His Lady Love

Chapter 3

Abby was flabbergasted. When she had woken up this morning, she hadn't imagined that she would meet the big Boss today- nor that she would be party to the conversation that had just taken place. I want you, he'd said. Not that he'd meant it in any other way than purely professionally. He was her definition of 'hot stuff' and while she was becoming more and more confident again, she admitted to herself that there was no way a man like him would look twice at her- even before Evan had done a number on her.

she looked down at the measly little box that had her work stuff in it. A week wasn't much time to acquire anything significant, in terms of stuff. The other typists had started t arrive by the time she had placed the last of her pictures onto the top of her box. She had spent a nice week with these women and one in particular had stood out t her. Juliet.
Juliet was one of the older ladies and although she had worked for some really big companies in other parts of The country, she was happy to be working in the trenches with the women in the typing pool.

"Good mornin' darlin', I see your rooster's still waking you up at the crack of dawn." Juliet said to Abby with a warm smile on her face.
"Rooster's still clucking, but i don't know if i will be for much longer. I had a visit from Mr Montgomery a few minutes ago." Abby said as she let Juliet to the filing room. Most of the other typists were either too busy or scared to be caught alone anywhere so isolated by Mr Fields, so they avoided the filing room at all costs, making it the perfect place to have a private conversation.

Instead of saying anything, Juliet waited patiently as the younger woman told her the details of her unexpected meeting with the boss, and his even more unexpected offer. Once she'd heard the whole story, Juliet looked down at her wrist watch and back up at Abby.
"What are you still doing down here then? You have about 2 minutes to get there" she pointed out.
"Or 2 minutes to leave the building." Abby countered, " I haven't yet decided either way. I've never been anyone's personal assistant before. What if I mess up and end up causing the company to crash?' she wrung her hands as images of fire and chaos built in her head.

"I don't think you understand Abby. No one says no to Darius Montgomery and lives to tell the tale. If you walk out of this building, you can forget about getting a job anywhere else. He will blacklist you and make sure that no company worthy of calling its self a company hires you. Is that what you want for you and Max? What have you got to loose by working for him?" As Juliet finished saying her piece, the door swung open to reveal Mr Fields. He Smiled having finally cornered Miss Lovett in the filing room.

"Ah, Miss Lovett, fancy meeting you h-" His words dried up, and his prune-lipped scowl returned to his face. As he walked further into the room, a smile appeared on Juliet's face as if by magic, when he realised that he hadn't caught her alone after all.

"Miss Lamont, I'm shocked to see that you have managed to drag yourself to work at this time of morning. It seems Ms Lovett's timekeeping habits are starting to rub off on you, although I doubt your nonexistent work ethic will benefit from it." The glint in his eye told Abby that this wasn't the first time he'd said something so unkind and untrue to Juliet to hurt her feelings, but Juliet's reaction to it was very unexpected. The normally feisty Juliet only shook her head slightly and ushered Abby out of there with a sad smile.

Abby would have asked Juliet what that was all about, but was cut off when Juliet pointed out that it was time for her to leave.
"For both ours and Max's sakes, I hope you make the right choice. You could do worse than work for the Big Boss. Whatever you decide, just know that you have a bright future ahead of you, and that I'm always available for a quick cup of tea." Juliet said as she let Abby past the other typists and to the lifts.

They waited for the lift that would take Abby away from the typing pool, each lost in their own thoughts. When the lift did arrive, Abby took a deep breath and stepped on. She looked at the control panel and pressed the floor that she hoped would lead her down the best road.

Darius stood in front of the lift on his floor and watched as the numbers above the lift lit up, showing that the lift was moving to his floor. He smiled at thought of Abby being in that lift, but when the doors opened, it felt like a small piece of his happiness was taken from him.

Melinda (he really did need to learn the girl's name), stepped out of the lift flung her arms towards him, waiting for him to hug her. The smile on her face faltered slightly when he just stood there, looking at her like she had just spouted another head.

"Good morning Darius! I wasn't expecting you to wait for me in the foyer like this. Not that I'm complaining." Her overly cheerful voice was like a bag of angry cats, clawing get out and hurt who ever was foolish enough to be near by.
With an angry huff, he turned n his heels and marched to his office at the end of the spacious foyer.
Melanie prattled on as she walked behind him, talking about all the latest office gossip. It wasn't until he heard her mention seeing a young woman walking towards the security desk with a box of stuff, that his interest was peeked. Abby. So, she had decided leave after all. Well, he was stuck with Melanie for the time being it seemed.

He sat behind his desk, intending to work, but found that all his mind could come up with was how he could get Abby to come back to her old job at least. This train of thought was soon interrupted by raised voices - chief among them the high-pitched nasal tones of Melanie.
With very little enthusiasm, he dragged himself to the front office, where he found three very unhappy women, and not a clue about where to start...