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Of Corporate Scandals

Chapter 22. Trouble in Paradise

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"This presentation was very impressive, Mr. Jackson, and we're very keen about this partnership with," the CEO of Party Ponies announced to the board of Open Seas, Inc. The man, Chiron, wheeled in his wheelchair around the conference table. "However, to be completely transparent, one of you competitors, Wisdom Enterprises, has sent in a very competitive offer to us as well."

Annabeth sat to Percy's right, typing up the meeting minutes. It was rather stuffy in the boardroom. They were on the 14th floor of the hotel, which was full of meeting and convention spaces. The Miami sun beat into floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the largest conference room.

"Yes, the board is well aware you've gotten multiple offers. I can assure you that a partnership with Open Seas will be much more beneficial and profitable," Percy stated to the prospective investors.

Annabeth smirked as she typed away on her keyboard. Percy was killing it and it was really doing something for her.

"Actually," Percy continued, "I had my team crunch the numbers to compare our productivity to Wisdom Enterprises, and we can show you to how we're superior to our competitor, Miss Chase, if you please."

"That went really well, actually," Percy stated as he shrugged off his suit jacket. The rest of the board members filed out of the room, eager to escape for a break after a morning full of meetings and presentations.

Annabeth handed him back his coffee, "I agree. You were great."

Percy grinned, "Thank you." He leaned in to press his lips against hers, but Annabeth pushed him away.

"Ah, ah, not here."

"Fine," Percy sighed, "Oh, I actually left my laptop in the lounge, could you go grab it? I still need to finish signing these papers."

"Sure thing."

Annabeth navigated her way through the halls to the lounge. As she was about to round the corner, she heard some voices chatting.

"…I can't believe he actually thinks they'd take him seriously. He's a child, did he even finish business school?"

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, peaking around the corner. She saw the other board members of Open Seas sitting around.

Ethan Nakamura, executive director of their West Coast sales, laughed coldly, "Come on, guys, like what 'daddy' said, give him a chance!"

"Ugh, I know right," Khione, another board member, rolled her eyes, "I can't believe Poseidon had us even entertain him. Nepotism baby!"

They all murmured their disapproving agreements. Annabeth gasped, they were talking about Percy. She frowned. She knew in the past, Percy hadn't taken his job seriously, acting as more of a figurehead who hadn't been involved in the day-to-day operations until recently, but she'd thought he'd actually done very well today.

"And that assistant of his," Khione continued, "what was that all about?"

Ethan rolled his eyes, "He couldn't keep his eyes off of her the entire meeting."

"Oh, yes," Medusa, one of Open Seas' largest investors chimed in, "He's definitely sleeping with her."

The board members gasped in delight. "Oh my gods, of course Percy Jackson would be fucking his assistant. That's the most on brand thing I've ever heard," Khione jumped in again.

"That's just what this company needs," Ethan groaned, "Another scandal because of him. I bet he loves the press."

The group erupted into laughter.

Annabeth's jaw dropped. She didn't hear whatever they had to say next because she was already fleeing down the hallway. She felt sick to her stomach. She knew their relationship was a risk, but to her, there was always a clear out. Once she graduated and started working as an architect, there wouldn't be a conflict of interest. She'd never thought of it from Percy's side, it was such a bad look for the boss to be hooking up with his secretary.

"Hey, you okay?"

Annabeth felt a hand on her shoulder as she stood in the courtyard of the hotel. She turned around, "Oh, shit, I'm sorry I forgot to grab your laptop."

"It's fine, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," she waved him off, "Just getting some air, it was stuffy in that room." Annabeth smiled to reassure him.

There was a gentle ocean breeze that swayed the palm trees that lined the hotel.. Wisps of her hair blew in front of her face, glinting in the sunlight. Percy absentmindedly brushed them away.

"So what do you want to do now? We have an entire afternoon free," Annabeth said, itching to get her work attire off and into a swimsuit. She checked her watch, "We could go grab some lunch."

"Actually, Miss Chase, I do believe I left something in our room," Percy said, grinning.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, already dragging him towards the elevator.

"There!" Annabeth tugged Percy with her and dived behind a hedge in the parking lot.

The young, couple squeezed in the cramped space between a bush and a red, mini-cooper as they regained their breath.

Annabeth joked weakly, "Well, it was fun while it lasted."

Percy was not amused.

Annabeth rested her hand on his chest while they waited out their pursueers. Within a few moments, they heard a few shouts and the squeal of van tires driving away, "I think they're gone."

Their escape had happened so quickly that Annabeth's hair was still damp and their bags were spilling out with their belongings.

Percy took her hand and helped her up from crouching position. Annabeth readjusted her large sun hat.

Basically, the paparazzi ruined their afternoon.

After their busy morning of meetings and conferences, Annabeth was determined to have a relaxing beach day. (She had already tried to forgot the conversations she'd overhead as not to ruin their spring break.)

They'd found a cute café on the boardwalk for lunch before finding a spot on the crowded shore. Annabeth figured that with so many tourists and beach-goers around, they could blend into the crowd. With a large sun-hat for Annabeth and over-sized sunglasses for Percy, they were just another pair of spring breakers in the crowd.

Annabeth spread out her beach towel and slipped on her shades. She toted along her current read, Architecture Through the Ages: Volume I Ancient Greece, a picnic basket full of drinks, and sun tan lotion.

After getting Percy to cover her back with sunscreen (all she had to do was ask), Annabeth stretched out on her stomach and propped open her book. She rested her head on her arm and glanced towards the ocean, smiling, as she watched Percy immediately run straight into the waves with his surfboard, laughing like a little kid.

