The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 38

Happiness doesn't last forever. Cassie was soon reminded of this fact the next day. She was heading back home from Books-A-Plenty where she had gone to drop off the white jumpsuits for Amanda to amend.

Soon after the twins had left for school, she poured Snowflake a bowl of water and some turkey flavored kibble that she had purchased after her shift at the Bean House. Then, she tossed Bethany’s pantsuit, still faintly smelling of the spilled Chardonnay, into the washing machine. Once it was clean and dry, she tried using a YouTube tutorial to take in the bust for Isabel but after accidentally stabbing her finger with the sewing needle multiple times, she concluded that sewing wasn’t her forte. After getting blood out of the outfit, she headed over to Books-A-Plenty and handed the pantsuit over to Amanda who was the only person she knew that could amend it. Once Amanda learnt that it was to be Isabel's, she was also glad to drop what she was doing to focus on it. She liked the idea of Isabel wearing decent clothing.

Cassie was already half way home when her phone started to ring. She didn't recognize the number calling her, but she picked up anyways.

“Hi, Cassie.” A feminine voice greeted. “This is Annalisa from work. I got your number from HR.”

“Oh hi.” Cassie had never received a call from work before. Did that mean good news or bad news? “Is everything okay over there? Did Mr. Callahan cut his Tokyo conference short?” She asked. That would be bad news as it would mean she would have to resume work for the rest of the week. Judging by the events of the previous day, working for Felix was infinitely better than working for Bethany but she still wasn’t ready to go back to work yet.

“To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Callahan is still in Tokyo.” Annalisa replied. She pretended not to have heard the audible sigh of relief that Cassie released. “But Mrs. Hart wants you at work right now.”

Cassie stopped walking. She must have misheard Annalisa. That was the only logical explanation. There was no way Bethany wanted her at work. That was impossible. She vividly remembered Bethany asking her to come to work the previous day but she had made up her mind on the spot to disregard the orders as she had been sure that Bethany wouldn’t even remember most of the day’s events. Bethany had been really drunk that afternoon. When Cassie had thought about it later, she realized that it was impossible for anyone to have been that drunk from just a single glass of wine; that is except they were a total lightweight. The champagne glass hadn’t even been that big. A rather disgusting thought popped up in her head. Had Bethany snuck in a couple of more extra gulps from the Chardonnay bottle during the times Cassie had been absent from the office and then peed in it to cover up her actions?

“Hello, Cassie? Are you still there?” Annalisa asked.

Cassie shook out of her reverie. “Yeah. Can you repeat the last thing you said? I think I might have misheard you. I heard you saying that Mrs. Hart wanted me at work.”

“You heard me just fine.” Annalisa sighed. “I just got off the phone with her a few minutes ago. She said to ensure that you were at work by the time she got here, or you and I would both be out of a job.”

Cassie took in the information with a frown on her face. “She can’t do that.”

“Are you willing to take that chance?” Annalisa asked.

Cassie shook her head even though Annalisa couldn’t see her. “No. Look, I’ll be there as fast as I can and if she gets there before I do, stall her.”

“Okay. Oh and one more thing.” There was a rustle of papers as Annalisa flipped through her notepad to check the message that Bethany had instructed that she delivered to Cassie. “She also said to tell you not to come to work looking like you picked your clothes out of the trash and then got dressed in the dark. Her words not mine. She made me say that.”

“Of course she did.” Cassie grunted. She might not have had the most fashionable clothes and might not have had the kind of money that Bethany had to shop from high end boutiques but she knew that her clothes were not trash. She ended the call without saying goodbye to Annalisa.

She was more than annoyed. How dare Bethany?! She wasn’t her boss; she had no right to order her to work and threaten her job and the job of uninvolved Annalisa if she didn’t make it to Tech Town. What if she hadn’t picked up the call? What if she had another engagement for the day? She shoved her phone into her back pocket. She might have not liked it one bit, but she knew she would have to go to work. If not for the sake of her job, then for the sake of Annalisa’s. With the little she knew, she could tell that Bethany seemed like the kind of person that would not hesitate to fire both her and Annalisa if she didn’t make it to work.

She jogged the rest of the distance home and was quite out of breath and sweaty when she arrived. Snowflake looked up from her pile of newspapers and upon seeing that it was just Cassie, promptly went back to sleep. For the most part, Snowflake shyly kept to herself and was uninterested in anything that didn’t involve sleep or food. Cassie was sure that she was still in her shell and would soon adjust to her new environment.

She dashed into the bathroom and took the quickest shower she had ever taken in her entire life. With her hair still dripping from her bath, she shimmed into her work clothes and dashed back out of the house.