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Of Corporate Scandals

Chapter 4. Surprise, Surprise

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Annabeth mentally slapped herself repeatedly as she stood in the elevator. Maybe it'll be a box of chocolates and roses...or a teddy bear that's even bigger than Silena's...Ooh! I hope he got me a couples' massage coupon at the spa...STOP! Slap, Slap, Slap! Annabeth sighed. These thoughts were driving her nuts. Over 90% of the population of New York didn't even know what Administrative Assistants' Day was. It would be completely inappropriate, as well as unlikely, that Percy would get her the gifts she'd been fantasizing about. We could do the couples' massage together... SLAP!

The elevator door dinged and she stepped into the office. She sighed as she set her purse and the coffee tray down on her desk. Today was going to be a long, long, very long day. As she sat down the elevator door dinged open once more to a man wearing a UPS uniform, and, more importantly, holding a giant bouquet of flowers. Annabeth blinked as he walked in and set the flowers on her desk.

"Good morning, this was ordered by Mr. Jackson," The man said, pulling out a signing pad from his pocket, "Please sign here."

Annabeth signed the contraption in a daze as she stared at the flowers. It was extremely huge, as wide as she was tall and filled with an arrangement of floral beauties. There were roses of many colors, mostly yellow, a few lilies, and Birds of Paradise as the most abundant.

Mary-Sue, a sweet, plump, middle-aged woman with a slight southern accent and also the head of communications, gasped as she walked into the lobby and saw them, "Oh. Ma. Gawd. Those are be-utiful!"

Annabeth smiled, somewhat dreamily, as she arranged it on her desk, "I know. Look at these lilies. Aren't they lovely?"

Mary-Sue sniffed the flowers, "Are those your favorite?"

Annabeth nodded, "Yeah, I wonder how he knew."

Mary-Sue grinned, "Well, Mr. Jackson doesn't always seem to be the brightest person, but he can be pretty clever sometimes. Anyway, I need to go run down some files. You should keep those out on your desk so everyone can see them. It will certainly bring some color into this office. Why Mr. Jackson insists everythin' be black and blue is a mystery to us all."

Annabeth laughed, "Well, I'm sorry, but that's hard to believe. He may be one youngest CEO's in this business, but I wouldn't exactly call him clever."

Mary-Sue smiled, "Well, you just wait and see, child."

Annabeth nodded and waved her off as she waited for Percy to arrive. She should've gotten him extra whipped cream on his espresso.

Annabeth's excitement grew and she was almost giddy when the elevator doors opened once more and Percy stepped out. His eyes immediately landed on the bouquet.

"Whoa. They're here."

Annabeth nodded, "Mhmm. They arrived just before you arrived. They're so beautiful, Mr. Jackson."

Percy grinned.

"-Thank you for the flowers-" Annabeth said.

"-Do you think Calypso will like them?-" Percy said.

Annabeth blinked, "Excuse me?"

Percy looked at the bouquet, examining one of the flowers, "Do you think Calypso will like these? I heard she really likes Birds of Paradise."

Annabeth's face fell, she gulped, "Oh, um, yes. Yes, I think she'll like them very much. They're very pretty."

Percy grinned.

Annabeth pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, "Um, Mr. Jackson. Who exactly is Calypso?"

Percy said, "Calypso Atlas, her uncle owns this huge company, Weight of the World, that supplies us all the building materials we need for all the new projects. They're a really expensive company, but they give my dad a discount since we work them so much. The owner said he'd take fifty percent off all supplies if we help them by building another Weight of the World building here in New York. Calypso's her uncle's right-hand man, and is going to be working closely with us while we do this partnership."

Annabeth nodded, "Oh." She stood up and, from Percy's point of view, thrust his coffee into his hands rather violently, "Well, I need to copy some - stuff." She walked around to the front of her desk and stormed out of the office and into the hall.

Percy blinked, shocked with Annabeth's abrupt departure, but he was too oblivious to notice she wasn't holding any papers to copy when she left.

Mary-Sue walked back into the lobby and saw Percy, "Oh, Mr. Jackson!"

