The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 59

“I don’t think it’s going to fit.” Cassie groaned.

“It will.” Felix assured. “Just slide it in gently.”

Ever since the hour they had spent

in the elevator, an easy camaraderie had formed between Felix and Cassie.

That Tuesday, when Felix had made a racket in his panic, someone had heard him and had alerted security. It had taken some time, but they had finally gotten the elevator to start moving again. It had begun with the lights brightening to their full capacity, then the elevator gave a slight jolt before it continued with its descent. Still, neither Cassie nor Felix had gotten up and both of them had remained on the ground, fingers entwined, even when the doors had opened again.

The faces of various staff – two guys from the security department, a bunch of people from the meeting the two were supposed to be attending and other curious parties – stared at the two of them in confusion. What was the Ice King doing on the floor clutching the hand of his PA and a piece of paper as if his life depended on it?

In a couple of seconds, the guys from the security department had shooed the onlookers away until only one had remained – Bethany. She stared the two of them down with a disgusted snarl.

“I’m actually surprised that you didn’t pass out this time.” She had said while rolling her eyes. “Man up and get back to work.”

While still seated and holding Felix’s hand, Cassie had told her to fuck off. She was the reason that Felix was claustrophobic and instead of comforting him the way any good mother would, she was being a bitch about the whole situation. With fingers still entwined, the two of them had gotten up and brushed past Bethany, ignoring how furious she had looked. It was a move both Felix and Cassie knew they would regret but Felix thought that it was nice that she had stood up for him.

Wordlessly, they had both decided to skip the meeting and had grabbed lunch together. Then, they had retreated to Felix’s office and had begun to sort through the mess that Emerald had made while making small talk in the process. By the end of their lunch, they had only made a little bit of progress on the mess and had drawn up a chart for how they would proceed with the clearing up process throughout the week.

Without one last determined push, Cassie shoved a cabinet drawer shut and leaned against it. It was only Thursday but she and Felix had already made great progress with cleaning up. She still couldn’t believe that he had participated in the clean-up process.

From across the other side of the room, Felix raised a smug brow. “See?”

The recently closed cabinet drawer popped back open. Cassie raised an accusatory brow at him. “See?” After he had propped the cabinet back up, she had told him that with its dented edge, there was no way that it was going to be able to hold all of its former contents. Felix had disagreed, assuming that brute force could get the crammed drawer to shut properly.

He sighed. “I’ll order another one later today.”

There was a knock on the door. “Come in.” Felix said without looking up from the folder he was inspecting.

Lucas, the intern whom Luther had slapped across the face, propped his head inside the office. “Cassie Peters?”

Cassie looked up from glaring at the dented cabinet. “Yeah.”

He walked over to her and handed her a manila envelope, avoiding eye contact with Felix all the while. “I was sent from HR to give you this.” He had barely finished his sentence when he spun around and quickly exited the room.

Felix paused at her admission. He didn’t know what to say to that. Instead, he turned to the upturned printer – the only thing stopping the office from being in its tip top shape. He feared that the printer, just like the dented cabinet, would not be able to function at its former capacity. The only way to tell if it still worked was to flip it over and try to print out something with it.

The printer was barely upright again when Cassie came over.

“You should have waited until it was fully upright before coming over.” He scolded as he fiddled with the buttons on the printer. “It could have toppled over again.” He said knowing fully well that it probably wouldn’t have as he had a firm grip on it. He had decided to exercise extra caution as Cassie hadn’t been there for a month but she had already gotten injured on the premises twice. The first time had been when Sapphire had hurled a sculpture at her and the second had been when she had dropped a bottle and one of the shards had entered her leg.

“Sorry.” Cassie said. She picked up the loose papers that had been underneath the printer.

“Can you pass me two of those?” Felix asked. “I need to check that this thing still works.”

She started sorting through the papers for the one to give Felix. Some had texts on both sides and some had little rips on them from where the mouse had eaten. She eventually found two suitable sheets of paper; one with text that would be used as the original document and a blank sheet that would be printed on. She handed the papers to Felix and was sorting through the others when she came across a Polaroid.

The woman in the picture had an ethereal-like beauty about her. despite being dressed plainly in an aquamarine blouse and distressed jeans. She had her back to a ring-toss stand. Her blonde hair fell over her shoulders and caught the rays of the setting sun. The only thing in the picture that was brighter than her hair was her wide smile. On one hand, the mystery woman was clutching a melting vanilla ice cream cone and on the other, a large stuffed bear that was almost as big as she was. At the bottom of the Polaroid, ‘XOXO’ was written in bubbly cursive writing.

“Who is this?” Cassie asked, turning the picture towards Felix.

He looked up from the printer. Once he saw the picture, any semblance of color and emotion drained from his face. Very slowly and determinedly, he took the picture out of Cassie’s hands and left the office without saying a word.