Mr. Lawson's Assistant

Chapter 75

I smiled at the new secretary as I walked into work. Inhaling as I stepped onto the elevator, I glanced down at my shoes.
Expensive.
I thought with a shake of my head. Those darned shoes that Damon had bought me. I never thought I'd wear them again, but here we were. It was my first day back to work in two weeks and I was restless to dive in.
Apparently, Greyson had employed the help of the new secretary and Malia from the lower office to keep up with my work while I was on 'vacation,' but I was hoping that they'd left me something to start on.
Stepping off the elevator, I passed Greyson's office and paused when I heard voices. He'd told me that he was free this morning. No meetings. My heartbeat quickened. Had Damon come home early from his trip? Last week, after our first official date as a couple, Damon had asked me if I would travel with him to California for a work trip. I'd told him no. I knew that the company was only given one bedroom for trips like that and I wasn't about to put myself in another bedroom situation with Damon. At least not until I had a ring and a wedding.
After listening for a moment, I concluded that the second voice was female. Sighing, I continued past the first office, pushing the door open to my own workspace and holding back a smile. Everything was neat and tidy as I'd left it.
It wasn't long before I was sitting behind the computer, sorting through the somewhat disorganized notes that the new secretary had left me, and answering phone calls for Greyson's schedule.
After I hung up the phone, having booked yet another conference for Greyson, I frowned when I heard voices coming from his office again. Taking a quick glance at his schedule, I noted that he did not have a single in-person meeting scheduled for today.
Standing, I walked over and knocked on the door. There was a pause, before I was called inside.
"Oana, good to see you back," Greyson reached up to tuck a loose piece of hair behind his ear. The first time I'd seen his hair disheveled at work. I blinked when I saw Malia standing beside him, her bright lipstick a little smudged. My cheeks burned.
"It's good to be back. I just wanted to check in and see if you needed anything. . ." I trailed off, smiling at Malia. She flashed an embarrassed smile back at me and clasped her hands behind her back.
Greyson shook his head. "I don't need anything, but thank you."
I nodded and turned to leave. "Let me know if you do." I said with a half smile, closing my office door behind me.
When the door was closed, I let out a breath and gaped. Greyson and Malia?
Since when?
Shrugging, I pulled out my phone and moved to sit at my desk. For the heck of it, I sent Damon a text, asking if he knew anything about his brother and Malia, before I got back to work.
Seconds later, Damon answered with a sarcastic remark about me being a bad girlfriend, before confirming that he'd known for a least a month now.
I retorted, then shut the sound on my phone off to concentrate. Damon wasn't a texter, as I'd found out the last few weeks, but he and I could get into a pretty heated GIF war if I wasn't careful.
A few hours later, I paused for lunch break before diving back into my work. I hardly knew the time was passing until the ringer on my phone went off and David's face flashed across my screen.  I checked the time before I answered and found that I was half an hour late to getting home than I'd told David.
"Hey. . ." I answered, and David scowled on the other line.
"You forgot, didn't you?"
I hummed a yes.
"When will you be home?"
"Twenty minutes." I clicked my computer off and stood up.
David hung up.
Greyson and Malia had long-since left, so I closed my office door and in passing his office, reached inside and shut off the lights. He usually didn't forget to do so.
In ten minutes I was in my car pulling out into the street. That's when my car jerked and a loud crunch echoed behind me. I gasped and looked back to see a white suburban lodged up my trunk. . . Or should I say, lodged over my trunk. It was a big car.
Shifting into park, I closed my eyes and let out a breath, before I slid out of my seat to meet the other driver. It was a middle-aged man who looked as if he'd just run over my dog, not my car. I could almost see tears in his eyes.
"Are you okay?" He rushed, pressing a hand to his face and running the other through his thinning grey hair.
I nodded. "I'm fine, but my car on the other hand. . ." I winced when I looked at the damage.
The man's face twisted. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry. I just— I didn't see you and then— Your car is so small. . ." He covered his face with his hands and groaned.
"It happens." I exhaled, watching the man with a gentle frown.
He shook his head and blinked back tears. "I uhm, my insurance isn't. . . I don't have any right now." He stumbled, and I felt my stomach twist.
Perfect.
I paused from reaching into my back pocket for my phone. Calling the police would get this guy in a world of trouble.
He turned and looked between the cars. His car was hardly damaged, just a little scratched, but my entire trunk door was crumpled and scraped. Luckily, it still remained closed. Whether or not it would open was debatable.
"I'll call the police." The man closed his eyes and reached for his phone. "I just need to call my wife first. She's at the hospital across the street right now, she can come help." He told me.
Without knowing what I was doing, I held up my hand. "No, it's ok. I'll just— it's fine." I breathed, staring at my car and wondering how on earth it was fine. It was definitely not fine.
The man blinked. "You don't want to write it up? Your poor car!" He raised a hand to his hair again.
