The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 18

Cassie’s morning had started on greatly. Maybe she should have known something was very wrong and was going to happen later in the day. She had woken up to the last chime of the grandfather clock in the hallway. Without looking at her phone, she knew it was five o’clock already. Somehow in all her years of living in that house, her body had gotten accustomed to waking her at the fifth chime of the clock; nothing earlier, nothing later. She padded out of the room barefoot, the back of her pajamas slick with the seat. Maybe if she worked really hard, she would soon be able to afford a more functional air conditioner but until then she figured that she would have to contend with waking up in a pool of her own sweat every morning.

She started off with her chores; vacuuming the living room, washing the plates in the sink from the previous night’s dinner, and putting Aaron and Lily’s playthings away. Sweaty from the housework, she heads for the shower after which she meticulously dried her hair the way Robin and Fern had instructed that she did so that it wouldn’t lose any of its colors, shine or bounce. She was about to get dressed when she realized that she shared a house with children, spills were bound to happen one way or another.

She settled on putting on just her skirt and throwing her bathrobe over it. She would dress completely once she was ready to leave. She riffled through the cupboards and mini fridge as she tried to decide what she and her siblings should have for breakfast. She decided on oatmeal for herself and cereal for her siblings. She was still searching for the milk when the clock struck six.

She felt bad all the way to her sibling’s room. Their first class of the day was by nine and the school bus would pass by their house by eight-thirty. Ordinarily, she would have let them sleep until seven thirty but she needed to be out of the house by six thirty. As she couldn’t trust them to wake themselves up at an appropriate time to get ready for school after she had left for work, she had resolved to wake them up before she left. The twins groaned and complained about how early it was when she woke them. Nevertheless, they had taken turns showering and getting themselves ready for school.

“Do you remember how I taught you to lock the doors?” Cassie asked as she ran and began to fasten the buttons on her shirt.

On the days following her latest employment, she had taught them how to lock up the apartment when they left for school. Cassie had realized that as she would be leaving the house before them, both Aaron and Lily needed basic knowledge of some things. She had taught them to turn off all electrical appliances and lock all the doors before they left, then they would have to walk down the street where they would catch the school bus with the three other kids in the neighborhood. Cassie took comfort in knowing that one of her neighbors stood with her kids until the bus came. That way, Aaron and Lily wouldn’t be without adult supervision.

“Yeah,” Aaron answered for himself and his sister who had her mouth too filled with cereal to offer a response.

She ruffled his hair. “Good boy.” She headed out of the house after taking a few minutes to squeeze them in hugs and pepper their faces with kisses. They both pretended to loathe her affection, claiming that they were longer little kids.

Her journey to Tech Town was largely uneventful save for a group of college students protesting global warming. She soon found herself walking through the automatic doors of Tech Town. She expected to see Daniel at the front desk and was grossly disappointed to be greeted by a different woman. It would have been nice to have a familiar face in her new place of work even if the only thing she knew about Daniel was his name.

“Good morning.” She greeted, “My name’s Cassie Peters. I’m the new personal assistant to Mr. Felix Callahan.”

The look of pity the woman gave Cassie made her want to reconsider taking the job. “Ah yes, Miss Peters. Mr. Callahan should be in his office by now. It’s one of the offices on the topmost floor; just keep walking down the hall until you find a door with his name on it.” She instructed.

Cassie thanked her and made her way into the elevator, mumbling all the way up about the shitty music. Once she got to the top floor, she found that the hall was a bit crowded from the people who were filling out from a just-concluded meeting. Daniel was amongst those people. He made a quick excuse to politely end the conversation he had been having with his colleague and walked over to her.

“Hey.” She greeted,“I didn’t see you downstairs. I thought you had a day off or something.”

Daniel shrugged. “I wish. I mean I love my job but I love days off more.” He admitted. “Fun fact: I’m not actually the receptionist. I’m actually the head of the marketing department. They just put me downstairs on the day of the interview because I was bored and I have a very good judge of character. They thought I’d be able to tell the good people from the assholes and seeing as you’re here, I’d say that I did a decent job.” He said with a wink. “So are you ready to meet the boss?”

Cassie shot him a nervous smile. “It’s not like I have any other choice.” Ever since she had found out that Felix Callahan, the Ice King, her new boss, and the customer that Diana had called an asshole were all the same guy, she couldn’t help wondering if he remembered her from that day at the café.

Daniel nodded in agreement. “I should get going, but before I leave, I think you should know that all of Mr. Callahan’s previous PAs used to get him a cup of coffee every morning. He likes his coffee…”

“Black.” Cassie finished.