The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 61

Felix looked the worst that Cassie had ever seen him. His usually tidy hair was now matted to his forehead with sweat, and the strands that weren’t plastered down, stuck up at odd angles, making it look like he had been caught in a downpour and then struck by lightning. Multiple creases blemished his usually meticulously ironed clothes. His normally straight posture had crumpled, and he stood hunched over as if trying to make himself as small as possible. His posture was both reminiscent and not reminiscent of Luther who stood hunched over but didn’t look small in the process.

Looking past him, Cassie spotted an unfamiliar car that was undoubtedly his judging from how expensive it looked, parked outside her house with its engine still running and the driver’s door wide open. The death grip he had on a pastel-colored book had turned his knuckles white. A bloodied bandage was wrapped around his right hand. He looked so distressed, so vulnerable, that Cassie wanted to invite him in and ask what the problem was but she was deterred by the smell of an unhealthy amount of alcohol on him.

“Did the pizza guy get our order wrong?” Isabel called from her position on the couch.

Cassie wished that it were that simple. She had past experience on what to do when a wrong order arrived at her doorstep. She had no idea what was expected of her when her distressed boss showed up at her house just a few hours from midnight.

“May I come in?” Felix asked in a voice that was nothing like his. “Please, I have nowhere else to go.”

She had heard him use different tones and textures of voices. His go-to voice was typically cold and indifferent, reserved for casual conversations. Whenever it was time to talk business, his tone would shift to a suave and polished one. When conversing with Luther, she had noted a tinge of mild disgust in his voice which she knew he could disguise better but chose to leave it that way so that Luther could be reminded of how much he was disliked. His affection voice was reserved for Rose. She had even been privy to hear his groggy I-just-woke-up voice; the one that she was reluctant to admit sounded mesmerizingly seductive. The voice he currently used was a bit similar to the one he had used when they had been stuck in the elevator; one that was teeming with panic and fear. The only difference was that his current voice was tinged with a subdued panic, hinting at the promise of a fast approaching mental breakdown shimmering just beneath the surface.

Cassie had intended to politely turn him away, but at his confession of having nowhere else to go, she knew she had to let him in. How could his only option for a place of comfort be in the house of an employee whom he barely knew? She nudged Snowflake away with her foot to prevent her from following after Felix and stepped aside, allowing him to come inside. As he walked past her into the house, Cassie was suddenly alerted to how often a buzzing sound came from within the pocket of his jacket. Who was texting that much that late at night?

“That doesn’t look like a pizza guy.” Isabel observed. She eyed Felix as he took a seat on the loveseat in the corner.

Cassie sighed and shut the door. “No, it’s not. Everyone, this is my boss, Felix Callahan. Mr. Callahan, everyone.”

The twins finally pulled their gaze from the television to focus on Felix.

Lily scrutinized at him like he was a specimen under a microscope. Then she turned to her brother. “I thought you said he had blue eyes.”

“I made a mistake. Let it go.” Aaron replied with a shrug. “Why is he crying?”

Cassie wanted to refute Aaron’s words. Felix hadn’t been crying when she had opened the door. His eyes had been a bit red and puffy but he hadn’t been crying. When she turned to Felix, however, she saw that Aaron had been right. Sobs wracked his body, each one punctuated by a sharp and desperate gasp for air. She didn’t think it was possible, but he held on to the pastel-colored book even tighter than before. His cries started off sounding soft and muffled before they blew up into more guttural and despondent sounds. Isabel herded the twins into the kitchen, mumbling incoherently about making mugs of hot chocolate with large clumps of marshmallows which Cassie knew they didn’t have.