"I'm sure I can get a friend to fix it." I said more confidently than I'd spoken to Greyson the first day I'd met him. Which was a lot. I had no idea who I could get to fix my car. Something in my gut just told me that this man needed a break. David was going to skin me alive when I got home.
"I am so sorry! Here, take my card, and call me if I can help in any way!" The man started digging through his wallet to fish out a business card. I took it and he said another eight apologies, before I waved him off and climbed back into my car. As I pulled out into the street, I let out a long breath, blinking to clear my frustrated tears. I could not afford to fix my car right now.
The drive home was tense, I gripped the steering wheel and tried to think of how I was going to tell David. With our new apartment, the rent was much more expensive and I had just started working again. It would be at least two months before I'd have enough saved to fix it.
That's not too bad.
I thought, pulling into the apartment complex and opening my window to punch in the code for the gate. This apartment complex looked more like a neighborhood, but the "houses" were just apartments split up two per every house. I pulled into the third house driveway on the right and parked my car. Pulling the keys out of the ignition, I rested my head on the steering wheel. It had been such a good day up until a few minutes ago.
I heard a knock on my window and I lifted my head to see David standing outside my car. I opened the door and stood up.
"What happened?" He glanced to the crumpled back of my car and I shut my car door with a little more force than necessary.
"Someone hit my car in the parking lot." I lied. If David knew I'd let the guy go, he'd be even more pissed.
David crossed his arms. "Have Damon's brother check the cameras!"
I swallowed and glanced back at my car.
Shoot.
I should've thought my lie through a little better.
"David, I—"
He cut me off. "We can talk inside." He sighed, turning and walking back up the driveway. I frowned. It wasn't like him to dismiss the problem until it was dealt with.
I locked my car, and followed David up onto the front porch. The front door opened when I reached for the handle, and the next thing I know, I was being scooped up from the ground and someone was squeezing the breath out of me. I inhaled to yell at David, but the familiar smell that drifted into my nose made me stiffen.
"Surprise. . ." Damon whispered in my ear, and I felt his smile against my cheek.
I blinked as he set me down and I stared up at him with my mouth agape. "What are you doing here?" I fumbled, reaching up to push my loose hair out of my face.
He smirked. "I was hoping for a bit of a warmer welcome. . ."
I faked a frown, crossing my arms. He smiled at me, and I broke. Grinning, I stepped forward and hugged him with all my might. He wrapped his arms around me and held me for a minute. The best minute I'd had in a while.
"Why'd you come home early?" I said, my voice slightly muffled against Damon's chest.
"I didn't. I just told you I'd be getting home later so I could surprise you." He chuckled, holding me at arms length when I let go of him. I wanted to do a better job at pretending to be upset with him, but I smiled instead. Damon's lips twitched, before he broke into a grin and shook his head.
"I missed you."
I cocked an eyebrow. "I wish I could say the same." I smirked and Damon rolled his eyes.
*
I walked out of work days later, smiling. Damon had just texted me a picture of my repaired car. I'd had a feeling that he had taken it, when David said he needed to use the car, and that same morning Damon had offered to drive me to work. He'd left right after he dropped me off, which I thought was odd, since he hadn't been in the office hardly at all in the last two days. I'd only seen him one other time.
Dropping my phone into my purse, I glanced up as Greyson pulled up alongside the sidewalk.
"Good morning, Oana," He called, cracking the window to greet me. I waved at him and smiled as he pulled away towards the parking garage.
In the elevator, Damon texted me again asking if I was free to go to dinner with him tonight. I checked my schedule and realized that I'd told David that I'd go shopping for jeans with him tonight after work. Texting Damon that I'd have to take a rain check on dinner, I silenced my phone and stepped out of the elevator.
Work was fortunately very busy for the rest of the day. Until around 4:30, I didn't get a chance to look at my phone, nor answer the majority of emails that were sitting unopened in my inbox. Finally, I had the river of work that had been flowing all day damned up enough to sit at my desk and answer a few emails. After a few moments of typing I heard my phone buzz and distractedly pulled it out of the drawer in front of me. Glancing at the screen, I frowned and paused when I saw two missed calls from David and a text from him. Upon unlocking my phone I found that the missed calls were from this morning and the text had been sent just now.

Had an unexpected delay at work, won't be able to go pants shopping tonight. See you later tonight?

I sighed, flipping to my texts with Damon after shooting David a quick text letting him know I'd gotten his message.

Any chance you still want to do dinner? David cancelled on me :/

Shutting off my phone I turned back to my emails.I didn't get far before my phone buzzed again. It was Damon confirming that he still wanted to go to dinner and that he'd pick me up around six.
I smiled to myself as I tucked my phone away. I was excited to spend time with just Damon tonight. It seemed like the more time I spend with him, the more time I wanted to spend with him. . . if that makes any sense.