Acting Royal #Wattys2017

Acting Badly 2

CHAPTER 2- RYAN STARK 

He threw the file across his office because that's how fucking frustrated he was right now! Childish! Yes, he knew, but tossing it had made him feel somewhat better about the fact that his entire life was falling apart. He was skating on thin ice with his investors and struggling to balance a personal life with a business one and feeling like he was failing at everything he was doing. He didn't like failing.

He needed an assistant! He needed one now. And he needed one that didn't cry and breakdown emotionally and go through ten boxes of tissues a day because she was going through a " bad break-up". Boo- fucking- hoo. At least she had time for a personal life. He'd had to fire her.

Of course, this has only gone on to cement his reputation even more- cold hearted, bastard, incapable of any real emotions and general bad, horrible boss! ( that's what he'd overheard them all saying around the water cooler anyway)

What they didn't know- couldn't know- was that he was very much capable of real feelings. Real pain and anguish and every other negative human emotion he could think of. His emotions tended to err on the side of negative most of the time. In fact, he couldn't really remember the last time he'd felt happy, or had any kind of fun. All he felt these days was anger and pain. Too much pain.

Over the last few years, he'd just become very good at hiding those emotions. He'd had to hide them, because on some days the feelings were so overwhelming that they threatened to knock him off his feet. And if he collapsed, 300 people would soon find themselves jobless- but they never thought of that, did they? They never thought that their job security relied on him being a " cold hard bastard," always in perfect control of his destructive, inner emotions. Never distracted. Always focused.

He picked the file up and slammed it back on his desk. He needed to get a grip and had one more candidate to interview before the end of the day. He'd promised Emmy he would be home early tonight- early meaning before she went to sleep. He'd broken so many promises to her lately, and he couldn't face the guilt that came with breaking the heart of the only person in this world that he truly loved and cared for...

He skimmed the CV of the next candidate. Doris Granger. She sounded 100 years old, but according to this, she was only 27. He read over her previous job experience...

Executive Assistant to CEO of a company he'd never heard about in Paraguay. Assistant to the producer on a movie set, and waitress.

He sighed and wanted to toss the file again. Her CV didn't exactly gleam and sparkle and inspire him with confidence, but this was the last- LAST- person to interview.

Maybe he would need to lower his expectations somewhat. What was he thinking... Lower them? His expectations would need to be somewhere in a gutter to hire someone who'd flipped burgers, made coffee for some movie execs and did God knows what for some company in, where was it?.. Paraguay, Papua New... Whatever! But what other choice did he have?

He'd gone through five assistance in the last two months. Two had quit in tears after the first day and the other three- yes, you guessed it- that heartless bastard had fired them. But none of them had been good enough, and now the job recruitment company said they weren't sending anyone else to him. Apparently, he was 'emotionally abusive.'

But as a result, he'd been forced to place an ad in the job section of the paper, and that's how the barely qualified waitress slash coffee girl had found him.

"Fuck it!" He cursed to himself and hung his head. He opened his drawer and pulled out the only personal item he kept in his office. A photo of him and Emmy in happier times. He looked at it and ran a finger over her smiling face. He needed to remember that he was doing this for her. He put the photo back into his drawer and closed it.

He buzzed down to reception, "send her up."