Percy looked at her as she admired the flowers, "Morning, Mary-Sue."

Shelly smiled, "Oh, Mr. Jackson. How did you know Annabeth's favorite flowers are lilies? She absolutely adores this bouquet. You should've seen her face light up when she saw them. It was precious."

Percy blinked, "Um, what?"

Mary-Sue looked at him, "Your present to her? For Administrative Assistants' Day? Did you see Mr. Beckendorf give Silena that giant teddy bear? That was so sweet, but a bouquet of her favorite flowers, that tops it all!" With a final wave, Mary-Sue started to depart to her own office.

Percy blinked, "Mary-Sue...I didn't get Annabeth any flowers-and what the hell is Administrative Assistants' Day?"

Mary-Sue turned around, and sharply, jabbing her finger at Annabeth's calendar, "Administrative Assistants' Day is today! It's a holiday for assistants. That's what Annabeth is." She gestured to the flowers, "Do you mean to say that those aren't for Miss Chase?"

He nodded, slowly, "...Those are for Calypso Atlas." He blinked.

Mary-Sue face palmed, "Oh, darlin', what are we goin' to do with you?"

Percy blinked, finally understanding as he pieced together the situation. Oh shit...

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After a few phone calls and a couple monetary bribes, Percy had a reservation at a high end Japanese restaurant and a custom made Happy Administrative Assistants' Day card - to be delivered in less than an hour by Speedy Delivery (or it was 50% off.)

Now that Percy had realized the situation, Annabeth's hostile body language was quite noticeable. She seemed really tense, and more than once, he had seen her pencil snap in half as she was writing from her death-like grip.

He really screwed it up this time. It was almost like he forgot Mother's Day or something, not that he thought of Annabeth as his mom. She probably thought he was a douche bag, and he felt like one. Annabeth kept his schedule, and essentially the whole company, from falling apart.

He needed to fix this fast or soon all of his files were going to end up being shredded by an angry Annabeth. He saw his chance to surprise her while she was in the break room having some coffee.

Percy had longed since put the bouquet of flowers in his office (since they were clearly a reminder of the present Percy didn'tget her, and he really thought she wouldn't want to be reminded of that while she angrily snapped pencils. He replaced the flowers with her card on her desk.

Annabeth returned from the break room, surprised to see Percy sitting in her swivel chair, "Do you need something Mr. Jackson?" She said, coolly.

Percy nodded, grinning (Annabeth wanted to smack that condescending grin of his face), "Actually I do. I need you to let me give this to you. Happy Administrative Assistants' Day." He handed her the card.

He couldn't help a triumphant grin from spreading across his face as he saw her shoulder's relax and one of her cute half smiles grace her lips.

She looked at the card and her expression softened, "Oh, thank you, Mr. Jackson."

His grinned was enlarged.

"I didn't even realize they made Happy Administrative Assistants' Day cards."

Percy chuckled, "Actually, they don't. I had it custom made."

She looked up at him, "You had this made for me?"

He grinned, sheepishly, not knowing why a red blush was creeping across his cheeks.

Annabeth smiled, folding the card and slipping it back into the envelope, "Thank you, Mr. Jackson. I really appreciate it. Anyway, remember you have that board mee-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, we're not done yet."

"Oh?"

Percy grinned, once more (He was doing an awful lot of grinning today.) "I'm taking you out to lunch."

"Oh, Mr. Jackson, really, you don't have to-"

"No, no, I want to. What else could I do for my favorite assistant?"

"I'm your only assistant."

"And if I had another one, you'd be my favorite," Percy chuckled, "Right...so, um. Let's go."

Annabeth grabbed her jacket and her purse and joined Percy in the elevator, "So where are you taking me?"

"It's a surprise."

Annabeth said, "Oh, really?" Damn, you, Annabeth. Quit flirting!

Percy nodded, smirking, "Don't worry, everyone loves my surprises. Crap...This is so messed up. I'm flirting with someone on my payroll.

He pressed the ground floor button and the elevator doors closed.

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