The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 31

“I’m sorry I’m late!” Cassie yelled, as a manner of greeting as she pushed open the door to Books-A-Plenty, dragging Aaron and Lily behind her.

The woman who had been pushing off the last of the bookstore’s dirt into a dustpan looked up and smiled. Amanda Collins was an old friend of Cassie’s mum who ran Books-A-Plenty alongside her novelist husband, Timothy. She had been much older than Cassie’s mum but the two of them had gotten along well. Amanda had given Cassie her first job in the bookstore when she was just thirteen and Cassie had found it hard to quit ever since then. Hence, her shifts had changed from two hours after school to as long as she felt like on Sundays. Back when Cassie’s parents were still alive, Amanda had voluntarily babysat for them and had done it without pay, claiming that they were the ones doing her a favor as all of her grandchildren lived too far away to be properly babied. After Mr. and Mrs. Peters had passed, leaving Cassie to care for the twins, Amanda had been all too eager to take them off Cassie’s hands whenever the need arose.

“It’s no problem,” Amanda assured. “I’m guessing it’s because of those two.” She asked pointing the end of the broomstick at the twins.

Cassie glared at her siblings and they both squirmed under her gaze. They had both thought it wise to draw on her face and the walls of the house with permanent marker! When Cassie had awoken, she had been understandably furious and it had taken her hours to get the ink off her face. Both Aaron and Lily had gotten a stern talk too. They might have been kids but she felt they should have known better. The walls of their house still bared the twins’ assault and Cassie wondered if it would be easier to paint over the ink or attempt to wash it off.

If she decided to paint over the ink, she might want to be lazy and just dab the paint on the particular spots the twins had drawn over but doing that would make the walls have two different shades of paint. Painting over the walls would be complete hell as it would take ages to dry and the entire house would have that weird chemical smell of paint for days. The other option was to try to wash it off but Cassie didn’t have the physical or mental strength for that. There had been ink on the ceiling! How the fuck had they managed to draw on the ceiling?!

“Unfortunately,” Cassie admitted as she let go of their hands. The twins scurried off into the bookstore to check whether Timothy would have the time to read them a story. Cassie’s expression lightened. “I keep telling you to use the Roomba. It’s much easier than having to physically sweep every inch of this place.”

Amanda scoffed as she disposed of the dirt. “As long as my arms and feet are working, I’m not about to rely on some sucking machine to clean up my bookstore for me.” She protested. She slipped behind the counter and began to sort the store’s new supply of assorted bookmarks.

Cassie rolled her eyes. The only reason Amanda didn’t use the Roomba that one of her daughters had gotten her for Christmas was that she didn’t know how to and was too proud to admit it. “Has Isabel come by here this morning?”

Amanda stopped what she was doing and pursed her lips. Neither Isabel nor Cassie had ever told her of the exact nature of Isabel’s job at Club Indigo but Amanda had been able to correctly guess that Isabel didn’t waitress there as Cassie had. It had been the difference in their dressing that had given Isabel away. All the times Amanda had seen the two best friends whenever they were getting ready for their shift at Club Indigo, Cassie had been dressed in a white sleeveless button-down shirt with sparkly skin-tight pants to work while Isabel typically wore large coats and sparkly make-up no matter what the weather was like. It didn’t take long for Amanda to discover that the reason Isabel was always dressed like that was that she was always wearing something skimpy underneath her coat. Without anyone telling her, Amanda was able to deduce that Isabel was a prostitute and not a waiter at Club Indigo. She had never openly disapproved of Indigo’s job, but Cassie knew by the look on her face that she wasn’t Isabel’s biggest supporter.

“I haven’t seen her today,” Amanda answered.

Cassie nodded and grabbed an armful of books on the counter that previous customers had neglected to return to their shelves. She started arranging the books, hearing the giggles and exclamations of the twins from deep inside the bookstore where Timothy was probably reading a book to them.

She had just put the last book on the shelves when she felt a light tap from behind. She spun around to see Isabel smiling at her. She was dressed simply in a pink blouse and a wrap skirt. A purple backpack was slung over one shoulder.

“So Amanda still doesn’t like me.” She sighed.

Cassie elbowed her friend. “She’ll get around. She’s just a bit old fashion.” She explained.

Isabel sighed and followed her friend deeper into the bookstore, away from disapproving Amanda and the giggling twins. Both friends flopped down on bean bags, a beep from her phone in her backpack. Isabel sighed and fished out her phone and medicine pack. “So you said there was incredibly hot gossip from work?” She asked as she viewed the reminder on her phone. The app Cassie had built for her was reminding her to check and take her insulin.

“Yeah. Some girl from named Sapphire showed up at Felix’s office while he was away.”