A/N: Thank you to Sophie, D, and Wifey for beta work.
Enjoy!
-Angie
It was his first day without Anna and he was already doing it wrong.
Well, really the baristas were just incompetent, but he knew she'd find a way to blame it on him if her coffee wasn't correctly made. Actually, he didn't know, but since it seemed like she wasn't the sort of person to tolerate things going wrong, even if it was something that couldn't have been avoided, he was willing to bet on it.
"Sorry, sir. We're out of sugar-free caramel. Would you like regular caramel flavoring, or something else?"
"Non-fat mocha with sugar-free peppermint syrup," he said after quickly checking the list Anna had made for him of drink priority, resisting the urge to retch just reading the order.
"Would you like whipped cream on that, sir?"
Klaus checked his list and realized it didn't say. This was why he hated lists. No matter how thorough they were, there was always something wrong with them.
"No whip," he practically growled, a foolproof plan hatching in his mind.
"Name?"
"Caroline."
The barista raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, but at Klaus's glare, she quickly scribbled down the name on the cup, pushing it aside. "That will be three dollars and sixty-five cents."
Klaus handed over the gold Starbucks card that Anna had given him (and linked to his work phone so that he'd know when he had the free drink reward) (and by "he" he meant "Caroline"), and waited impatiently for the receipt to print before eyeballing the amount of people waiting by the counter.
He decided he'd have enough time, and left the shop quickly, crossing the street to the drugstore and quickly locating the whipped cream. He bought it and returned the coffee shop to pick up her mocha (which was conveniently done just as he entered). Checking his watch and swearing when he saw the time, he speed-walked to his car and pulled up in front of the building with two minutes to spare, feeling incredibly grateful that now that Anna was gone, he had her reserved parking space.
He had just sat down in the office, the whipped cream in the fridge and Caroline's coffee warming in its heating device, when Caroline sailed in, looking exhausted. He handed her the coffee. "They were out of caramel, so I got the sugar-free peppermint mocha."
"Non-fat?" she asked.
He nodded. "And I didn't know if you wanted cream, so I bought some at the drugstore. It's in the fridge if you'd like it."
She looked slightly surprised. "That's really thoughtful of you," she said, smiling. "Thanks."
"Of course."
She didn't get the cream, but he felt like the accidental brownie points were worth it. The phone rang, and he turned to answer it.
"After you've hung up the phone, I need an update."
"Of course, Miss Forbes," he said, sitting at the desk and picking up the phone. "You've reached the office of Caroline Forbes, how may I assist you?"
He saw Caroline give him a soft smile, which he returned before she moved to her office, closing the door softly behind her.
"Hi, my name is Elena Salvatore. I was hoping that I could talk to Caroline."
"Just a moment," he said, checking the list of people that he could put through without screening, and saw Elena Salvatore printed neatly on the list. "I'll put you through," he said, pressing the button to forward the call to Caroline's phone.
He set down the receiver and turned back to his computer, looking at the emails that had come in that morning. He had access to all of the emails coming into Caroline's work account, though a lot of it was forwarded from her personal email, and he had to catalogue them. He looked through them quickly, making notes of meetings that were scheduled and people they needed to call back, before stopping at one that had come in early that morning from someone in the product design department, which had already been opened even though he hadn't recorded anything. He frowned, trying to decide whether to look.
Generally, anything sent within the company email network he was supposed to check, but something felt off about it (perhaps it was the way the subject was in all capital letters, but he had a strange feeling that he shouldn't read it).
Naturally, he clicked on it anyway.
From: Bonnie Bennett
To: Caroline Forbes
Subject: Re: THIS IS THE THIRD TIME
Didn't you talk to him a week ago about this? If he's not changing, it's time to let this one fly free. You deserve better.
Best,
Bonnie Bennett
–
Director of Product Design
Bold Inc.
575 5th Ave.
New York, New York
Bonnnniiiieeee
HE DID IT AGAIN. Like, I understand not feeling like it ONE time, but seriously? I don't understand what his deal is. Did the last girl he dated need to eat more fruit, or something?
Sincerely,
Caroline Forbes
–
Chief Marketing Officer
Bold Inc.
575 5th Ave.
New York, NY
Klaus sat perfectly still, reading Caroline's original email and the reply at least five times each. Could they really be talking about what he thought they were talking about?
And if they were, why on earth would anyone not jump at the chance to have fulfilling sexual experiences with Caroline Forbes?
He scrolled down to find Bonnie's previous emails, unable to locate them, before going up to the search bar and typing Bonnie's name.
