Chapter 4: You’re Sure to Get the Job If the Boss Hates You

Octavia’s phone jingled and buzzed on the coffee table beside her. She set the jar of peanut butter down beside it.

Observing her fingertips, mostly smeared with the gooey butter, she turned to Gracie, who was sitting cross-legged on the carpet.

“Can you get that for me? Put it on speaker phone,” Octavia asked.

Gracie didn’t look up from her phone. “Why can’t you get it?”

“Come on! My hands are all sticky. Do you really want to have to clean peanut butter out of my phone after this? Again?”

Gracie sighed and set down her own device, reaching over for Octavia’s and pressing a button.

“If this is a robocall, go jump in a lake,” Gracie said into the phone.

The line was quiet for a few seconds, then a timid voice said, “…Um, is Octavia there?”

Octavia sat up, recognizing the voice. “Lauren! Hi! Yes, I’m here. Don’t mind that. That was just my, um…senile grandmother.”

Gracie smirked and pushed the phone across the table back to Octavia.

They heard Lauren give a nervous laugh. “Oh, I see. I hope I didn’t upset her.”

“No, no,” Octavia reassured her. “She’s just been, uh…drinking”—Octavia threw a look in Gracie’s direction—“A lot.”

“Um, okay. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it. Was there something you were calling about?” Octavia said.

“Oh! Yes!” Lauren’s voice suddenly became perky. “I just wanted to say, congratulations! I can’t believe we’ll be working together!”

Gracie’s head shot up, and she gave Octavia a questioning stare. Octavia was even more bewildered than Gracie.

“Uh…what do you mean, ‘working together’?” Octavia asked.

“The job. You got it. You’re the new assistant to none other than Mr. Raemon Kentworth himself.”

Octavia said nothing. She stared at her phone in disbelief.

“That’s why I’m calling,” Lauren continued. “When Adelaide told me to email you the offer letter at the end of today…I had to call and tell you the news myself. I knew you’d be a good match for this!”

By then, Octavia found her voice. “Are you sure she meant for you to send that to me?”

“Of course,” Lauren said, “I have a copy of the letter right here, signed by Adelaide herself. There’s your name, Octavia Clarice Wilde.”

Octavia mindlessly scratched her head, leaving streaks of nutty goo in the strands of her hair.

“Does Mr. Kentworth know about this?” she asked.

Lauren laughed. “Well, duh. He authorized it.

“He came out of his office some time back and walked right up to the desk where Adelaide and I were, handed her your resume, and just said, ‘Hire her. I want her here tomorrow morning.’”

Octavia only then realized her heart had begun beating faster than usual. Her hands felt a little clammy—and it wasn’t from the peanut butter.

“Shit,” Octavia said.

“What? Are you not taking the job?” Lauren asked. “Please say yes! I really did want to pay you back for what you did. But also…things are sooo crazy around here.

“He has all these demands, and neither one of us are able to meet them. You’d know exactly what to do. It would really be a huge help to us! To me!”

“…I’d like to, Lauren… but, I don’t know. I didn’t think I was welcome there.”

“Of course, you are! Mr. Kentworth himself told Adelaide to hire you. He didn’t leave a memo or send an email. He told her to hire you, and he wanted you here immediately.

“If he didn’t want you as an assistant, why would he do that?”

It was essentially the exact same question thrashing around in Octavia’s mind at that moment.

She took a deep breath. “Look, Lauren, I’m really grateful for what you did, but—”

Gracie interrupted her by clearing her throat.

Octavia looked up at Gracie. Gracie’s expression was unreadable, but Octavia knew very well what it meant.

“But what?” Lauren asked anxiously.

“…But…but nothing,” Octavia answered with a sigh. “I… accept. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“That’s perfect!” Lauren answered elatedly. Octavia finally signaled Gracie to end the call after hearing five minutes more of Lauren’s excited babble.

“Thanks a lot,” Octavia said grumpily. “Because of you, I’m working for the most obnoxious man on the planet. And my hair is full of peanut butter.”

