The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 53

Cassie was awakened by the sound of the alarm that she had set on her phone the previous night. She tried to get up from bed only to discover that she couldn’t even feel most of the right side of her body. The little rays of sunlight that were able to penetrate through the thick, dark curtains barely illuminated the room but even still, Cassie was able to tell that she couldn’t feel the right side of her face because Aaron was lying on her arm. Slowly, she inched her way out from underneath him, pausing every time he stirred. Once she was free, she grabbed her phone, snuck out of her room and shut the door behind her.

After Felix had driven her home the previous night, she had made herself and Aaron bowls of ramen as they although they had both been tired to the bone and sleepy as hell, they were even more hungry as Aaron’s last meal had been lunch and Cassie’s was breakfast. Snowflake, who had never been left alone by herself for that long, was ecstatic to see them and yipped excitedly at their feet. Cassie and Aaron had trouble walking and not stepping on Snowflake as she danced between their legs. After a very late dinner, the two of them showered to get rid of the blood, sweat and tears that clung to them. In-between pouring Snowflake a bowl of kibble and supervising Aaron in the shower to prevent him from falling asleep, she managed to answer her texts – albeit with terrible spelling and questionable grammar – and set an alarm for the next morning. When they were done, they fell asleep the moment their bodies hit the mattress.

Lugging her body across the hallway, Cassie began to process the events of the previous night. Felix had offered to drive her home and she had agreed. What exactly had either of them been thinking last night? She could have chalked up her agreeing to let him drive her home to sleepiness, grief and stress, but what had been Felix’s motives? He had nothing to gain from his actions the previous night. In a brief moment of panic, she thought that Felix knowing her address would also, by extension, mean that the rest of his crazy family – Bethany and Luther – also knew where she lived. Would she now have to worry about waking up to find Bethany at her doorstep demanding that she run errands for her? Or Luther, inviting her to partake in sex and drugs with him and Emerald? Her panic subsided when she realized that her address was with HR anyways. Luther and Bethany seemed like the type of people who would be more than willing to march to HR and demand people’s addresses even though it was definitely unethical and probably illegal.

She fleeted around the house picking up the stuffing of the throw pillows that Snowflake had ripped to shreds while the house had been empty the previous day. She had noticed them when she had walked into the house but she had been too tired to do anything about them. As she shoved pieces of the destroyed throw pillows into a nylon, Snowflake sat in a corner, guilty observing Cassie. Cassie didn’t exactly want to blame her. Snowflake was, after all, still a puppy and a relatively well behaved one at that. So far, the pillow had been the only thing that she had ripped up. And Cassie, hoping that it was going to be a one-time thing, was perfectly ready to chalk it up to boredom when the house was empty.

“You don’t have to look so scared.” Cassie said, moving past Snowflake to the kitchen to dump the pieces of the throw pillow into the trash can. Snowflake was mostly well behaved and peppy but sometimes, it seemed as if she would suddenly remember her time with Bethany and withdraw into herself. “I know that you’re not going to do it again. Or at least I hope you’re not going to do it again.” She bent down to scratch Snowflake under her chin and was suddenly confronted with how much the dog had grown. She had had her for about two weeks but Snowflake had already doubled in size.

She propped some leftovers into the microwave and picked up the list she had been working on all week. It contained the things that she wanted to do and buy once she got her first pay from Tech Town. Last night had completed her third week there so all things being equal, she knew she should be expecting her first pay anytime soon. Already on the list were things such as new backpacks for the twins, a proper bed for Snowflake, Halloween decorations and costumes, henna, throw pillows and milk. She added ‘vet visit’ to the list. She wished that she could ask Bethany for Snowflake’s medical record so that she could know the shots that she had already taken and how old Snowflake was as she would most likely need to tell the vet that information. But asking Bethany for anything was out of the question. This was someone that had lost the key to the padlock she put on the dog carrier; Cassie seriously doubted that Bethany would be able to recall the location of Snowflake’s medical records.

Next she added ‘walls’ to the list. It had been two weeks already and the drawings that her siblings made were still painfully present on the walls. Cassie still hadn’t decided how she was going to get rid of them; painting over their drawing or washing the marker ink off. She knew that she ought to make a decision quickly as the longer the ink stayed on the walls, the harder it would be to get rid of them. The microwave announced that her food was warm by letting out a series of sharp beeps.

She brought her food out from the microwave and divided her attention between adding new things to the list and having breakfast. She was almost done with her food when she heard a knock at the front door. Snowflake got to the door before she did and started to wag her tail excitedly. After checking the peephole and seeing Isabel, she opened the door and was immediately wrapped in a warm hug.

“How are you holding up?” Isabel asked when she finally pulled away. Cassie had asked her to watch Aaron while she went over to the hospital until the doctors discharged Lily. Amanda had volunteered to watch him but Cassie had declined as she knew that she would need all the rest she could get after spending the night on the chair by Lily’s bed.

“I’m doing pretty okay actually.” Cassie admitted. “Amanda was with Lily all throughout the night and she said that Lily’s doing okay.”