Chapter five:

Golden CEO

Monday 7:45

Tea stared up at Kaiba Corp Headquarters with a nervous knot settling at the bottom of her stomach. She wasn't too eager to start her new job as Kaiba's personal secretary. In fact she was a little mortified. Kaiba had a way of doing that to people no matter how long you'd known him for.

She took a deep breath and walked up the steps leading to the Front entrance. There were two beefy looking security officers dressed all in black standing on opposite ends of the doorway.

"Good morning miss."

Tea smiled politely.

"Good morning."

The officer on the left held the door open for her.

She walked past him and into the air-conditioned building where an old man was apparently waiting for her at the front desk.

As soon as he spotted Tea he hurried over to her.

"Tea Gardner?"

"Yes."

The neatly dressed old man smiled warmly and shook Tea's hand with a much stronger grip than she was expecting.

"Mr. Kaiba is expecting you."

Tea didn't know why she was feeling so nervous. She decided that maybe it was the idea of Seto Kaiba actually being her boss that was making her feel so intimidated. His reputation as the boss man wasn't exactly favorable. She remembered a while back actually feeling sorry for people that were under his employment and now here she was, one of those very people. What a joy.

The old man introduced himself as Mr. Johnson. He escorted her to the elevator where he informed her to go up to floor 12 where Kaiba was waiting for her in his office. Tea stepped into the elevator and pushed the number 12 button.

While waiting Tea's mind wandered back to Yami. He actually wanted them to get back together, but how could she allow that to happen? She couldn't. She promised herself she wouldn't. Sure she thought about him every day since they broke up but Yami had changed some how. The Yami she longed for wasn't there anymore, he was different. And now that she had seen him again all of her old wounds had opened up…. bleeding before they even got a chance to properly heal. She felt a pang of sadness wash over her as the elevator doors finally opened. She stepped out into the empty hall way and saw the door to Kaiba's office straight ahead. She noticed that the reception desk right outside was empty. She assumed that would be where she came in. She straightened her jacket and made sure that her hair was in place before heading for Kaiba's office. She stopped directly in front of the door, staring at the letters CEO directly in front of her face. The letters she noticed were neatly engraved in gold.

Her mind was still tangled with thoughts of Yami and she decided it best to get rid of them before entering the room. Sighing heavily she turned the knob on the door and entered.

Kaiba was sitting at his desk with a lap top opened in front of him. When he saw her his expression remained the same-neutral.

"Don't you know how to knock Gardner?"

"Oh, sorry I …"

"Just forget it have a seat."

It was remarkable how easy it was to unnerve her.

Tea closed the door behind her and walked over to the comfortable looking chair in front of Kaiba's desk.

He had to admit, she looked pretty damn good. Conservative and sexy at the same time.

As she sat she felt Kaiba's eyes on her. Why did he have to be so overbearingly strict when it came to his work?

Kaiba made himself more comfortable by reclining on his chair.

"So let's get straight down to business shall we."

Tea nodded her approval feeling a bit weird treating Kaiba like her boss.

"Since today's your first day I think I'll be a little nice and go easy on you, and we both know nice isn't my thing so enjoy it while it lasts because tomorrow I won't be so lenient."

Tea didn't say anything; she was still trying to stop thinking about Yami. Kaiba sensed her distraction right away but wasn't sure if he should say anything about it. He was beginning to think that Tea was more fragile than she led people to believe. Once again he was confused as to why that bothered him so much.

"I don't have any major meetings to attend today so I'd like you to do some filing work for me. And I'd like it to be finished before you leave this afternoon"

She nodded.

"Is something wrong?"

His tone was a little less business like when he said it.

"Huh … no nothings wrong, everything's fine, why'd you ask?"

"You seem distracted."

"I'm not."

Kaiba knew she wasn't being honest with him but decided it was no use getting further into it. He knew she wouldn't be willing to tell him, not that he blamed her, they weren't exactly what you would call the best of friends, but he assumed it had something to do with Yami showing up at her apartment yesterday. For whatever reason he was pretty curious about what happened between them after he left.

He would leave it alone for now.

"Alright whatever, the desk outside my office is yours. All you have to do in addition to your filing duties is answer my calls, anything that's not important, just say I'm busy or at a meeting, if it is important then you can just transfer the call over to me, got it?"

"Yea, I've done this sort of thing before"

"I'm just letting you know before hand what I expect from you."

She nodded again. She looked so cute, almost vulnerable as she sat there soaking up every word that he said.

Damn it, It was as if he had no control over his thoughts when he was around her.

He was becoming increasingly annoyed with himself

"Well I guess everything's settled, any questions or anything you want me to clear up for you?"

"…no I'm okay."