He found messages from her personal email, and realized that it must have simply been a Send As error, meaning that it wasn't intended for Caroline's work email, which meant he really shouldn't read the previous conversations from her personal email.
But since when had Klaus done anything the way he was supposed to?
From: Bonnie Bennett
To: Caroline Forbes
Subject: Re [2]: This relationship is a disaster
Caroline did you seriously just say that not reciprocating oral sex is "rude"? I'd put it more like it's a DEALBREAKER. If he doesn't want to go down on you, let him go. If he isn't willing to try your TAMER fantasies at least once, let him go.
-B
I just talked to him. Apparently, he says he doesn't like 'Cunnilingus' – yes, he DID actually call it that – but that he'll try for me.
Damn right he will, because not reciprocating oral sex is rude.
– Care
–-
Just talk to him about it. Is it that he tried it already and didn't like it, or that he wasn't willing to try it?
-B
So I told him and he said that we should "work up to it"
What does that even MEAN?
How does one "work up" to eating me out?
And anyway, that's not the only thing that he's been dismissive of. He thinks that roleplaying is "creepy"
I CAN'T HANDLE SOMEONE WHO ONLY DOES VANILLA, BON. I JUST CAN'T.
– Care
Klaus wasn't sure what to process first: The fact that his (incredibly attractive) boss did not have a fulfilling sex life, or the fact that she did not think vanilla sex was fulfilling.
Not that he'd knock the missionary position (well, he'd knock her in the missionary position), but he was open.
Very open.
Especially for Caroline The-Vision-of-My-Arse-Framed-By-This-Pencil-Skirt-Should-Be-Illegal Forbes.
He directed himself back to the problem at hand: That email had clearly not been the beginning of the conversation, and he was already snooping anyway, so was it really any worse to keep going?
He ignored the inner voice that sounded suspiciously like his too-proper brother Elijah and decided that it wasn't.
Scrolling down the list, he found a promising conversation that had occurred shortly before the one he had been reading.
From: Bonnie Bennett
To: Caroline Forbes
Subject: Re: HELP
Care, if you're not getting what you need you should move on, unless roses and violins are enough to get you off at night.
And anyway, didn't we agree that the hair was totally compensation for something?
Look. Just sit him down and tell him. It's not catastrophic. The worse that happens is that you break up with him and find someone who will give you what you want.
-B
–
Stefan keeps saying no to going down on me after I blow him, and clearly this isn't a normal guy thing, since Enzo, Jesse, and Tyler were all totally fine with it. I've asked him a few times and he just gets all uncomfortable.
I feel like this is a red flag.
-Care
So clearly Caroline was going to be single soon. She seemed like the sort of person who wouldn't date a co-worker, especially one who was her subordinate (not that he had any problem with being her subordinate in any way, shape or form), but perhaps he could change her mind (or, at the very least, wait for an opportune time to strike, such as when he found a job he actually intended to keep in the long-term).
Just as he was pondering this, a new email came in.
From: Bonnie Bennett
To: Caroline Forbes
Subject: Re [2]: Oops!
Your loss. He seems into you.
I stalked him on Bekah's Instagram and he looks damn good with no shirt, too.
I know you have the thing about dating co-workers, but he's not going to be an admin forever. He's too qualified. You know as well as I do that this is him networking and trying to find options.
You don't have to decide now. Just see how it goes.
Hope the minions are good today!
-B
I'M NOT GOING TO DATE MY ADMIN, BON.
And it's fine. I don't think he saw it.
I'll talk to Stefan on our date tonight.
And by "talk to" I mean "dump"
Have a meeting. We can talk later.
-Care
–
It's no problem for me, but I hope new guy didn't see it. :(
Anyway, you totally have better options than Stefan.
Aforementioned new guy is cute. ;)
-B
I AM SO SORRY. I didn't mean to send that to your work e-mail. I changed it to your personal. My bad!
-Care
He smirked. He was into her, he most definitely looked good sans-shirt, and it was most certainly her loss if she didn't see it.
And from what he knew of Caroline Forbes, she was nothing if not a winner.
XXX
"I can't do this anymore," Caroline blurted as Stefan walked her to the front door of her condo.
She was the Chief Marketing Officer of an incredibly successful company, ate incompetent interns for breakfast, and still made it to the gym every day at six in the morning.
And yet, she still sounded like a sixteen year old when attempting to break up with someone tactfully.
He gave her a hurt look. "What? Why? Is this about the sex thing again?"
