Confessions of the Other Woman

chapter 2 innocent

It was a wonderful Tuesday morning for Dove Calvin. There were no annoying birds chirping to wake this princess up. She had taken a nice long bubble bath with a glass of red wine the night before. Ok, maybe two glasses. It rained heavily all night long, creating the perfect atmosphere for uninterrupted sleep. The stars had aligned perfectly and finally she could get an acceptable amount of sleep. She felt as if she had been laying there forever, and she loved it.

Wait, how long has she been laying there?

Dove opened her eyes smiling at the raindrops collecting on the window, only to have her bliss interrupted when she saw her alarm clock blinking. We all know that can mean only one thing.

Wake up woman!

Quickly she turned her phone on to see exactly what time it was.

7:45AM

She has to be at work for 8:00. Not exactly off to a great start.

"Jesus Christ..."

She flung herself out of bed stubbing her toe on the end table. She quickly turned on her critical thinking skills to decide if putting on makeup or eating breakfast was more important. She decided on the second, because food is always more important. She finger combed her tangled curls into a sort of half up, half down hairdo and justified the mess by telling herself it was "business casual" and "I'm only the receptionist, so who cares?" Dove threw her clothes on her body and, practically running to the kitchen, microwaved a jimmy dean breakfast burrito. She poured herself a cup of French vanilla coffee and then began taping her finger on the counter anxiously waiting for the stupid beep to hurry up and go off already. She couldn't wait. She opened the microwave door with 7 seconds on the timer as if that somehow made a difference. Dove burned her tongue as she bit into the "nutritious" meal, and then burned it again trying to cool it off with her coffee.

Come on woman, get yourself together!

"You know what? screw this." She said under her breathe as she grabbed a slightly over ripe banana from the counter along with her keys and headed to her used, soccer mom, crossover suv she had the nerve to call her first "big girl" car. She was mumbling to herself again.

"This is stupid. I can't believe I'm getting so lit over a job I don't even want. I mean would it really even be that bad if I got fired? probably not. Would I end up homeless? Maybe. But at least I could sleep in."

What are you talking about woman? you have student loans to pay off you need this job!

She backed out of the driveway and floored the accelerator. The radio had been auto tuned and was playing Britney Spears "lucky". The drive to the office was normal. Filled with plenty of "You idiot, use your blinker!"s and "Sorry!"s and "What am I even doing"s. You know, the norm. She arrived at her workplace, which was a law firm, at exactly 7:59AM. As she walked in, her boss Rick Landry, was at her desk with his arms crossed and a death stare blanketing his face.

"Calvin, you're late."

"well, actually it's 7:59 so I'm one minuet early." she said with a wink.

He raised his eyebrows and grinned. "Alright, you're off the hook this time. But don't think I don't have a noose in my office with your name on it."

"I promise it wasn't my fault, but I'm here now and ready to work." She said half apologetic, half not.

"Good, I'm glad to hear you say that." She immediately regretted those words. "I have some conflicting appointments I need you to take care of, and some collateral damage that needs cleaning with one of our bigger clients. Can you handle it?"

"Of course I can." She couldn't. The work this man gave her was ridiculous and not even in her job description. The things he asked her to do were the jobs of a secretary or personal assistant. And she certainly didn't get paid for the extra work.

Rick was 43 years old with a nice build. He was at what many consider to be there midlife point but he showed no signs of relaxing. He went to the gym almost everyday after work and kept his salt and pepper hair, both on his head and face, clean with a barber visit every two weeks. Dove often admired his looks from afar, but she would never entertain any thoughts. He may be successful and handsome, but he was the absolute last person any young woman would want to be with. The reason being he had an old fashion way of doing business. Things went his way or no way at all. It was always go go go with him and the word "break" was not in his vocabulary. He knew he gave Dove far too much work for what he was paying her, but in his opinion, when you're at the bottom of the ladder in the business world, sometimes you gotta eat crap. Just like he had done, and his boss before that. If dove wanted to be higher, then she would have to climb up on her own.

"Fantastic! I knew I could count on my number one girl." He said flashing his $7,000 smile as he walked away.

Dove smiled back, but hers was definitely not as enthusiastic as his. She sighed and leaned back into her squeaky chair, looking up at the celling.

This morning may seem like the number one cliché in a romance novel to you, and you would be right. Because Dove is a cliché girl living a cliché life. Nothing exciting or different happens to her. There are no twists or surprises. Nothing that makes her stand out from any other 21 year old trying to make it in this rat race called life. But it turns out, that being so boring and ordinary is what will get her into trouble in the first place.

A/N

Thank you to everyone that has began to read my novel! Even though there are only a handful of you right now it makes me so happy! I can't wait to share the rest of my story with you! Also, I would like to know if you all prefer 1st or 3rd person writing? It is me writing about myself, but I didn't like to initial flow of the 1st person. Let me know your opinion on that, and anything else! feedback is much appreciated!

Love, Dovegrace