"Alright, you can go."

Tea got up out of the chair and started heading for the door.

"Oh one more thing Gardner."

She turned around.

"Sometimes I work late, since you work directly under me I'll need you to stay after regular working hours as well. Will that be a problem for you?"

"Exactly how late are you talking about?"

"That depends on how much work I have, it shouldn't be any later than about 7.00pm."

"Oh, okay no problem."

She was used to working late hours thanks to her job at the restaurant.

"Will I have to stay late today?"

"I'll let you know."

Tea left his office feeling a bit worn out. Yami was really starting to get to her.

Outside, Tea walked over to the fairly large reception desk and stepped behind it. There were about four large piles of disorganized folders and loose documents sitting on the floor next to the chair. Just Great. There was nothing Tea hated more than filing.

Sighing heavily she sat herself down and leaned over to pick up the first stack of folders.

The entire day went by fairly quickly. She managed to get everything done by four that afternoon, despite the splitting headache she developed later on in the day. Kaiba was even nice enough to give her an aspirin. She guessed that he really needed those documents filed, other wise hell would freeze over before he was so generous. Then again he did give her this job when he easily could have gotten somebody else. Maybe Kaiba wasn't as horrible as she thought he was.

She was glad when he told her that she wouldn't have to stay after hours today, mainly due to the fact that she wasn't feeling very well. She wasn't too eager to head home, too afraid that Yami would be waiting at her door. But her headache was comming back and she needed some rest.

4:30pm

Tea was walking across the Kaiba corp. parking lot feeling rather worn out and slightly miserable. The aspirin seemed to be wearing off as her headache started acting up again. She was starting to believe that she was getting immune to headache medication. Her constant worrying about Yami wasn't helping her situation either. She couldn't believe that she was actually considering accepting him back into her life. He did seem really sorry for what happened between them. She sighed as she pulled her hair tie out of her hair letting it fall loose. It was so unfair; she knew her loneliness would cloud her judgment. Just then she noticed a red posh looking sports car heading in her direction. She stared, confused as it slowed to a stop in front of her. She wasn't surprised to see Kaiba in the driver's seat; he was entitled to such luxuries; however she was surprised about him stopping for her.

"Get in Gardner; you're in no condition to be traveling on your own."

Her head was spinning but that didn't prevent her from noticing just how good he looked in that car.

"Kaiba I'm perfectly capable of …"

"Would you just get in the damn car. I'm taking you home whether you like it or not."

There was no use arguing with him when his mind was made up. Mumbling her disapproval under her breath, she walked around the front of the car and opened the passenger door. She sat down and closed it. Kaiba didn't even look at her as he drove off out of the parking lot. Tea couldn't help but feel grateful for the ride but she didn't understand why he was being so nice to her. He sent the windows all the way up and put on the air-conditioner.

"So how's the head trauma?"

"It's starting to act up again."

"Leave it to you Gardner, to fall sick on your first day working for me."

"I'm not sick; I just have a really bad Headache."

"Right."

Tea loved the way it felt inside his car. There was a new and comfortable feel to it.

"So other than that how was your first day at Kaiba Corp?"

"It was fine"

"Well don't expect things to be so easy tomorrow."

"Ya I know."

She sounded a bit withdrawn as she spoke.

Kaiba glanced at her for a second. She looked exhausted as she turned to look out the window. He decided not to say anything further, despite his acute interest in certain matters.

Tea stared out the window watching the buildings go by as they drove through the city in silence. She thought about Yami, her parents, her uncle, everyone who at one time or the other let her down and left her alone in the world. She hated her weakness, why couldn't she just let go of the past and move on with her life?

Kaiba tried his best to push his thoughts about the girl sitting next to him aside but he couldn't. He kept his eyes focused on the road, not wanting to look at her.

Tea was still staring out the window as they finally approached her apartment building, her anxiety about Yami resurfacing, causing her throbbing headache to increase in size.

As Kaiba stopped the car at the front of the building he turned to look at her. She looked like she was lost in her thoughts again. What on earth could she be thinking about? Was it Yami? Damn it, Why was he so curious about this? She felt his eyes on her and turned to look at him.

"Thanks for the ride."

"Just try not to get sick tomorrow."

She smiled.

"I'll try."
Kaiba thought he saw something in her eyes as she looked up at him. Was it worry? Or was it longing? Maybe it was both. At that moment he felt an uncontrollable urge to kiss her.

But she was already opening the door. As she climbed out he had to tighten his grip on the staring wheel in order to stop himself from pulling her back.

He watched her until she disappeared behind the front door of the apartment building.

He swore under his breath as he drove off. What the hell was wrong with him? If he continued feeling like this who knows what would happen next time.