The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 43

Cassie read and then re-read her friend’s text multiple times. Was Isabel actually serious about coming to meet her at work? She tried calling Isabel but it went straight to the factory default voicemail. Anyone with access to the internet could find Tech Town’s address but Cassie didn’t know the company’s policy about visitors. The only person that had dropped by at the office was Sapphire and even she had done that through unconventional means as she had run past Annalisa at the reception to get to Felix’s office. Would she have to meet Isabel at the reception or outside the company’s doors? Or would she be allowed to see her friend with the confines of Felix’s office?

She was pulled out of her contemplation when the office phone on Felix’s desk began to ring. It was probably the first time since Felix had left that the phone had rung so thinking it was him, she dashed over and picked up the receiver.

“Good morning. You have reached the office of Felix Callahan. This is Cassie Peters. How may I help you?” She asked. She should have known by the fact that she had been able to complete her greeting line that the person on the other end of the line wasn’t Felix as he had never allowed her complete her usual greeting, cutting her off immediately after she had said ‘good morning’ and sometimes passing across his message before she had a chance to get a single word out.

“It’s nice to know that you made it to work early, Carol.” Bethany’s haughty voice said over the phone.

Cassie clenched the receiver in annoyance. She had literally just said her name over the phone less than a minute ago and Bethany still insisted on calling her something else. She wondered if Bethany did it on purpose to annoy her or if she did it unconsciously as she counted it utterly important to learn the name of someone she felt was way beneath her on the socio-economic ladder.

“There’s a green stain on the couch. I need you to get it out.” Bethany instructed.

Cassie turned to look at the couch. The said green stain occupied a very large portion of the pristine white couch. When Cassie had left the office the previous night, the couch had been spotless so it must have been Bethany that stained it. So, she knew who had made the stain but what exactly had made it? Had the stain been red, she would have assumed that Bethany had gotten herself a bottle of red wine from Luther’s office and had accidentally – or maybe even purposefully – spilled it on the couch. Had the stain been just a small green splotch, she would have assumed that it was from one of the bottles of nail polish that Bethany had come with. But the stain was neither small nor red. So what had caused it?

“What made the stain?” She asked. “I need to know so that I can determine what to use to get it out.” She quickly added before Bethany would accuse her of using an accusatory tone.

Bethany sighed loudly on the other end of the line as if merely answering questions was such a tiresome and difficult job. “I ordered a carton of permanent marker ink and it was delivered to the office around the time you left. I tried opening the green one but the cap was screwed on too tightly and the momentum made me spill it over the couch when I finally got it open. By the way, do you think I could sue the ink company?”

“For what Mrs. Hart?” Cassie asked.

“Well if they didn’t screw on the lids of the ink bottle so tightly, I would have been able to open it up without any trouble. They shouldn’t screw lids on so tightly. I almost broke a nail, you know. That has got to count as a health hazard.”

Cassie waited for a punch line but it never came. “I don’t think you can sue them.” The ink spillage had been Bethany’s own fault. Cassie was all too aware of how annoying it was to try to take off a tight cap only to have the container’s contents spill over her but deciding to sue a company because their caps were screwed on too tightly was probably the most ridiculous thing Cassie had heard all year.

Bethany hissed. “Of course you don’t think so. What do poor people know? Just make sure you get the stain out. It ruins the office’s aesthetic.” She ordered and hung up.

“Well you should have thought of that before you decided to open a bottle of ink close to a white couch.” Cassie hissed as she dropped the receiver. She walked over to the couch and inspected the stain. There was no way it would come out with just soap and water. A quick search on the internet suggested a wide range of materials she could use to remove the stain. Had she been at home, Cassie was sure that she would have at least three of the suggested items lying around. But there was no way she was going to find white vinegar or baking soda anywhere in the building. She compiled a list of the materials that she felt would work best and sent them to Isabel in hopes that she would see the text before she got to Tech Town.

With no one else in the office, Cassie finally had the time to sit in front of her laptop to fix the bugs in the app that she had made for Isabel. It was almost laughable how she hadn’t been able to do the one thing that she had intended to do when she walked into Felix’s office to retrieve her laptop that Monday morning. It seemed like it had been ages ago but it was barely even a week. Working with Bethany, she barely had time to sit and rest, not to even speak of coding.

The phone ringing from Felix’s desk again interrupted her concentration. “Good morning. You have reached the office of Felix Callahan. This is Cassie Peters. How may I help you?” she greeted once she picked up the phone.

“Hi Cassie. It’s Annalisa. There’s an Isabel Gomez here to see you. Should I send her up?”

“Is that allowed?”