The Reluctant Assistant - Book One

Serf Part 1

Raymond was laying in bed, enjoying the warmth of his duvet, when his alarm started screeching. Quickly silencing it, he jumps out of bed to rush to the shower. He wasn't late, but he knew from experience that public transport was unpredictable. Slamming the door of his small flat shut, he rushed down the stairs, taking two at a time, toward the bus stop. It was only a 40-minute drive to where he needed to be, before getting a cab to his boss' house. 

Getting out of the cab, Raymond could not help but stop and marvel at the building in front of him. A massive garden with flowing lawn and an infinity pool. He was sure that nobody had ever used it before. Walking up to the front door, lights were spilling through the massive glass windows that seem to be everywhere. Even though most of the living areas were exposed to the outside through floor to ceiling windows, it was surrounded by trees that shielded the house from the outside world. 

Entering the pass code, he hung up his coat and made his way to the kitchen. Making sure that the housekeeper had the coffee brewing and was getting on with preparing breakfast, he moved to the en-suite closet, through a separate entrance to the bedroom. Carefully selecting a suit, shirt and tie, he turned to face a glass cabinet filled with expensive watches. Raymond knew that only one of these would probably pay his rent for a whole year and still allow him to go on holiday to some remote island you always see in the magazines. Picking up a box, he placed everything in reach of his employer and moved back to the kitchen to grab a quick coffee and a warm muffin. He often wondered why he had to be there for breakfast, if the housekeeper was already there to make sure that things were okay, but here he was, dressing and feeding a grown ass man. 

With a sigh, he straightened his tie and made sure that his suit was spotless. If there is one thing that he had learnt from Jackson over the past six years, was that perfection is key to success. Or at least making other people work hard enough to make you look perfect. 

He felt his phone buzz, and without looking at it, he rushed to the changing room, picking up the tie he had set out and moved toward his boss, Jackson Dealer. He was tall, tanned skin and hair that was almost as black as his eyes and lean, and muscular. He was also rude, impatient, narcissistic and treated most people with contempt.

"Cook! You're here!" Jackson smiled brightly, as if surprised to see him. Raymond automatically moved forward, lifting Jackson's collar to start tying his tie. Stepping back, he gave Jackson a once over and said: "Perfect as always." his eyes immediately darting away to hide his amusement. Every time he said that, he wanted to slap Jackson in the face, just to mess him up a bit.

"I know, right?" Jackson grinned, looking at himself in the mirror. "I don't know how I do it every day!" Raymond chuckled at that and quickly moved out of the room to get his tablet and wait for Jackson at the kitchen table. 

At first, he was surprised that Jackson chose to eat in the kitchen, but after seeing the size of the dining room, he completely understood. Once seated at the table, Raymond immediately poured Jackson coffee and added cream. Then he started to give a run through of the schedule for the day, scrolling through his tablet, not waiting for a response. He knew that Jackson valued time and efficiency. 

"Right, now that we've got all that settled, Cook, let's start this perfect day!" 

Driving toward the office's of Dealer Enterprises, Raymond knew it was going to be one hell of a day for him, nothing perfect about it. They had three meetings in the morning, a site inspection for their newest projects, then a birthday party for some ambassador's daughter who Jackson happens to be dating. If you can call what they do dating. He basically uses the poor woman as an escort to his parties, but completely ignores her the rest of time. Then again, she is using him to climb the social ladder and spend his money. This party meant that he will have to be on duty late into the night. He groaned. As it is, he was already getting up at five to make sure Jackson had the perfect start to the day, and the perfect day, and the perfect evening and... well, the perfect life, basically.