She had felt slightly guilty until he said that, and then all guilt completely faded.
What a self-centered ass.
"It doesn't matter," she said diplomatically. "The point is that we're done."
She gave him an icy glare and waited until he'd left before entering her building, pulling out her cell phone and dialing Klaus.
"Hello, Miss Forbes."
"Hi, Klaus," she said tiredly, making a mental note to tell him that he could call her by her first name as soon as possible without making it look like she was coming onto him (she felt old every time anyone even remotely older than her called her by her last name). "I need you to take Stefan Salvatore off of the list."
"The immediate forward list?"
"Yeah," she said tiredly, kicking off her heels.
"I'll take care of it," he said. There was an awkward silence for a moment before he spoke. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No. Thank you, though. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Of course, Miss Forbes."
She hung up the phone and dropped it on her couch, taking a minute to change into a t-shirt and sleep shorts before grabbing the remote to watch some television.
She just needed someone incredibly attractive who was willing to put up with her shitty work schedule, had the same sexual preferences, and she could hold an intelligent conversation with. Preferably also funny.
These were not difficult expectations to meet, in her humble opinion.
Why was her life so hard?
XXX
Caroline thanked Klaus for the coffee and took it into her office as usual, closing the door behind her. It had been three months since he'd started working for her, and everything was going well. He was competent, intelligent, and she'd felt slightly bad for pigeonholing him as a total asshole when she'd interviewed him. She'd even grown to like him.
She put her cup down on the desk and took off her jacket, draping it around the desk chair, and bent to plug in her laptop. When she stood up, she dropped one of the manila folders, and her coffee spilled all over her desk.
She quickly grabbed her laptop (managing to save it from Coffee Hell), but her dress wasn't as lucky.
She swore loudly (that was $300 down the drain) and stomped out of her office to Klaus's desk, who looked up and was clearly attempting to fight down a smile.
"Hello, Miss Forbes."
"I need a change of clothes."
"I can see that," he said, his lips twitching.
"It is not funny."
"I know," he said, though his smile grew as he unlocked the cabinet Anna kept the larger supplies in (as well as the three garment bags holding Caroline's extra clothes).
"Business meeting?"
"Yep," she said, knowing that he knew already, but happy that he'd double-checked.
He handed her the garment bag and the small tupperware of matching jewelry, though she waved the shoebox away after checking the outfit in the bag to see if they'd match what she was currently wearing, and closed the cabinet.
"Would you mind going to the condo and grabbing me another meeting outfit?"
"Of course."
"Do you have the extra key?" she asked, and he nodded. "Great. Just make sure you pick from the rack on the right."
"Err...All right?"
She decided not to bother explaining how online clothing rentals worked (yes, she was CMO, but they definitely didn't pay her enough to walk around in Dolce & Gabbana dresses or Armani pencil skirts on her own dime), instead just hoping he'd have the sense to follow directions.
"Before you go, though, can you get me another coffee?"
Every time she asked him to do something simple like get coffee she could almost see him inwardly seething (but, hello, it was his job).
It would have been kind of endearing if he wasn't such a colossal ass.
Then again, he wasn't really an ass to her. Just to the people he was on the phone with who were attempting to waste her time (and really, she couldn't exactly blame him, as they were, by extension, wasting his time).
He nodded though, and by the time she'd changed and freshened her makeup he had another latte waiting for her, which she happily took.
She took a sip and sighed in contentment before grabbing her laptop bag and heading to the conference rooms.
XXX
He had no idea what to pick.
He had spent the first five minutes finding her walk-in closet and he'd now been standing at the entrance to it staring at the clothing hanging there.
He'd thought Anna was merely being impertinent when she'd asked if he was able to match clothes, but it seemed that she was being perfectly serious.
He knew that he was supposed to pick a full outfit (including jewelry and shoes), and Anna had told him that it would probably be easier to go with a dress than separates. He moved to the rack on the right and studied the dresses, moving to pick a rather thin blue dress and pulling it out before realizing that it would not be even close to appropriate for work.
The fabric looked like it would fit her like a second skin, and the hemline would probably hit just under her arse. He tried very hard not to imagine her in it (and subsequently bunching it up around her waist and fucking her against the door to her office), but felt his cock twitch all the same. He gritted his teeth, slotting the dress back into its place and continuing to look through them.
He found a rather modest green dress and slid it into a garment bag, grabbing a pair of brown heels and some matching jewelry and laid them on her bed before checking his watch. She still had half an hour to be in the meeting, and he knew it would probably run over, but all the same he wanted to get back to the office as soon as possible.
