The Devil's Assistant (Watty Awards Finalist 2011)

The Devil's Assistant: Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I sat there for over three monotonous hours sorting the papers out into the right piles before it became completely unbearable. It took quite a while to even know which document the paper belonged to because there weren't any page numbers on them. It was clear that my predecessor had absolutely no interest in the job. Well, unless you counted Mr Satani himself, I added as an afterthought.

 With a groan, I pushed myself up off of the floor. My bum hurt from serious exposure to the floor which, despite the fluffy carpet, was ridiculously uncomfortable. My stomach chose that moment to grumble and a quick glance at my watch had me breathing out a relieved sigh.  It was lunch time.

"Thank God for small mercies," I muttered under my breath while sweeping up the sorted documents into a pile.

During the course of the morning I had added post-it notes to several sheets. I hadn't even understood half of what the documents were about, but it was clear that someone was fiddling with the figures. The question was why.

Straightening out my clothes, I crossed over to Mr Satani's door and knocked lightly on the tinted glass with one hand while the other clutched the papers to my chest. A muffled voice called out in response so I used my free hand to push open the door.

It was impossible to miss the imposing figure of Mr Satani as he sat behind the desk. His gaze was fixed upon the screen of his computer so that his face had taken on a blue hue in the oddly gloomy room. It was a crime that this man had an incredible office overlooking the city and he was wasting it all with blinds closed and lights on.

The CEO held up a single finger to signify that he had noted my presence while his attention remained firmly upon the screen.

The office was exactly how you would expect a man in charge to have it. Each wall was filled with bookcases and imposing filing cabinets. The few titles I could see on the shelves had me puzzling over the man. But then I snorted. There was no way that Mr Satani, narcissist and god's gift to women, had read those ancient tomes.

I allowed my gaze to wander back to the man in question and soon I felt my brows drawing further and further up my head. The desk he sat behind was completely organised.  Even the keyboard looked like it was in the perfect place and each of the pens in the little holder were arranged at the perfect angle. If anything, the office screamed out to me that he was trying too hard to look like the perfect office worker.

I shook that thought off quickly.

The whole look of the place was brought together by tall dark and handsome as he leant back in the black leather chair, behind his ridiculously large desk with that unconscious smirk upon his lips.  All he needed was the cat and then he would look like the stereotypical cartoon villain.

Mr Satani cleared him throat which snapped my attention back to him. My hand fisted into the paper in my arms as I noted the smug smile, the one that created the cutest dimple in his cheek, while his eyes trailed lazily up and down the length of my body. My teeth ground together as his blue eyes lingered on every bit of my exposed skin.

"What can I do for you Miss Holmes?" The man leant forwards as he purred the words, his gaze never leaving mine. 

Chewing on my bottom lip, I looked everywhere but at him as I held the pile of crumpled documents out in his direction.

"These are the ones I've sorted out already. I've marked a few because there were discrepancies. There's nothing huge but by the time you build it up over the course of the year, well it is actually quite big."

When he made no move to take them, I dropped them onto his desk with a bang and then slapped a finger on one of the highlighted and post-it covered page. Mr Satani blinked up at me for several long seconds before his eyes flicked downwards. I watched as they trailed across the words over the paper – a quick glance to begin with but quickly becoming focused as he grasped what I was trying to tell him.