The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 66

Cassie stared after Preston with a newfound feeling coursing through her veins – one that was an odd mixture of anger and fear that threatened to overwhelm her. How dare he?! To anyone else listening in, they would have assumed that it was their first time meeting because of how he had voiced his words. She knew that there was no way he hadn’t recognized her. She had changed since university but not that much. And besides, she had seen the condescending look of recognition that had flooded his features once their eyes met.

“Go on without me.” Felix said, turning to face Cassie. “I have to meet up with some guys from accounting to find out how viable Mr. Blackwell’s proposal is.” Before Cassie could react, he slinked off to the back of the office and began to compare notes with two greying men.

Confident that her ex couldn’t have gone very far, Cassie marched out of the conference room. The empty hallway nearly threw her off but then she heard the annoying sound of his sharp laughter and knew that he wasn’t far away. She turned around a corner and there he was – number one asshole, Preston Blackwell. He stood with his back to her, laughing away at a joke one of his colleagues had made. “Preston!” She called out in a voice that made her sound more confident than she felt.

He had recognized her voice; he knew who exactly had called out his name. She knew this from how slowly and purposefully he turned around. He eyed her and then turned his head just slightly enough that he was almost facing his colleagues but still held her gaze. “I’ll meet you guys downstairs.” He said. His colleagues exchanged inaudible murmurs and headed towards the elevator.

Cassie waited until the elevator doors had slid close before she started talking. “What are you doing here, Preston?”

He placed his hands in his pockets and gave a nonchalant shrug. “You would know that if you’d paid attention during the meeting. I spoke for more than an hour. Surely, you should have grabbed something from my presentation.”

Cassie scowled at him, reluctant to admit that she hadn’t been paying attention. “Your presentation must have been so boring that no part of it is worth recalling.”

He frowned at her, the muscle in his jaw working with anger. “So what are you doing here?” He asked, taking slow determined steps towards her. He expected her to back up and was quite surprised when she stood her ground. “How did you manage to get a job at this pristine establishment with your mediocre software engineering skills?”

For a brief second, Cassie thought of making up a story about how she applied to Tech Town and had gotten the job as a lead software engineering but lies would only lead to more lies and it wouldn’t take much for Preston to find out her actual job position. And besides, she wasn’t ashamed of being a personal assistant. Her co-workers were nice, her boss had become a lot more tolerable and her job paid well. Or at least it would pay well. She hadn’t gotten her first pay yet. “I’m not a software engineer. I’m Mr. Callahan’s PA.”

“Wow, Cassandra.” Preston said, with mock amusement. He made a show of slowly clapping. “So, you spent all that time studying and struggling to make good grades just so you could become a personal assistant? Your life sounds absolutely shitty. I wonder how disappointed your parents would be.”

In just a couple of words, Preston had crossed multiple lines. Her name wasn’t Cassandra. Her birth certificate read Cassie Adeline Peters. It was just Cassie. He liked calling her Cassandra because he felt that Cassie was just a silly nickname given to little kids and thought that it was an appropriate name to call anyone over the age of seventeen. But Cassie wasn’t her nickname, it was her actual name. Then he had insulted her job position. Growing up, she had never envisioned that she would be a PA, but it was her job and no one had any right to try to make her feel bad about her occupational position. The greatest no-no was him bringing up her late parents. He had absolutely no right to do that!

“What I choose to do with my life is none of your business, Preston. I might not be living the life I dreamed for myself but I am happy with what I have. And if you know what’s good for you, don’t ever bring up my parents again.” She warned menacingly.

Instead of getting mad like Cassie thought he would, Preston bore a lazy smile. “You better start getting more comfortable around me, Cassandra. I gave a very good presentation and I’m certain that Mr. Callahan is going to take me up on my offer. If everything goes according to plan, I’m going to be working here at Tech Town very closely with the both of you.”

Feeling strangely protective of Felix, Cassie crossed her arm and frowned at him. She had witnessed firsthand the kind of destruction Preston brought with him and she wasn’t going to let Felix – who was still struggling to get over the death of his fiancée and unborn children, all while dealing with his crazy parents and stress from work – go through that. “I’m not going to let you screw him over. I don’t know what your game is, but I know you and I know that whatever you’re up to, can’t be good.” She declared. “This is your chance to fuck off. If you’re smart, you’ll take it.”

“Nice try.” Preston took slow and determined steps towards her, stopping only when he was close enough to her that there was barely any space between them. “But I’m not going anywhere.”

“She’s alright. She’s back in school already and the entire accident just seems like a bad dream rather than something that actually happened.” Cassie said. Lily had made an excellent recovery and the only thing that made Cassie remember that she had ever been injured was the hospital bills that had started to roll in.

“That’s good to know. And Isabel? How is she doing?”

“She’s alright.” She answered. “She said to thank you and your brother for all of your help.” That was a flat out lie but saying otherwise would have made Isabel seem unappreciative.

Daniel wanted to say more like asking about when next Isabel would be coming to Tech Town but he decided against it. He didn’t want to scare her away by seeming desperate. “Alright then. I guess I better get back to work.”

“I have one more favor to ask.” Cassie blurted out before he could leave. “I wasn’t exactly paying attention to what happened in the meeting and I was wondering if you took any good notes.” The heads of the some departments at Tech Town had been present at the meeting and as the head the marketing department, Daniel had been present.

“I took some notes but they might not be very useful for you. The notes I took were mostly focused on the parts where those guys talked about how they’re going to bring their app to the general public. Their marketing strategy did have a couple of holes in it, but if Mr. Callahan gives them the green light then I’m going to have to fix it. It’s a wonderful idea they’ve got really. Making a health app with all those features is going to be help a lot of people. I mean I know I lot of health apps but how many of them compile a list of clinics and pharmacies based on your current location? If their presentation was accurate, the answer’s not many. Anyways, if you want more comprehensive notes, you should ask that intern Lucas. He takes really good notes and his handwriting is a lot neater than mine” He suggested. “See you around, Cassie.”

Cassie knew that this was her cue to begin the search for Lucas the intern and ask if he could share his notes with her but she couldn’t move. The possibility that Preston had stolen her app consumed her thoughts. She had been working on it ever since sophomore year of university and Preston had access to all of her passwords back then so he could easily have done it. She was well aware that many health apps existed in the world but how many of them compiled a list of clinics and pharmacies based on the user’s location? She needed to find out exactly what the features of Preston’s app were and compare it to the one that Isabel used. She had no idea what to do if Preston stole her app but confirming if he did or didn’t was the first step.