A.N: In which Jellal is a sucessful CEO and Erza rushes in late to her job interview with a coffee stain on her shirt and he is attracted to her.
His first impression of Erza Scarlet was of her breathless, with messy hair and with a coffee stain on her otherwise pristine shirt. In the first few seconds, he knew he was in too deep.
"M-Mr. Fernandes!" Her voice, high-pitched midst her distress, was melodic and sweet, a voice he wouldn't mind listening to talk about the simplest of concepts. "I…I didn't know my interview would directly be with you…"
Seeing the embarrassment on her face, he did his best to offer the scarlet-haired beauty a smile of reassurance. "Yes, I enjoy getting to know all my workers. That includes the newer employees…though your resume made me especially curious about you."
He was about to continue speaking, when he noticed she was still standing, folders held in her hands and haphazardly trying to shield the coffee stains on her shirt. He cursed himself, having realized he didn't invite her to sit down.
"Oh, forgive me Ms, Scarlet, have a seat!" He gave her an apologetic look, heart thumping an erratic rhythm as she smiled back at him. God, that smile could light up cities. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he waited for her to be seated comfortably before formally beginning the interview.
"Any particular reason you stepped away from Magi-Council Corporations?" That had been the biggest surprise on her resume. Jellal hadn't expected such a prestigious company to show up anywhere on the papers he'd been assessing, but Erza Scarlet had been one of their best analysts. One of the best, from one of the best companies in Japan.
Naturally, he'd thought it was too good to be true. But she was here, in all her coffee-stained glory, and he couldn't help but bathe in her radiance. He wanted to get to know her on a more personal level, wanted to know how she liked her coffee and want she loved best in the world.
"I had a bit of a fallout with the CEO, regarding some…personal investments of his," she explained, voice darkening at the mention of the man running her now previous company. Faust, he knew the man was called. Whether or not it was his real name was debatable. He frowned, knowing that the phrase 'personal investments', in this context, could only mean something illegal.
"You were fired?" He asked, leaning forward in his seat.
A faint smile had her lips curving upwards, and she shook her head. "He knew better; no one knows their assets, and their sponsors, better than I do. I quit, walked out the day I found out what he was doing with all of the hard-earned money."
He nodded slowly, her words sinking in. Of course, as their head analyst, she would know every detail about their company. Faust knew that; considering there was no contract holding her down, there was certainly nothing stopping her from spilling his secrets to her next employer.
"Have you mentioned anything of this to your family?" And there it was, the mention of her relatives. As the sister of Laxus Dreyar, adopted into the family by the famed Makarov Dreyar, she could've immersed herself into the family business.
"I did bring up the personal investments with my friends in the police department, but the assets and whatnot? I'm having dinner with my brother soon, I certainly might drop a few hints…not that he needs them, of course."
He chuckled. "Of course not. For my own curiosity's sake, though…why didn't you go into the family business? It's one of the top industries in the, well, region."
"I wanted to make a name for myself," she punctuated her words with a small shrug, eyes twinkling. "Erza Dreyar? Would not have been able to do so…which is why I started using my middle name as my last name."
"The first name was familiar, but the last name was not," he admitted, recalling his slight confusion. He had waved it off as a coincidence, that the woman applying for the recently opened analyst position was not the same as Laxus' sister. "Well, Ms. Scarlet, you were certainly the most qualified out of all the applicants. I would be a fool to turn you down. Welcome to Sorciere Intel."
He wasn't prepared for the mega-watt smile that lit up her face as he gave her the job, blinking in surprise. How he had managed to fall even more in love with her in the last few seconds of their meeting was beyond him, but he was above questioning it. These sort of things…could not be questioned.
As she thanked him profusely, before turning and leaving, he couldn't stop a small smile from forming on his lips.
He was definitely excited to see her everyday. Coffee stains or not.