The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 14

It had been exactly two weeks since Cassie had quit her job at Club Indigo and things were not looking as bright as she thought they would. When she had given Big Daddy the middle finger after she had gone to his office to make payment for the mugs shattered and the drink spilled during the shoot-out, she had been thinking that she would survive just fine on two jobs. Unfortunately, it was starting to look like she had made a big mistake by quitting her job as a waitress at Club Indigo.

For a very brief moment a few days ago, she had considered going back to Club Indigo to beg Big Daddy for her old job back. She had banished the thought from her mind as quickly as she had conjured it up. That was a bad idea. Asking Big Daddy for a favor of any sort was akin to signing a contract with the devil. He would hold it over her head forever.

Yes, the clubs and its patrons were shady, and more than half of the activities that went on there were illegal. Yes, most of the patrons were absolute assholes and thought that they had the right to grab Cassie’s ass just because she worked there. Yes, their employer, Big Daddy, was nothing but a big bully who kept on inventing new illegitimate reasons to take cuts off his employee’s salaries. All of those were good reasons for anyone to quit working at Club Indigo. The reason most people still worked there and the reason Cassie had worked there for that long was that the pay was good. And not the insulting amount that Big Daddy forked up weekly but the tips the patrons left. Most of them might have been assholes but they were generous assholes with deep pockets; with the most generosity coming from very inebriated or high patrons. Cassie had made good money from the tips she had gotten while working at Club Indigo. The only thing she hated about receiving tips was that most of the men assumed it was alright for them to try to stuff it down the front of her shirt or back pocket. It was just a thinly veiled attempt to feel her up.

Cassie was starting to see that trying to survive on two jobs was nowhere near as easy as she had dreamed. “Has toilet paper always been this expensive?” She asked holding up a roll of a double plied roll of toilet paper as she regarded Isabel.

Isabel, who had been picking at the chipping nail polish on her right hand, raised her head. She shrugged. “Pretty much yeah. And I don’t think it’s that expensive. I think we’re just poor.” She said with a despondent sigh.

Cassie grunted and added the roll to her shopping cart. As tight as money was, they still needed toilet paper. She had been forced to cut a lot of things out of her shopping list. For the other items that were so essential that she couldn’t cut off, she had resorted to searching for cheaper alternatives and clipping coupons out of newspapers and magazines. With her current financial situation, she could no longer afford to buy avocados, nail polish, and her favorite brand of cereal.

She had to cross off the twin's request for lollipops and chocolate. She hated that she planned to lie to her siblings that the store was out of them when she got back home. None of the things she had cut off had been absolutely necessary but it still hurt her when she had to exempt them from her shopping list the previous night. She had to be particularly careful about her spending patterns in the coming weeks. In less than two weeks, Aaron and Lily's summer would end and they would have to resume school. And with a new school session came new expenses. The twins attended the district’s public school so Cassie didn’t have to worry about school fees but she still had to worry about other school-related expenses like transportation to and from school, supplies for school projects, and other miscellaneous fees.

“Wait! Get these other ones.” Isabel exclaimed as Cassie reached out to grab a can of oats. “They’re cheaper.” She advised Cassie.

Cassie stared at the can of oats in her hands and compared it to the can of oats in Isabel’s hands. The ones Isabel held out for her were indeed less expensive by a couple of dollars. “Thanks.” She said.

“No problem,” Isabel admitted. “So, seeing as you’re obviously strapped for cash at the moment, what are you doing to get a new job?” She asked.

Cassie maneuvered her shopping cart around a mother and her screaming child. “Is it really that obvious that I’m strapped for cash?” She asked with a false smile.

“Kind of. You looked like you were going to hug me when I showed you the cheaper can of oats and I can tell that your pockets are stuffed to the seams with coupons.”

Cassie shrugged and managed to maneuver her way around Isabel. “Almost. I almost graduated the best in my year.” She corrected. She refused to let herself think about how she had been so close to being valedictorian of her year and had lost that chance over a series of unfortunate incidents she wholly and completely believed to be her fault. “And besides, that doesn’t matter. I don’t have any experience working a desk job and these companies are all about having work experience. It's almost scary. Like how do they expect people fresh out of uni to have working experience of five to seven years? That’s absurd.”

Isabel shook her head. “Don’t try to change the subject. This isn’t about companies and their unrealistic demands. This is about you and your apparent decision to not practice what you studied at uni. You love software engineering.”

“I know but loving it isn’t enough to get a job. I’m not going to be good enough for a desk job Isabel.” She admitted with shoulders hunched. “I know how to be a waitress in clubs and cafes. And I have tons of knowledge about how to work in other sectors but an actual desk job…” She trailed off.

Isabel sucked in the air. Her friend still hadn’t told her why she didn’t want to have anything to do with software engineering despite being good at it. Cassie had built an app for Isabel that helped her monitor her diabetes. It reminded her to take her medicine and helped her record the day’s blood sugar reading and meal. It even created a list of clinics and pharmacies based on her current location. The app’s interface was user-friendly and the adorable AI avatar resembled Isabel. “Look Cassie, you don’t have to apply for a job as a software engineer straight away. But I can’t let you go back to working at clubs. You have way too much talent and smarts to be working in shady places like that.” She took her friend's hands in hers. “Get a job somewhere else. I’ll even teach you how to do hair if you want to come to work with me at Hair Glam. Do anything but your club gig.” She advised.

Cassie sighed. “Fine.”

“Great!” Isabel exclaimed with a small excited jump. “I’ll swing by your place after this so that we can check ads online for job openings.”