Chapter 3

I am so happy today is Saturday; I don’t have to go to work today. I can’t imagine if I had to see Vivienne’s face on weekends. I will tear it off. That woman is something else, but I will not ruin my weekend by thinking of her and our snobbish boss. Mr. Jason is the most arrogant person I have ever met in my life. Every time I greet him at the office, he always acts like a ghost is talking to him. He does not say or ask me to do anything, and I don’t know if I should be happy about it. 

I am currently in a taxi on my way to visit Mr. Crawford. I planned to spend my weekend watching TV all day on the couch, but Mr. Crawford asked me to see him today. I am sure he wants to see me today to determine how my first week at work went. Once I arrive, I pay the taxi man and walk over to the gate of Mr. Crawford’s mansion. The security man lets me in once he sees me through the cameras. I thank him before walking over to the front door. I ring the bell and wait for a few seconds before a beautiful brunette opens the door.

“Hello, Eleanor,” Kassie says once she sees me. She is one of Mr. Crawford’s housekeepers. 

“Hello Kassie, how are you doing today?” I greet back and walk inside the house.

“I am doing great, and how are you? I heard you got a job; I am so happy for you,” She says, smiling.

“I am doing great also, and thank you.” 

“You are welcome, and Mr. Crawford is waiting for you in the garden.” 

“Thank you,” I say and start walking towards the garden. 

I walk to the backyard where the garden is. There is a fountain and white statues all around with lovely flowers planted between perfectly trimmed grasses. I find Mr. Crawford reading a book on a bench and walk behind him to scare him. 

“Hello, Mr. Crawford,” I say, close to his ears. He cringes in fear, but once he realises it’s me, his face lightens up.

“Oh, good God, you scared me, dear,”

“That was the plan,” I say, smiling 

“How are you doing, dear?” He asks

“I am doing great, and you, sir?” 

“I am doing wonderful, and how was your first week at work,” He asks, and I try my best to make my face mask the lie I am about to say

“It was good; I can’t wait to get back to work next week,” I say with a fake smile. I hope he can’t see through it. I don’t want to tell Mr. Crawford about how my first week really went. I don’t want him to scold his grandson because of me.

“Really, Jason is not making things difficult for you at the office.”

“He does not” He only snobs me, so you have nothing to worry about. I make sure to leave that part out.

“That’s great, I was a little worried he might make things difficult for you in the office, but I was wrong. I am happy he is not giving you a hard time,” He says, smiling. 

I feel bad that I am lying to him, but it’s best. I can’t come between them because Mr. Jason believes I am after their money and probably hates me. 

“Me too, and I would like to ask something if you don’t mind,” I say, maintaining my fake smile as I think about work.

“Go ahead, dear.”

“Since he already has Vivienne as his secretary, why did you hire me?” This question has been bugging me all week because since Vivienne is such a great secretary, why was I hired?

“I hired you because I believe Jason needs another secretary. The company is expanding; he and Vivienne can’t do all the work by themselves. They need an extra hand.”

“Oh.” It makes sense why I was hired, even though I was hired to reduce the work for both of them. They don’t assign me anything work-related, but Mr. Crawford does not need to know that.

“Yes.”

Monday came faster than I wished for. I can’t believe last week I was super excited to start working, but today I am praying it goes well without that witch Vivienne making me plan her death. I walk inside the building and greet Nora on my way to the elevator. While in the elevator, I can’t stop thinking about how Nora looked at me when I greeted her. Her eyes had this pitiful look in them, and I wonder if they were for me. I don’t have anything going wrong in my life that you should pity me for, so I wonder why they look towards me.

I step out of the elevator and quickly walk over to the lunchroom to make coffee for Vivienne and Mr. Jason.  I didn’t even care to drop my bag first because if I am a second late, Vivienne will make my day horrible, and it’s already bad enough even when I am not late. Once I am done making the coffee, I walk to Vivienne’s office to give her hers and walk to Mr. Jason’s office to provide him with his. I knock on the door and wait for him to say come in before stepping inside. I walk inside and find him in a different position than he usually is; he sits at the edge of his desk with his arms crossed over his chest. He looks a bit pissed off, and I wonder why because isn’t it too early to be pissed off at someone? 

