plans... are soft copies... and I have a talent for twiddling." He gave a mischievous grin, which made Daine's heart twitch. "At the moment, in this company, let's just say, it's just you and me who knows... I normally lock the office doors, so when someone wants to see me," he pointed to a screen which showed the layout of the floor plan. "I can tell and I'll go outside to my nice pristine office. So I hadn't really the occasion or need to tell people about my secret hide-out."

"Then why didn't you respond to my calls? And couldn't you tell by the screen thing that I was pounding at your door?" Daine demanded, starting to feel agitated.

Numair looked sheepishly as he said, "I was in a bad mood and had switched off all communications, so I really didn't know you were calling me. Even if you were banging on my main office door, I was too distracted to hear it through the wall. Look Daine.." he took a deep breath and continued, "I'm sorry I've been such a jerk. Please just give me another chance, you'll find working for me a lot better from now on."

"It's a nice sentiment, but I think the board of directors probably decided to fire me," Daine sighed.

"Doesn't matter," Numair said seriously. "Just come for work tomorrow, I don't think they'll fire you. Besides, there's no harm in coming."

Daine sighed, "Alright, I'll come. I need to come back tomorrow to pack my stuff anyway and settle some administrative things if I'm dismissed." She smiled with wry humour, "I guess it's good I'm being paid pro rata, easier to calculate my wages."

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Daine sat at her desk, deciding to at least leave things in order if she had to leave. Numair had left the office, presumably to find the group of people he was supposed to meet earlier. She rotated her shoulders slowly, it had been a long day. Scanning through the e-mail sorter, she filtered e-mails that were to reach Numair and to which inbox and category. She didn't have to reject much e-mails as the other secretarial aides had the unfortunate tedious task of doing so. Adrenaline raced through her as she came across the e-mail.

From Varice.

She knew that she should just have directly sent it to Numair without looking, but curiosity overwhelmed her. She hoped that Varice was not too unduly upset that Daine had not put Numair through this morning. 'It's not as if I'm going to continue working here anyway,' she thought and clicked on the e-mail.

...Heya big guy,

tried to call you today, but you were busy. Should have known better as it's your usual season of trying to come up with a new line of products. Bad timing I know. Well, I know this is sudden, but I've met someone. Orzone. He's the CEO of Carthak Inc. He's fabulously rich, powerful and everything that a girl can even dream of. He's like my prince charming! Swept me off my feet and we're off to Europe today for two months, visiting his extensive array of properties and villas. Can't wait to try out my new bikini that I shopped with you that day. Hahaha.

I guess I should tell you face-to-face, especially after that kiss we had last week. But I know you wouldn't read too much into that. Nobody would. I was high on alcohol and carried away in the spirit of the moment. But I must say your skills have drastically improved since our first time. Heh heh. wink! Anyway, will call you again when I return.

XXX Varice, your little vixen always...

'That witch!' Daine thought, incensed, recalling on what Shalene has told her and Numair's reaction to her name. 'She should know that Numair feels strongly for her! Leading him along like that. And now hopping off with his competitor! My gosh! She should know better than to drop this sort of bombshell on him at such a crucial time when he needs to concentrate on his work! I am just so tempted to just tell her off!'

She took a deep breath, her eyes narrowing. She had to calm down. She got up and started to pace. 'Breathe Daine, breathe,' she told herself. Thoughts raced through her mind and she fought the ugly dark feelings that were creeping up on her. 'First things first,' Daine thought and plunked herself in front of her computer again. 'My final gift to Numair. He's better off without that witch. So it's a good thing. But based on how he reacted at her name and how that I didn't put her call through, he's going to take this very, very badly. Makes no difference whether he knows this now or later. Later would be better, as revenge would be sweet if he could come up with a better line of products than Carthak Inc. Besides… I won't be around when she gives him the grand call.'

She looked at Varice's "new" e-mail that she had edited with grim satisfaction.

...Heya big guy,

tried to call you today, but you were busy. Should have known better as it's your usual season of trying to come up with a new line of products. Bad timing I know. Well, I know this is sudden, but I'm off to Europe today for two months. Can't wait to try out my new bikini that I shopped with you that day. Hahaha. Anyway, will call you again when I return.

XXX Varice, your little vixen always...

'Thanks to this software, I can change the sender's e-mail address so it'll seem like it was from her. I guess it helps to be in such a high-tech company.' Daine thought and tried to appease a small guilty nagging voice. 'Besides, I'm not changing the content, I'm just selectively deleting some sentences.' The previous e-mail's contents ran through her mind and her fingers tightened over the mouse.

With that, she clicked sent and the "new" e-mail went to Numair's personal inbox.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Ah well, felt like writing a bit on the characters' behaviour and to provide some insight into their actions. Optional reading to understand characters a bit better.

Daine's Silence

On Daine's silence towards Numair's treatment, she's silent due to combination of factors. First, she's stunned at Numair's behaviour, understandably, since it is not very reasonable. I think Numair can be scary and imposing when he wants to be, considering that he can be physically intimidating.

Second, she needs the job. I think the reality is that for most people, even if their bosses are twits, they will not be out rightly rude or snap back. Especially at their first week of work. Most likely, people will just go complain/whine about their unreasonable bosses to their friends/spouse/family, etc. Something like how we would react to unreasonable teachers, except that for the workplace, A LOT more is at stake. Not only livelihood, but promotion, work environment, etc.

Third and most importantly, I think (personal opinion) it is not in Daine's character to instinctively slap back at people, she's not an "Alanna". She's more placid and it takes quite a bit to provoke her. If it's some sensitive matter, like if you were to mistreat an animal in front of her, that's another issue altogether. But as a person, she's not too sensitive about people criticizing her, she definitely doesn't have an ego/pride problem. She's also a bit insecure at the moment, like she was in Wild Magic. Hence, when people criticize her, she tends to "shrink" into herself, pondering if it's true. Of course, later when she matures throughout the books, she takes such criticisms in her stride. (I guess she has to, since she has to endure quite a bit of scrutiny and remarks from her association to Numair and all sort of animals/immortals in the books.) Anyway, Daine does have her limits and as noticed, she finally snaps in this part and talks back to Numair.

Numair's behaviour

He's being a bit OOC and coming across as mean and unfair to Daine. Hopefully it's within logical reasoning. In this fic, he's feeling somewhat awkward towards Daine because he's unused to dealing with such an "innocent". So far, his mean behaviour doesn't originate from an intention to be mean or nasty. Rather, he (rather childishly perhaps) takes out his frustration on Daine when she doesn't put the much awaited call from Varice through and she attracts his ire when she attempts to "nag" him when he is in such a black mood. Something like how some people would just be unreasonable and easily upset when they are already in such a bad temper.

More importantly, his conduct can be attributed to him covering up his embarrassment/awkwardness. E.g. he snaps at Daine at the last part and walks away because he suddenly felt a bit bad about what he was doing. Hence, to cover up what he felt and to break off from such a situation (instead of waiting for or pressing her to reply to his question), he gives a rather rude remark but walks off.

Anyway, it was intended as a build-up to Daine snapping in this part and this marks a turning point in their relationship. In this part, Daine's explosion caused him to realise what a total ass he has been. Hence, he is trying to make amends to her. Also, SPOILER ALERT, DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS - It also gives Daine the impetus to try and maintain their suddenly good relationship. Thus, carrying out the e-mail charade to avoid their relationship from degenerating back to where it was before he apologized. -END SPOILER.