The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 69

When Cassie’s first pay came in, she nearly went into shock. At her interview for her position as Felix’s PA, she had come to an agreement about what her salary should be at the end of every month but when the check came in, she still couldn’t believe the figure. It was probably nowhere as large as what it would have been if she had decided to pursue a career in software engineering but it was a whole lot more than double what she had been earning at The Bean House, Books-A-Plenty and Club Indigo combined. With the money she had gotten, she had been able to pay off her credit card debts (which weren’t that large to begin with), pay off a small fraction of her student debts, stock up on groceries for the month, buy school supplies for the twins and get a plush dog bed for Snowflake who was more than happy to have something comfier than an old limp throw pillow to sleep on. She had even bought a snazzy pant suit to wear to her court appearance at Robert Smith’s trial happening sometime in early November. Even after all of her spending, she still had a tangible amount of money to put into her savings account.

She felt her phone vibrating in her pocket but she let it go to voicemail once she saw that it was Isabel calling. They weren’t exactly fighting again but she was in no mood to talk to her. Ever since the night that Felix had spent in her house, Isabel had made it her mission to consistently tease Cassie about his good looks. They couldn’t have a conversation without Isabel finding a way to bring Felix up. When one of the twins had accidentally mentioned that Felix had taken them out for ice cream, Isabel had squeezed out every detail from them including the part when Felix had wiped out the smudge of ice cream from her lips and her face turned a bright shade of red. Tired of Isabel’s teasing, Cassie had suggested that he date Felix since she seemed to be so interested in him, Isabel had snorted and declared that he wasn’t her type. She wasn’t into the uptight and serious types.

She opened the door to the office. Felix wasn’t present at the moment but there were multiple evidences that he had already gotten to work: his jacket was draped over his chair, papers were scattered and his scent lingered even more in the room – a mixture of woody and musky notes with undertones of a citrusy aftershave. She was yet to get to the office before him or leave the office after him and she had sometimes found herself wondering about the time he got to and left work. He always appeared stressed out and lethargic. She even wondered if she should suggest working the same hours as he did and even coming to work on Saturdays – she was still surprised by the revelation as she had expected him to take the weekends off as she worked himself to the bone on weekdays – but she knew that he wouldn't. It was like she was completely free whenever she wasn’t at Tech Town. She still had two jobs to go to, two kids and a puppy to take care of and a life of her own to live.

She dropped his cup of coffee on his table, this time, in a thermos mug instead of a Styrofoam cup or a ceramic mug. She knew that by the time Felix got back to the office, his coffee would have already become lukewarm so she had gotten him the thermos mug over the weekend. It had been the norm ever since Preston arrived at Tech Town. Felix would spend most of the day in a meeting with Preston and his colleagues talking about the app and then get back to the office later in the day. Cassie had never been to one of the meetings and had banned herself from being curious as to the reason why it was so. She also banned herself from thinking of all the possible far-fetched lies and embarrassing truths that Preston might have told about her to Felix and other staff of Tech Town. But it seemed that he hadn’t said anything about her as no one was yet to stare at her weirdly as she walked by. She was just happy to not be in the same room with Preston for ages on end.

By the time it was evening, she still hadn’t seen Felix all day. He had never been away for that long before. His coffee was probably still warm but the vegetables in his sandwich had gone a bit dry from the office’s air-conditioning. She would have to ask Tabitha to pack his future lunches in a plastic plate free from any holes so that his food wouldn’t dry out. With nothing else to do for the day, she had taken her laptop and what was left of her sandwich to the rooftop to enjoy the sunset. She still couldn’t believe that Felix didn’t see the beauty of it all.

She had been on the roof for a while when she heard the door open behind her. She turned around to see Felix. “Oh. I’m sorry. I’ll leave.” She shouldn’t have come there. That was his place in his building. She had no right to be there. She began to pack up her things.

“No, stay.” He said. The roof was big enough for both of them. Besides, they got along swimmingly in his office and the rooftop was significantly bigger than it. They could share. “Thank you for the thermos.” He said as he took a seat beside her on the bench.

“You’re welcome.” She shrugged as she slowly angled her laptop away from him. She did not want him to see what she was working on – the codes for the app that was originally hers that Preston had presented as his. That would lead to questions that she wasn’t sure how to answer.

“How are Aaron and Lily?” He asked.

“They’re all right. They have made plenty more drawings, some of which they wanted me to give to you and I had to talk them out of it so they insisted that I invite you for trick-or-treating instead.”

“Okay. I’ll be there.”

“Oh no. You don’t have to come.” Cassie said.