THE BAT & THE BUTTERFLY | b.wayne

chapter: 3

"YOU'RE EARLY," bruce raises a brow as he entered the hallway leading to his office.

marie lunes rises from her seat at the bench, proud to have arrived before both the secretary and the boss. she greets her new boss with a smile he narrowly misses as he enters his office, placing his things in a closet in the corner of the room. confused, marie lingers outside the door sticking her head out, prepared for her first instructions of the day.

"well don't just stand there," her boss says nonchalantly to which marie rushes inside, taking the seat across his desk, the same one she sat on yesterday. she narrowed her eyes at his back as he shut the closet.

bruce turns around, seeing his new hire for the first time that day. his eyes quickly glance over her outfit then back at her straining smile and mutters something that resembles a 'good morning'. he figured that should have been the first thing he should have said.

marie doesn't understand his mumbling and nods and smiles like an idiot.

"are you not going to say it back?" bruce asks with furrowed brows as he takes a seat.

"sorry, say what back?"

i may have made a mistake, he internally sighs. ignoring her comment, he quickly moves on.

"for appearances sake, you're going to be my 'assistant', however the only job you're doing is what i assign you to do seeing as i don't need you to do anything else but that," bruce explains, turning on his computer.

sure, marie nods. let's see how long you last without an assistant and your butler.

"does that mean my paycheck is that of your assistant?" marie asks.

"no."

and why the hell not?

"oh...do i get a desk?"

"jade's old office--"

"office?"

bruce nods slowly.

marie shrugs cooly doing her best to hide her glee. "anything else i should be aware about?"

"as you may know, i'm not ever in the public's eye. i don't attend any company events even though i'm usually the subject of it, neither do i attend events other people host. that has to change per your suggestions so to maintain this new image we're creating, you'll be following me when i'm attending said events. be aware of that. having the appropriate attitude, attire, etcera will be very important since you'll be by my side," bruce explains, tapping away at his computer.

marie shifts in her seat. attire? marie couldn't afford that kind of attire. at least not yet. she was wearing the same skirt and flats from yesterday and a blouse she recycled from her last interview five days prior to this one. it was her second "lucky" interview blouse and it has seen way better days.

"oh and every morning we meet at my office to discuss our plan and progress. we might as well begin now for the interest of time," bruce says glancing at the time on his watch.

"sure," marie smiles, reaching for her bag where she pulls out a blue folder. "i thought of some ideas last night after doing extensive research on your history, though there is about a ten year gap that i don't really know what happened. feel free to shed some light if that's something you're comfortable sharing."

"it'll be irrelevant regardless," bruce is quick to add with a harsh tone.

marie's smile fades into a thin line. there's a moment where it looks she wasn't going to continue with her proposal but rather a string of colorful words instead and decides not to. however, the raising of her brows as she removes a paper from her folder is still a dangerous sign to bruce.