Assistant to the CEO

Chapter Forty: Three Years Later

"Seriously, you'd think after being together for three and half years you'd remember I hate surprises," I groaned loudly.

"And you'd think after three and half years you'd remember I'm good at surprises," Clarke mimicked at me.

"Okay, but it's never involved putting me on a plane and not telling me where I'm going. I can't believe I let you talk me into getting on this plane," I said.

Do not get me wrong. I still loved Clarke and I still trusted him to all ends of the universe, but unsurprisingly agreeing to get on a plane and having no idea where I was going was not ideal. Not to mention he had literally bribed all the air hostess to not say a word to me. Now walking through the airport Clarke was doing his best to hide where we had landed.

"Can you just do me a favour and try to enjoy this for me? The last three years has been me flying back and forth and seeing you on the weekend, and sometimes I'd get there and you'd be too busy," Clarke reminded.

"Ah, sometimes it would be the other way around, thank you very much. Have you already forgotten our two-year anniversary?" I said a little high and mighty.

"No, but that was unavoidable and I more than made up for it," Clarke said quickly. "Just...please, Rory? I promise you'll love every second of it."

"Fine, as long as you tell me where we are," I said.

"You'll find out any second, especially once we cross the border," Clarke pointed out.

"Well, I know we're in a different country at least."

"Rory," Clarke sighed, and stopped walking to look directly at me. "Can you do me a favour and please just let this surprise happen and try not let my planning be in vain?"

I could see it was annoying him, my need to know everything so I sighed and nodded at him in response.

"Thank you," Clarke smiled, kissing my forehead, and then talking my hand to continue walking through the airport.

I went through the border trying to ignore any signs I saw, but no matter how hard Clarke tried he couldn't hide that we were in Europe, I just didn't know where yet, and as we went through the border I was never going to see any signs because the moment we were in the public area of the airport, there were people trying to take photos of Clarke and I.

I can't say that in the three years we had been together I had gotten used to living in the public life, because I hadn't. The world knew my name and my face, although I was mostly known as Clarke Watson's girlfriend, it was a part of me now. It made law school a little awkward in the beginning because people knew that about me, and that was all they thought of me, until they got to know me, then things got better. Sometimes at law school when Clarke wasn't there I wasn't bothered and I was just Rory, but back in New York or in public with Clarke I was Clarke's girlfriend again. I didn't hate it because I loved Clarke, with literally every fibre of my being, but sometimes I just wished things could be normal for us.

One of our bodyguards led us through the crowd and out into a car where someone had already collected our bags. Once the car door shut, I sighed.

"Vultures," Clarke muttered. "I haven't even done anything wrong. Why bother us?"

"Actually you haven't done anything wrong in years. Didn't I just read that you were one of the world's successful millionaires under thirty?" I praised him a little.

He laughed a little. "I knew sending you that magazine was a mistake."

"No, Clarke it's great," I rolled my eyes a little, putting my hands on him to shake him a little in annoyance. "You've done everything you wanted to do. You've built that company back up and made it your own and made it successful. You deserve the praise and the recognition, and I know for a fact that your Dad would be extremely proud."