The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 44

To Isabel’s credit, she didn’t immediately yank her hand away from Daniel’s grasp after he had kissed it. She stared at him even after the elevator’s doors slid open at his floor and he stared back at her, still enthralled by her very presence.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye.” Daniel said as he stepped out of the elevator. “Isabel, I hope to see you again sometime.”

Isabel stared blankly at him so Cassie nudged her so she could give a response. All the same, she opened her mouth to give him a reply but nothing came out of it. In the end, the elevator’s doors closed and the two friends continued their journey upstairs without Isabel saying anything to Daniel. Immediately the doors closed, Cassie burst into a bout of hysterical laughter.

“It’s not funny.” Isabel hissed.

“Oh, I beg to differ. It was funny.” Cassie said, as she struggled to stop laughing. “He was absolutely smitten by you.”

“He’ll forget all about ever meeting me by the end of the day. He’s just a little confused right now.”

“What do you mean he was confused?” Cassie asked. The elevator doors slid open again and she held Isabel back when she attempted to leave. She stuck her head out and looked both ways to check whether Luther or Emerald were nearby. She saw no sign of them in the hallway so she quickly pulled Isabel out of the elevator and sprinted across the hallway into the safety of Felix’s office.

“Why did we have to run?” Isabel asked as she watched Cassie shut the door behind them. As usual, she had worn heels but just as she was able to properly dance in them, she was also able to properly run in them. It was a talent that most women, Cassie included, envied.

“I’m avoiding Bethany’s husband, Luther, and his personal assistant, Emerald.” She explained.

“Why?”

“I walked in on the two of them with their noses covered in what I’m pretty sure was coke, having sex in the office earlier this week and then Luther had the gall to ask if I wanted to join in. I’ve been avoiding them ever since.”

Astonished, Isabel said nothing for a while. Then she let out a low whistle. “And where was his wife when all of that was going on?”

Cassie pointed at the stained couch. “Right there.”

Isabel whistled again. “That is some telenovela shit.”

“Tell me about it. Don’t think that I’ve forgotten my question.” Cassie said as she emptied the contents of the shopping bag onto her table. “What do you mean Daniel was confused?”

Isabel didn’t speak for a long while. She stood there, silently staring off into space with her brows furrowed as she tried to figure out how to present her reasons for thinking that Daniel was confused to Cassie.

“Daniel was ‘smitten’ by me because he only saw Isabel Gomez, the friend of his co-worker. He has no idea of Isabel Gomez, the girl that dances at Club Indigo and sleeps with men for money. When guys find out that the girl that they like is a sex worker, there are two ways it could unfold. Most of them generally don’t have positive reactions. They’d look at me like I just confessed to kicking puppies in my spare time and then call me all sorts of names. It’s absolutely shitty because most of these guys have been to a strip club at least once in their lives and taken a girl home.” She lamented.

She remembered some of her past relationships – both platonic and romantic – a lot of people had gone running when they discovered that working as a hair stylist at Hair Glam wasn’t the only way she earned her money. They’d all look at her like she was less than a person because of what she did to get money, disregarding the fact that she was still the same Isabel they had always known. Cassie was one of those that stayed.

“Then the other way that it can unfold is with the guy thinking that dating a sex worker is something exotic. They’ll just be in it for the thrill and that eventually wears off. So they’ll end the relationship and go back to dating their regular type of girls.”

“That’s the one.” Isabel confirmed. “Anyways, I was still in shock and mostly confused that day so when he asked for how he could contact me, I just handed him a card for Hair Glam that I always carry around with me without thinking. I’d even completely forgotten about the whole thing when suddenly, he rolls up to the salon with this other guy that looked like a bear. And my first thought was that they were there to deport me. But then they handed me the envelope and said that I was required to appear in court to testify as a witness.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know!” Isabel wailed. “If I don’t show up for Robert’s trial, I would be held in contempt of court but if I showed up to court, then they might find out that I got here illegally.”

Cassie sighed as she doused the napkin with more vinegar. “Don’t you know any lawyers from Club Indigo that you can ask?” From the work at Club Indigo, Isabel had been able to meet a lot of men that worked in different spheres of life – from doctors to accountants. Sometimes, she’d ask them for advice, like the doctor that had told her where she could get her diabetes medication at a slightly cheaper rate. And other times, they’d do little favors for her, like some of the men that had given her the passwords to their Netflix accounts which Isabel had shared with the twins. She didn’t see a problem with Isabel asking any lawyer that she knew among her clients for advice.

But Isabel glared at her like she had just suggested that she run around the building naked. “I don’t. And even if I did, I won’t ask any of them for their input in a matter this delicate. Who knows what those guys could do with that kind of information? They’d hold it over my head for as long as I live.”

Cassie nodded in understanding. “I don’t know how yet, but I promise you that we will figure this out.” Cassie said with fierce optimistic determination.

Isabel, who had already given up hope, gave her a tense smile and continued scrubbing the couch.

The green stain on the couch had shrunk to almost half of its original size when the door was suddenly thrown open.

“What the fuck is going on here?!” A shrill voice demanded.