Downgrading Miss CEO

Chapter 10

"Ali, can you please clear out my schedule from noon till two?" I asked her as I stepped into my office, an empty cup of coffee in my hand and the content sprawled all over my black, body-hugging dress. "And could you please stop by my house to get me a clean dress. I know I vowed to never send you out on a personal errand, but this is an emergency."

Allison looked up at me and suppressed her giggle. "What happened to you?"

"I bumped into this person again. I don't know why, but he seems to hate my guts because he just assumes I am a daddy's girl and living off my trust fund. It's juvenile and all that stuff, but I seem to run into him time and time again. First time at the park, when I came back from visiting Chris. And do not forget about what happened after family night dinner. He just happened to work at the bar I went to, to drown myself in alcohol."

"If I wouldn't know better, I would say that it seems like the perfect start of a love story. Anyways, I already cleared you for lunch yesterday. Ava called and said you would probably forget." Allison said and then went back to what she was doing.

My legs started to tremble and my mouth fell open. No, this can't be happening. Struggling to find words, my mouth went dry. It was a good thing the coffee was already spilt over my dress, or else I would have happened now. "This isn't good. This is so not good." I muttered to myself.

This seemed to grab Allison's attention as she looked back up at me. "What's not good, Lucy? Use your words."

Come on, I was supposed to be a ruthless businesswoman and I couldn't even manage to acknowledge and solve the fact that I double booked myself for something stupid like lunch? The problem though, neither of these lunches were stupid. One was to spend some much needed time with my mother, to assure her I am fine and that the little incident with my father didn't really get to me. And the other was a date I set up for myself, with a stranger. Where was I at with my head when I agreed to lunch today? Right, probably on cloud nine, or something like that.

"Allison, I double booked myself for lunch. I was supposed to meet with my mom and Ava to spend some mother-daughter bonding time. But then this guy, you know, the one from yesterday, asked me to lunch and I just decided to take a leap and agreed. What am I going to do? I can't be in two places at once and I sure as hell don't see anything in the solution to combine the two. Gosh, that would be extremely awkward." By now I was pacing up and down Allison's office. I was now in the building for half an hour already and haven't even made it to my office yet. That's half an hour of working time wasted on personal businesses. My father would've gotten some serious heart problems if he would've had the chance to see this.

Allison stood up from her chair and forced me to sit down in it instead. Which probably was the perfect move at this moment as my legs seemed to almost give out from under me. Knowing just what she had to do, Allison stood up to get me some water. Once she came back, she handed me the glass and then leaned against her desk, facing me. "Don't panic so much. We can fix things. How about I call your mom and Ava and tell them there is an important matter that needs your attention and you'll meet with them for an high-tea. That way you can have your time with them as well as go on the lunch date, which you totally should've called me about yesterday. How does that sound?"

Exactly this reason and a bunch of others was the reason why Allison was my PA. She could keep up with me and wasn't at all scared off by my name or function in the company. "Ali, you're a lifesaver. I don't know what I would've done without you." I got up from her chair and gave her a grateful smile. "Now that little crisis is averted, I should probably get some actual work done, seeing the fact I won't be in the office for the hours I should be. Thank you, Allison."

-

It was five minutes to noon when Allison's voice came over the intercom. "Your lover boy just sent you a message to tell you that if not wearing a suit and tie wasn't enough to recognize him downstairs in the lobby, he's waiting for you in the small lounge area across the receptionist desk. In other words, it's time for you to get your ass down there."

Thanks to Allison, I was no longer stuck wearing my coffee-stained black dress, but instead, I was now wearing an olive-coloured pencil skirt combined with a white, flower-patterned top. In the reflecting window, I quickly checked my appearance. I didn't look bad, but I didn't look at my best with little to none makeup and my chestnut brown hair cascading down in natural waves. It'd have to do because, for today, it wasn't going to get any better than this.

I made my way out of my office, quickly thanking Allison again for all that she did today and telling her she could go home once she was done with whatever she was currently doing at the moment. She gave me a quick thumbs up when I stepped into the elevator to make my way downstairs before she went down with her task at hand.

The ride down with the elevator seemed to be hours instead of the usual minutes. What was I thinking? Meeting a stranger? And worse, blowing off my mom and sister for it. What was happening to me? The elevator dinged, and I took one last deep breath before I stepped out, and made my way to the lounge area.

From the elevator I could see there was indeed one person sitting there, not wearing a suit and tie, and a small smile appeared on my face. That smile, however, vanished as I got closer. "You!" Was all that came out of my mouth, causing all eyes and attention to be on me. "What are you doing here? You haven't ruined my clothes enough by spilling coffee over them?"

He stood up and held up his hands above his head. "Calm down, woman. I'm just here to pick someone up for a lunch date. I didn't even know you worked here, heck, I'm surprised you have a job in general. Did daddy finally see the light and decided to stop supporting you? Or did you spend your entire trust fund already with your endless shopping sprees? Anyways, I am here waiting for Allison? Maybe you know her? Although, she works on the top floor of this building, so I would doubt that."

What was happening here? Was he the guy I shared those messages with? How is that possible?

"Hold on a minute, you're telling me you are Julian? Are you kidding me?" I uttered, still trying to comprehend what exactly was going on here. Apparently, I had caused a big enough scene to draw my employee's attention to the matter. I had to do something. "You know what, forget it. I am not in the mood for this."

I turned on my heel to leave but was immediately stopped when a hand wrapped around my wrist. Ready to tell him off, I was cut off by a raised hand, signalling for me to keep quiet. "Before you go and blow me off, which I can understand after I've been such an ass to you. But please, give me a chance to make it up to you. Besides that, if you're anything like I think you are, you would want to grab this chance to prove me wrong, and I mean that in a good way."

"So, Allison, what's it going to be? Are we going or am I leaving?"

-