This has to be a joke which, in all honesty, sucks. Caroline still stood in the middle of the room, clenching her purse and secretly wishing she had a parachute instead so she could jump out of the window while singing Pocketful of Sunshine and dancing around on the rooftops. She saw Elijah's expression turning into one of sheer confusion as she and Klaus had a staring competition lasting for what seemed to be an eternity. Klaus, on the other hand, seemed to be utterly thrilled and even enjoying himself as his brow rose and his grin widened. I could be at home now, watching Pitch Perfect and nailing that song with a cup.
"Did I miss something, brother?" It was Elijah who broke the silence and addressed Klaus hoping to get some answers, yet something told Caroline that his brother wasn't the one to start sharing.
"Not at all, Elijah. I presume this is lovely Caroline who would help me with my daily duties?" This time Caroline's eyebrow rose as she definitely wasn't expecting Klaus to be so… Normal. Maybe it was only the media that made him look like a complete jerk? Talented jerk, off course, but a jerk nonetheless. And, anyway, who wouldn't be angry if some klutz would've gotten hot coffee all over them while on their way to work? Klaus' casual demeanor was somewhat soothing and she could feel the knot in her stomach loosening up just a bit.
"Caroline Forbes. It's a pleasure, Mister Mikaelson." She finally spoke and took few steps holding her hand out for him to shake. A wide smile was curving her lips just because she allowed herself to hope that working for him wasn't such a bad thing. And Elijah really meant what he said when mentioning that she would learn from the best.
"Please, call me Klaus." He cast a quick glance at her hand yet didn't move as much as a muscle to accept her greeting, leaving her standing there awkwardly for a moment before she ran a hand through her hair – the lamest gesture to hide awkwardness known to humanity. "It will be a definite pleasure, Miss Forbes, don't you doubt that."
Klaus was like a more sinister and twisted version of Damon; but where Damon was painfully blunt and honest, Klaus masked his evilness with politeness, charm and an accent to die for. She could almost see why all the top models and celebrities fell for him and why he always had a different woman accompanying him to every public event he went to. Yet probably no one stayed for long enough so to witness his snake-like attitude. At some point Caroline hoped that she was only imagining things and tried to convince herself that she didn't even know the man; that, however, didn't change the fact that she wasn't looking forward to spending time in his company.
"I will have Katherine bring the paperwork. In the meantime, brother, why don't you show Miss Forbes to her desk?" Elijah did try his best to break the tension even if he was completely oblivious to what was happening. Somehow she saw him as Klaus' moral compass of sorts and only God knew what Klaus would be like without Elijah reminding him what the socially acceptable protocol of employment was.
"Very well. Follow me." Klaus spun around on his heel and strutted out of the office and into the corridor without even giving her a chance to catch up with him. Caroline could swear she saw that in the movie – a young naïve girl following a man through dark mazes; the twist was that no one ever saw that poor girl again. She shook her head trying to get rid of ridiculous thoughts that were pestering her more than it should.
"Miss Forbes." Elijah called silently as she was almost out of the door, making Caroline stop and swing around in hope that he changed his mind or finally decided to come clean that this all was just an act. "Just be… Patient with him."
She saw a shimmer of concern in his eyes that left her wandering who he was concerned about. Was it a complete stranger or was it his brother that didn't seem to be the type to play well with others? Maybe it was the fact that she'd watched too much of Sherlock over the weekend, but the circumstances told her that there was something hiding behind the riches and the success. Or was it someone?
Nodding once again, this time allowing a genuine smile slip across her lips, Caroline hurried out of the office just in time to catch a glimpse of Klaus' back disappearing from around the corner. He wasn't about to let her catch a break, was he? She rolled her eyes and had to practically run just so to catch up with him even if he didn't as much as cast a glance at her and simply made his way to the very end of the corridor and slipped through the door into an office that was oh so different from Elijah's.
Where Elijah's office was bright, spacious and tidy, Klaus' seemed to be littered with papers and binders scattered all over the black marble floor. His desk was even more of a mess – piles upon piles of books and empty cups of coffee covered the most of the surface leaving only in inch of space and that probably was just so he could hoist his feet up on the table when smoking a cigar, having a glass of scotch and putting together a plan for world domination.
"Your desk." He motioned towards the corner of the room to something that she initially thought being just an extremely high stack of papers. Caroline had to admit – she wasn't that type of a girl who loved all of her things in a perfect order, but this was a bit too much even for her.
"Well, it's been a while since the last time I sat on a throne of paper." She murmured under her nose but apparently it was audible enough for Klaus to hear as he swung around to look at her momentarily, making Caroline chew the inside of her cheek and cast a goofy smile his way. "And I'm saying it with all the respect in the world, Mister Mikaelson."
"Good; because you're free to sit in the corridor if you'd like, love." His offer had just the right amount of disdain to make her feel even smaller and less important than she already was.
Love? Who does he think he is? My pimp? She had few more colorful names for him already spinning on the very tip of her tongue, yet she managed to keep them her little secret instead. As Klaus turned around and walked to his desk Caroline allowed herself to take a better look around the office and in all honesty – it wasn't so terrible. Off course it could've used some sprucing up, yet now she noticed breathtakingly beautiful paintings hanging on the walls and one in particular got her full attention. It was a portrait of a woman, yet she looked more like a goddess – waves of thick brown hair were falling around her heart-shaped face, her eyes were as brown as molten chocolate with specks of gold dust and it left her wandering whether it was the detail she was painted with or her own beauty that was more astonishing.
