For The Love of All That Isn't

The perks of being in cahoots with the boss!

The great thing about hitting rock bottom?

There is no further you can fall.

Alex knew this as she picked up the agreement that lay on the hardwood table before her. She also knew that she'd ultimately accept the offer; on her conditions of course.

It was her doing him a favour and not the other way around, and that had to be thoroughly established.

But she was in no hurry to do it at least not before she leisurely perused the pages in the binder, meticulously registering each word of the terms offered.

"You can choose to work within the company in any department of your choice, within reason of your capabilities of course, if you want to" Asher stated from across the table, as Alex went over her benefits. "I've not added this in as we are yet to discuss the details of this 'arrangement'. We can, if you choose to, keep this aspect informal"

"I can work only 'within' the company?" Alex raised an eyebrow. He had to know, she wasn't testing boundaries, she was setting them.

Asher smiled fully aware that she was speaking more in defiance and challenge than actual concern. But he also knew she was also an extremely logical person, one of the qualities that made her exceptionally easy yet difficult to deal with. "Continuing to work as a waitress, you and I both agree, would not exactly be 'conducive to my image' as a significant other, at least not among my close circle" he pointed out as she nodded subtly in agreement.

"You can surely work there or elsewhere if you like. However, for someone of your calibre and disposition, I would recommend our business division. If you later decide it doesn't suit you, you can always switch. The perks of being in cahoots with the boss!" A shadow of a teasing smile played on his lips, while his serene aura remained unperturbed. "The experience might also work for you in the future"

Alex couldn't help but smile at the playful yet apparent offer. His ability to read people almost as well as she did was a trait she admired. He had accurately interpreted her dislike for her current workplace, yet sensed her resistance to accept an offer on his terms. She would suit business management like a cat in a box and she knew it. For the effort he had taken to carefully craft his words to what he knew she would like to hear, she might just assent. But that was a thought she could verbalize another day.

"You assume I want to go to college, why?" she asked her finger tracing the line that stated that her expenses would be fully covered 'when' and not 'if' she decided to go to college.

For most people, not excluding a 15-year-old Alex, it would have been a dream come true. But she was 23 years old now and had only used a euphemism of "Meh" to be polite to the presumed goodwill of the almost strangers seated across her.

"Yes, I presume someone of your potential would appreciate the opportunity", Asher replied calmly despite duly noting the disinterest he had sensed in Alex's voice. Her unceasing lack of excitement was starting to worry him more than he cared to admit, and he was quite literally grasping at straws at this point.

Alex smiled at the use of the word 'potential' and 'calibre'. He had thoroughly stalked her, as any wise businessman should. He had quite understandably swept through every bit of history of his soon-to-be 'wife' most of which would have disclosed itself to him even if he weren't trying as hard.

She was after all Aleksandra Skye Baker, the only daughter and survivor of the late business magnate Damien Baker and his equally illustrious late wife Katerina Arsenyev. Needless to say, for the first one and a half decade, privacy in every little aspect of her life had been, just as Baker Corporate now was, non-existent.

Her first smiles had once plastered the covers of Vogue, her first words had been uttered on the set of an equally renowned TV show, and her Mensa scores along with some other random information had been featured, for whatever reason, in an article that was titled along the lines of "Stars of the Future".

For as long as she could remember, her parents had been ambitious overachievers and basked in the attention they attracted like cats in the sun. While they had unavoidably dragged her into the only lifestyle they had known, they had fiercely loved their only child stopping at nothing to ensure her happiness, so much so that she could recall occasions where she would pretend to be happy just so they wouldn't try as hard.

She had learnt quite young to protect herself from apparent enemies and pretentious friends, to brush aside remarks from people that knew her from an article in a gossip magazine and to look good for the cameras even when she was dying on the inside. The latter of her learnings had been particularly useful eight years ago when the death of her parents in a freak accident had attracted media around the world like moths to a flame.

She had much rather looked composed and had them take her silence as a sign of her well-being than answer them as to what aspect of losing her parents and being the only unscathed survivor in an accident at the age of fifteen upset her the most.

They might have to those who were in on the details seemed impolite and malicious, but in actuality, they were simply curious and lacked all sense of tact. They had innocently pointed out to her that her father had swerved, unlike most drivers would, to ensure that the impact had been more severe on his side of the car and wondered if it was his last desperate attempt to spare her life. Yet even at that point in time, she had put on her blank facade for as horrible as it sounded she had more pressing issues to concern herself with than wonder whether she was grateful for having survived.

As brilliant a father and strategist as he had been, Damien Baker, by no fault of his own, was, unfortunately, a poor judge of people. While his demise had been unforeseeable, his contingency plan in the unfortunate off-chance that it occurred was beyond abysmal.

He had left the entirety of Baker Corporate in the charge of his elder brother, the one person in the line of succession Alex's paternal grandfather had intentionally skipped, till Alex chose, if she did, to take charge once she turned 18.

Within the next 3 years however, the man had burned and drowned Baker Corporate as methodically as he had his life with gambling, drugs and whatever vile he could lay his hands on to the point that suing him would cause Alex more trouble than good.

But Damien Baker couldn't really be held accountable for it. He was after all as Alex's grandfather had described a 'brilliant man with a wacky sense of people' and yet somehow all his life, he had been lucky enough to be surrounded by the best of them.

Alex had only much later come to understand why her grandfather had refused to share Alex's frustrations about her father's poor judgement of character. He had insisted that the gift of 'reading people' or perhaps what science would call today 'emotional intelligence' only came to those who lived through the worst.

Alex wouldn't deny that she had seen seemingly happy people with a great EQ, but neither could she brush off the fact that it was what had let her survive to see this day.

Back then, she had laughed with her grandfather when he'd joked about how he'd have been a seer if not for a businessman, yet looking back at the memory she couldn't help but wonder if the man, who had been through the worst of wars himself, was actually on to something.