“You’ve concluded that after being in the same room as her in a span of half an hour?”
José chuckled and sipped his coffee. “She came back and stepped on her pride for her company. She still hates you for breaking her best friend’s heart. I think that’s enough to know what kind of person she is.”
The doorbell rang and echoed throughout the room and José focused on his food as I got up. “Well, let’s see if she’s really as good as you make her out to be if she can stay as my assistant for a month.”
He didn’t say anything further as I jogged from the kitchen to the front door and opened it to see Audrey with a scowl on her face. She looked good, more like a CEO of a company than a personal assistant as she was dressed in a plaid suit and a plunging white inner blouse and finished the outfit off with cream-colored heels. Her hair was tied in a bun and big sunglasses covered her eyes. No matter how much I despised her, there was no denying that the plain Jane I met five years ago had morphed into this insanely attractive woman in front of me.
“I should’ve told Theo to add ‘no checking out of Audrey’ on the list of terms when I had him make it,” she said in a monotonous voice as she shoved a folder to my chest and walked inside, removing her glasses and setting her handbag down on the sofa as she settled in the living room, looking like a sore thumb in a modern rustic atmosphere.
I sifted through the terms of agreement she had given me. “Where’s my coffee?”
“Excuse me?” Audrey asked, staring at me as if I grew another head.
My eyebrows rose. “You’re my personal assistant. Getting me coffee, lunch, or whatever snacks I want, running my errands, answering my emails and calls, that’s what personal assistants do. Or did you not get that when you agreed to the job?”
Audrey narrowed her eyes. “You haven’t even signed that yet.”
I waved the folder in front of her and shrugged. “We had a verbal agreement made last night so whether I sign this or not, you are my assistant, Audrey. But I’ll humour you since you made the effort to make this, I’ll read it and then sign it but for now, I want you to get me coffee.”
Audrey’s pursed her lips and for a moment, I expected her to fuck me off, tell me she wasn’t able to do this whole thing because she couldn’t stand being in the same room with me. “Fine, I’ll go to Starbucks.”
“We have a coffee maker here. You can make me one.” I waited for Audrey to comment and tell me off again but she stalked off to the kitchen and I followed her, the folder in my hands. Audrey was moving around the kitchen cautiously and she eyed the coffee maker we had and then searched the drawers for the capsule that she needed to make my coffee although she didn’t really ask me what I wanted.
“You don’t even have any capsules left,” she said after closing one more drawer.
José lifted up his hand and smiled sheepishly at Audrey. “I think I took the last capsule.”
She nodded her head and flashed him a small smile, something that actually surprised me because I didn’t think her facial muscles were capable of doing so. “It’s okay. I guess I’ll have to run to Starbucks to get you your coffee.”
Again, she surprised me by turning to José. “Is there anything you want whilst I’m heading out?”
My friend shook his head and returned her smile. “Nah, I’m good. I wouldn’t be here when you get back anyway.”
When Audrey turned to look at me, all warmth that was displayed on her face when she was talking to José seemed to have disappeared because she fixed me with a cold, hard look. “Is there anything else you need?”
“You’re not really going to ask me what my coffee order is?”
It seemed like it suddenly dawned to her that she didn’t know and she squirmed where she was standing as she shifted her weight from one foot to another, trying to play cool. “Fine. What’s your order?”
“Dark roast. Grande,” I replied casually with a shrug.
Audrey’s squinted and stared at me for a moment but didn’t make any comment. Then, she extended her hand out, as if she was waiting for something that I should give her. “You do not expect me to pay for your coffee using my own money, do you?”
For a moment, her statement caught me off-guard. I was so ready to have fun and annoy her with all the things I had wanted her to do for me for the day that having to hand her my credit card completely slipped my mind. I asked her to give me a minute and then I dashed to my bedroom and grabbed the business credit card I had and then handed it at her.
Audrey was about to turn around and leave when I remembered something. “Oh yea and since you’re about to head out, do my laundry for me?”
She spun around, her mouth dropped open as she stared at me with narrowed eyes. “What did you just say?”
I smirked as I made my way to the laundry room and then I picked up the hamper that I had brought there earlier when I woke up. I actually meant to do my own laundry but it also just happened that I ran out of detergent to use and since I had a new personal assistant to do things for me, I had it listed as one of the things she was meant to do for me for the day.
I presented the hamper in front of her. “I ran out of detergent. But don’t worry, most of them are just clothes. I’m still in my right mind not to ask you to wash my underwear for me, although if you don’t mind…”
Audrey closed her eyes and I cocked my head to the side, smirking as I waited for her to erupt in front of me and scream her head off at me because I’d pushed her buttons. This was only my second request but considering that Audrey wasn’t my biggest fan, I knew that it would irk her and I wanted to know if I could piss her off enough to give up.
But Audrey took a sharp inhale and slowly exhaled her breath and without a word, she grabbed the hamper and stalked off to the front door and I couldn’t help but laugh both in amusement and surprise. “Oh and don’t worry about me getting my coffee late. I can wait until you finish my laundry.”
She was mumbling to herself over and over as she exited the house and I laughed harder when I heard what she was saying to herself. “It’s only for a month, Audrey. You can do this for a month. And then after that, you’re back to what you’re supposed to be doing. Which is obviously not being his assistant.”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” José said as soon as the door shut closed and I turned to look at him. He was standing beside me and I faced him, patting his shoulders and smoothening the non-existent creases of his shirt on the shoulders.
“I should’ve gotten one sooner but I don’t think I’d be able to enjoy it as much as I enjoy infuriating Audrey and her trying to keep all her annoyance aside,” I said as I smirked, wiggling my eyebrows. I turned my attention to the folder that I’d unconsciously set on the table and picked it up, sifting through the pages to the agreement that Audrey wanted to make with me.
“Are you actually going to read that?” José was eyeing the folder in my hands and I chuckled, shaking my head.
“Have you ever seen me read anything, in all the years that we’ve been friends?”
He rolled his eyes but gave me a pointed look. “Don’t be too harsh on her, Julian. She hasn’t done anything remotely bad.”