“Good morning, sir,” I greet while placing his coffee beside him

“Good morning Eleanor,” He greets, smirking. Was he not just frowning a minute ago? Is he bipolar or something? “How was your weekend?” He asks and takes a sip of his coffee. “Good as always,” He says, smiling.

“It was good, sir; how was yours?” I ask because it seems he wants to make conversation with me, unlike him, but I am happy he is talking to me.

“Really, it was good; I am not surprised because if yours were good, it would explain why mine was shitty,” He says while taking dangerous steps closer to me.

“I don’t understand what you are saying, sir,” I say, feeling a little scared with the change in his behaviour and the way he is coming closer to me. I start taking tiny steps away from him.

“You don’t understand Eleanor, you don’t understand,” He repeatedly says as he continues to walk closer to me. He only stops once my back hits the wall. This only makes me more scared. What is going on? Why is he behaving strangely?

“Yes, sir, I don’t understand,” I say with my eyes facing the ground. I feel very uncomfortable with him this close to me. I wish I could push him away or tell him to take a step back, but I am not that foolish. He is angry at me about something, so I will try to calm him down and leave this office in one piece. 

“So you are telling me you didn’t tell my grandfather that Vivienne has been making things difficult for you at the office, and I have not assigned any work to you,” He says, causing my eyes to widen.

“I did not tell your grandfather anything that happened last week at work,” I tell him honestly.

I can’t believe his grandfather found out. I might have had a fake smile on my face while talking about work, but I did not mention anything that happened, so how did his grandfather find out?

“Really, so explain to me how my grandfather knew about everything that happened last week at work. And let’s not forget you visited him on Saturday.”

“Yes, I visited your grandfather on Saturday, but I didn’t tell him about how things are at work.”

“You want me to believe that” 

Oh my God, this is not good. I knew something like this would happen if I told Mr. Crawford how things at work were, and that’s why I didn’t. Even after I lied to him about work, he still found out somehow. I am sure Mr. Crawford must have scolded Mr. Jason because of me, and that’s what I was trying to prevent. I start playing with my fingers as I try to find a way to prove my innocence.

“Will you stop playing with your fingers and look at me?” Mr. Jason shouts. He uses his hand to separate my fingers and pulls my chin up to look at him.

I lock eyes with him, and I wish right now that I was not attracted to Mr. Jason. His eyes are so beautiful, and I can see myself getting lost in them. They are pulling me into their lava of caramel. His eyes are really like a pool of caramel. 

“Come back to earth and stop getting lost in my eyes,” He says, snapping his fingers in front of my eyes. I can’t believe I was caught, lost, staring at his eyes. I am sure my cheeks are crimson red right now.

“Sir, I don’t know how your grandfather found out, but I swear to you. I did not tell him,” I say, expecting him to believe me, but instead, he says something worse.

“It makes sense now; this was your plan all along,” He says, taking a step back away from me. 

“What do you mean, sir?” I say, after releasing a breath I didn’t know I was holding. His closeness was a bit uncomfortable, so I am not surprised.

He takes further steps away from me. He looks like he is thinking about something; after what seems like forever, he speaks.

“I should have known; you never planned to seduce me.”

“Excuse me,” I ask, confused with how this is related to what we are talking about. 

“You want my grandfather to give you the company. Ha, you will have to kill me before you can do that. You are fired,” He says, shocking me with his words.

“What, I am fired,” I ask, not believing his words.

“Yes, you are fired.”

“Why? I didn’t do anything wrong for me to be fired.”

“I can’t have someone like you in my office who threatens my position as CEO, so you are fired.”

“Mr. Jason, please, you can’t fire me; I don’t threaten your position as CEO,” I plead.

“I don’t believe you, so leave my office before I call security to throw you out.” 

I am about to beg him to reconsider but decided against it. Mr. Jason is never going to trust me and believe I am not after his money. I can feel myself on the verge of tears, but I try my best to hold it in till I reach the bathroom. I can’t believe I lost my job a week after I started working because my boss doubts me, but I shouldn’t be surprised. It was either he makes my life hell or fires me, so I should be happy he fired me, but it hurts the way I just lost my job like that. I can’t believe I am back to square one. How am I going to pay off my college debts now?