The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 20

Cassie spent most of the morning on her knees. The hard marble tiling of the floor of Felix’s office might have been pretty to look at but it was hell to have to kneel on it as she sorted through the mountain of paper on the ground.

She had only gotten a few minutes off from kneeling and arranging when she had to run over to other departments in Tech Town to deliver the papers that didn’t belong in Felix’s office. She put the very last folder into the filing cabinet and managed to walk over to the rug in the middle of the room to let her body drop to the ground as if she were a discarded rag doll. She hung her arm over her head to protect her eyes from the bright fluorescent light in the ceiling. She had no idea that being a personal assistant would have been that hard and tedious.

She didn’t even bother getting up from the ground when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. “Why are you on the floor?” Felix asked, his voice filled with equal parts amusement and irritation. He had seen a lot of things in his life but a woman lying wearily on the carpet. She had slung her arm over her face but her pouty pink lips had escaped the covering. Her brown hair was splayed out beneath her like a luscious curtain. Felix found it a bit surprising how she still managed to look moderately pretty while resting on a carpet that hadn’t been vacuumed since the start of the month.

Cassie was well aware that lying on the floor with all her limbs splayed out was probably not a good look on her first day of work but she was really beyond caring. Tech Town might have had a properly functioning elevator and air conditioning system but those two factors only helped to make her job marginally better. She still had to locate the various offices that the folders might have belonged to. The elevator might have taken her up and down the building but it couldn’t help to take her along the vast hallways of the building. Her feet ached from walking, her throat was sore from having to ask for directions multiple times and her fingers were riddled with paper cuts.

“I’m tired.” She whined without looking at him. “I had to run around the building dropping off all those folders in different departments. It was hell.”

She only opened her eyes after she heard him walking away. “Why? You do know that you could have just dropped them in those outboxes in that corner.” He said nonchalantly.

Cassie sat up with a sudden start. “What outboxes?” She asked with narrowed eyes at her boss. He had taken off his jacket and slung it over his chair. Just like back at the Bean House, his sleeves had been rolled up and the first two buttons of his shirt were undone. And somehow, his hair looked shorter. She had to squint at him to ensure that she wasn’t just seeing things. His hair was actually shorter! Had he gone out to get a haircut while she had slaved away in his office?

Felix lifted his hands from his laptop’s keyboard long enough to point in a corner. Cassie pulled herself up from the ground and marched towards the corner he had pointed at. She had to remind herself that Felix was her boss and that it was morally wrong for her to drop-kick someone before she opened her mouth to speak. “You didn’t inform me that there are outboxes sir. You said to take the ones that didn’t belong here back to their various departments. I had to search through the entire building looking for all the departments which was made exceptionally difficult by the fact that unfortunately, this company does not have some sort of map.”

Felix had the audacity to scoff at her. “I didn’t mean that you had to do it physically. Maybe if you would have asked more questions, you wouldn't have had to stress yourself so much. What kind of PA doesn’t know what outboxes are? As a matter of fact, what kind of adult in corporate America doesn’t know what outboxes are?” He asked, then he looked up from the lines of code he had been writing. “Wait? What was that last thing you said? Something about the building not having a map?” He asked.

“Yes sir. The building doesn’t have a map and it made locating other offices super difficult. I tried asking the other staff members but it was a Monday morning so everyone else was very busy and barely had the time to answer my questions so I was mostly walking around aimlessly. Personally, I think…”

Felix cut off whatever she was going to say by lifting up his palm and letting out a short shushing sound. “I asked you about the map situation of Tech Town. I didn't ask you to launch into a lengthy account on how difficult your morning was.” He grumbled. “About the map thing, how would that work?”

“Locating the various departments in Tech Town would be a lot easier if the building had a map that showed what was on the various floors.” For some reason, Cassie felt like she was back in high school giving a presentation as she talked to him. “Believe me when I say that it is not fun having to go through every single floor looking for the HR department. If the building had one of those maps that large supermarkets had, life would be so easy.”

“Large supermarkets have maps?”

“They do. Have you never been to a supermarket?” Felix scoffed in response and to Cassie, it seemed like he was deriding the mere idea that she would insinuate that he did his shopping by himself. “Well, in very large supermarkets it’s very easy for people to get lost and confused about what’s on the various aisles. So what most of them do is make a map of the entire layout and put it somewhere close to the supermarket’s entrance and around frequently visited aisles. Most of the regular shoppers, myself included, usually have a picture of this map saved on their phones until we get used to the building’s layout. That way, I don’t have to wander around for ages looking for the cereal aisle. A map would really help new staff members and visitors find their way around. Ooh, and signs on the doors would also be useful. I noticed that only toilet doors and the doors of higher-up members of staff like yourself and someone named Mr. Luther Hart have their signs on them. It would be useful to also have signs on the doors of other members of staff and break rooms”

Felix took in her words for a while. “You have good suggestions. Write it down somewhere and remind me about it by the end of the day.” Felix admitted. “Keep being useful.”

It didn’t particularly sound like a compliment to Cassie but she thanked him all the same.

“Well don’t just stand there aimlessly.” Felix snapped. “We still have a ton of work to do today.” He said as he pulled on his suit jacket.

“We?”

“Yes. We have a meeting that we’re thirteen minutes late for and I need you there to take notes. Come along now.”