“A, you can’t foist the peanut butter on me, and B, you really shouldn’t take advice from your drunk, senile grandmother,” Gracie answered coolly.

Sierra chose that moment to waltz through the living room with a towel wrapped around her dark hair, dressed in her pajamas.

“Damn, you guys have been sitting there the whole afternoon. Can’t you do something important for once?” she said, turning up her nose at the sight of them.

“Relax. Octavia’s not going to be around as much after today. She got a job,” Gracie announced.

“Finally,” Sierra snorted, stopping to pick some magazines up off a nearby armchair.

“It’s not like I haven’t been paying rent,” Octavia protested.

“Honey, it was only a matter of time before that would become the case,” Sierra said.

“Well, she’ll have plenty of cash now. Working at Icarus Tech and all,” Gracie said.

Sierra slapped a hand to her chest. Her disdainful look was replaced by one of rapture. “Icarus Tech! You’ll be working for the Raemon Kentworth. Oh. My. God.

“What I’d give to see his beautiful, sexy-as-hell face!” A sly look came over her face. “Wouldn’t mind seeing the rest of his sexy-ass self either.”

“You know who he is?” Octavia asked.

Sierra put a hand on her hip.

“Bitch, who doesn’t? He’s the richest, sexiest, most amazing man on the planet. Any girl privileged enough to be in his presence would cream her panties just from the smell of him.”

Octavia frowned. “I highly doubt that.”

But Sierra was furiously flipping through the stack of magazines she had in her hands. She pulled out one and shoved it in Octavia’s face.

“See that? Look at that glorious face! I swear to god, the man’s an angel.”

Octavia was staring at the face she knew all too well by then. His entire figure was centered on the magazine cover with headlines dotting the spaces around him.

Large bold text saying things like, “Sexiest Man Alive: How the Most Eligible Bachelor of the 21st Century Made His Fortune” next to “Fifty Ways to Shed Twenty Pounds in a Week!”

His navy suit fit him just so, tightening at certain places from the swell of his biceps with his hands casually resting in his pockets.

He stared straight off the page, his eyes cool but challenging, ready to decimate anything or anyone that stood in his way.

“I’d kill for a chance to be in the same room with him. Let alone the same city,” Sierra said mournfully.

“Sierra, you are in the same city—” Octavia started.

“You could start with Octavia,” Gracie suggested, a hint of mischief in her eyes. “She’s going to be working with him starting tomorrow morning.”

Sierra’s face went pale. She turned her head slowly to stare Octavia in the eyes, giving her a look that could kill.

“…What?” she rasped.

“Um…it’s really nothing. I’m just an assistant,” Octavia said.

“His personal assistant,” Gracie added. “She’ll be with him all day. She’ll go where he goes, right? Isn’t that what Adelaide told you?”

Octavia shot Gracie a look more deadly than the one Sierra was giving her, but it bounced off Gracie’s impervious face.

“You?” Sierra said, her voice shaky. “You’re going to be working for…for…him?”

Octavia gave a weak nod. “…Yes.”

In a split second, Sierra lunged for Octavia. Octavia wheeled back in surprise, just keeping out of Sierra’s way. But Sierra managed to grip the hem of Octavia’s hoodie.

“Take me with you!” She gasped.

“No!” Octavia exclaimed, prying Sierra’s hands off her hoodie. She shoved Sierra off.

Sierra then threw herself on the opposite armrest of the couch and sunk her head into the plushy material. She began to wail and cry.

“I’ve been waiting for a man like him my whole life! And who gets a chance to see him? My ugly housemate! Wh-y-y-y-y???” she wailed, shoulders heaving with sobs.

“Why didn’t I get that job? Why can’t I be his assistant? Why does this always happen to me-e-e-e-e?”

With that, Sierra turned around and ran from the room, tears still cascading down her face.

Octavia shook her head and turned to Gracie.

“She truly is amazing,” Octavia remarked.

“A wonder of the modern world,” Gracie agreed.

“And you, Gracie, have got me into enough trouble for tonight.”

Gracie shrugged. “Don’t waste your energy on me. You’ve got bigger problems.”