Pretend Love

Chapter 1: Deal

Two years. Two long years she had worked for Vincent Lee. Every year he promised her that come next year, she would be promoted. Then when the time came to make good on his promises, he would say "I'm sorry, Suzy, you're just too good of an assistant. I can't lose you." She should have learned by now. She should have quit two years ago.

"He's coming, he's coming!" the buzz started around the office.

Suzy feverishly gathered the papers on his desk into a neat pile, fluffed the throw pillow on the couch in his meeting room and grabbed his double espresso from her own desk. A high-strung secretary, Dianne, flittered past her, causing the hot liquid to spill on her white blouse.

"Damn it," Suzy groaned and dumped the Styrofoam cup in the nearest trash can, grabbing a second cup off her desk.

"Morning," he greeted her briefly and took the cup she was holding out for him. He took a sip while glancing over her soiled attire. "Busy morning?"

"I had a little accident, sir."

"I can see that," he noted dryly and sipped his coffee. "Good coffee. But who's Louise and why does he want me to call him?" he raised his eyebrows, an amused look on his face.

Suzy frowned. "Sorry?"

He turned the cup for her to read. Scribbled on the cup in permanent marker was the name Louise, followed by a cell-phone number and the words Call me.

Suzy felt a blush creep up. The Starbucks guy was always flirting with her.

"You wouldn't happen to order the same type of coffee as me just in case you spill one of them, would you?" he eyed her curiously, suspecting that was exactly what she did.

"No, not at all. I love strong coffee." Right. She would much prefer a caramel machhiato, but she refused to let him know that. When she got promoted to editor, she would order whatever coffee she liked.

"I have a meeting with the suits upstairs in 30 minutes," he said casually. "Why don't you go down to the fashion department and get a change of clothes while I'm gone? I can't have my staff looking like something the cat dragged in, now can I? How would that make me look, hm?"

"Yes, sir."

"Excellent. Bring me the Donalds' file, will you? Oh, and come up and get me from Frey's office in say 45 minutes. I have a videoconference in an hour."

"Certainly, sir. Oh, did you get a chance to look over the manuscript I left for you last week?"

"I did. I didn't see the potential," Vincent said in a bored tone, looking through his papers.

"All right. I was also wondering…"

"Yes?"

"Well, my brother's wedding's this weekend, and I asked for time off… I didn't hear back."

"I can't spare you. We have the Spencer book tour kick-off this weekend. I need you there."

"Oh, but…"

"Suzy… if you're serious about your promotion, you'll show me that you have your priorities in order. That will be all," he shooed her away without taking his eyes off the papers on his desk.

××××××××××

"Ugh, how do you stand working for him?" Andrea Reed, the junior fashion editor of the Frey Media Group's top selling fashion magazine Glam, said as Suzy was looking through their closet.

Suzy Bae and Andrea Reed had started working for the Frey Media Group at the same time, but while Andrea had advanced to junior editor, Suzy was still stuck in an assistant position in Frey Publishing, reading through a dozen admissions a day, trying to sort out the potentials from the immediate refusals.