Chapter 02

Lena:

I take a look at my outfit for the tenth time this morning making sure everything is perfect. I'm wearing the last fancy clothes I had left on my wardrobe. If I’m going to be the CEO’s secretary in one of the biggest companies in town, I have to look the part even though it’ll only be for the first day. I’ll figure out the rest of the days later.

I walk through the main doors and already start to feel nervous. I’ve never felt this way before starting a job, but I’m guessing it has everything to do with the fact that I’m responsible for the first time to maintain a roof over our heads and something warm to eat in our tables that’s not canned food warmed for the third time.

I set aside the negative thoughts in a file at the back of my mind and walk to the elevator, use the golden key to get to the top floor and the engine sets in motion. When the doors finally open, I walk towards my desk and place my bag on top of the mahogany table where I’ll be working for the next four months. Taking some deep breaths, I steady myself in front of the big doors and knock softly.

Barely a second after, the deep voice that has provoked me wet dreams all weekend asks me politely to go inside.

One more time, the brightness blinds me before my eyes set on him. He’s leaning on one elbow while talking on the phone and motions for me to take a seat in front of him. Fear has kept me all these days from looking up information about him. I only discovered that his name is Ryan Blake and it was way too familiar for my taste, so I stopped the search right there and tried to erase the nagging feeling trying to uncover who he was. I have the feeling I’m not going to like it.

Then I catch him smiling to whatever the person on the other side of the call said. And I fell in love with his smile. It’s almost unbelievable how much his features morph, he gets tiny wrinkles on the corner of his green eyes and his cheeks swell, with his perfect white teeth surrounded by his full lips. It makes me happy too for some weird reason, it’s that infectious.

He ends the conversation and hangs up the phone. That’s when he actually acknowledges me and his gleeful expression changes into one of calculative sourness.

I don’t like it.

“Miss Marzoli, welcome,” he says while reclining in his seat like I’m not that important. I smile with a confidence I definitely do not feel.

“Thank you, Mr…” I make him believe I have no idea of his name, like I didn’t spend the whole weekend dreaming about him. That’s my way of taking the smallest amount of control I have over this situation, as ridiculous as it sounds.

“Blake, Ryan Blake.” He says with a frown. It bothered him that I didn’t remember his name from before, since he never told me in our previous conversation. I feel a tiny pinch of satisfaction, even though I know that’s playing against me in the future. “Luckily for you, this will be a loose week, we’re waiting for the approval of a very important project and, until then, there’s only paperwork to look through. We should have the green light by next week, and starting from there, we’ll get all hands on it, meaning working extra shifts, coming over on weekends, all of it with the goal of making the deadline. Any objection?”

“Not at all, Mr. Blake,” I answer with confidence. As long as I have my paycheck by the end of the month, I couldn’t care less about the extra work, I actually welcome it, since my social life is completely nonexistent. “Besides, even if I had objections, they would be pointless because I did promise I would do everything you asked for.”

“Very well, you can go.” He points to the door and turns his focus on the papers he has in front of him.

I exit the office and take a seat on my work desk. For three straight hours I read several emails, answer a few calls and organize this week’s schedule. I decide to take a short break and do what I was dreading the whole weekend but didn’t have the courage to actually do: research about BlakeHill Corporation and his intriguing CEO.

According to Google, the company was created five years ago and its goal is to buy bankrupted companies, reform them and when they’re big and successful, sell them to the highest bidder. I click on the company’s website and there’s lots of information, but something more important catches my attention, Ryan Blake’s biography. After reading it briefly, I have a really bad feeling about this, so I return to Google and search for images of young Ryan and as I look through them, my whole body enters in a state of shock.

Now I know who he is and this is bad.

Really bad.

Ryan Blake, known between my friends as the poor bastard in love, went to my high school and we were in the same classroom. His family was poor (hence the cruel nickname) his parents had regular jobs that didn’t pay well, unlike the rest of us. The thing is that he fell in love with me, and I took advantage of it. He was really smart, so I manipulated him into giving me his notes and doing my homework while I partied with my friends and my boyfriend.

I know, I was a total bitch back then.

Until one day, when he declared his feelings for me in front of the whole school. I cant’s deny that he was really handsome and a really good person, but his lack of money was a big NO for me. So I rejected him and my friends bullied him daily, even more than before. I ignored the situation and we distanced from each other. Last I had heard from him was he had changed schools and that was it. Ryan Blake was out of my life.

Until now.

No wonder he treated me like that from the beginning. In fact, he shouldn’t have hired me. Unless he plans to make my life hell. That’s most likely his goal, he wants to humiliate me and use me, just like I did to him back in high school.

This is bad.