She sighed, contentedly, enjoying the sunlight beating down on her back. Manhattan was still gloomy when they'd left, and she was so excited to come back bronzed and sunkissed. She even appreciated the looks a group of college boys playing sand volleyball a few yards away from where she was sunbathing.

Annabeth was on chapter 7 (Corinthinian pillars) when Percy ran back to their spot, his rental surfboard in tow.

"Come join me!" Percy said, wet locks plastered to his forehead and dripping seawater onto her back.

"I don't know how to surf," She looked up, shading her eyes from the sun.

Percy ploppted down on the towel beside her, scattering sand onto her legs, "I'll teach you."

She melted seeing how happy and carefree here at the water, "Fine." She sat up, ditching her hate and shades. He took her hand, dragging her into the waves.

Annabeth laughed as they stumbled into the water. The afternoon sun had already warmed the water near the shore. Annabeth tied her hair up, "Don't splash me, Percy. I don't want to get my hair wet."

Percy scoffed, "Yeah, sure. Of course your hair won't get wet by surfing."

Annabeth splashed him, sticking her tongue out at him.

Beginner's luck was not something that Annabeth had while surfing. Percy taught her the basics and she learned them rather quickly. The paddling was easy, sure, but when Percy first brought her out to the shallow waves, her wipeout did not spare her hair.

Annabeth had always been athletic, her reflexes and balances suited for physical activities, but Percy was something else in the water. He was so confident and at ease in the ocean, with a grace her clumsy, goofy boyfriend didn't usually have.

Apparently other people noticed, too. Particularly girls. Several times Annabeth caught several bikini-clad spring breakers waving at Percy. She rolled her eyes, gripping his arm in possessiveness.

After Annabeth wiped out for the tenth time, she emerged from the water, growling, "Uh!" She spat seawater out of her mouth and swept her bangs aside.

Percy flicked a piece of seaweed off of her shoulder, laughing, "Come on, you'll get it. Don't give up now."

Annabeth scoffed, "Who said anything about giving up?" She grabbed the surfboard once more and glared out at the waves. Percy could see the gears turning in her head as she calculated her thoughts.

After a few moments, Annabeth hoisted herself up onto the board and began paddling. It was a smaller swell, but she took it head on. She stayed upright much longer than all the other times, before slipping off the board when the wave died. However, this time, she was laughing. She swam over to Percy.

"That was awesome!" Percy treaded in the water next to her. Percy was still much more experienced than her, but it was rather impressive for a person who just learned that day.

"It's simple physics. Balance. Weight distribution."

"Don't turn this into a physics lecture, Chase/"

They both tired after a few more waves, and returned back to their spot on the beach. The seagulls had invaded the sand around them, (Someone had dropped a hot dog and lured the birds their way) but a bit of shooing cleared their area.

Percy collapsed onto the towel and grabbed a Coke from the basket. Annabeth dried off a bit and slipped on a cover-up on top of her bikini and rested her head on his shoulder. She checked her phone. It was almost 3 o'clock and a light, afternoon breeze was starting to blow away the heat of day.

"Percy! Percy Jackson! Over here!"

Annabeth and Percy sat up suddenly, startled. A group of photographers hoisting their large cameras were weaving through the beach-goers attempting to get to them.

"Shit." Percy muttered, quickly getting to his feet.

"How the hell did they find us?" Annabeth scrambled to her feet and started gathering their stuff, hastily shoving everything into the picnic basket.

"I don't know, we gotta go!" They caused quite a commotion trying to escape the paparazzi. Tourists yelled in surprise as they ran past them, stirring up sand and yelling apologies as they fled. It ended up working to their advantage since angry sorority girls blocked paparazzi like no other.

"Uh, Annabeth. I never knew sand could end up in so many places on my body," Annabeth heard Percy call from the bathroom.

"Ew, you're disgusting," Annabeth laughed, stretching as she changed in the bedroom. Her legs were still cramped from crouching in the beach parking lot, where they'd waited out the paparazzi.

She'd showered for a long time, washing away all the dirt from the ocean. She pulled on one of Percy's t-shirts and threw her hair up in a ponytail.

Percy walked out of the bathroom wearing a towel hanging low on his hips. He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.

"Go put some clothes on, you pervert," Annabeth said as she put away her toiletries.

Percy pulled her hair out of its ponytail, "I like it when you wear your hair down."

Annabeth smacked his hand away, taking the elastic back, "Don't touch." She retied her hair, sticking her tongue out at him.

Percy chuckled as he wandered back into the bathroom to change.

Annabeth climbed into bed and snuggled under all the blankets. She flipped on the TV and grabbed the room service menu, intent on spending the rest of the evening in gorging on food from hotel's restaurant.

The TV was on an entertain news channel, perfect mindless background noise. "What do you want me to order?" she called.

"Uhh," he called, his voice echoing off the bathroom tile, "Burger and fries."

"You had that yesterday," Annabeth said, flipping through the dinner menu.

"And what about it? Don't forget coke and an ice cream too!"

"I do not understand how you have abs," Annabeth muttered, picking up the hotel phone to order.

"Today was actually kind of fun."

"And why is that?" Annabeth was only half listening as something on the television caught her eye.

"You know, dodging those damn photographers," Percy said, walking out of the bathroom.

"Hey, come look at this, " She trailed off as she was turning up the volume on Celebrity Look Out.

Annabeth's eyes widened as she stared at the TV screen in horror.

A/N: (Revised May 2022) I don't remember writing this chapter, but it most definitely inspired by the Disney Channel Original Movie Starstruck.