Someone clearing their throat right behind her made Caroline jump, yet it was only Katherine with a stack of papers in her hand and the same sinister grin that was plastered all over her face the first time she saw her; only now Caroline knew the reason behind it – Katherine was well aware of the position Caroline would be offered and she wasn't very subtle while hiding her glee.
"Please sign these." She handed her the papers and left the office without another word. Well, the girl was living in her own little universe or so it seemed and Caroline sighed for a moment completely oblivious that she wasn't alone in the office.
"Problems, Miss Forbes?" Klaus' voice caused the hair on the back of her neck stand — that's how uncomfortable she felt around him — yet she shook her head and made her way towards the desk, looking at it for a moment before placing her contract on top of what seemed to be a homicide case. Caroline fished out a pen out of her purse and after skimming through the agreement she pressed the tip of it to where her signature had to be yet still hesitated as it felt almost like signing a deal with the devil.
"I hope you can write, love, because an assistant without basic skills is just as good as one of our cleaners." Caroline closed her eyes and took a deep breath instead of lashing out on him even if she was itching to do so. Something about him just turned all of her thoughts into plots of how to kill someone without being caught. It was as if she was having an allergic reaction to everything that left his mouth and to his presence as well; and only the idea of actually having to live under the bridge pulled the common sense from the back of her head and she signed all bazillion of copies in a whim.
"I can write, thank you very much." Caroline retorted and tried not to focus on the fact of just how childish it sounded like.
"I'm simply itching to unravel the rest of your rare talents." His voice was monotonic and laced in dose of sarcasm that would've been almost deadly if she didn't have her threshold up and ready to deflect whatever left his mouth. Silently she thanked Damon for being in her life and helping her acquire that remarkable asset by being a complete jerk. "Yet time is money and mine is very expensive, love. If you'll excuse me, I need to leave for the day and since you have all the time in the world, please do spend it on tidying this place up."
And with that he was gone out of the office and into his glamorous life of apparently scheming and causing emotional pain for everyone around him. Caroline sighed and allowed herself to drop her cheery act and contemplate the fact that she wasn't there to learn – she was there to clean and run errands while Klaus was in the courtroom making history in the world of law.
"You hate him too, don't you?" She questioned the girl in the painting feeling like this was less crazy than the fact that she agreed to work there willingly. Caroline was stuck there with at least five hours to kill and she had a feeling that the conversation with a painting could go for only that long and so — even if it was against her own nature — she started sorting through files an papers stacked on her desk first. For all she cared, Klaus could've drowned in his own mess yet she wasn't about to let him drag her with him.
…
"He made me clean his office, Josh! Who the heck does he think I am? A maid?" Caroline finished her third glass of vodka on the rocks and pointed her finger at it for a refill. "And you know what is even worse? He calls me love; like I'm some kind of a street walker."
Caroline felt like blowing off steam in her favorite bar owned by Josh himself who she liked from the very first glass she drank there while having fun with Elena and Bonnie. It was a tiny place right around the corner from her apartment and even if the clientele was somewhat shady she didn't care because Josh was a perfect example of a bartender and she considered him the only friend she had in New York.
"Is he really that bad?" Josh questioned while filling her glass with a refill and watching her with a little smile curving his lips.
"Go away, I hate you." She retorted making Josh burst to laughter yet he listened to her and went to attend other people drinking needs.
She felt her head getting empty and her tongue getting heavier with ever sip, but that was precisely what she needed that night. She was grateful that her apartment was only steps away as alcohol and heels was a deadly combination, but then again – she wasn't planning on leaving soon and maybe there was an amount of alcohol after which she wouldn't even care if she broke a heel; or her neck.
"Bad day? A voice coming from beside her made Caroline turn her head just to see a young man sitting right next to her.
"That's one way to put it." She answered and swallowed another burning mouthful wishing that it would burn her lousy day as well. "But I can think of much more colorful words to describe it."
"Well then, next drink is on me. I feel that you could use another one." He winked, yet it wasn't one of those nasty winks that other patrons gave her every once in a while. He was somewhat charming and instead of blocking him Caroline decided to pay him a bit of her intoxicated attention. "I'm Jesse, by the way."
"Jesse, you're a man, right?" Her question seemed to take him off-guard but before he could protest Caroline's mouth was open again and words spiked with vodka were pouring out of it. "Tell me - are all men so pretentious and evil, and atrocious altogether?"
"You tell me." He shrugged yet he didn't seem to be offended at all. Probably her being drunk was a free-pass to be as offensive as she wanted to be. Or maybe it was the fact that no one really cared what the drunken girl was babbling about as long as she smiled charmingly and was willing to spend few moments while flirting and looking pretty.
"I say that being a jerk is a part of your nature. It's like that Y chromosome comes with a 'jerk' written all over it." Her tongue was getting heavier with every word resulting in her last sentence coming out in a slur even though she tried her best accentuate the word jerk and for all she cared – that was exactly the point.
"Way to make a man feel good about himself." Jesse laughed once again and waved his hand at the bartender as if signaling him not to give any drinks to Caroline anymore. No matter what his true intentions were – it earned him couple of good points in Caroline's book and in addition it restored some faith in all male population as well.
"Tell me on thing, Jesse. Do you call random woman love?" She furrowed her eyebrows in question as if it was something as important as affairs of the White House. Propping her head on the elbow she watched his expression being colored in ten shades of confusion and maybe a wish that it was only a joke, yet Caroline didn't laugh but quirked her eyebrow instead.
"No ma'am." Jesse finally answered without as much as a second of hesitation, proving to Caroline that he indeed meant it. No matter what her reasoning behind such question was, she managed to smile somewhat crookedly and leaned in so close to him that there were only inches separating their faces.
"Well then, I might just as well marry you."