He didn't feel comfortable being in her apartment alone or going through her clothing. He respected her enough as a person that he would feel horribly guilty about invading her privacy, and he didn't want to accidentally mess anything up.
He couldn't think of anything more counter-productive to getting Caroline to agree to a date with him than pawing through her underwear like a skeezy teenager.
Tempting? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely not.
He draped the garment bag over his arm, holding the box of accessories, and locked up after himself before leaving the building to drive back to the office. When he arrived he set all of Caroline's belongings where they were supposed to be and went back to work, checking through her email and making a few calls.
She arrived back from her meeting a few minutes after he'd hung up from his fifth phone call and nodded at him, a small smile on her face, before entering her office and shutting the door behind her.
The phone rang again and he picked it up, holding it to his ear. "You've reached the office of Caroline Forbes."
"Hello, this is Matt Donovan. I'm the photographer for the Spring campaign shoot starting next week?"
"Yes. Of course. Is there something I can help you with?"
"I'm taking a sabbatical for the next two months-family emergency-and I just wanted to let you know ahead of time that we're sending one of our other photographers, if that's okay with you? She's a recent hire, but she's really good. I'm sure you'll be happy with her work."
"Yes, that's fine," Klaus said. "Just have her present proof of employment at the set of the shoot."
"Great. Thanks."
"Of course. Thank you for calling."
He set the phone back in its cradle and sighed, turning back to the computer. The job wasn't so bad, really, though he could do with a bit of a pay raise. He'd start looking for another one soon (though he had a feeling that he'd be putting it off until he got a bit more of a reaction from Caroline).
XXX
Klaus walked on set of the photo shoot, intending to do a quick overview to make sure everything was running smoothly. It wasn't technically part of his job, but he knew that Caroline would want to be in and out quickly (flashing lights gave her a headache, and an in-pain Caroline was a pain for him).
Everything looked good, and he turned to leave nearly bumping into who was clearly the photographer.
A very familiar photographer.
"Nik," she greeted, smiling and putting her box of materials down to envelop him in a hug.
He didn't hug back, instead attempting to gracefully disentangle himself. The woman who had betrayed him, broken his heart, and was one of the most manipulative self-serving bitches he'd ever met in his entire life was the photographer on this photoshoot.
"Tatia."
"How are you?"
I was doing fine, but now I have the urge to grab a pitchfork and shove it through your cold, dead, demonic heart.
"Doing well, and yourself?" he asked politely, hoping that Caroline wouldn't walk in.
He was not in luck, and she sailed through the door, texting and gracefully dodging the people moving around her.
"You must be the photographer," she said without greeting, holding out her hand. "I'm Caroline Forbes."
"I'm Tatia Dobreva. It's nice to meet you," Tatia said politely. "I'll get started in just a minute."
Both women remained in place, and Klaus didn't know how to react to what was clearly some sort of alpha female stand-off (Caroline was winning), and started to hedge away before Tatia looked back at him.
"So, anyway, want to catch up over drinks after this, maybe?"
"Do you two know each other?" Caroline asked, looking a bit confused.
"Yeah. We go way back," Tatia said cheerfully. "So, how about it, Nik?"
"I'd rather not, Tatia," Klaus said, straining himself to stay civil.
"But it would be so much fun," she said, a wicked gleam in her eye.
"No."
"Plea–"
"He said no," Caroline cut in firmly. "I suggest you stop pestering my admin, Tatia."
"I was just teasing," Tatia said, brushing off Caroline's comment.
He saw Caroline raise an eyebrow, one of her early warning signs of an impending You're-Fucked-Please-Leave speech, and felt the bizarre urge to laugh.
He was about to excuse himself (not only did he not want to speak to Tatia, but he also had things to do), when it struck him that Caroline might be jealous. He tried to subtly get a read on her body language, but she looked as stoic and cold as she ever did toward people who weren't meeting her expectations.
"Well, don't," Caroline said to the photographer, her tone clipped. "Here at 'Bold' we have a zero-tolerance policy for any type of harassment, whether well-intentioned or not, and I happen to be fond of my admin. I'd like you to refrain from it in the future."
She abstained to mention that they also had a policy at Bold preventing an employee from publicly chastising another employee, but Klaus didn't mind all that much.
It looked like his instinct had been right. Caroline was jealous.
A/N: Thanks for reading! How did we feel about the emails? Are we excited for Klaus? What's up with Tatia? Any predictions? Let me know! :D
Hugs!
-Angie