Assistant to the CEO

Chapter Eight: Paris

"It's not cold there now, is it?" I asked Ava.

She stood in front of my suitcase as she helped me pack for the three days. It had come around quickly and the last two weeks at work involved Clarke and I preparing for the deal he would hopefully be looking to make. We figured out the numbers we were after and the type of company that would help Clarke keep his position, and now he had to put that into action.

"No colder than here I don't think," Ava admitted. "One coat should be enough. What time does your flight leave again?"

"Four," I answered her. "So it gets us there early Friday morning. I forgot that we were leaving Thursday when I first agreed to this. Luckily my professors were okay for me to miss one class."

"So you have time to explore the city then?" Ava asked me.

"Yes," I said slowly, "and don't worry I will take your advice and do it, okay?'

 "Good," she smiled.

I smiled back her slightly as I went to my closest. I had decided to embrace this time with Clarke, and hope I'd see a good side of him that I could actually like. His recent attempt at doing his job had helped, but I still saw that bad side of him that I couldn't stand.

"Oh shit," I said suddenly turning to Ava. "What the hell am I going to wear to the party?"

"Well, it's a party, you have dresses," Ava shrugged, folding up my shirt into the suitcase.

"This isn't a normal party, Ava. I need a nice dress, a formal dress," I stressed, looking through all my dresses, "which apparently I don't have."

"Well, you could borrow one of mine?" Ava suggested.

That made me laugh. "Ava, you pick dresses that... tend to leave little to the imagination."

"I know," Ava smiled as I glanced at her.

"These aren't those type of people though," I told her, sighing and turning around.

"So you can't be sexy, at all?" Ava asked.

"No, not necessarily. You can't be obvious about it, is more like it," I shrugged a little.

"Well, there's the red dress," Ava mused. "It's probably not as formal as you'd like, but it's not bad."

I realised the dress she meant and turned around to found it in my closest. I pulled it out and frowned slightly at it. I bought it for a dinner party once Henry insisted I attend. It was short with a flare below the waist and the chest line came down, making it a little booby. Ava was right, it was the best I had.

"Well, I definitely don't have time to go searching for anything else," I said glancing at the clock in my room.

"Hey, don't stress about it," Ava told me. "Seriously, you have one day of work there and the rest you get to enjoy one of the most famous cities in the world. Please, for crying out loud, enjoy it, for me."

I sighed slightly but smiled at her. "I will. As long as I can deal with Clarke, this will be great."

"That's the spirit."

Clarke had a car pick me up to take me to the airport. He wasn't in the car that picked me up, but he was already at the airport when I arrived.

"Do I detect a hint of nervousness?" Clarke asked, as we sat in the first class lounge waiting for our flight, which felt far too fancy for me.

"Why would you say that?" I asked him, glancing at him.

"You keep playing with your phone, but not actually using it," he noted.