The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 34

When Cassie returned to Felix’s office, Bethany was just polishing off the rest of her salad. “Took you long enough.” She scoffed once her eyes spotted the bottle and glass in Cassie’s hands. “Pour me a glass.” She ordered.

There was a brief struggle as Cassie tried to open the bottle of Chardonnay but when she eventually got the tight cork out, she filled the champagne glass halfway and then handed Bethany the glass.

Bethany examined the glass closely as if she were checking if it had been poisoned. “Do I look like a child or like someone who cannot hold her liquor?” She inquired. “This shit is half-empty. When I ask you to pour me a glass, Cleo, I expect you to fill up the entire glass.” She said, as she held out the glass.

Cassie sighed. She had no idea if Bethany was purposely refusing to say her actual name or if the woman didn’t care enough to actually commit the two syllables that made up Cassie’s name to memory, but the act was annoying to say the least. She moved closer to Bethany and began to pour more wine into the glass. Bethany kept demanding that Cassie added more wine to the glass until it was so full that the wine poured over her when she brought the cup to her lips.

Bethany smacked her lips when she finally stopped drinking. “Ah. That’s the stuff.” She exclaimed. She had managed to down half of the glass’ contents in one large gulp. She squinted at Cassie. “Why is that eye red? Do you have some kind of infection? You better not let it spread to me.” She warned.

“It’s not infected.” She assured. At least she hoped it wasn’t infected. Was it possible for the lime squirt to infect her eye? Cassie gingerly felt her right eye. It still stung a bit from the lime juice that had accidentally gone into it. “A bit of lime got into it while I was chopping it up.”

If she expected Bethany to be remotely sympathetic, she was largely disappointed as the vile woman let out a sharp chuckle. “Ha. Next time be more careful. The more lime that gets into your eyes, the less there is for me to add to my salad. It gives it quite a unique taste, you know. I read about it in a magazine.” She said, as she put the last forkful of her salad into her mouth.

Cassie stared at the containers in front of Bethany. The larger one which had held the salad was currently empty but the smaller one still had the limes in it. Bethany had only squeezed two out of the numerous slices into her salad. “You didn’t use all of the slices?” She asked, disappointment inevitably creeping into her voice.

Bethany scoffed at her. “Dear God, no. If I did that then the lime would have tasted tart and acidic. No one wants their salad to taste like that.” Then she looked down at her wet bosom as if she didn’t recall when she had previously spilled Chardonnay all over herself like an immature and uncoordinated toddler. “What a shame.” She remarked as she downed the rest of the wine.

She tried to stand up but soon found that suddenly rising after finishing a glass of wine was not a good idea, so she flopped back on the chair. She dragged the zipper of her white pantsuit down and began to wiggle out of it. Cassie averted her eyes to give her some privacy.

After failing around like a hopeless fish stuck on land, Bethany soon found that she was unable to shimmy out of her pantsuit by herself. “Well, don’t just stand there.” She huffed. “Come over here and help me.”

After much pulling and cursing, Cassie was finally able to help Bethany out of her clothes. It was she who had done most of the work, but still Bethany slouched exhaustedly on the couch in nothing but her satin scarf, red bottoms, underwear and shades. Cassie draped the pantsuit over her arm.

“What should I do with this?” She asked.

“Toss it. Burn it. Give it out. I don’t care. It’s out of season anyways.”

“Okay.” Cassie decided there and then that she was going to run the pantsuit through the laundry and gift it to Isabel. She might have to take in the bust area a bit but other than that, it was just the perfect size for her friend. She would have taken it for herself but Bethany was shorter than her and as a result, the pantsuit wouldn’t have gone all the way down to her ankles and would have been tight at the crotch if she attempted to put it on. Isabel was about the same height as Bethany although most people wouldn’t have quickly realized it as she typically wore heels or chunky boots. She folded the jumpsuit and placed it on her table.

Bethany dug around her handbag and brought out her car keys which she jutted in Cassie’s direction. “Go downstairs and look for a black Mercedes. Wait, or was it a blue one?” She mused as stared off into space. “Just look for my car and get me a change of clothes. Then when you get back, take this bottle back to Luther’s office.”